Yankees Offseason Blueprint

The New York Yankees made it to the 2025 postseason with a record of 94-68, finishing tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for the best record in the American League but due to losing the Tiebreaker they entered the playoffs as the 4 Seed. They were able to beat the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, but ultimately fell to the Blue Jays in 4 games in the ALDS.

The Yankees enter a crucial offseason for the organization, as they took a step back from making it to the World Series in the prior year due in large part to an offensive no show in the playoffs from almost everyone outside of Aaron Judge.

The Yankees have a lot of notable players hitting free agency this year which includes:

• Trent Grisham (129 wRC+ & 3.2 WAR)

• Cody Bellinger (125 wRC+ & 4.9 WAR)

• Paul Goldschmidt (169 wRC+ vs LHP)

• Devin Williams (2.68 FIP & 1.4 WAR)

• Luke Weaver (3.89 FIP & 0.5 WAR)

In the case of Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger, these are two huge pieces to replace as they usually made up 2 of the top 4 hitters in the lineup on a day in day out basis and were both at least 25% better then league average as hitters according to wRC+. Paul Goldschmidt was largely effective for the Yankees as a threat vs LHP, as well as for his late game defense to replace Ben Rice at 1st Base. Devin Williams was the perfect encapsulation of 'Jekyll and Hyde' that I have personally ever seen. What made it particularly more frustrating was when you look at Williams underlying numbers it suggested he was getting extremely unlucky. Below is the step by step approach I would take if I was the Yankees on how I'd attack free agency and the trade market this offseason.

Rules:

1. Payroll will not cross 304,000,000 Million in Luxury Tax (using Spotrac Calculations). Their current projected total allocation is $230,573,333.00, so there is roughly 74 Million to play with.

2. Off the table players in trade talks will be Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler.

Step 1: Sign Kyle Tucker to an 11 Year Deal for 418 Million (38M AAV)

The Yankees need another big threat in their lineup and they should look no further then the top free agent of this offseason, Kyle Tucker. The biggest thing the Yankees were sorely missing in the postseason was a big threat hitting in front of Aaron Judge. We all witnessed the magic of the 2024 New York Yankees and the danger that was presented to opposing pitching staffs with the back to back combination of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge. Juan Soto had a career year and it was in large part due to having someone like Aaron Judge hitting right behind him each and every night.

Kyle Tucker had an incredible 1st half for the Chicago Cubs this year and looked to be worth every bit they gave up and then some. In the 1st half of 2025, he posted a 145 wRC+ and 3.8 WAR, which ranked 13th and 8th in all of MLB. The 2nd half of 2025, is where Tucker hit a slide that he could not work his way out of, posting a still above average 115 wRC+ but not up to his usual standards. He was slowed by a calf injury in September that caused him to miss 20 games.

Overall, players like Tucker do not hit the open market very often. While Bellinger had a great 2025 for the Yankees, I think this is where they should be spending a premium to upgrade the offense and make the Yankees a much more dangerous lineup in 2026.

Step 2: Add More Strikeout/GB % Ability to the Bullpen (Trade for Yennier Cano/Sign Hunter Harvey/Slide Luis Gil to Bullpen)

Firstly, I would acquire Yennier Cano from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Brock Selvidge (10th ranked prospect) and Kyle Carr (13th ranked prospect). The Yankees have a plethora of Starting Pitching talent in their farm system so I have them digging into that in order to swing a trade for the Orioles Relief Pitcher. I think they match up well for a trade with the Orioles struggling for Starting Pitching and not many big arms on the market that they can add to the rotation so I think it would smart on their part to jump at the oppurtunity to get two high upside arms in Selvidge and Carr.

Cano, had a rough 2025 campaign posting a 5.12 ERA, accompanied by a walk rate of 9.6%. This was far from the Cano that we saw burst onto the scene in 2023 and 2024. Even with the poor 2025, I think the Yankees should jump at the opportunity to acquire him. Cano has 3 years of control at an extremely cheap rate with him just hitting 'Arb 1' status this upcoming offseason. In 2024, Cano posted a 26.1% K rate, alongside a 63.5% GB rate. With the Yankees have a defensive alignment of Rice, Jazz, Volpe and McMahon, acquiring one of the top GB pitchers in baseball would be an excellent and cost effective move for them.

Sign Hunter Harvey to a 1 year deal for 5 million dollars w/ a club option to make it a 2 year, 12 million deal. Harvey has been a sneaky good arm since going to the Nations back in 2022. Over the last year and half he has dealt with a multitude of injuries since joing the Royals:

• Missed a majority of the 2nd half of 2024 with a back strain

• Suffered a right teres major strain on April 11, 2025 and didn't return until July 25.

• Missed the last 2 months of 2025 with a right adductor strain.

I think a 1 year prove it deal with a club option can be very enticing for Harvey after an injury plagued last 18 months. It's a low-risk and high-reward move for the Yankees as if they get a healthy Harvey, they get a pitcher who is putting up these numbers since the start of 2022:

• 2.94 FIP (3.38 xFIP)

• 9.93 K/9

• 2.34 BB/9

• 0.73 HR/9

The Yankees clearly need after last year a pitcher that limits walks, can strike people out and limits damage contact. If they a healthy year out of Harvey, we have reason to believe he would check all 3 boxes.

Lastly, moving Luis Gil to the bullpen. Gil struggled mightily after coming back from a high-grade right lat strain. His results were not terrible, however once you looked under the hood at the underlying numbers it was obvious that this was not pitcher as the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year. Per Baseball Savant in 2024, Luis Gil had the 17th best changeup and 12th best slider based on Run Value to accompany with his high velo fastball. Generally speaking, most starters in MLB don't have a ton of success if they don't throw at least 4 pitches due to them being susceptible to batters figuring them out 2nd and 3rd time through. In Gil's case with two above average secondaries and a fastball that would play up in shorter outings can be an extremely effective multi-inning reliver for the Yankees, offering a ton of strikeout ability that the Yankees were sorely missing in 2025.

Step 3: TRADE- Yankees receive Tarik Skubal (22.5M AAV) IN exchange for George Lombard Jr, Spencer Jones and Carlos Lagrange

My next move is trading for the 2024 AL Cy Young winner, (should be the 2025 as well, to make him back to back) Tarik Skubal. It is crazy to say that Tarik Skubal may even become available this but with reports coming out of Detroit saying that the Tigers and Skubal's camp are over 200 MILLION apart in potential extension conversations, the Tigers may decide to sell high on their Ace and arguably the best pitcher in the sport.

Now, if the Tigers do decide to trade him it is not going to be cheap and there will be a lot of competition for his services. The Yankees would have to be extremely aggressive and I feel that with the offer of Lombard Jr (#25 prospect in MLB), Jones (#99 prospect in MLB) and Lagrange (#74 prospect in MLB), they would be hard pressed to find a more enticing offer then that.

Baseball Trade Values agrees with my assessment of this being a very fair and even slight overpay (I disagree with the notion that this would be an overpay as Skubal is more then worth it). Skubal would give the Yankees easily the best rotation in the game and truly the only team that can go head to head with the Dodgers.

Step #4: Re-sign Amed Rosario and Austin Slater to 1 year-3 million dollar deals each

The Yankees leaned into platooning more then I can remember in recent memory. Rosario is a no brainer for the Yankees as they long sought after him as a bench piece the last 2 years but couldn't bring him in and he absolutely mashed LHP before and after joining the team. Slater is a little more tricky as he struggled once joining the Yankees but I think that in large part was due to him suffering an injury shortly into his Yankee tenure and then not being able to find a groove once coming back in September. I think bringing them both back with be simple and cost effective way to fill out the bench and balance out the lineup when facing LHP.

Projected Lineup, Bench, Rotation and Bullpen (*when team is healthy*)

Rice 1B

Judge RF

Tucker LF

Stanton DH

Jazz 2B

Dominguez CF

Wells C

Volpe/Caballero SS

McMahon 3B

Cabrera UTIL

Escarra C

Rosario 2B/3B

Slater OF

Skubal

Cole

Fried

Schlittler

Rodon

Schmidt

Harvey

Hill

Doval

Bird

Headrick

Gil

Cano

Bednar

Final Payroll after all of the moves: $303,823,333

This would have the Yankees right below the final tax penalty threshold of $304,000,000. Overall, I think the key to taking this team to the next step and that is of course finally winning another World Series title is to simply add more stars to the team. Stars are what take you to the next level, the people who perform the best in October. With Aaron Judge turning 34 this year, the Yankees cannot afford to let another prime year of Aaron Judge be wasted. It is time to remind everyone who the Yankees are and finally bring home the 28th Championship in franchise history.

Thank you all for reading and please let me know your thoughts!