In a surprise trade late Friday, the Yankees added a true strikeout artist to a bullpen that looked strong, lost an elite pitcher for a season, and took a small salary cut.
Jose Trevino, the 2022 All-Star who is best at making the ball look like a strike, was shipped to the Reds in exchange for feisty right-hander Fernando Cruz and catcher Alex Jackson.
Trevino arrived from the Rangers at the end of spring training in 2022 and broke out, but suffered most of 2023 with an injury and lost his starting spot in 2024, when Austin Wells announced his future as the Yankees' catcher. He has emerged as a player who can take on the role. .
Trevino is owed about $3.5 million in arbitration for his four-ball year in 2025, and the Yankees could go cheap by signing a backup and put that money elsewhere.
Jackson, 28, was signed to a minor league contract by the Reds and is highly regarded defensively, but he has never hit a hit in five major league seasons.
Mr. Cruz is the more important element in this deal.
Last season, the Yankees' bullpen often struggled to rack up strikeouts, but Cruz has no trouble getting off the bat.
Cruz relied heavily on his splitter last season, recording 109 strikeouts in 66²/₃ innings. That's 14.72 balls per nine innings, the best batting average in the majors among pitchers who pitched 50 innings.
He also had 35 walks and a 4.86 ERA, making him a new project for pitching coach Matt Blake.
Cruz, 34, is in his third year in the major leagues and has yet to reach arbitration.
He will have a minor league option for several years, and the Yankees will have four years of control on the contract.
In this exchange, the Yankees traded for a higher ceiling but let go of a high-quality player in Trevino.
Pitchers love to throw to Trevino. Trevino is good at framing and blocking potential wild pitches, but he often had an exposed arm last season.
At the plate, Trevino still hadn't reached the heights of the first half of 2022, but he posted a combined OPS of .611 in 2013 and 2024.
Jackson will most likely be Wells' backup, but the Yankees have two prospects (JC Escala and Jesus Rodriguez) who could be options on the 40-man roster.
The Yankees' bullpen finally solidified last season, but it took several grueling months to find combinations that worked, and a lack of strikeouts was often highlighted.
This offseason, the Yankees added electric closer Devin Williams, re-signed Jonathan Loaisiga, who is electric when healthy, and imported perhaps the best relief arm in baseball when he's missing a bat.
The club's bullpen appears to be potentially dominant, considering the remaining players include Luke Weaver, Ian Hamilton, Mark Leiter Jr., and Jake Cousins.
