The Yankees are one of six teams in talks to acquire two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, but the Giants have told teams they don’t want to pay Snell’s $30 million player option for 2025.
The Yankees inquired about White Sox ace Garrett Crochette but were told, at least initially, that they were “not a good match.”
And while the Yankees are certainly interested in elite left-hander Tarik Skubal — arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball — they, like other teams, don’t believe the thriving Tigers are willing to trade him.
A person with some knowledge of the Skubal situation actually texted that a potential trade was “not a possibility.”
Of course we don’t know that, but the all-caps text is pretty convincing.
There were rumors the Yankees were pursuing rental right-hander Jack Flaherty, but even there the situation was not overwhelmingly favorable.
The Yankees are handicapped by a middling pool of prospects, firmly entrenched in the fourth tier and a luxury tax burden of 110 percent, as they desperately want to preserve enough financial flexibility to preserve their golden opportunity to extend the contract of superstar hitter Juan Soto after the season ends.
But they’d be better off doing something.
The rival Orioles have already acquired talented right-hander Zach Eflin and are poised to continue strengthening their roster, and if there was a legal betting site to bet on Snell and Skubal, the Orioles would probably be the favorites either way.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is a nice, fun addition to the Yankees, and it’s great that he’s so happy playing third base (he’d never played that position in professional baseball until Monday), and he’ll hit better than league average now that he’s in the middle of a real major league lineup. But if the Yankees can only get Chisholm and a relief pitcher or two, this deadline won’t be a big win, even if they manage to beat out a dozen or so other bids to acquire All-Star closers Tanner Scott, Kyle Finnegan and Pete Fairbanks.
The Yankees are the marquee team of major league baseball, but they haven’t won a championship or been to the World Series in 15 years, Soto could potentially be traded after this season (though as a New Yorker, I think it would be wise for him to stay), and if they don’t do anything more, they won’t be the best team in their division, let alone the league or MLB.
The Orioles beat the Yankees by 19 games last year. They’re in decent health, Judge’s great hitting and Soto’s presence have narrowed that gap a bit, but it’s hard to imagine the Yankees as favorites to win the AL East. They’re good. But they’re not good enough.
I love the Jazz move, and not just because he’s a good headline-grabber, but because he breathes new life into our Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde team, which for over two months played like it was the best team, and then was the second-worst team in baseball for over a month.
Of course, we now know it was an illusion, and they could always recapture that magic in October (surely they could overperform in the playoffs against anyone other than the Twins), but wisely, that doesn’t seem likely. There are just too many questions about this team, from an unbalanced lineup to a bullpen with pitching and contact issues to a rotation with some great names and potential. But like the rest of the team, they went from two-plus months of incredibly good performance to one-plus months of incredibly bad performance.
It’s great to have Gerrit Cole back, but he’s still trying to recapture his 2023 magic after an elbow injury that sidelined him for the first half of the season. Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and even Nestor Cortes have had their moments, but they haven’t been enough since the slump began in mid-June. Luis Gil has come out of nowhere and is their best starter, but he’s also shown signs of inconsistency.
The Orioles (and Dodgers) need to bolster their starting rotations, not just because they’re the teams most likely to do so, but because they’re not good enough. I get it. The costs of doing business are not just high, they’re staggering. But it’s time to act.
Those who follow the minor league game more closely will tell you that the prices for prospects Carlos Estevez and Jason Adam were huge. So it’s clear that they’ll either have to give up a prospect or pay big money to acquire a rotation difference-maker. The Yankees are in the exact same situation they were in this spring, needing to add a quality rotation player. Only now is it clear that this is the case.
Crochette would be a trade for a promising player, but October is uncertain due to increased innings and arm/elbow concerns, Skubal (if he’s even in the conversation) would be a trade for a promising player, and Snell isn’t cheap.
But even for something as fun as the Jazz, a little movement on the periphery isn’t enough, and this team needs a lot of help.
