Yankees get Juan Soto in blockbuster trade with Padres

For the second time in less than two years, the 25-year-old Soto is involved in a blockbuster deal that could alter the course of both franchises. At the 2022 Trade Deadline, he went from the Nats to the Padres for a hefty package of top prospects.

TRADE DETAILS
Yankees receive: OF Juan Soto, OF Trent Grisham
Padres receive: RHP Michael King, RHP Jhony Brito, RHP prospect Drew Thorpe (No. 99 in MLB), RHP prospect Randy Vásquez (No. 13 on Yankees), catcher Kyle Higashioka

Now only a year away from free agency, Soto is on the move again, coming off a bounce-back season with San Diego that was much more in line with his impressive career numbers. The master of plate discipline led MLB in walks (132) for the third time in his career and has ended each of his six big league seasons with an OBP over .400, with the lowest being .401 in 2019 and ‘22.

Red Sox trade Alex Verdugo to Yankees for three pitchers

The Yankees acquired outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, with New York turning to the 27-year-old to improve its offense in just the eighth trade between the rivals since the start of the Divisional Era in 1969.

The Red Sox received right-handers Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice in the deal.

Verdugo spent the last four seasons in Boston after joining the Red Sox as the main return in the trade that sent star outfielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Verdugo, who is scheduled to make around $9 million in his final season of arbitration, hit .264/.324/.421 with 13 home runs and 54 RBIs in 142 games this year. With Verdugo primed to reach free agency after the 2024 season, Boston put him on the trade market, and while a number of teams inquired about his availability, the Yankees secured him to start in the outfield.

Update on Yankees’ Juan Soto trade talks: Teams talking players, but not close on agreement

Talks between the Yankees and the San Diego Padres about a Juan Soto trade have progressed to the point of exchanging names on players, league sources say. San Diego’s initial ask was very high—understandably so—and the teams are not close to an agreement.

The Padres, whose beloved owner, Peter Seidler, died on Nov. 14, are said to be early in their process of figuring out what to do with Soto.

As SNY reported, the Yanks and Padres had a preliminary conversation about Soto early in the offseason. Those talks have continued, per sources.

While the exact names are not known, the Padres are said to be looking at top prospects/rookies like Jasson Dominguez and Anthony Volpe, young major league pitchers in the Michael King/Clarke Schmidt category, and more. That is standard behavior at the beginning of trade talks for a superstar player. It was also standard behavior for the Yankees to say no, but want to keep talking.

Zack Britton details analytics ‘rift’ that’s plaguing Yankees

Britton, who pitched for the Yankees from 2018-22, complimented Cashman and Boone for their baseball acumen — but was critical of the organization’s use of analytics.

Britton said that Cashman communicated “great” with him personally, but described a general organizational “disconnect” in how analytics are implemented with the team.

I think sometimes, and this happened with me personally, when analytics comes into play, we get our iPad,” Britton said. “You can go down the rabbit hole with analytics and you can kind of find anything to justify anything, right? The numbers, you can skew them any way to paint the picture you want to paint.

“I think, with Brian, it might just be needing to blend the two a little more. I’m not sure because I’m not really in the front office. I only knew what I saw as a player and what I was exposed to, and I’m not exposed to what’s happening behind closed doors in the front office.”

While he didn’t provide precise details, Britton further described a “rift.”

Yankees GM Brian Cashman expects Giancarlo Stanton to get hurt again next season: ‘It seems to be part of his game’

The Yankees general manager, however, is struggling with what to do about outfielder Giancarlo Stanton — who he said is bound to get hurt at some point next season. In his eyes, that’s just who Stanton is now.

“We try to limit the time he’s down,” Cashman said at the general manager meetings in Arizona, according to the New York Daily News. “But I’m not gonna tell you he’s gonna play every game next year because he’s not. He’s going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game.”

Stanton held a career-low .191 batting average with 24 home runs and 60 RBI last season while playing in just 101 games due to a hamstring injury he sustained early in the season. He played in just 110 games during the 2022 season, where he picked up his fifth All-Star nod, due to calf and Achilles injuries.

Giancarlo Stanton’s agent, Joel Wolfe, responds below to Yankees GM Brian Cashman saying of Stanton, “He’s going to wind up getting hurt again more likely than not because it seems to be part of his game.” pic.twitter.com/gZHlqy4cfY

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 14, 2023

Yankees plan to teach more bunting thanks to Aaron Boone’s premonition, owner Hal Steinbrenner warns

New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner spoke to the media on Tuesday about a variety of topics, including some takeaways from the team’s recent self-evaluation period. According to Steinbrenner, one of the tweaks the Yankees intend to make is spending more time teaching players how to bunt.

“I think [manager] Aaron Boone thinks that we’re not teaching young players to bunt enough,” Steinbrenner said before delving into an aside concerning his own research on the matter. “A few years ago in player development, we cut back on the bunting skills, but Aaron Boone feels it’s becoming a bigger part of the game again, he feels it’s important. So we’re going to start right up again.”

Steinbrenner is correct that bunting has withered in popularity; Boone might end up being correct about a bunting revival, but we’re not so sure. Teams averaged 0.09 sacrifice hits per game last season; 30 years ago, in 1993, they averaged 0.40 sacrifice hits per game. There was a good reason for that decline: countless studies on the merits of bunting have found that it’s an inefficient strategy. If you play for one run, the pithy saying goes, you’ll get one run. Teams would prefer to swing away and pursue bigger innings.

Sean Casey says he won’t return as Yankees hitting coach

Sean Casey says he will not return as the New York Yankees hitting coach next season, citing his desire to spend more time with his family.

Casey announced his decision Wednesday on his podcast, “The Mayor’s Office with Sean Casey,” ending speculation about the three-time All-Star first baseman’s future with the Yankees.

Casey emphasized that spending more time with his daughters, ages 13 and 17, is a priority because of his divorce from a few years ago.

Sources: Yankees, Padres have had preliminary Juan Soto conversation

The Yankees have already had one preliminary conversation with the San Diego Padres this offseason about superstar outfielder Juan Soto, league sources say. Talks have not yet progressed beyond that initial check-in.

The Yankees need more offense. They need a left-handed bat. And after missing the playoffs in 2023, they could use a conversation changer. Soto would certainly check all those boxes.

Most pie-in-the-sky, star-studded trade ideas are too complex to actually happen. Fantasy rarely becomes reality. But the fact that the teams have briefly talked makes this a topic worth following, at least tangentially.

The strong expectation of rival executives is that Soto, 25 years old and entering his final season before free agency, would be available in “the right deal,” as one non-Padres and non-Yankees exec put it. That means that San Diego is not actively shopping Soto, but is not ruling out a move, either.

Asked by San Diego reporters earlier this month about Soto’s future, Padres general manager A.J. Preller said that his “first path” would be to extend Soto. Asked about trading him, Preller said, “We’ve never been a group that says no to anything. I wouldn’t read into that. That’s just kind of the way we operate.”

Alex Rodriguez upset Yankees gave No. 13 jersey to Joey Gallo: ‘It did not make me happy’

Alex Rodriguez wants his place among the Yankees legends.

But at the very least, he wishes the Yankees had at least not given his No. 13 jersey to one of the biggest Pinstripes flops ever in Joey Gallo.

“It did not make me happy,” Rodriguez said on “Evan & Tiki” on Wednesday.

Rodriguez wore No. 13 for the Yankees from 2004-16, and the franchise didn’t use the number during the 20017-20 seasons….

“Of course, it bothers me,” Rodriguez said. “It’s less about bother, but of course it would be nice to be recognized in one of the coolest places to be in Yankee history, but that’s not my decision.”

The former slugger said he has not had a conversation with the franchise about whether his jersey will be retired, but admits his critical remarks as an analyst about the franchise aren’t aiding the effort.

Yankees address Carlos Rodon’s clash with coach Matt Blake

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was still smoothing over some clubhouse discord with two games left in a lost season Saturday after Carlos Rodón and pitching coach Matt Blake clashed on the mound the previous night.

Rodón was in the midst of allowing all eight batters he faced to reach base and eventually score in a 12-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals when Blake came out the dugout in an attempt to get him on track. The two exchanged a few words before Rodón turned his back on Blake and gestured for him to return to the dugout, even though the coach was still talking.

“Obviously we don’t want that happening,” said Boone, whose team needed to win one of its last two games against the Royals to extend its streak of winning seasons to 31. “Things happen in the heat of battle, but it’s been addressed.”

Rodón admitted he was “not in the right mind” when he turned his back on his pitching coach.

Yankees’ status quo under Brian Cashman resulted in ‘disaster’ season, and a fresh perspective is needed

Numerous missteps have led the Yankees to where they are today and GM Brian Cashman, who has been at the helm since 1998, is under more heat now than at any other point in his tenure. We know this because, on July 9, the Yankees fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson. It was the first time they fired a coach during the season since 1995. It was a clear act of desperation.

“It has been well documented that I have been reluctant in the past to make changes to our coaching staff in the middle of a season,” Cashman said in a statement after Lawson was let go. “I am a big believer that successes and failures are collective efforts. However, I ultimately felt that a change was needed and that a new voice overseeing our hitting operations would give us the best chance to perform closer to our capabilities as we move forward into the second half of our season.”

At the end of the day, this is Cashman’s roster and Cashman’s coaching staff, and the mistakes over the last 26 months or so have piled up and meaningfully subtract from New York’s World Series chances. Consider:

The Joey Gallo and Frankie Montas trades were complete busts. At best zero impact, more realistically negative impact.
Josh Donaldson (in decline) and Isiah Kiner-Falefa (not an everyday shortstop) were misevaluated, and that’s putting it kindly.
The Jordan Montgomery for Harrison Bader trade is another loss, and Bader was dumped on waivers this year after not being traded.
Carlos Rodón’s first season in pinstripes has featured a 5.90 ERA in 12 starts around multiple injuries.

We should also include the failure address left field last offseason. The left field hole is going on three years now and it was a clear need last winter, yet the position went unaddressed. There have been wins along the way—in separate trades the Yankees stole relievers Clay Holmes and Wandy Peralta, and catcher Jose Trevino—but the bad outweighs the good, and it’s not close either.

Yankees’ David Wells defends Brian Cashman, calls out players in Old-Timers’ Day rant

“It always seems that the GM and managers are getting fired and blamed,” Wells said. “If I was the GM, I would start sending a message. I don’t care who it is. If he’s in the stink hole, send that son of a gun to Triple-A or Double-A and send him a wake-up call. I don’t care how much money they’re making. Send a message to them and let them go sit down there and think about it.”

Wells proceeded to criticize the Yankees’ clubhouse culture, as well as their usage of analytics — something that’s “ruining the game.” The three-time All-Star and two-time World Series winner thinks the Yankees have a great team with plenty of talent, but they don’t have the camaraderie necessary to win.

“I go into clubhouses, guys have their headphones on, they’re hiding in the back room,” Wells said. “If somebody walked into my clubhouse, the first thing I did is introduce myself, can I get a signed ball and how’d you get this guy out? I ask questions. And these guys don’t ask questions. This is analytics.

“These guys don’t have free will to be themselves and try to find their own identity. They’re having an identity brought to them. There’s a game plan. Our game plan was go out there and win. How are we going to do it? Best nine guys are gonna play.”...

And before Wells was pulled away to gather with his former teammates for the on-field ceremony: “It’s such a different world, it’s why everyone should carry a gun. I do!”

Yankees’ Steinbrenner excited about young players, says team will evaluate analytics department

The Yankees (65-69) are in danger of having their streak of 30 consecutive winning seasons end this year, and Steinbrenner said every facet of the team will be looked in detail going forward.

“We’re going to take a very deep dive into everything we’re doing,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do. Baseball operations in general. We’re going to have some very frank conversions with each other. This year was obviously unacceptable.”

General manager Brian Cashman called the season “a disaster” last week. Cashman, 56, has been general manager since 1998 and agreed last December to a four-year contract. Aaron Boone took over as manager before the 2018 season and has one more guaranteed season in a three-year deal that includes a team option for 2025.

“I think we’re all going to be evaluated, including myself,” Cashman said.

Harrison Bader, Hunter Renfroe claimed off waivers by Reds (sources)

The Reds bolstered their outfield with two established veterans on Thursday when they claimed Harrison Bader off waivers from the Yankees and—as sources told MLB.com—Hunter Renfroe from the Angels. The Renfroe claim has not been confirmed by the teams, and the Reds have made no official announcement.

Yankees Reportedly Place Harrison Bader On Waivers

The Yankees have placed center fielder Harrison Bader on waivers, reports Erik Boland of Newsday (Twitter link). As is the case with the Angels’ series of waiver placements, New York’s hope is that another team will claim the remaining salary on a player who was headed to free agency in a couple months.

Yankees release Josh Donaldson from roster

The Yankees released third baseman Josh Donaldson from the roster before Tuesday’s game against the Tigers. Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had been working his way back from a right calf strain that sidelined him in mid-July.

The 37-year-old had only played in 33 of New York’s 131 games this year, batting .142/.225/.434 with 10 home runs and 15 RBIs. He came to the Yankees in the March 2022 trade that sent Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela to the Twins.

Yankees losing streak: New York in midst of longest skid since 1995 after Red Sox sweep

The New York Yankees lost their eighth game in a row on Sunday, falling 6-5 to the Boston Red Sox (box score). Sunday’s defeat not only represented the second time this season the Yankees had been swept by the Red Sox, but it also tied this year’s Yankees team with the 1995 club for the longest losing streak the franchise has suffered during the Wild Card Era (1995-onward)....

The Yankees have had longer losing streaks in the distant past. The longest drought in franchise history occurred in 1908 when they dropped 12 in a row. They’ve lost as many as 11 consecutive on two occasions, neither more recent than 1913. There’ve also been seven separate nine-game losing streaks, including between September 13, 1982 and September 21, 1982.

Yankees’ longest losing streaks
1908: 12 games
1913: 11 games
1911-12: 11 games
1982*: 9 games
*-most recent of seven separate nine-game losing streaks
Another loss, then, will have the Yankees suffering from their worst losing streak in nearly 41 years.

How missteps by Yankees ownership, Brian Cashman have led to New York’s shocking decline since 2017

Again, even with the CBT plans, the Yankees have spent a ton of money on their roster over the years. They have led baseball in payroll just once since 2014 (the 2020 pandemic season), though they’re pretty consistently in the top three. This year only the New York Mets have a higher payroll than the Yankees, who have a $291.0 million CBT payroll and a $277.7 million payroll in actual dollars. The way that money has been allocated is a problem, putting it mildly.

Last year’s Donaldson/Isiah Kiner-Falefa trade with the Minnesota Twins is perfectly emblematic of the Yankees’ problems. They did not want to sign a prime-aged free agent shortstop (namely Carlos Correa or Corey Seager), in part because the end of long-term contracts tend to be ugly, so they instead tried to thread the needle with Kiner-Falefa, who is a fine utility guy that gets exposed with everyday play, and Donaldson, a 36-year-old making big money. What they acquired in Donaldson was what they feared getting stuck with had they signed Correa or Seager: an aging player making big money.

Not only did the Yankees fail to address their shortstop need and assume the large contract of a declining player with the trade, taking on Donaldson’s contract allowed the Twins to sign Correa to what proved to be a bargain one-year contract. The Yankees tried to be the smartest team in the room and wound up with high-priced and ineffective players, allowing the other team to sign one of the game’s top players. Think the Yankees could’ve used Correa’s 138 OPS+ and 5.5 WAR in 2022? Yeah, me too.

Wild Details Emerge On Domingo Germán’s Yankees’ Clubhouse Incident

Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán won’t pitch for the rest of the season as New York placed him on the restricted list after he voluntarily went to inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse.

And it was a clubhouse tirade from Germán on Tuesday that pushed the Yankees toward that decision.

Germán reportedly flipped over a couch and smashed a TV as part of the incident, according to the New York Post. But the right-hander, who threw the fourth perfect game in Yankees history in late June, didn’t stop there.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Germán, who seemed intoxicated, confronted teammates and manager Aaron Boone, and it got to the point that he had to be placed in the team’s sauna in an attempt to sweat out the alcohol, per the New York Post. The Post also reported that the Yankees placed him in the team’s nap room, where he was watched by security.

Yankees collapse in Miami, drop ‘difficult’ finale to Marlins

With seven weeks left in the season, the New York Yankees are running out of time. They are in last place in the American League East, and even with the expanded wild-card postseason in place, the climb is getting steeper and steeper.

Jake Burger’s game-ending single capped a five-run, ninth-inning comeback against Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle, giving the Miami Marlins an 8-7 victory in the series finale.

“The mountain gets bigger with every loss,” Holmes said. “We have to put together some wins and string them together and get some momentum going.”

New York (60-58) led 7-1 in the sixth inning behind ace Gerrit Cole but dropped five games back of the AL’s last wild-card berth and is on track to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

“Difficult way to end the series, but we’ve got to move on,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We know we have to rack up wins, and as tough as this one is to swallow, you have to move on from it.”

Yankees’ owner Hal Steinbrenner has made decision about GM Brian Cashman

As the Yankees hover on the fringe of the wild-card race – 4.5 games out, still hoping for a late surge to the postseason – angry fans are ready to storm the gates. They’re demanding regime change. Everyone, it seems, is on social media calling for the ousters of GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone.

Despite the mounting pressure, a source familiar with Hal Steinbrenner’s thinking says the owner has already decided one of the two will be back in 2024.

Cashman is safe.

According to the source, “The idea (of firing Cashman) isn’t even on the table. It’s not up for discussion.”

Yankees officially ruin coveted pinstripes with jersey patch advertisement

You knew this was coming. We warned you before Opening Day back in March. But still, just about everyone was hoping the Yankees wouldn’t join the trend when it came to adding a jersey patch advertisement to New York’s classic home and away uniforms.

Well, our greatest nightmare is here. The Yankees announced on Wednesday that they’ll be adding a patch to their uniforms. New York tried to soften the blow with Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole modeling them.

Yankees add advertising patch to jersey sleeves, worth reported $25 million a year

The famously spartan uniforms of the New York Yankees have now added a flourish in the form of a sponsored sleeve patch on their home and road jerseys.

Such paid advertising on uniforms has become an increasing presence in Major League Baseball this year, and now the Yankees have joined that particular fray. According to Darren Rovell, the sponsor in question will pay the Yankees an annual sum of $25 million for said sleeve rights.

Our home and away uniforms with the Starr Insurance patch. pic.twitter.com/cakDuS5Mp7

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 12, 2023

Yankees fire hitting coach Dillon Lawson as Brian Cashman makes first in-season change

Brian Cashman had never fired a manager or coach within the regular season of any of his first 25 years as general manager of the Yankees.

Until now.

Hitting coach Dillon Lawson will take the fall for the team’s first-half hitting woes, as the Yankees announced he was relieved of his duties after Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Cubs.

The Post’s Jon Heyman first reported the move on Twitter.

“It has been well documented that I have been reluctant in the past to make changes to our coaching staff in ‘the middle of a season,’ ” Cashman said in a statement. “I am a big believer that successes and failures are collective efforts.

“However, I ultimately felt that a change was needed and that a new voice overseeing our hitting operations would give us the best chance to perform closer to our capabilities as we move forward into the second half of our season. I want to thank Dillon for all his efforts. He has a bright baseball mind that will continue to lead to a long and fruitful baseball career.”

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: July 09, 2023 at 06:39 PM | 18 comment(s)
  Beats: yankees

Yankees’ Jimmy Cordero suspended under MLB’s domestic violence policy

New York Yankees reliever Jimmy Cordero was suspended for the remainder of the 2023 season for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy.

Cordero, 31, had emerged as a vital part of the Yankees’ bullpen after not pitching in the majors since 2020. Over 31 appearances, he struck out 34 and walked 10 in 32.2 innings with a 3.86 ERA and limited hitters to a .208 batting average and .317 slugging percentage, both well below league-average.

New York’s relief corps has allowed the team to remain relevant amid an offensive slump since Aaron Judge hit the injured list June 7 with a torn ligament in his right big toe. Yankees relievers have a 2.82 ERA, the best in the major leagues, and have allowed the fewest home runs while generating the highest groundball rate.