Thirsty Yankees Tied To New Pitching Target

Other teams know there’s blood in the water now. Hell, beat writers and other baseball writers know there is blood in the water, too. Losing on Yoshinobu Yamamoto stings, and now everyone watches for what the Yankees do next.

I really think that is what is happening, because I am seeing a lot of chatter on the internet, and some of it is pretty silly. The Yankees are going to make some moves because they have to. Brian Cashman is in the hot seat, and he needs to do everything he can to get people to stop pointing and laughing at him because he sucks at his job.

Since Cashman is a laughing stock, people are hoping he is going to make another drastic move. I still think the Yankees overpaid for one year of Juan Soto and now there’s speculation the Yankees could (or should) do it again for pitching. Check out what SI.com wrote HERE. The Milwaukee Brewers may be eager to trade away some of their talent they know they can’t keep long term. Many teams would want Corbin Burnes, including the Yankees.

Burnes has some good experience. He was a Cy Young winner in 2021 and is an All-Star, he could be a big help to a contending team but he’s also a rental. He will be a free agent after the 2024 season and has already said he is highly unlikely to sign an extension. Patrick Mcavoy seems to think the Yankees should also overpay for him, like they did for Soto because they did it already so “what’s one more?” Someone get Mcavoy on the phone and tell him Soto and Burnes aren’t quite on the same level. Burnes is very talented, but he’s pitched over 200 innings once in his career and Soto is one of, if not the best left handed hitter in the game today. The Yankees downfall last year was not their pitching, ultimately it was their lack of production.

There’s one other piece to this puzzle. The Yankees have lost some pitching depth this winter. They traded four pitchers to get Soto and three to get Alex Verdugo from the Red Sox so the Yankees want to hold on to their remaining prospects and deal in free agency instead. Prospects are just what their name suggests…. prospects. However, they still need to hold on to some of them. This leads me to believe that the Yankees are more likely to pivot and try to reunite with Jordan Montgomery or Frankie Montas and hope that Carlos Rodon rebounds as scary as that sounds.

I guess this is an “A” for effort on Mcavoy but a giant “F” for execution and general business smarts. I guess that’s what happens though when people smell desperation. The Yankees will pivot, now we just wait and see HOW exactly.

–Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj