As usual, the Yankees were buyers at the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline as they plugged a major hole at third base and added crucial bench and bullpen depth for a potential playoff run. They struck early by acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies, a plus defender at the hot corner who is already paying dividends as he hit a walk-off single on Wednesday night to win a back-and-forth game against the Tampa Bay Rays. They also acquired two right-handed bats in Amed Rosario and Austin
Slater, who are both known for their ability to produce against southpaw pitching.
Then on the day of the deadline itself, the Yankees landed some much-needed bullpen help in closer David Bednar and righty relievers Jake Bird and Camilo Doval. And at just about the last minute, they also acquired speedy infielder José Caballero from the Rays—while the two team were playing against each other.
Of course, this means they also had to part with some talented minor-league prospects in order to acquire these guys. The organization did a nice job this season of developing young pitching across all levels of the minor leagues, and they cashed out on a number of those arms this week, along with some position players who have had strong years at the plate. In total, they parted with 15 minor leaguers to secure these upgrades.
Here’s a rundown of all the prospects the Yankees traded away. Note that this does not include infielder Oswald Peraza, who was sent to the Angels but had already graduated from prospect rankings.
P Griffin Herring
Selected in the sixth round of the 2024 MLB Draft, Herring is a left-handed starter who dominated the lower levels of the minors this year before being moved to Colorado as the headlining piece in the McMahon return. Herring was a part of the 2023 LSU team that won the College World Series, and he posted a 1.79 ERA in his second season as a Tiger before being drafted by the Yankees. He didn’t pitch in the pros in 2024 after the draft, but his success translated to Low-A this season as he made eight starts with an impeccable 1.21 ERA before earning a promotion to High-A Hudson Valley. He made another eight starts with the Renegades, where he had a 2.22 ERA.
Herring pitched exactly 44.2 innings at both levels, and while he pitched well across the board his K/BB numbers took a big hit after the promotion. He went from striking out 33.3 percent of batters in Low-A to 23.9 percent in High-A, and his walk rate jumped a smidge from 9.2 percent to 10.9 percent. On paper, Herring’s numbers are certainly good enough to headline a return for a big-league infielder, but he was also dominating the lowest levels of the minors at 22 years old and the dip in strikeouts post-promotion should raise legitimate concerns about how he’ll translate to Double-A and Triple-A. Herring has an impressive slider, but his fastball only sits at about 90 mph. He projects as a back-end starter, and he’ll now have to overcome the obstacle of calling Coors Field his home ballpark.
P Josh Grosz
Josh Grosz is dealing early with 3 K's so far pic.twitter.com/7MG2GW4UZq
— Hudson Valley Renegades (@HVRenegades) June 11, 2025
The other half of the McMahon return, Grosz faces similar concerns to Herring as a 22-year-old pitcher in High-A. He was taken in the 11th round of the 2023 Draft out of East Carolina University, and he’s spent almost all his time in the pros at Low-A and High-A since being drafted. This season, he’s thrown 87 innings in High-A with a 26 percent strikeout rate and 9.7 percent walk rate on his way to a 4.14 ERA.
Grosz’s fastball is livelier than Herring’s, as he sits in the mid-90s and has reached as high as 97 mph. He throws a slider and a changeup, and projects to land around the same range as Herring in the back end of a rotation (though Herring is considered a superior prospect). The Yankees aren’t taking much of a risk by moving Grosz, as it’s unlikely he would have ever ended up a main piece in their pitching staff. He has a much greater chance of settling into a role with a non-contending team like the Rockies, but of course—as with Herring—this also means contending with Coors Field on a regular basis. There’s not a ton of upside here.
P Clayton Beeter
Yankees fans know Beeter best as the pitcher the team landed in return for Joey Gallo after the latter’s infamous, disastrous time in the Bronx. Since being acquired from the Dodgers in 2022, Beeter has bounced around the minors and dealt with injuries on a long journey to the majors. He’s had extreme K/BB results this season, starting in Low-A on a rehab assignment and finding his way to two disappointing outings with the Yankees.
In total, Beeter struck out an elite 35.6 percent of the batters he faced in the minors and walked an alarming 18.6 percent of those hitters. Given his inability to stay on the field and find a consistent role with the big-league roster, it’s not surprising that the Yankees decided to part ways with Beeter at the deadline to land a bench/platoon bat like Rosario. He could still find his way to a role in a big-league club’s bullpen—the lowly Nationals certainly offer an opening—but it will likely continue to be a bumpy road for Beeter as he tries to make that happen while turning 27 in October.
CF Browm Martinez
There's not a ton of information available on Martinez, which makes him one of the more intriguing wild cards in this group (even beyond the fact that his name is indeed Browm). The 18-year-old repeated at the Dominican Summer League in 2025, and was tearing it up with a 187 wRC+ through 18 games before a reported knee injury put him on the shelf. He hit three home runs and the plate approach looked great (8.7 BB%/11.6 K%).
Teams have been taking a more wait-and-see approach with Rookie ball prospects in recent years after the development of players like Fernando Tatis Jr., Yordan Alvarez, and Junior Caminero resulted in some of the most lopsided trades in modern MLB history, so it’s at least mildly notable that the Yankees chose to part with Martinez this early. Perhaps they see something in his profile that raised a red flag, but if so it’s not quite apparent yet in the public eye. A number of guys tear up the DSL every year and only a fraction of them go on to be top prospects, so there’s not much reason to be worried yet.
P Gage Ziehl
Ziehl is another starter near the Herring/Grosz range, old for the level he’d been pitching in for most of the season and unlikely to ever crack the Yankees’ MLB rotation. He was drafted in the fourth round last year out of the University of Miami and spent most of this season in Low-A, where he posted a 4.00 ERA in 74 innings at age 22.
Ziehl made a one-start cameo at Double-A Somerset in early-May, but his standard development only had him just making his High-A debut last week in Hudson Valley prior to being dealt to the White Sox for Austin Slater. Like Herring, Ziehl has a weak fastball and relies heavily on his slider. He keeps the walks in check, but doesn’t miss many bats either. He will have a better chance of one day making it into the Pale Hose rotation than he ever would have in the Bronx.
C/1B Rafael Flores
It's 413-feet and 106.8 mph off the bat for No. 15 #Yankees prospect Rafael Flores' FIRST homer in Triple-A! #WhereLegendsRise #RepBX pic.twitter.com/2Yi18wlrB9
— SWB RailRiders (@swbrailriders) July 23, 2025
The first player on this list widely considered to be among the organization’s better prospects, both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America placed Flores eighth in the Yankees’ system. He headlined the return for Pirates closer David Bednar, who the Yankees needed badly. Flores had been tearing up Double-A, slashing .287/.346/.496 with 15 home runs in 87 games before a recent promotion to Scranton.
The 24-year-old Flores is a bat-first catcher, who could possibly end up at first base in the big leagues. He’s a somewhat similar player to Agustín Ramírez, who the Yankees traded in July 2024 to acquire Jazz Chisholm Jr., but he doesn’t have quite as high of a ceiling. If the Yankees didn’t have a spot for Ramirez, they certainly weren’t going to have one for Flores. The organization has done an incredible job of developing catching prospects and trading them all around the league, and he joins a long list of catchers who have been shipped out of town. As an undrafted free agent signed out of a California junior college in 2022, Flores is an especially impressive story. Considering the returns that Tyler Rogers and especially Mason Miller went for, Yankees fans should be happy with Flores headlining the return for a major bullpen reinforcement.
C Edgleen Perez: Another catcher traded away. The 19-year-old Perez has a great plate approach and draws a ton of walks (17.9 BB% in Low-A this season), but the rest of his offensive profile is a work in progress. He has just a 91 wRC+ this year with a .027 ISO and .209 batting average. In three years of his professional career, he’s hit just two home runs in 771 plate appearances — both of them coming at the Complex level in 2024. He’s a strong defender behind the plate, which is why he ranked No. 14 in the organization per MLB Pipeline, but if the Yankees can keep developing catchers like they have been, they won’t miss Perez at all.
OF Brian Sanchez: The final piece headed to Pittsburgh in the Bednar return, Sanchez is a 21-year-old lefty-hitting outfielder who’s spent this season in Low-A with the Tampa Tarpons. He had a 129 wRC+ with Tampa, slashing .281/.373/.438 with four home runs. While Sanchez’s numbers are impressive, he was also a bit old for the level and ranked outside the organization’s Top 30 prospects. Sanchez is a fun hitter, but it’s reasonable to include him in a trade like this.
2B Roc Riggio: Of all the players on this list, there’s a solid chance Riggio will end up being the one the Yankees miss the most. He’s having a breakout year at the plate, showing no signs of slowing down as he continued to mash the ball after being promoted from High-A to Double-A. Drafted in the fourth round back in 2023, Riggio had been a run-of-the-mill prospect before this season but his ascension has been rapid over the past few months. He played 20 games at High-A with a 21.3/23.4 BB/K%, six home runs, and a 193 wRC+ after posting a 117 wRC+ at the same level the year prior. Following the promotion, he played 40 games at Double-A with 11 home runs and a 156 wRC+.
Riggio made his way up to being the No. 10 prospect in the Yankees organization, but he may never have found a permanent home in the Yankees’ infield, especially if the team is able to extend Chisholm. He wound up being the main return for Bird, and could find a more realistic path to the big leagues in the Rockies organization. His power has taken a huge leap, and he could end up hitting 20 homers annually calling Coors Field home.
P Ben Shields: A 26-year-old lefty in Double-A, Shields just barely cracked MLB Pipeline’s most recent update to the team’s Top 30, slotting in at No. 28. He went undrafted in 2023, and the Yankees were able to acquire him for just $25,000. They’ve spent the last two years developing his off-speed pitches, and he should be able to contribute to a big-league bullpen at some point soon. Unfortunately for Shields, that will now be happening in Colorado.
OF Everson Pereira: Pereira had been in the Yankees organization for a long time, and his profile has largely remained unchanged. Huge power, low contact rates, lots of strikeouts. This is his third season with Triple-A Scranton, and his numbers have been consistent the entire time.
2023: 8.2 BB%, 27.8 K%, .239 ISO, 133 wRC+
2024: 8.8 BB%, 32.4 K%, .247 ISO, 122 wRC+
2025: 12.1 BB%, 28.7 K%, .254 ISO, 127 wRC+
He was thoroughly blocked for years, and didn’t have much of a future with the organization. While he’ll likely hit some home runs in the big leagues fairly soon, they will come with a lot of strikeouts. It was tough to envision Pereira getting consistent big-league at-bats for the Yankees. Pereira needed a change of scenery, and now he gets one as he heads to Tampa Bay in return for José Caballero. Hopefully he doesn’t hit too many big homers in Yankee Stadium in a Rays jersey.
C/3B Jesus Rodriguez: Another catcher shipped out of town! Well, part-time catcher that is. Rodriguez has had something of a breakout of his own this year, splitting time between catcher and third base for the RailRiders. He has a .317/.409/.430 slash line in Triple-A, with five homers and a 129 wRC+. Rodriguez has a really nice contact tool, with an 84 percent contact rate at both Double-A and Triple-A this year, but his power leaves something to be desired.
Rodriguez could have been considered a long shot option to get a shot at third base in the Bronx at some point before the acquisition of McMahon. Instead, his departure opens up a spot on the 40-man roster. He could be another prospect we see in the big leagues before too long, but he would’ve had a hard time making that happen as a Yankee. He’s the main piece heading to San Francisco for Camilo Doval.
1B/3B Parks Harber: Harber’s name just popped up on the radar this season, as he tore up Low-A and High-A for the first ten weeks of the season before an injury knocked him out. He hasn’t played since June 12th. The only thing that was keeping him out of the team’s Top 30 was his age, as a 23-year-old at those levels can only produce so much hype. Harber’s production can't just be ignored though, as he had a 170 wRC+ in Tampa and 156 wRC+ in Hudson Valley. He could be an under-the-radar late bloomer, and the Giants will try to prove that’s the case.
P Trystan Vreiling: Another piece of the Doval return, Vrieling was drafted in the third round 2022 and has been kicking around in the minors ever since making his pro debut in Double-A last year. He had a 4.58 ERA last year, and his results this year at the same level have been very similar with a 4.50 ERA. His Double-A strikeout rate went from 21.3 percent to 20.5 percent, and his walk rate ticked up from 7.4 percent to 8.8 percent. He features a full arsenal, with a fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup, but none of these offerings grade much above average. He could end up in the back end of a big-league rotation one day, but he hasn’t done much to force anyone’s hand. Vrieling ranked No. 20 in the Yankees organization.
P Carlos De La Rosa: Not much is known just yet about De La Rosa, a pitcher who had been in the Dominican Summer League. The 17-year-old had a 5.32 ERA in seven games, but his K/BB numbers indicate that he may have been unlucky, a victim of the chaotic nature of the DSL. De La Rosa struck out 35 percent of the batters he faced, and walked just 4.9 percent. It’s hard to find any scouting reports on him yet, but those are the type of numbers that indicate there might be something here worth developing. He’s a major lottery ticket, but if it cashes then there’s a (very) small chance he could one day be the most important part of this return. Put a pin in this one.
The Verdict
The Yankees did a great job of filling some major holes at the big league level, and it’s very likely that they did so without sacrificing any players that would've played a big role in the future of the team’s roster construction. Ryan McMahon is a huge addition to a team that had a black hole at third base all year, and they have more than enough pitching depth in the system to part ways with Herring and Grosz without feeling too bad about it. The same goes for Ziehl, who likely would have remained a depth minor-league arm for the foreseeable future and instead lands the team a reliable pinch-hitter in Austin Slater to face lefties during the postseason push.
While there is a world in which Beeter could have contributed to the bullpen in a depth role, he struggled a lot and failed to stay healthy over a long period of time and it makes sense that the Yankees would choose to prioritize another bench bat in Amed Rosario over a pitching project that was failing to yield any real results. While Browm Martinez is currently an afterthought, keep tabs on him for a little while. He’s a true wild card, and it’s possible he develops into a legitimate prospect. If that happens, the Yankees probably lose the trade, but that’s a risk they were willing to take.
All things considered, the bullpen upgrades were probably well worth the price the Yankees paid. David Bednar has had a great season with the Pirates, and he’ll be a huge upgrade to a bullpen that’s been struggling to retain leads and relying far too much on Luke Weaver, Tim Hill, and Devin Williams. The same goes for Jake Bird and Camilo Doval, who have excellent off-speed pitches (sliders in particular) and will now be working with Matt Blake to put it all together. Bird has been a victim of Coors this year (4.73 ERA vs 3.59 xERA), and a change of scenery could benefit him just like it has McMahon. Doval has been walking too many batters this year, but he has a 3.09 ERA and years of experience operating as the Giants full-time or part-time closer. Both Bird and Doval are arbitration-eligible next year.
While it’s very likely that Flores, Riggio, and Rodriguez contribute at the big-league level for the Pirates and Rockies at some point, it’ll be important to remember that they likely had no path to starting in the Bronx and both trades give the Yankees a better chance to win in October than they had last week. The bullpen needed major upgrades, and Bednar, Bird, and Doval should be far more reliable options than the ones the Yankees have had this summer. The starting lineup is better with the addition of McMahon, the bench is better with Slater and Rosario, and the bullpen is better with these three right-handers. The Yankees were unable to upgrade the rotation, but Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil, Will Warren, and Cam Schlittler could be enough to get the job done. The team acquired some major upgrades, and they did so with Flores and Riggio being the only Top 10 prospects shipped out of town.
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