With the lockout looming at the end of the month, this offseason appears ready to heat up quickly, as teams are eager to get at least some of their business done before the baseball world freezes at the order of the league owners. While much of the attention has, so far, centered on the free agent market — options exercised and declined, qualifying offers extended, players from Japan and Korea posted — chances are, given Brian Cashman’s history, the Yankees will be just as active on the trade market,
if not more so. Over the past decade, he has acquired Ryan Weathers, Cody Bellinger, Juan Soto, Trent Grisham, Josh Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jameson Taillon, James Paxton, and Giancarlo Stanton in offseason deals. While it’s not yet clear who exactly will be available this winter, as the old saying goes, you have to give something to get something, so we can take a look at which players on the 40-man roster the Yankees might use to swing a deal.
Major League starters
They say you can never have enough pitching, and while that’s true, the Yankees are in the rare position where they have some depth to work with. Between presumptive AL Cy Young Cam Schlittler, 2023 AL Cy Young Gerrit Cole, and a pair of southpaws with multiple top-six finishes in Max Fried and Carlos Rodón, the Yankees starting rotation has quite an extensive resume. Obviously, no team wants to shed too much of its pitching depth — we said much the same thing about the Yankees’ 2025 rotation when they traded Nestor Cortes, only for them to need to turn Ryan Yarbrough into a starter and promote Schlittler mid-season — but still, this category represents the Yankees’ biggest trade chips, and for the right bat, it may very well be worth it…and it becomes a no-brainer if they sign Tarik Skubal as a replacement.
Of the three, Will Warren seems to me to have the most value. While he lacks the ceiling of Ryan Weathers, he does have two things going for him: less of an injury history (he made more than 30 appearances in each of his first two complete seasons, and has yet to miss a start due to injury) and more years of team control (he is entering his third full season, while Weathers will be a free agent after 2028). Ironically, those very same reasons may also be why Weathers is the pitcher the team is more likely to lose. Due to his injury history — he made just one appearance last year, and hasn’t made more than 16 starts since 2023 — the veteran Clarke Schmidt is unlikely to go anywhere on the trade block; honestly, he may even be at risk of a non-tender.
Minor League pitching depth
Three years ago, the Yankees made the biggest non-Shohei Ohtani splash of the offseason by using their minor league pitching depth to swing a deal for the best bat on the trade market, Juan Soto. While it’s not exactly a one-to-one comparison, the Yankees do have a similar amount of depth ammunition in the trio of Luis Gil, Elmer Rodríguez, and Brendan Beck. As the 2024 Rookie of the Year, Gil has the longest track record, but as Andrés noted yesterday, his stuff has not been sufficiently effective in order to overcome his lack of command — in short, whereas he used to be effectively wild, he’s now just wild — and it’s entirely possible the Yankees decide to non-tender him to save the roster spot. Brendan Beck, meanwhile…exists.
The truly valuable minor league pitcher currently on the 40-man is Rodríguez. He turned heads playing for Puerto Rico during the World Baseball Classic, before putting together a strong season in Scranton (8-4, 2.45 ERA in 106.1 innings). While his Major League numbers weren’t quite there — he had a 5.40 ERA in six starts this season, and was only able to make it out of the fifth just once — he’s still young, having turned 23 back in August.
J.C. Escarra
Catcher J.C. Escarra was the feel-good story of the 2025 season. A long-time minor league journeyman who had worked as an uber driver, bounced around independent and affiliated ball, and finally earned a chance to crack a Major League roster, the 30-year-old catcher overcame all odds to earn the backup catcher job out of spring training. Furthermore, he established himself as one of the game’s elite framers, finishing eighth in the league with 5 Framing Runs — tied with Carlos Narváez and Pedro Pagés, who caught 6000 more pitches than he did!
Unfortunately, Escarra was unable to build upon his 2025 campaign. His framing declined to league-average (he was worth exactly 0 framing runs this year), and has shadow strike percentage dropped from 49.6 percent to 47.9. While these numbers aren’t exactly bad, this defensive regression also coincided with an absolutely terrible year at the plate, Escarra posting a .188/.239/.271 slash line in 92 plate appearances. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the Yankees sent him down to Scranton towards the end of June in favor of the right-handed Ali Sanchez, and never recalled him.
At this point, it’s clear that the Yankees will not be counting on Escarra as a significant contributor to the Major League roster next season. Austin Wells remains slotted in as the starting catcher, and all indications are that the team is looking to pair him with a right-handed backup. And although the Yankees might just keep Escarra around as minor league depth — he is solid defensively and posted a .301/.375/.488 slash line with Scranton last season, and good catching depth is hard to find — those very same reasons might make him valuable on the trade market. After all, Adley Rutschman netted the Orioles three of Boston’s top-five prospects, plus another starting-caliber catcher in Carlos Narváez. Escarra’s definitely not worth the same as a former No. 1 pick, but much like Kyle Higashioka in the Trent Grisham/Juan Soto trade, he could be a valuable secondary piece.
Ryan McMahon
Ok, it might be a tad unfair to call Ryan McMahon a trade chip, as it seems unlikely the Yankees would be able to get anything of value for a weak-hitting third baseman whose defensive performance took a nose dive this season and who will be owed $16 million next season. But, on the YES Hot Stove this week, Jack Curry reported that the Yankees see third base as an area of need, and while it’s entirely possible that the Yankees opt to simply release McMahon — they have shown a willingness to eat dead money on deals in recent years, especially during the last year of the contract — I can’t help but wonder if, like the Sonny Gray and Marcus Stroman situations, the team will try to work the trade market and find a new home for him.
It might seem unbelievable that the Yankees could get anything for a player who Baseball-Reference valued as perfectly replacement level and FanGraphs saw as worth just 0.5 fWAR in 2026, but if the front office is willing to pay down the salary — or even eat the whole thing — they may be able to get a lottery ticket minor league arm from a team desperate for basic competence at third base. It’s not super likely, but not as ridiculous as you might think — nine third basemen with at least 350 plate appearances accumulated less fWAR than McMahon last season.
Jasson Domínguez
Once the darling of the Yankees farm system, Jasson Domínguez has had repeated setbacks as a big leaguer. After an amazing debut at the end of 2023, he tore his UCL and missed the first half of 2024. Defensive struggles in the outfield then kept him from leapfrogging the struggling Alex Verdugo down the stretch, and the Martian played a bench role all throughout the run to the World Series. The Opening Day starter in left field in 2025, he was outplayed by Trent Grisham, and spent the majority of the season as a fourth outfielder primarily playing against righties. He began the 2026 season in Triple-A, was recalled at the start of May, immediately hit the shelf with a concussion after crashing into the wall in left field, and was leapfrogged by Spencer Jones in the depth chart. Given significant playing time in right field due to Aaron Judge’s injury, he posted just a .225/.267/.368 slash and watched his platoon splits flip. He slashed just a meager .194/.241/.333 against righties, while posting a .275/.310/.425 line against southpaws. Looking for more consistency, the team swung a deal for Heliot Ramos at the deadline, and sent the Martian back to Scranton for good.
If the Yankees were to trade Domínguez now, they would be selling low on him, and since the Martian still has an option remaining (assuming the number of options doesn’t change during the CBA, that is), the smart play may be to hold onto him in the hope that he bounces back enough to either become a contributor in the Bronx or a more valuable trade piece. If the right deal were to come across, though, don’t expect to see Domínguez be the reason it falls apart.
Honorable Mention: Dax Kilby
For the most part, I have kept the focus on players who are on the 40-man roster. On a practical level, it’s a limit that keeps this piece at a reasonable length, as there are literally dozens of prospects who could be floated in trades this winter. I will, though, make one exception: top prospect Dax Kilby, who has been drawing a lot of attention this fall with his dominant performance in the Arizona Fall League.
Drafted in the first round of the 2025 draft, Kilby had just 55 professional games headed into the AFL season, split between Rookie ball and Single-A. Despite the lack of playing time, though, he has not looked overmatched — far from it, in fact. Powered by a retooled swing, the 19-year-old shortstop has posted a .295/.357/.623 slash across 15 games, with 12 extra-base hits. While I don’t exactly expect the Yankees to trade him at this point, the San Diego Padres did express interest in him at the trade deadline when the Bombers inquired into Mason Miller’s availability, it doesn’t quite seem like he’s at the “untouchable” status that Anthony Volpe, Domínguez, Spencer Jones, and George Lombard Jr. had at times. If the team is willing to move Kilby, his value may never be higher than it is now.
