The Athletic | Jim Bowden: (subscription required) Every year, the early days of November bring out a veritable deluge of offseason breakdowns and predictions. Yesterday, former Major League general manager
Jim Bowden released his annual “needs and goals” for all 30 Major League teams. While much of the media attention has focused on the Yankees’ opening in the outfield, as Cody Bellinger opted out of his contract earlier this week, Bowden actually identified the injury-riddled pitching staff as the Yankees’ biggest need — with him floating the possibility of the team swinging a deal for a top-of-the-rotation starter like Tarik Skubal or Freddy Peralta if the opportunity presents itself. Obviously, even without making a deal, the team’s current rotation is fairly stacked when healthy, but as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as too much pitching — and as the Dodgers showed this winter, elite rotation depth can cover up a lot of flaws in October.
SNY.com | Anthony McCarron: Historically, Brian Cashman has been active on the trade market during the winter, acquiring via trade Giancarlo Stanton, Didi Gregorius, Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, Devin Williams, Alex Verdugo, Juan Soto, Fernando Cruz, Caleb Ferguson, Josh Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jameson Taillon, James Paxton, and Aroldis Chapman over the last ten winters. Because of this, Anthony McCarron lists five potential trade targets. Of particular interest to me is Steven Kwan, a player who Cleveland has not explicitly listed as being available but who is currently in arbitration — and Cleveland has not infrequently traded arbitration-eligible players in order to save cash.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Of course, before you can start analyzing the trade and free agent markets, you need to get your house in order. Yesterday, the Yankees began to do just that, exercising their team option for left-handed reliever Tim Hill and declining the one on Jonathan Loáisiga. Barring something unexpected, this likely ends the Yankees career of Johnny Lasagna, who struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.
MLB.com: In case you missed it, the Yankees announced their 2026 spring training schedule yesterday. The first game, on the road against Baltimore, is February 20th — just 106 days away!
