00:00It's a drive by Derry Dutton, Charles Chisholm goes deep.
00:08We've reached part 7, final part of our series going position by position on the Yankees.
00:16Every other position besides pitching is on the New York Post YouTube page, nypost.com.
00:23You buy a newspaper, you get all of it. I hope you do.
00:28There's been a fun project to do, and it ends today with pitching.
00:33And I will say when it comes to starting pitching, the Yankees are in a more advantageous position than most
00:38teams going into the offseason.
00:40If you're not chasing starting pitching in an offseason, it is really a leg up.
00:45And the Yankees have seven veteran guys.
00:47The presumptive AL Cy Young award winner, Cam Schlittler, Garrett Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clark Schmidt, Will Warren, and
00:55Ryan Weathers.
00:56They like very much Carlos Legrande and Elmer Rodriguez.
01:01And we'll talk a little later if Luis Gil is actually a reclamation project or something else.
01:07We'll get to it in this video.
01:09But you do want to proceed with caution a little bit.
01:12There'll be a lot of calls on these players.
01:16A few of these players, guys like Warren, guys like Weathers, maybe even Schmidt.
01:21Teams looking for starting pitching in trades, and the Yankees have to consider it.
01:25But the thing is, I do believe in the cliche of if you think you have too much starting pitching,
01:30you're wrong.
01:32Do like a project here.
01:34Like, you know, guys like Cole, Fried, Rodon, Schmidt, Weathers, they all spent considerable time on the IL last year.
01:41Schmidt didn't pitch at all after his Tommy John surgery.
01:44If I created an under-over of, say, 20.5 starts for Cole, who's going to be a pitch at
01:5136 next year, Fried at 34, Rodon at 33.
01:54If I said 20.5 starts over-under on each of those three guys, would you go over or would
01:59you go under?
02:00There's a pretty good case to go under on each of the three guys.
02:03And that leaves 10 starts apiece across the board.
02:08It's a whole other starting pitcher.
02:10So you want to get rid of your starting pitching cautiously.
02:14You know, keep in mind that the Yankees might have to rebuild the total bullpen.
02:19You might want to use your overflow starters to address some of that.
02:24While they like Rodriguez and LeGrand Hay, I think by now they thought that they took pitchers with the top
02:31three picks in 2024.
02:32Ben Hess, Bryce Cunningham, Thatcher Hurd.
02:35I think they thought those guys would be right on the brink of helping them by now, maybe even in
02:4026, which obviously didn't happen, but certainly in 27.
02:44But injury and performance has regressed those guys.
02:47They need to rebuild themselves.
02:49Look, you know, you could be surprised.
02:51We never saw Cam Schlittler coming.
02:52So maybe somebody's going to get some jet fuel in them and go zooming through the minor league system and
03:02help them in 2027.
03:04But from the outside looking in, it looks like you got a situation where right now Brendan Beck is that
03:10next kind of like guy you might use like they did this year.
03:15And he looked more like a quadruple eight pitcher than somebody who's going to help them a great deal.
03:21Look, that Schmidt didn't make it back all year hurts his showcase.
03:26I do think between now and November 20th, the Yankees are going to try like heck to trade Luis Hill.
03:33On November 20th, all veteran players have to have their contracts either tended or not.
03:38You got to send out a contract, even with a lockout looming, you can't just assume the lockout.
03:43You got to send out a tendered contract on November 20th.
03:47And the Yankees have to make that decision at that time.
03:49MLGB trade rumors arbitration model has Hill at about $2.3 million for next season.
03:59Do the Yankees decide to non-tender him?
04:01Can they find a trade for him someplace for a team that wants to see if they can make a
04:06reclamation project
04:07out of the guy who was the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year?
04:11Do the Yankees want to keep him and see if he can be in the bullpen?
04:15But keep in mind, Hill and Schmidt are guys, they do not have minor league options left.
04:20So they're either on the team next year or they have to go through waivers.
04:25So if the Yankees feel like they can't help in the rotation, they can't help in the bullpen,
04:29there's going to be a thought about either non-tendering or trying to trade one or both.
04:37And they do have to think about this bullpen, right?
04:39Because the three guys who were the bulwark of the bullpen last year were David Bednar,
04:45Paul Blackburn, and Brent Hedrick.
04:50Bednar and Blackburn are free agents.
04:52Hedrick appeared in a regular season high 81 games last year and kind of looked out of fuel late in
04:59the year.
05:00Do the Yankees, you know, like they've got to believe he's the one guy coming back.
05:05It's their only lefty and we'll talk about that in a bit.
05:08I do think they should probably put the $23.15 million qualifying offer on Bednar.
05:16I think if he accepts it, that's a win for the Yankees because I would rather have Bednar at one
05:22year at $23 million slightly overpaid
05:25than, say, have to do a three-year, $17, $18, $19 million a year contract, maybe a fourth year.
05:32Who knows?
05:33So I think the Yankees should do that.
05:35The worst that comes of it is he's signed someplace else.
05:37The Yankees' compensation is an extra draft pick after the fourth round.
05:40And even if he rejects, the Yankees continue to negotiate with him.
05:45Who does Blackburn remind me of?
05:47A little bit of Brett Keller as far as where the financials could go.
05:52Starting pitchers for a while, never really hit it right doing that.
05:57Transitioned to the bullpen.
05:59Keller did it in 25 and did it really well for the Cubs.
06:04Ended up signing a two-year, $22 million contract with the Phillies.
06:09And actually needed Tommy John surgery during this year, so it didn't go well.
06:13Is that a cautionary tale for the Yankees moving forward?
06:18Blackburn is older.
06:19Is it possible he gets a little less possible?
06:22But I think it's going to be like two at 14, two at 16, two at 18.
06:27Someplace in that ballpark.
06:28Do the Yankees want to bring back a guy who was really steady, a pretty good ground ball machine for
06:34them?
06:34Or do they believe, look, they turned a lot of Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, Blackburn, Hedrick, failed starters into pretty
06:42good relief pitchers.
06:43Do they believe they could do that, find some stuff on the market?
06:46I would keep in mind, I do not suspect they're going to bring back Tim Hill and Ryan Yarbrough.
06:51I think Fernando Cruz, because of his elbow situation, is a very strong, non-tender candidate because he might end
06:58up needing elbow surgery.
06:59That would leave them the next most relief appearances after Hedrick on their roster.
07:05If all of that goes away, right now would be Yuri Delosantos with 16 last year.
07:11So the Yankees have a lot of work to do in this area.
07:15And the one name that's going to come up for every team, because he's so good and he's been so
07:20durable,
07:20he's pitched the most games in the major leagues over the last three years and done it at a high
07:24level,
07:24is San Diego's Adrian Morihone, who's a free agent, he's only going to pitch at 28 next year, he's going
07:30to be in great demand.
07:31There's a lot of talk out there that maybe he's going to try to be a starting pitcher,
07:36but he's going to have a big market and get treated like a closer.
07:40And I think, you know, it's like the Yankees with Bednar.
07:43After Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman went so bad on their long-term contracts at the end,
07:50the Yankees kind of stayed away from that kind of contract.
07:53I would be surprised if they went big.
07:56Having said that, I think they need protection for Hedrick.
07:59And even if Hedrick is as good next year as he was this year,
08:03and he has to prove that, come back off of this big workload, they need a second lefty.
08:08Hill and Yarborough were the extra lefties this year.
08:11I wouldn't sleep on Yarborough, by the way.
08:14He was valuable.
08:15He gave really quality, long relief above average.
08:18Though, again, maybe one of those displaced starters could do it if the Yankees aren't bringing back Yarborough.
08:24Maybe they will.
08:25Lefties to look at.
08:26Alex Vesia walks a lot of people, but he showed with the Dodgers he could be part of a championship
08:31formula from the left side.
08:34Stephen Okert does not strike out a lot of guys.
08:36Gives up a lot of balls in the air.
08:38But, like, in his mid-30s found something.
08:41And for the last two years with the Astros, he's been among the best lefty relievers in the sport.
08:46He's a free agent.
08:47I think you've got to give a call to Seattle.
08:49They have both Gabe Spire and Jose Ferrer.
08:52Do they want to move a lefty reliever?
08:55By the way, do they want to move their closer?
08:57Andres Munoz, who has an $8 million option for this year and $10 million for the next year.
09:02He just had a bad year with good stuff.
09:05He was very homer-susceptible.
09:08Would a team like the Yankees try to get him, thinking that there's still a lot there?
09:12Seattle has other needs, but they also have needs in the bullpen.
09:16I'm not sure they would move any of these guys.
09:18Other lefty relievers, Brock Burke, Sean Newcomb, JoJo Romero, who's pitching well right now for the Brewers, who are the
09:26National League champions.
09:27They're all free agents.
09:29I think you've got to make a phone call to the Rangers and talk about their closer, Jacob Latt, see
09:34if they'll move him.
09:34Again, I'm throwing out names doesn't mean it would.
09:38I think Brennan Bernardino from the Rockies is a guy the Yankees have had eyes on before.
09:43And just thinking about two righties who the Yankees have had eyes on before as they think about trying to,
09:48again, not just build up the ninth inning, but getting the ball to the ninth inning.
09:53They've always had a long interest.
09:54There's Jeremy Estrada, who's with the Padres and has been talked a lot about in trades the last couple of
10:00years without being traded.
10:01And Anthony Bender, who's entering his walk year with the Marlins, and I would suspect is the kind of player
10:07the Marlins will either non-tender or try to trade.
10:10He had surgery late in the year for a stress fracture in his shin.
10:16I think the expectation is he's going to be okay for next year, but that might make it a hard
10:21trade.
10:22But clearly, while the Yankees have very, very few concerns about what their depth of their starting pitching might look
10:29like,
10:29they have a lot of work to do on their major league bullpen.
10:33We'll see you next time.
