The Yankees have just seven members of their 40-man roster headed to free agency, but they’ve loads of cleansing as much as do elsewhere on that roster to get it back on course for next season.
Luis Severino, Frankie Montas, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Wandy Peralta, Keynan Middleton, Zach McAllister and Luke Weaver are all set to grow to be free agents the day after the World Series ends. Though it’s possible that any of them could sign back with the team — Middleton and/or Peralta seem the almost certainly of that group — the Yankees are usually not expected to make use of the qualifying offer on any of them.
Because they cut Josh Donaldson loose in late August, neither the Yankees nor their players have any contract options to select up or decline, either.
That takes care of the primary two deadlines of note after the World Series.
The third is where things get more interesting for the Yankees: the non-tender deadline. By Nov. 17, the Yankees can have to make calls on whether or to not tender contracts to their 17 arbitration-eligible players. Some decisions are more complicated than others.
Here’s a have a look at them, with projected salaries via MLB Trade Rumors:
Easy tenders: Gleyber Torres ($15.3 million), Clay Holmes ($6 million), Nestor Cortes ($3.9 million), Jose Trevino ($2.7 million), Michael King ($2.6 million), Clarke Schmidt ($2.6 million)
Torres’ future with the Yankees stays uncertain because the perennial potential trade chip enters his final 12 months before free agency.
Holmes can be set to grow to be a free agent after next season, but was the one full-time member of the bullpen to remain healthy this season. The Yankees are banking on a healthier Cortes and Trevino while King and Schmidt get nice raises as projected members of the rotation next season.
Probable tender: Jonathan Loaisiga ($2.5 million)
This one ought to be a simple call except Loaisiga just can’t stay on the sphere consistently enough. He pitched in only 17 games this season around a pair of injured list stints — the primary for surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow and the second due to elbow inflammation. Aaron Boone said the Yankees didn’t imagine the 2 were related and that the late-season elbow inflammation would have shut down Loaisiga for just a few weeks if it had happened earlier within the 12 months.
However the Yankees can have to find out whether there’s any lingering concern about his elbow — or shoulder, which has caused IL stints in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
“When he’s going well, it’s pretty much as good as there’s because he’s efficient, he’s got great stuff, he can get both-handed out,” Boone said in September. “He can go one-plus [innings] for you. He can fill any role, whether it’s closing out a game or in the most important spots. When he’s going good, I don’t know if there’s a lot better within the league, frankly.”
That’s why it’s hard to see the Yankees ditching Loaisiga in his final 12 months of team control, unless the medicals are worse than they’ve said publicly.
Questionable tenders: Lou Trivino ($4.1 million), Jake Bauers ($1.7 million)
The primary one depends upon when the Yankees realistically think they will get Trivino back on the mound in The Bronx after the reliever underwent Tommy John surgery in early May. Recovery from the surgery typically takes 12-18 months for pitchers. Trivino, the second piece within the Frankie Montas trade, has one 12 months of team control left, so will the Yankees pay around $4 million to get possibly a pair months out of him?
As for Bauers, the Yankees thought that they had unlocked something with the lefty slugger, who had 11 home runs and an .821 OPS through his first 59 games with the team. But he went cold and lost playing time over the ultimate two months. With none minor league options remaining, it could be tough to maintain Bauers on the 40-man roster.
Likely non-tender or trade: Kyle Higashioka ($2.3 million)
The veteran catcher is a non-tender candidate unless the Yankees can find somewhere to trade him.
He remains to be one in every of the highest pitch framers within the majors, but lacks elsewhere and has no spot on the roster next 12 months with Trevino and Austin Wells expected to separate catching duties and Ben Rortvedt the subsequent man up. Some team with a young starting catcher likely could use Higashioka as a backup, it’s only a matter of how he gets there in his final 12 months of team control.
Complicated non-tender: Domingo German ($4.4 million)
German left the team in August to hunt treatment for alcohol abuse following a clubhouse incident, a bit over a month after throwing an ideal game in Oakland. The day the Yankees placed German on the restricted list — three years after the right-hander served an 81-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence policy — general manager Brian Cashman was non-committal on whether German (entering his final 12 months of arbitration in 2024) ever would pitch again for the Yankees. It could be time for the 2 sides to part ways.
Probable non-tenders: Franchy Cordero ($1.6 million), Billy McKinney ($1.2 million), Albert Abreu ($900,000), Matt Bowman ($1 million), Ryan Weber ($900,000), Jimmy Cordero ($900,000)
It seems as if Abreu has had nine lives with the Yankees, but he could also be out of probabilities. The organization clearly sees something in him, but he spent many of the season because the last man within the bullpen and, besides a solid stretch early within the 12 months, was otherwise underwhelming with a 4.73 ERA in 59 innings.
Cordero and McKinney had some good moments on the plate, but couldn’t do it consistently enough.
Bowman and Weber are each veterans that the Yankees can move on from.
Cordero was suspended in July for a violation of MLB’s domestic violence policy.
Other pre-arbitration-eligible players of note: If the Yankees must open up some more spots on the 40-man roster (to guard prospects from the Rule 5 draft by mid-November or without cost agents), they’ve some flexibility to achieve this. Players who may very well be on the chopping block include Anthony Misiewicz, Estevan Florial and Nick Ramirez.
The Yankees showed how little they imagine in Florial this season by how long they kept him at Triple-Some time calling up other outfielders.
Ramirez was solid across multiple call-ups, posting a 2.66 ERA in 40 ⅔ innings, and has value as a lefty reliever with Peralta potentially on the way in which out.
Glove affairs
Anthony Volpe is one step closer to winning a Gold Glove as a rookie. The 22-year-old was named a finalist for the AL Gold Glove at shortstop on Wednesday alongside a pair of high-priced veterans in Corey Seager and Carlos Correa.
Aaron Boone stumped for Volpe to win the award multiple times late within the season, and based on the opposite finalists (a gaggle that in some way doesn’t include Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.), Volpe appears to have a very good probability of taking it home. He tied Wander Franco for an AL shortstop-high 16 Defensive Runs Saved and tied with Correa for sixth with one Out Above Average (Seager had minus-one).
Anthony Rizzo’s inclusion as a finalist for AL first basemen was surprising, if only because he missed the ultimate two months of the season with post-concussion syndrome and could have played some to many of the two months before that with a brain injury. Rizzo led AL first basemen with seven Outs Above Average — he had accrued two by the top of May, when his collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. occurred, which implies while his bat suffered, his defense remained sharp.
Never stop never stopping
After a mostly disappointing season with the Yankees, Oswaldo Cabrera is getting an early jump on his offseason by playing in his native Venezuela with Tiburones de La Guaira.
The utilityman is getting the prospect to play together with his brother, Leobaldo, a former Yankees minor leaguer.
Flying south for the winter
Greg Bird has resurfaced Down Under.
The one-time way forward for the Yankees signed with the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League, the club announced on Wednesday.
Since last playing for the Yankees in 2019, the 30-year-old Bird spent 2021 with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate, 2022 with at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the Yankees after which played 11 games this 12 months with the Quebec Capitales of the independent Frontier League.