We’ve reached the end of November and of Thanksgiving week, which means that the MLB offseason should be about to give us some real action. The winter meetings will begin at the end of next weekend, and with them there will be a steady drumbeat of rumors and actual moves. To be fair, we’ve already […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
MLB Trade Rumors | Mark Polishuk: The Yankees have yet to make their first big splash of free agency, but it appears that Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger have emerged as their most prominent targets. If a recent report from Jon Heyman is to believed, there is a clear hierarchy of prioritization between the two […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The Yankees have a delicate task this offseason to upgrade the offense if they are indeed serious about improving on 2025’s disappointing finish. With multiple positions to address, potentially limited funds to do so and a lack of true difference makers outside of Kyle Tucker, the front office might have to get creative in their […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Carlos Rodón didn’t make a great first impression in pinstripes. Signed to a six-year free agent deal before the 2023 season, the left-hander was coming off a 237-strikeout campaign and expected to slot behind Gerrit Cole as a formidable duo atop the Yankees’ rotation. Instead, he missed the season’s first three months with multiple injuries […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The offseason carries on as we move past Thanksgiving, but there were no Black Friday deals to speak of for the Yankees. Perhaps they’ll still shop online on Cyber Monday for a steal, but don’t hold your breath as New York hasn’t seen much momentum on any of their targets this winter so far. Thankfully, […]
about 2 months ago | 3 reads
Sports Illustrated | Noah Strackbein: Last week, the Yankees non-tendered a gaggle of bullpen arms, looking to make room on their 40-man roster to protect a couple of prospects from the Rule 5 Draft. Well, this week, they brought one of those bullpen arms back, signing Michael Arias to a minor league deal. The 24-year-old […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our bi-weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com. CA_Yankee_Fan asks: Who is the best free agent position player fit for the Yankees besides Bellinger or Tucker? The answer depends […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
I’m not saying that Ben Rice is Aaron Judge reborn, I’m just saying that a year ago Ben Rice looked overwhelmed by MLB pitching, striking out far above his minor league production, and in his first full year with the big league club blossomed into one of the more promising hitters in the game. Rice […]
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
We didn’t get any big news on Thanksgiving after the Blue Jays dropped a bombshell on Thanksgiving Eve, but Toronto’s signing of Dylan Cease to a $210-million contract on Wednesday was significant enough to reverberate for a couple of days. The Blue Jays look like they’re going to remain a major threat going forward after […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Baseball America: With his raw power Spencer Jones has potential to be a massive boom on the “boom or bust” scale. However so far, that has also come with quite a number of strikeouts, he also has potential to be a bust on that same scale. Here, Baseball America ranks him as one of the […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Hope you have some good eating and relaxing parade/football-watching ahead of you. We are evidently doomed to watch the Cincinnati Bengals tonight but so it goes. We don’t have anything scheduled today on the site aside from Kevin’s overnight news post that went live earlier, so feel free to […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
New York Post | Matt Ehalt: Yankee Universe got a big of a scare Wednesday. For a brief moment, there was a viral claim that Yankee legend Paul O’Neill is fighting cancer. The YES Network, after speaking to Paulie, quickly corrected the record. The Network’s VP of Communications, Eric Handler, bluntly informed media outlets that […]
about 2 months ago | 0 reads
Awards season is now behind us, and we are fully entrenched in the offseason. But, between retrospectives on the 2025 Yankees, and awards voting still relatively fresh on the mind, I was brought down a rabbit hole of past MVP voting. There are plenty of Yankees who have gotten surprising first-place votes on MVP ballots, […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Yankees opened the 2025 season with what one might call a concept of a plan at third base. Their Opening Day third baseman was Oswaldo Cabrera; once Cabrera went down for the year with a grisly leg injury, the scrambling began. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was pulled back off his native second base to man […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Now that the Arizona Fall League has reached its conclusion, the only MLB prospects currently playing baseball are Winter Ball participants in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Australia. The Yankees currently have five players participating in Winter Ball, including a few who spent time with the big-league club in 2025 and at […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
The Yankees have struggled to find themselves a leadoff hitter for a while now — Aaron Judge gets on base like half the time, but his power is probably too valuable to slot him there, especially without a pair of future Hall of Famers behind him the way Shohei Ohtani enjoys. Trent Grisham was solid […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
The hot stove stayed warm yesterday, as it was the Yankees’ archrivals turn to make a move. Boston traded for former Yankee Sonny Gray, getting him from St. Louis for a pair of pitchers including former Yankee farmhand Richard Fitts (and we can now go back to rooting for a 60-grade prospect name). Gray wasn’t […]
about 2 months ago | 2 reads
ESPN | Kiley McDaniel: Three of this offseason’s most coveted free agent acquisitions are expected to come from Japan’s NPB, with the Yankees linked to all three. After recent pitching success stories including Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Shota Imanaga, and Kodai Senga, the most touted option of the bunch is starter Tatsuya Imai. With the […]
about 2 months ago | 1 read
When he made his major league debut in 2018, Jonathan Loáisiga showed flashes of an electric arm that could be something if he ever could figure out the consistency thing. Flash forward seven years later, and he never quite figured out that consistency thing. A move to the bullpen proved out to be a good […]
2 months ago | 2 reads
After not really making an attempt at Shohei Ohtani and then losing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, reports came out earlier this offseason that the Yankees were looking to “get back in on” the market of players from Japan and NPB. Former All-Star Masahiro Tanaka was the most recent Japanese Yankee, and the […]
2 months ago | 2 reads
We’re nearly at Thanksgiving, traditionally a quiet week around MLB. That said, even if most teams stay still during this week, that doesn’t preclude something significant from happening. Some major Thanksgiving week moves from recent history include, say, Eugenio Suárez going from the Mariners to the Diamondbacks two years ago, or our friend Trent Grisham heading […]
2 months ago | 2 reads
MLB.com | Mike Petriello: Everyone was talking about the Toronto Blue Jays’ good old-fashioned contact approach in their pennant-winning season, even as the true strength of their offense was much more complicated than just getting the bat on the ball. The Jays got to within a hair of a World Series title by outslugging everyone […]
2 months ago | 3 reads
The offseason marches on, and the Yankees have their first significant commitment of the winter made. Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer, meaning they’ll have him back in the outfield on a one-year, $22 million pact following the 29-year-old’s career year in 2024, hitting 34 home runs in a fourth outfielder role that quickly expanded […]
2 months ago | 2 reads
After a seven-season run that included first-place MVP votes, a batting title, career-highs, sub-replacement-level showings, and an eventual midseason release, DJ LeMahieu’s tenure with the Yankees officially came to a close in 2025. The year prior was the real rock-bottom for the three-time All-Star, but ‘25 marked a second straight season in which LeMahieu was […]
2 months ago | 3 reads
When you think of the modern ace pitcher, several characteristics come to mind. First and foremost, you need a guy who is going to post year after year. You want a guy who strikes out hitters in buckets and has the wipeout stuff to dominate any major-league lineup on any given night. By those definitions, […]
2 months ago | 2 reads