Go beyond the box score with the Bombers
Sign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.
The Yankees have just seven members of their 40-man roster headed to free agency, but they have plenty of cleaning up to do elsewhere on that roster to get it back on track for next season.
Luis Severino, Frankie Montas, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Wandy Peralta, Keynan Middleton, Zach McAllister and Luke Weaver are all set to become 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 most likely of that group — the Yankees are not expected to use 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 pick up or decline, either.
That takes care of the first 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 will have to make calls on whether or not to tender contracts to their 17 arbitration-eligible players. Some decisions are more complicated than others.
Here’s 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 remains uncertain as the perennial potential trade chip enters his final year before free agency.
Holmes is also set to become a free agent after next season, but was the only full-time member of the bullpen to stay 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 should be an easy call except Loaisiga just can’t stay on the field consistently enough. He pitched in just 17 games this season around a pair of injured list stints — the first for surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow and the second because of elbow inflammation. Aaron Boone said the Yankees did not believe the two were related and that the late-season elbow inflammation would have shut down Loaisiga for a few weeks if it had happened earlier in the year.
But the Yankees will have to determine whether there is 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 as good as there is 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 biggest spots. When he’s going good, I don’t know if there’s much better in the league, frankly.”
That’s why it’s hard to see the Yankees ditching Loaisiga in his final year of team control, unless the medicals are worse than they have said publicly.
Questionable tenders: Lou Trivino ($4.1 million), Jake Bauers ($1.7 million)
The first one depends on when the Yankees realistically think they can 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 in the Frankie Montas trade, has one year of team control left, so will the Yankees pay around $4 million to get possibly a couple months out of him?
As for Bauers, the Yankees thought 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 final two months. Without any minor league options remaining, it may be tough to keep 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 is still one of the top pitch framers in the majors, but lacks elsewhere and has no spot on the roster next year with Trevino and Austin Wells expected to split catching duties and Ben Rortvedt the next man up. Some team with a young starting catcher likely could use Higashioka as a backup, it’s just a matter of how he gets there in his final year of team control.
Complicated non-tender: Domingo German ($4.4 million)
German left the team in August to seek treatment for alcohol abuse following a clubhouse incident, a little over a month after throwing a perfect 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 year of arbitration in 2024) ever would pitch again for the Yankees. It may be time for the two 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 may be out of chances. The organization clearly sees something in him, but he spent most of the season as the last man in the bullpen and, besides a solid stretch early in the year, was otherwise underwhelming with a 4.73 ERA in 59 innings.
Cordero and McKinney had some good moments at the plate, but could not do it consistently enough.
Bowman and Weber are both 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 need to open up some more spots on the 40-man roster (to protect prospects from the Rule 5 draft by mid-November or for free agents), they have some flexibility to do so. Players who could be on the chopping block include Anthony Misiewicz, Estevan Florial and Nick Ramirez.
The Yankees showed how little they believe in Florial this season by how long they kept him at Triple-A while 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 out.
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 in the season, and based on the other finalists (a group that somehow does not include Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.), Volpe appears to have a good chance 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 final two months of the season with post-concussion syndrome and may have played some to most 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 end of May, when his collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. occurred, which means while his bat suffered, his defense remained sharp.
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 chance to play with his brother, Leobaldo, a former Yankees minor leaguer.
Greg Bird has resurfaced Down Under.
The one-time future of 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 and then played 11 games this year with the Quebec Capitales of the independent Frontier League.