The New York Yankees had one of the busiest offseasons in the league this past winter. It all started when Juan Soto left town for a deal with the New York Mets. The Yankees were forced to quickly pivot to a backup plan, and it's seemingly paid dividends this season — Aaron Judge and the Bronx Bombers are atop the AL East amid off to a solid start in the post-Soto era.
But a lot of their success has ridden on the back of Judge. The Yankees have put together some solid games and there are a few other players finding success, but there are also a handful who are struggling tremendously this season. Some of the latter were acquired as part of the team's Soto backup plan, and should have some fans questioning whether Brian Cashman navigated the transition as well as he could have.
Which offseason moves already look disastrous for the Yankees?
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.
Not acquiring a third baseman is coming back to haunt the Yankees
The Yankees opted to let Gleyber Torres leave in free agency, seemingly with little to no resistance. That's not the bad decision here; Torres had struggled with the Yankees over the last few seasons, so if the team wanted to move on from him, that's fine.
But they didn't replace him. Instead, the Yankees opted to move Jazz Chisholm Jr. from third base over to second base to replace Torres, but this move left a gaping hole at the hot corner.
The Yankees were connected to players like Nolan Arenado and Alex Bregman during the offseason, but they ultimately never showed interest in a trade for Arenado and didn't appear to pursue Bregman seriously at all. As a result, the Bronx Bombers went into the season with Oswaldo Cabrera as their everyday third baseman.
Chisholm has been battling an injury for the last few weeks and Cabrera will likely miss the rest of the season after suffering a gruesome ankle fracture this week. That's two starting infielders on the injured list for the Yankees, and it further shows the gaping hole on the roster left by the front office's lack of urgency to replace Torres. The Yankees needed to add an infielder, yet they opted to stand pat, and it's already coming back to haunt them.
The Cody Bellinger trade isn't aging very well
When the Yankees lost Soto, they needed to go out and get an everyday outfielder to replace him, preferably in center field so Judge could slide back to right. There were a few options on the board in free agency, so the Yankees ultimately decided to go after Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger via trade. The Yankees were able to land Bellinger for a minimal prospect haul because they agreed to take on a large majority of the money remaining on the veteran's contract.
In hindsight, this is looking like a bad move and a massive overpay for the Yankees.
On the season, Bellinger is slashing .229/.299/.389 with five home runs and six doubles. He's played solid defense in center field and has been a net-positive player for the Yankees, but the fact that New York has to pay him so much money makes this a questionable move.
Bellinger's OPS+ is as low as it's been since 2022. He hasn't returned to the MVP form that he showed in 2023, when he posted an OPS near .900. Instead, he's regressed even further than he did in 2024. The Bronx Bombers will need him to turn his play to another level or else this trade is always going to look like a bad deal — that money is part of what prevented the team from addressing the hole at third base and supplementing the roster elsewhere.
Devin Williams isn't the only reliever the Yankees should have gone after
The Yankees opted to get aggressive in the trade market as they looked to build their bullpen up. The deal they opted to make was one for Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams, and this trade hasn't aged well already. Williams has struggled tremendously this season and the Bronx Bombers certainly haven't gotten the shutdown closer they thought they would.
But the decision to trade for Williams wasn't a bad one. In fact, the deal should start to look a bit better down the stretch of this season. The Yankees didn't send much in return for Williams, after all, and he'll likely revert to form with time.
The issue is the Yankees should have targeted more. Somebody like St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley would have made a bit more sense. The Yankees could een have signed somebody like Kyle Finnegan in free agency, or pursued Kirby Yates before he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Somebody like old friend David Robertson would still make sense, too.
Either way, the Yankees should have been a bit more aggressive at adding relief pitchers besides Williams.