3 Yankees who won't be back after backing up Brinks truck for Max Fried

Losing Juan Soto to the crosstown Mets left Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees in desperate need of a big splash of their own, and they found just that on the second day of the Winter Meetings. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, New York is in agreement with former Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried on an eight-year, $218 million deal, the largest guaranteed ever handed out to a left-handed pitcher.

Rather than take some of Soto's money and throw it at the second tier of position players on the market, like Alex Bregman or Pete Alonso, Cashman instead decided that Fried was the safer bet. And the Yankees certainly had a need, with Gerrit Cole not getting any younger, Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes boasting lengthy injury histories and Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt still not fully proven at the Major League level. Fried gives Cole a proper running mate, a true No. 2 to take the ball in a postseason series.

He also raises some interesting questions about where Cashman will go from here. While New York needed some more sure things on its starting staff, there's now a bit of a logjam that needs to be cleared, and holes still to fill in both the infield and the outfield. Here are three Yankees who definitely won't be back in pinstripes next season now that Fried's on board.

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3. OF Spencer Jones

You could swap Jones out for any number of the Yankees' top prospects, but we'll go with Jones, who has tantalizing upside but also a scary floor given his swing-and-miss issues in the Minors. After signing Fried, New York should turn its attention to finding both an infielder to replace Gleyber Torres and a center fielder to allow Aaron Judge to slide over to right on a full-time basis. The free-agent market for both is pretty thin, meaning that Cashman will need to dip into his farm system do check at least one of those boxes.

And while Jones is a valuable piece, he comes with enough risk that the team shouldn't be too scared to part with him if the right deal comes along. Whether it's Cody Bellinger or Nico Hoerner from the Chicago Cubs, Nolan Arenado from the St. Louis Cardinals or, heck, even Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox, Jones could come in handy given Cashman's lengthy to-do list this offseason.

2. LHP Nestor Cortes

You can never have too much starting pitching depth, but ... something has to give here, right? The Yankees currently have Cole, Fried, Rodon, Gil, Cortes and Schmidt at the Major League level, plus other young pitchers waiting in the wings. Someone has to go, and the best guess here is Cortes, last seen giving up that iconic walk-off grand slam to Freddie Freeman in Game 1 of the World Series.

To be fair to Cortes, he was actually solid when healthy for New York last year, although a late elbow injury scuttled things. The 30-year-old pitched to a 109 ERA+ overall, with 162 strikeouts in 174.1 innings, and he profiles as a perfectly acceptable fourth starter somewhere. That's unlikely to be New York given the team's other commitments, but he could be dealt as part of a package to acquire an infield or outfield piece moving forward.

1. RHP Marcus Stroman

Of course, that list above didn't even touch on Stroman, who's technically still under contract but is as good as gone after not being used once during New York's postseason run. At this point, the Yankees can't expect to get too much of value in return for the veteran righty based on his $17.5 million salary for 2025 and his struggles this past season. But he has been around the block, and maybe some team will be willing to eat some or even most of that money betting on his ability to bounce back with better health.

Either way, he almost certainly won't be back in the Bronx next season. That was true before Tuesday, and it's even more true now that Fried's on board. Whether he can help New York get better for 2025 is another question.