4 Yankees players who should be traded before Opening Day

The New York Yankees had a frustratingly familiar offseason; it's never a good sign when your GM has to field questions about why he's chosen to run back a team that got bounced in the ALDS last year. But while the book has just about closed on the MLB offseason, we've still got a full month to go until Spring Training. There's plenty of time for Cashman to continue working on this roster — and several obvious pieces to be moved via trade.

No matter how much confidence Cashman expresses in this team (not entirely without reason, mind you), the fact remains that it's a bit out of alignment in places. Here are four names in particular that don't seem to have a future on the Yankees moving forward.

OF Jasson Dominguez

I'm just not sure what other solution there is at this point. Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger are locked in as the Yankees' starting outfield barring injury, and Dominguez's complete inability to hit left-handed pitching (career .530 OPS in 134 plate appearances) means he doesn't really fit as a platoon partner. As does the fact that his defense also remains a huge question mark.

New York shouldn't give Dominguez away for a bag of balls. The power/speed combo is real, and he's shown flashes of substantial promise at the plate as a big leaguer. But he makes zero sense for this roster as currently constructed, and the fact that the Yankees intentionally constructed such a roster would seem to signal that they don't trust him very much as an everyday player right now. There's bound to be another team willing to give him a longer runway, and the alternative is either sending him back to Triple-A or letting him languish on the bench while taking up a valuable roster spot.

Fans would no doubt be frustrated by this outcome, considering the considerable hype that preceded Dominguez and how relatively rare it is to find players who can hit the ball as hard as he does while running as fast he does. But wishing the situation were different won't make it so; this is where the Yankees are now, and holding on to him simply as injury insurance doesn't make a ton of sense for a team as desperate to win right now as New York is.

RHP Luis Gil

Not too long ago, Gil seemed like the future of the Yankees rotation. But a shoulder injury sent his 2025 season sideways before it even began, and even when he returned he looked like a shell of his former self. Sure, a 3.32 ERA across 11 starts looks shiny on the surface, but don't be fooled: Gil's fastball velocity was significantly reduced from what it was in 2024, and his strikeout and whiff rates plummeted with it. That 3.32 ERA came with a 4.63 FIP, and the latter mark feels closer to where he is as a pitcher right now.

If New York was hoping he'd look better the further he got from the injury, it doesn't appear to be happening. His fastball was still around 94-95 in his first outing of the spring, and if that's Gil's new norm, it spells trouble for his future as a big-league starter. The Yankees need all the pitching depth they can get their hands on right now, with Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt starting the year on the IL. but a Gil trade would still leave the team with Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren, Ryan Weathers, Ryan Yarbrough, Paul Blackburn and a bevy of young arms as internal options. All of those inspire more confidence than running Gil out there again in his current form; better try to cut bait now while the memory of 2024 is still relatively fresh than let the righty torch his stock entirely.

C JC Escarra

This is less to do with Escarra as a player — his excellence as a pitch framer, high walk rates and abilit to pull the ball in the air make him a perfectly fine backup catcher — and more to do with roster fit. Austin Wells is the Yankees' undisputed starter behind the plate, and while he's improved his ability to handle lefty pitching over his time in the Majors, it would still make the most sense to pair him with a right-handed option as a platoon partner.

Escarra, unfortunately, hits left-handed, which is why he's found himself in sporadic trade rumors over the last 12 months or so. Again, the Yankees should be doing whatever they can to optimize their bench, and someone like Ryan Jeffers in Minnesota or Pedro Pages in St. Louis could make sense.

OF Spencer Jones

This one brings me no pleasure, especially after watching Jones absolutely atomize a baseball in his first Spring Training game over the weekend.

Of course, the ability to hit the ball a very, very long way has never been Jones' issue. Making contact in the first place has been, and while I've been preaching patience with him — a two-way player who didn't commit to hitting full time until 2022 and missed valuable development time due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Tommy John surgery, he's not as seasoned as you'd expect of a 24-year-old — it's fair to wonder whether his sky-high ceiling will ever be realized.

Or, more accurately, whether the Yankees themselves think it will be. Because while Jones put up eye-popping numbers in the Minors last season, New York responded by blocking him from any path to big-league playing time. He's almost certain to spend another year in Triple-A, and with Judge and Bellinger not going anywhere for the foreseeable future, it's tough to see where exactly his future lies.

At a certain point, New York needs to make a choice here. If they believe in him, great. But if his alarmingly poor in-zone contact rate is scaring them off, they need to move on sooner rather than later in order to get something of any value in return.