The New York Yankees are on the prowl ahead of Thursday's MLB trade deadline, having already added multiple quality infielders in Ryan McMahon and Amed Rosario. Next up on the docket for GM Brian Cashman: improving the pitching staff, with bullpen help always a top priority.
A door just opened on that front for the Yankees. Their division rivals, the Toronto Blue Jays, completed a trade with their other division rivals, the Baltimore Orioles. Seranthony Domínguez will head north of the border as a result. While that may read as a missed opportunity for the Yanks at first glance, Toronto needed to make a subsequent move in order to clear space. Veteran reliever Chad Green was DFA'd as a result.
Toronto can attempt to trade Green before the deadline, but odds are he will either be waived or released. That would allow Green to sign on with a team of his choice. Why not New York, where he spent the first seven years of his career? Green put up a 3.17 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over that span, notching 494 strikeouts in 383.2 innings. He was a proper bullpen ace for the Yankees.
Well, the reason "why" is because the Yankees need to aim higher. Green, 34, is not the player he once was.
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Yankees need to avoid underwhelming Chad Green reunion at trade deadline
Green can still touch the upper 90s with his fastball, but he's just not missing bats this season. Green's strikeout rate regularly sat about 30 percent during his Yankees tenure. This season, it's all the way down to 18.6 percent. He's in the bottom percentile for barrel rate, which measures the quality of hits allowed, as well as hard-hit rate and average exit velocity. Dudes are teeing off against Green in 2025.
He has a 4.85 ERA and 1.41 WHIP with 34 strikeouts in 44.2 innings. Those just aren't the numbers of a player the Yankees can trust in the playoffs. Not even the regular season. Maybe there's a path back to peak form for Green, but when pitchers reach a certain point in their career, regression is inevitable. It hits some harder than others.
Yankees should focus on higher-upside trade targets
The benefit of being the Yankees in that money is never in short supply, no matter how often ownership bemoans their tax bill. New York has the resources, both in terms of finances and prospect capital, to go out and add a far more dependable reliever (or two) in the next couple of days.
It's not hard to find available star-power on the bullpen front. Names like Jhoan Durán, Chase Smith and Griffin Jax come to mind, and that's just scratching the surface. Many of those players are a half-decade younger than Green and feature multiple years of club control over their contracts.
New York needs to get a bonafide closer or setup option to work into the mix with Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and Tim Hill. I'm not sure Green even belongs on an MLB roster right now.