The New York Yankees began the offseason with a massive loss as they watched Juan Soto agree to a historic contract with the New York Mets. But the Bronx Bombers quickly bounced back and made some massive signings of their own: In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the team added Max Fried, Devin Williams, Cody Belinger and Paul Goldschmidt.
But now, as spring training slowly comes to a close, the Yankees could be watching their entire offseason of work go down the drain. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is set to undergo Tommy John surgery to fix an elbow injury that had been bothering him for the last few weeks. Cole will miss the entire 2025 season and could potentially miss a chunk of 2026, too.
And the Yankees are in no position to replace him, thanks to general manager Brian Cashman.
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Yankees not in the position to trade for top starting pitcher after Gerrit Cole injury
It seems as though the philosophy under Cashman has always been to buy the best players rather than building through the farm system. This has resulted in the Yankees having a bit of a depleted farm without the depth to comfortably trade from.
This hasn't seemed like an issue until now. Players like Dylan Cease, Luis Castillo, and Sandy Alcántara are all on the market, and the Yankees would be a much better team if they acquired any of these ace-level pitchers. But Cashman's mistakes with the farm system leaves them without the depth to trade from.
"Given the state of the Yankees’ farm system, it would be surprising if they were able to land a top-flight pitcher like Cease or Alcantara unless they were willing to deplete their prospect capital even further than they have in recent years," The Athletic's Chris Kirschner wrote recently.
That means the Yankees will likely head into the 2025 with Cole and Luis Gil on the sidelines and no major trade acquisition to replace them. The starting rotation is likely to be Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, and Will Warren.
Stroman struggled down the stretch of 2024 and Warren hasn't proved that he's ready for the big leagues yet. While the Yankees remain supremely talented, it doesn't seem like they'll be able to replace Cole, which could spell bad news for the 2025 season.