About the Off-Season: Final Piece of the Puzzle?

Today is January 30th. There are less than two weeks before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training for the Yankees on February 12th. Position players will arrive four days after that. Brian Cashman has become somewhat defensive in justifying his lack of moves during the off-season. He denies that the Yankees have simply brought back the same team that was beaten handily by the Blue Jays in the ALDS in 2025. I'm not sure how he can dispute that when the only real additions to the roster are Ryan Weathers and Cade Winquest. In fact, by losing Paul Goldschmidt, Devin Williams, and Luke Weaver from the ALDS roster as well as having Carlos Rodon and Anthony Volpe on the IL, it could very easily be argued that the current Yankees team is not as good as the one that lost to the Blue Jays in October.

Most teams have made the majority of their moves at this point. There might be a few moves left before Spring Training begins for all teams because there are a handful of unsigned free agents who could certainly help various teams. There are also players who are still likely to be traded. The Yankees just made a trade the other day. The Yankees acquired Angel Chivilli from the Rockies in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield., who spent last season in Scranton Wilkes Barre.

Yesterday, Brian Cashman described Chivilli as a “big arm”. Interestingly, he did not describe him as a “good arm”. Chivilli is 23 years old. He has pitched portions of two seasons with the Colorado Rockies.  Last year he pitched in 43 games. He had a record of 1-5. He pitched 58.2 innings. He gave up 76 hits. Of those, 13 were home runs. He struck out 43 batters in those 58.2 innings and walked 23 batters. His WHIP was an alarming 1.688.   Presumably, Cashman is referring to Chivilli as “a big arm” because he throws hard. Throwing well would be more desirable than throwing hard. The best option would be to throw both well and hard, but it seems that this is what the Yankees have been reduced to at this point. We are supposed to be excited by the acquisition of Chivilli.  I, for one, am not. About the best thing that can be said about him is that he still has options, so he could very easily be sent to Scranton. If that's the best thing that can be said about him, that's not very encouraging. 

Maybe Matt Blake and the other pitching coaches can unlock something with Chivilli. Of course, they will be trying to do the same thing with Ryan Weathers.  It would be really nice if the Yankees acquired players who did not need to be fixed or tweaked or rebuilt. It's as if the Yankees have become that old show that used to be on TV, This Old H Brian Cashman has become Bob Vila and Aaron Boone has become Norm the carpenter. These days, almost every player the Yankees acquire is a “fixer-upper “or a “handyman’s special”. There's nothing wrong with doing that once in a while but these are the Yankees, they shouldn't be doing it constantly and exclusively.

I read an article yesterday that suggested that the Yankees are likely to trade with the Tigers for Tarik Skubal. I highly doubt that will happen. In fact, I would be willing to bet almost anything that it will not happen. Honestly, I would not want it to happen.

Before you rise up against me, hear me out. Of course I would want Skubal on the Yankees; I would have to be a screwball not to. He would improve the team tremendously. However, he would cost a fortune in prospects. More importantly, the Yankees have not made any efforts to extend the contract of Jazz Chisholm, junior. He will most likely be a free agent at the end of the 2026 season and will go somewhere else. Chisholm is a fine player. He is not as good or as important to a team as Tarik Skubal. He will also command a salary that is much lower than that of Skubal’s. If the Yankees are unwilling to extend Chisholm, what makes you think they would extend Skubal, who will receive a contract that will be much more expensive than the one Chisholm will get and will probably be for more years. All that would happen would be the Yankees would send a boatload of prospects to Detroit for one year of Skubal. They did that with Juan Soto. They should not do it again.

Let's face facts. The last big move of this off-season for the Yankees and I use the term “big move” loosely will be the trade for Angel Chivilli. This is what the Yankees have become. We need to accept it and hope for the best.