Rumor: Yankees Have a Trade Offer Out to the Diamondbacks

BY EJ Fagan

July 21, 2025

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Rumor season is getting hot. We have two Yankees-related rumors to talk about.

First, Ricky Ricardo, the Yankees’ Spanish-language radio play-by-play presenter, have a trade offer out to the Diamondbacks:

“There's a proposal on the table...5 Yankees prospects, not Lombard, not Jones. 5 prospects including Schlittler to the Diamondbacks for Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez, and Jalen Beeks.”

First off, wow. You don’t normally see three major league players included in one deadline trade. Let’s walk through the trae quickly.

You know Suarez by now. He’s on pace for 57 home runs. His defense isn’t looking great in 2025, but has been better in recent history.

Suarez would be a massive upgrade over the Peraza/Vivas disaster, even if “57 home run pace” overrates him a bit. The dude has been on fire since the second half of 2024, but is looking like more of a 4-5 win player due to poor defense and average-ish on base skills. He has no real platoon splits either. Just a great rental.

Merril Kelly, on the other hand, is the picture of a back-of-the rotation innings eater.

He’s an upgrade over Will Warren, but you probably don’t want Kelly starting a playoff game for you. I had similar thoughts about Mitch Keller on this week’s podcast, but Kelly is a pure rental.

Jalen Beeks is a Mark Leiter-level relief pitcher, but is a lefty.

This trade would definitely be an “all in” move. Cam Schlittler looks like he’ll be a major league pitcher for a long time, possibly a really good one. We don’t know who the other four players are, but I’d guess that the other players wouldn’t hurt too much.

Schlittler is a lot to give up, to the point where I question whether the Yankees pitchers are better off with him or Kelly in 2025, but it’s a seller’s market. Suarez might be the best player traded this month and the Yankees are desperate for someone, anyone, to play third base. If I were Cashman, I’d be willing to overpay for Suarez.

Next, Jim Bowden makes some predictions.

“The Yankees are prioritizing starting and relief pitching along with potentially an upgrade at third base. They are expected to use prospects to land the pitching help and outfield depth for a contender-to-contender type of trade to upgrade third base. They’d like to acquire an impact starter if possible, but if not, a back-of-the-rotation arm along with a high-leverage reliever would suffice.In terms of third base, they’ve been linked to Eugenio Suárez of the Diamondbacks, but there is concern about his defense. Other possible third-base trade targets include Royals All-Star Maikel Garcia — in theory, Kansas City would have interest in one of the Yankees’ outfielders to play left field for them. Maybe there’s even a deal to be had with the crosstown Mets, who could offer Mark Vientos for Jasson Domínguez or Cody Bellinger or perhaps Brett Baty for Trent Grisham. There just aren’t a lot of sellers at this trade deadline, so GMs will have to get creative; GM Brian Cashman has a long track record of doing that.”

It’s unclear how much of the first paragraph is reporting by Bowden and how much is informed speculation. The second paragraph is all (not that convincing) speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.

First off, he says that the Yankees are expected to trade prospects for pitching and outfield depth. Second, he says that they are expected to make some kind of contender-contender deal for a third baseman.

Outfield depth, you say? Why would the Yankees need outfield depth, given that they can’t find playing time for Ben Rice and Jasson Dominguez as-is? The answer seems pretty clear to me: they trade Trent Grisham, then need to find a true 4th outfielder to fill in.

I’m not sure which team is going to give up a high leverage reliever for Grisham, but it sure sounds like a potential win-win deal. Maybe they send him to the Cardinals for Ryan Helsley? The Yankees are wasting Rice and Dominguez on the bench. Maybe they can get a right-handed platoon partner for Dominguez as well.

The other name he mentions is Maikel Garcia. He’s having a great season for the Royals.

Nothing to hate there, other than that he was awful before 2025 and has slumped in July. Lots of contact but also some real power. Great defense. He’s 25 with three seasons of team control left. He would solve a lot of problems for the Yankees even if he regresses halfway back to his 2023-2024 levels.

While he’s not a rental, I don’t think that Garcia is the kind of guy that you give up a Jasson Dominguez or Ben Rice for. But a Jazz Chisholm-level deal? Maybe. I’d do something like Roc Riggo and Rafael Flores for Garcia.