What Would You Give Up For Mason Miller?
- E.J. Fagan
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
By EJ Fagan
July 2026
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The following post comes from EJ Fagan's Substack, Baseball Is Life. It is shared with permission.
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The Yankees “love the idea of adding Mason Miller” according to Jon Heyman. It’s your call about how much you buy into that as a rumor. Let’s discuss it anyway.
Miller is pretty darn amazing:
That’s a lot of 100th percentiles! Miller is undoubtedly the best relief pitcher in the world. He’s under team control for three and a half years. He’s eventually going to get expensive in arbitration, but for now he costs nothing. Of course the Yankees would love to add him.
But at what cost? The Padres acquired Miller last year for Leo De Vries, the #12 prospect on Baseball America’s list, Henry Baez, a legitimate mid-minors pitching prospect and two lottery tickets. I can’t imagine that he would be much cheaper in a trade this year.
The Yankees only real equivalent to De Vries is George Lombard Jr. Would they really trade Lombard for a relief pitcher? I’m skeptical. Very skeptical. The Yankees are apparently already talking about promoting Lombard in a few weeks.
The Yankees need some stability in the infield way more than they need a closer. David Bednar has been right up there with Miller over the last few months. Even with his early season struggles, his overall profile on the season has been elite:
Would it be nice to push Bednar down a bit in the bullpen pecking order? Of course. But not before fixing the Yankees bigger problems first, nor is he worth sacrificing their only real hitting prospect.
So what’s going on with this rumor? I guess I could see a trade package centered around the Yankees second tier group of Elmer Rodriguez, Carlos Lagrange, Ben Hess, Henry Lalane, Dax Kilby, Spencer Jones, Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, etc. But the Padres surely could get more than that for Miller. Every team in baseball would love to make him their closer.
Maybe there’s a world where the Yankees get a cheaper price on Miller in return taking on one of the many terrible contracts on the Padres books. I can’t imagine that the Yankees would want anything to do with the worst contracts in baseball given to Manny Machado or Xander Boegarts. Fernando Tatis Jr. is interesting given how backloaded the contract is, but I have trouble seeing the Padres trading him. Maybe the Padres want to dump Nick Pivetta’s contract?
My bottom line here: Mason Miller makes no sense to me unless the Padres really want a bank shot. But on the other hand, Ryan Jeffers has returned from the injured list.
I'd simply try to get Ethan Salas into the deal. But it would take a lot, like almost emptying out almost every single of your Top 20, most being pitchers. Plus they'd want Warren too. So they have a choice, Warren or ERCm but not both. Then Hess. Then Dominguez. Then Tyler Hardman & Coby Morales. Then Jack Cebert & Thatcher Hurd. Plus Carlos Lagrange. They want more? They can have Allen Facundo too.
not sure SDP cares that much about Lombard when they already have DeVries?? they DO NEED some offense this year.
My Offer
Jazz
LeGrange- WHY hope that a kid in AAA can come up and help our pen when we can trade him for the best reliever in the world (who BTW I was screaming for last year at this time when the As actually wanted Jones as the main or co main part of the deal)
Hess
Hardman
I am also more than willing to give up K Kent if that matters. they could have multiple Reyzleman / Cohen / Cade Smith / Avina / etc..
at the end of the day unless we are also planning to trade…
Imagine a one two punch of Miller and Bednar. I can only dream.
the Yankees would be better off with De Vries.
but to acquire Miller, they should be willing to give up Rodriguez and take on Machado and most of his contract