February 26, 2026

97 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Goldschmidt returning to Yankees on 1-year deal (source)”

    2. Maybe it’s less.
      But who cares, with all the money they’re not spending on Tucker, Bichette & everyone else!

    2. C. it’s accurate and factually correct. Cashman would rather pay millions for a veteran to provide the same production as much cheaper journeymen or rookies and then cry poor.

    3. There sure were a lot of guys who produced nothing. One exception Matt Carpenter who he didn’t mention. The other Ibanez who had a 103 OPS and some big hits. But overall Cashman does not grade well.

    4. It was accurate in that he named every old player Cashman has signed over the past 15 years (except for Matt Carpenter. Huh, I wonder why he skipped over that guy?), but that’s about it.

    5. I wonder if Cashman understands that things have changed since he came up in the 1990s, in that veterans tend not to age nearly as gracefully nowadays, perhaps due to deterrence by the steroid testing regime.

    7. The Carpenter omission was just an extra bit of douchery. Beyond that, he just listed every older player the Yankees have signed as if that said anything. It did not. He didn’t bother to make any cohesive thesis, just “Here’s a bunch of older players the Yankees have signed, and the Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2009, so, well, there ya go,” as if it was an actual coherent piece of criticism.

    1. Clay Laweryson won a couple rings in the late ’90s, so you know Cashman is interested.

    1. If they’re going to use the savings to do something that’ll get Goldy a ring, then – yes!
      If they’re not, then make it $5, I like Goldy better than I like Hal anyway.

  7. The Red Sox just acquired Caleb Durbin from the Brewers for a three guys who aren’t very interesting. The Yankees are paying $16m this season and next for a guy who produced 2.3 WAR last season. Caleb Durbin had 2.8 WAR last season. The Yankees traded Durbin for a closer who lost the job in May and now pitches for the Mets.

    1. That didn’t work out. But don’t worry Cashman is studying the waiver wire diligently for someone who’s cheap and bad.

  8. I think it speaks to Durbin’s true value how little the Brewers valued him, as well.

    Kyle Harrison will probably be good for the Brewers. They’re really good at fixing pitchers.

    But yes, I won’t front, it WILL be annoying seeing Durbin on the Red Sox. Seigler is a former Yankee, too.

    The Red Sox have way too many former Yankees on their team now.

    1. To me, it’s just more of the difference between how the Yankees spend and how other organizations spend. The Dodgers, they just don’t give a fuck. The Yankees don’t seem to care about wasting money on roster spots, but – somewhat contradictory – draw the line at spending too much in total. Other less well-to-do organizations, who still win, see value in these kinds of players. Is Durbin ever going to be a long term guy? Probably not, he could likely be out of baseball in a few years but not before some org squeezes every dollar of value out of him.

    2. I don’t disagree, but at the time, getting, like, the first or second best closer of the past five years sure seemed like it was getting good value for Durbin, no? Williams had never had a bad season in his career…until he just fucking SUCKED for the Yankees.

      It was an awful experience 100%, but did anyone really think that Williams would SUCK here? I could see “Not as good in the bright lights,” but he instead actively SUCKED. His ERA was worse in the SECOND half than the first!

    3. This goes back to my long held position that closers – outside of a very select few – are a waste of resources due to their year over year volatility. I don’t think that their performance is predictable enough to justify the premium paid to them. And if the Yankees didn’t care about their total payroll, I wouldn’t care about what they spend on what players, but they do. I don’t even really care about Durbin specifically. It’s the annual tripping over dollars to pick up dimes that drives me crazy.

  9. Yankees trade for a utilityman, Max Schuemann, from Oakland.

    Sounds like a fine move, if you don’t know that in California, the utilities are notorious for setting everything on fire.

    2. I wouldn’t try to sue them without hiring Cody Laweryson. But I understand he’s got a conflict of interest, because while the Angels let him go, Laweryson now represents renowned San Francisco utilityman Arson Judge.

  10. Cash got Hamel and that shitty utility guy that they kept on the 40-man way longer than I thought they would through waivers. Glad to see Hamel get through. I’d love to see Blake get to work with him.

    I believe Vivas is out of options, so they pretty much HAVE to trade Vivas soon, right? I imagine Schuemann is a Vivas replacement, since Schuemann still has ALL of his options left, so he can be depth for the next three years if they want it.

    1. The pitching staff for now looks somewhere between mediocre and disastrous and going forward the pen. Who are these guys?
      Bido, Bird, Blackburn, Castro, Chivilli, De Los Santos, Doval,Headrick, Weathers, Winquest

    2. I think they still plan on adding to the bullpen with whoever gets desperate closer to the season. We’re starting to see the desperate signings now, like Verlander getting $13 million ($11 million deferred until 2030).

      Late in the season, they’ll have Schmidt, Warren, and Weathers (or Gil) in the pen, which should be nice.

      They just need some help early in the season. Also, I wouldn’t bet against Blackburn being an effective short man after an offseason with Blake. This might be Weaver 2.0.

  12. Bieber having “forearm fatigue” and starting the season on the IL makes him opting in make so much more sense. “I just love Toronto so much! It has nothing to do with the fact that I probably can’t pass a physical right now! Total coincidence. I just love Toronto so much!”

    Shades of Jack McDowell in the 1995 Wild Card Series.

  13. NY Post “ career, Isiah Kiner-Falefa revealed that the Blue Jays were hoping the Yankees beat out the Red Sox in last year’s American League Wild Card Series, believing New York to be an easier opponent. This comes on the heels of many critiques the Dodgers tossed against the Yankees after the 2024 World Series, but then again, IKF is a non-insignificant reason why the Blue Jays went down to those Dodgers some months ago.”

  14. PECOTA Yankees 88 wins, Jays 87.8, O’s 84.1, townies 82,2, Devil Rays 81.3.
    Yankees 33.3% to win div, 60.3% to make playoffs, 7.1% to win WS.

    They have Seattle at 93.6 wins to lead the AL, Dodger 104.1

    1. The problem with PECOTA and other projection systems is that it uses player stats and does not subtract anything for Boone.

    2. Agree re: PECOTA overestimating the Yankees on account of Boone. But very much in the spirit of CAIRO, which as we all remember just took the Marcels and changed the underlying assumptions in a bunch of ways that made the Yankees look better.

      7.1% championship probability also seems high by about an order of magnitude.

  15. Oh wow, they announced the YES announcers for the season, and it’s truly all heavy hitters, depending on your opinion of Ruocco. I think he’s the best backup play- by- play guy in the business.

    It looks like every game will have either Cone, Girardi, or O’Neill as an analyst, and every game will have play by play by Kay or Ruocco. Very nice!

    Willie Randolph will just be a studio guy. Phew. I like Willie, I think he’s a smart baseball guy, but he’s a lot.

    2. That’s very fair. But he’s worlds better than, like Shackil or the other non-descript guys. For a backup play-by-play guy, he’s really quite good.

    2. The Orioles improved, but they were bad last year, so does their improvement really matter that much?

      They paid a ton to get Shane Baz to be their #2 starter. That doesn’t seem to be advisable.

    3. Also, I think Cash has something to be said for the fact that their improvements came at the trade deadline. The team was excellent from August forward, after all, with a .642 winning percentage.

      Their awful playoffs mostly came down to their best pitcher pitching like shit in the ALDS, and then their second best pitcher pitching hurt like an idiot.

      That might be a problem in the playoffs again, but in the regular season, they should be quite good.

    4. Regular season is small potatoes. I’m a 20th century Yankee fan. Championship or bust.
      As Jay-Z said in ’96 – back when he and the Yankees were still hungry – “If y’all… ain’t talkin’ bout large money, what’s the point?”

      (And to clarify, the goal is not merely to spend large money, but to do whatever it takes to win as big as possible.)

    5. “but in the regular season, they should be quite good”
      …
      Is that what we’re rooting for now?
      Hard pass.

    6. But the postseason should be better, too, since they’ll have Cole first ahead of Fried. And Schlittler might have moved ahead of Rodón in the rotation by then.

      What if the postseason rotation is (hopefully skipping the first round) Cole, Fried, Schlittler, Rodon?

      This postseason could go much better.

    7. Also, you’d like to believe that Fried, who pitched brilliantly in the Wild Card series, won’t fucking SUCK again if they make it to the postseason this year.

  17. They may have improved at the waiver but it is still 3 years (?) in a row of fading when they presumably also tried to improve at the waiver wire.

    June 3 2025: 36-22
    June 7 2024: 45-19
    June 4 2023: 36-25 ( finished 82-80 )

    Couldn’t they have just backed up the truck for Imai and Tucker?

    1. I truly do NOT understand this June swoon thing. It’s fucking weird.

      But I imagine the hope is that this time, June will be bringing Cole back, ya know?

    2. Without looking it up, maybe it’s a Judge thing? The offense is painfully Judge-dependent.

    3. Judge career OPS:

      June – 1.008
      July – .997
      2nd half – 1.018

      Technically he slightly underperforms his career numbers in the summer but only by about 5%.

      Granted in 2023 he wasn’t around so maybe that one was on him.

  18. On a minimum deal, does Castellanos make any sense? He could backup third and left field, offer up a platoon bat. You’d have to take a bet that his 2025 was flukishly bad, as he was under 100 OPS+ against lefties in 2025. But he was 122 OPS+ against lefties in 2024.

    Career .853 OPS against lefties. An All-Star in 2023.

    Can backup outfield and third base, and pinch hit.

    I really have no idea.

    1. He would have made a lot of sense had they not just brought back Goldy.

      castellanos was dogshit (including against lhp) last year but for his career has mashed lefties and offers more flexibility than goldy.

      cashgrandpa needs to be put out to pasture with boone.

    2. Goldy has been much better against lefties than Castellanos in his career (a 1.0007 OPS against lefties versus Castellanos’ .853), and is a former Gold Glover at first while Castellanos is a butcher at every position he plays. I think Goldy makes more sense for the team, but I think they can both co-exist so long as Rice is the backup catcher.

    6. goldy has obviously had a better career but he wasn’t the same at the end of the season. not with hitting and his defense too was rather mid per the fangraphs sortable 10/18 of qualified).

      not a hill i need to die on over a guy that shouldn’t see many at bats, but this was a cheap option.

      chriss described their financial strategy recently and i completely agree with what he said.

  20. Nothing to worry about. He’s in excellent hands.

    “Cam Schlittler has ‘felt a tweak here and there’ and is dealing with inflammation in the middle of his back, Aaron Boone said. They are going to keep him off the mound for now, but he will continue throwing,” Hoch reports.

  22. with the glut of infielders we had, i wonder what our discussions were about putting jazz in left.

    that could have worked, he was pretty average in cf but maybe it would have solved some problems.

  23. Apparently the Yankees considered Castellanos for the role Goldy is now going to play, but after looking into him, a number of people told them to stay away from him. Okie doke, fair enough.

    They really could use a righty who could play left or center (since Belli can play center, it’s not a HUGE deal, of course, but it’d be nice).

  24. James Keefe, who is one of the more notable guys on social media ripping into the Yankees, wrote the following before the ALDS this past season.

    “Because I expect them to reach the World Series, that means I expect them to eliminate the Blue Jays in the ALDS, and I do. The Blue Jays aren’t better than the Yankees. It doesn’t matter that they finished with the same 94-68 record. It doesn’t matter that the Blue Jays won the season series 8-5. When the Yankees were swept in four games in Toronto from June 30-July 3, the combination of DJ LeMahieu and Oswald Peraza was the Yankees’ starting second baseman; Chisholm was playing third base; Geoff Hartlieb, JT Brubaker, Clayton Beeter and Ian Hamilton came out of the bullpen. The Yankees are a much different team today than they were midseason when they blew their big division lead. And so are the Blue Jays. Bo Bichette and Chris Bassitt are hurt and Jose Berrios’ season fell apart. While the Yankees’ bullpen is a collection of highly-talented, yet highly-untrustworthy arms, it looks like the late-’90s Yankees bullpen compared to the Blue Jays’. The Yankees are a better, deeper team than the Blue Jays, and in one of the rare occurrences, the Yankees have the managerial advantage. John Schneider makes Boone seem like Joe Torre or Bruce Bochy.”

    So, one shitty series where Fried fucking sucked out of nowhere, and Rodon pitched hurt (like a fucking moron), changes his view of the team THAT much? I don’t buy it.

    Now, if you thought the Yankees sucked before the ALDS, then whatever, fair enough, but if you wrote the above position before the ALDS, and now you think that that same exact team is now a piece of shit, it’s just absurd.

    3. That’s true. We need to take a page from our ancestors. The Native Americans knew how to use every part of the Schlittler.

  30. The top catching prospect in the 2027 international class, Sebastian Acuna, backed out of his verbal agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates to sign with the New York Yankees, according to Wilber Sanchez on X.

    “Sebastian is known for his rare blend of speed and power for a catcher,” Sanchez wrote on X. “He’s posted a 6.4 time in the 60-yard dash, a 1.78 pop time, and a 105 mph exit velocity.”

    https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/new-york-yankees/news/yankees-swipe-top-international-catching-prospect-pirates/14d9ef7c23d09a90f19ce543

  32. “Ben Rice is also nursing a minor injury. The young first baseman, per Joyce, “slept on his neck wrong the other night” and that’s why he has not been hitting the last few days. The hope is that he starts swinging again in a matter of days, possibly hours,” weeks, months, or until Haley’s comet returns.

    1. If this year is anything like last year, maybe he can have 0.00 era into the third week of May and a 13.51 era for the rest of the year.

    2. Obviously, I went on and on about it, but he was clearly the guy I thought should be judged after Blake had some time with him. They just never got a chance to really see that last year because he was SO terrible that they needed to get a more useful pitcher in there in the middle of a playoff race.

      Him getting worked on over the offseason and in Spring Training could be HUGE, especially since he is under team control for three more seasons (counting 2026 as one of the three seasons).

      The work they’re doing with Doval might be huge, as well, with Preston Claiborne practically living with him this offseason (not literally, but Claiborne went to the DR to work with Doval over the offseason, which is awesome).

    1. Best rankings for any Yankee other than Lombard who is higher rated elsewhere. Most places either Cruz or Lagrange sneak in at 90.

    4. “I really don’t get the Lombard hype.”

      I think it’s the size and the defensive tools. Plus, a .700 OPS in AA for a 19/20 year old isn’t awful. He was 1 of 4 in the eastern league that age or younger.

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