February 4, 2026

150 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Yankees acquiring left-hander Weathers in trade with Marlins (source)”

  1. The thing that confuses me about this is that it sure feels that Blackburn is in line to be a short man now, right?

    That’s the path they took with Weaver, so maybe they’re going to do the same with Blackburn? He DID show me a little bit of something late last season.

    As Yarbrough now has to be the long man, I imagine. You don’t want Yarbrough working in short man positions, I don’t think.

  2. Enough of these role players’ nepo babies. Get a HOFer’s nepo baby instead. If Mariano Jr. won’t come out of retirement, then sign Jeter’s son, who is now 2 years old and more capable of introspection than Volpe.

    1. Okay, reporting suggests that their “long term offer” is waaaaaaay on the low side, to the point where there’s no way that he’ll take it, so that makes me feel a little bit better. It doesn’t mean much if Toronto “makes a long term offer” if they’re just lowballing the guy.

  5. This offseason is making me vomit. $22m for a blah CF coming off a career year. After agreeing late last season to pay $16m for a 3b who can’t hit. And no money for real stars?

    This front office team needs a total overhaul.

    1. I’m receptive to the McMahon complaints (the money was why I didn’t want him, either), but the Grisham complaint is silly. If they DIDN’T re-sign him, they’d be DESPERATE for Bellinger and then they’d STILL need to add. There isn’t a better free agent center fielder out there than Grisham, and $22 million for one year is a GOOD deal for the Yankees, which is why they made the offer hoping he would take it.

    2. I guess I disagree that $22m for a one year deal for a guy who has never hit until last year and at the same time lost his great fielding skills was a good move. Time will tell. Harrison Bader is out there and may have been a better move but maybe not. Maybe I’ll tag this and we can discuss at the end of 2026!

    4. Brian, have to agree with them. If Grisham fields like two years ago and hits like last year, then it’s a great deal.
      If hits like his whole career UNTIL last year, which seems likely, and his defense is now pretty bad, as we’ve been reading consistently, then “Bellinger and then they’d STILL need to add” is exactly what they should do (actually, Tucker and add,, but beat dead horse), is there any disputing that?
      And the latter is the case you have to presume.

    5. Grisham’s entire hitting approach changed. None of his underlying batting data suggests fluke. Signing Grisham long term would have been a terrible idea, but getting him for one year was a GOOD move. He was the best free agent center fielder on the market. He’ll be 29 in 2026.

      His defense was annoying, agreed. But you have to like the chances of your 29-year-old two-time Gold Glover fixing his issues. It’s not like the guy is in his 30s.

      It is a good signing, and they only had to commit a single season. They gave him the QO hoping he would take it.

  6. source confirms: Free-agent LHP Ranger Suárez in agreement with Red Sox on five-year, $130M contract. First: @JonHeyman, @BNightengale
    Career era+ 125, 2025 137.
    FIP 3.54 career, 3.21 2025

  9. Should have arrived sooner at the realization that paying attention to the regular season ignores where baseball now is.
    Unless you win 120 games, no one will remember how anyone did in the regular season. And when anyone remembers that Mariners team, it’s the Yankee fans who smile. Screw the regular season, they’ll be good enough for that anyway. Screw 20 years of not missing the playoffs. Who wouldn’t give 5 off those seasons for a championship?
    …
    With this many playoff spots, we should now be judging teams SOLELY (or almost solely) by their playoff performance.
    Want to judge a good team over the last 10 years? Look SOLELY at postseason performance, because that’s what they should be building for.

    2. Yes?
      Tell me: how many good regular seasons would you give up for one championship?

    3. Not to mention the fact that a team built to kick ass in the playoffs will surely – even if LESS ideally constructed for the regular season grind – be good enough you’ll expect them to MAKE the playoffs ANYWAY, and that’s the point. BUILDING for the regular season makes no sense when this many teams come out of it anyway.

    4. I don’t agree that they AREN’T built for the playoffs. They got Fried and Rodon FOR the playoffs, and then they both sucked. Shit happens (Rodon was hurt, but still).

    5. That’s true, but I think the consensus here is that it’s more the offense – there are teams that hit good pitchers surprisingly well, and the Yankees used to be one of those teams.
      They are very much not that now.

  11. Yankee acquisitions,resigning Kervin Castro, Kaleb Ort, Jayien Sandridge, Ryan Weathers, Cade Winquest, Amed Rosario, Trent Grisham

    The bargain table at K Mart

    1. Not that I’m against those moves, but had they made NONE of them I wouldn’t care much one way or the other.

  12. I obviously don’t love the Red Sox getting Suarez, but it’s also hard for me to give that much of a shit about Ranger Suarez. The Phillies didn’t even CONSIDER trying to re-sign the guy.

    NONE of us were at ALL, like, “Shit, I hope the Yankees get Ranger Suarez,” but now that the Red Sox sign him, suddenly we give a shit about the guy? Come on.

    1. True dat. But if the blue jays, orioles and Red Sox are improving while the Yankees aren’t, there’s a problem. And so far that’s where we are at.

      Even if they sign Belli….where’s the improvement? Addition by subtraction since DevW is and his negative WAR is gone? Thats not good enough.

    2. I had been thinking about him all winter, but not a make or break move. It would have been better if he had signed outside of the East, but I’m not heartbroken.

    3. i don’t care about suarez. i care that they aren’t in on tucker when they would have given soto 700M.

      just pay this guy, he’ll hit ranger just fine

    4. True dat. But if the blue jays, orioles and Red Sox are improving while the Yankees aren’t, there’s a problem. And so far that’s where we are at.

      That’s definitely a concern, no doubt about it.

      But it’s only a concern if the Yankees DON’T do more. I believe they WILL do more, and that they’re waiting to see how Belli shakes out before doing more. It’s similar to the season they re-signed LeMahieu, and then made a bunch of other moves once LeMahieu was re-signed.

    5. i don’t care about suarez. i care that they aren’t in on tucker when they would have given soto 700M.

      And you know I’m with you there. They were willing to trade for him last offseason, and now want nothing to do with him? I do not like it.

      HOWEVER, I will give them this much. The Cubs traded a LOT to get Tucker, and then also just spent over $30 million a year on a hitter…and it wasn’t on Tucker. That IS the sort of thing that makes you go, “Hmmm” a bit, no?

    6. the cubs have young talent in place and i think they’re happy with their assemblage more than adding an expensive star / not star

      he would make the lineup in the bronx so good tho

      hard to be a small market fan these days

    7. But they just DID spend a lot of money on a veteran star hitter in Bregman, even though they had a third baseman already.

      So doesn’t that suggest that they just weren’t interested in Tucker? Which is unusual, right?

    8. It is odd. Although surely they’ll be spending a lot less money on Bregman than Tucker will cost, right?

    9. Definitely, and if we heard that they were in on Tucker, and then it got too expensive, and they pivoted to Bregman, that’d make sense, but they were never in on Tucker at ALL, and that’s super unusual for a team that ended up paying a 32-year-old hitter over $30 million a year to play a position they already had a young and promising guy at.

      And you have to wonder if there isn’t some whisper campaign going on about the guy. One baseball analyst recently said that teams were worried that he’d go Rendon on them (you know, check out once he had the money).

      That could obviously just be fucked up slander of the guy, but it’s definitely weird, right, that the Cubs weren’t in on him at ALL despite spending a pretty penny to acquire him?

  13. With Willson Contreras also getting in on the whole “fuck the Yankees!” bit now that he is a Red Sox player, I just thought I’d revisit how fucking stupid it was for Sonny Gray to say, “Everything I wrote and publicly said about wanting to be a Yankee was a lie! I hate them!” and then Cashman says, “I was told he wanted to play for us, and then he told me he hated it here once we got him,” and that’s followed up with, “HOW DARE CASHMAN SAY THAT?” from Gray’s agent.

    1. I wonder if he becomes a salary dump trade candidate to make room for Jones and/or Dominguez

      or just eat the salary and open up a spot

    4. His last five years is an .803 OPS.

      If generic DH X had an .803 OPS over the last five years, and a .944 OPS in his most recent season, I’m feeling fine about him in the next season.

  18. brian, is it possible in the admin to make the token last longer than a few minutes?

    i think this logs me out faster than my bank, although it’s true that my organizational notes here are far more valuable than what’s in my checking.

  20. It’s a four-year, $240MM contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Tucker can opt out after the 2027 season. There’s also an opt out after 2028, according to Passan.

  22. In all seriousness, it really does make you think about Tucker’s drive, as I was watching Bob Nightengale talk about him yesterday about how Tucker wants to be on a team where no one pays attention to him and he can just blend in behind the other stars. How fucking pathetic of an approach for a player is THAT?

    1. Yeah, I’m not worried about Toronto, but I can’t say I’m not a bit worried that the Mets will now throw a ton of money at Belli.

      If that’s the case, just pivot to Bichette, Cash! Get Hays to platoon in left field.

    2. I don’t mind Belli going to the Mets, I think he falls off a cliff by 2027,and htey’ll probably way overpay; better them than the Yankees. Sign Bichette.

    1. Baseball is broken. No Salary caps and no floors are going to make too many games unwatchable

  29. I love that the deferred money only brings the value of the contract down to $57 million, so $6 million MORE than Juan Soto, and $11 million more than Shohei Ohtani, and SEVENTEEN million more than Judge.

    Boy, the Yankees sure got a good deal on Judge.

    1. I think EVERY team’s chance at realistically winning a World Series took a big hit today. 🙂

      But as for the Yankees, I think they still have plenty of pivot room. The Mets aren’t in on Bichette, so if Belli gets too expensive, then Bichette is right there to pivot to.

  32. Heyman on the Yankees being willing to give Belli TWO opt outs in the deal as if that is something that fucking matters at all when you’re paying a dude in his 30s this much money for a five-year deal.

    But hey, if it’s what Belli needs to feel good about his deal, then I’m all for it.

    Obviously, the Mets are the key. If they start throwing around funny money short term, you gotta just let Belli walk, and then pivot.

  33. The Mets and free agent infielder Bo Bichette are in agreement on a three-year contract, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic. He’ll be guaranteed a hefty $126MM on that short-term pact, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Bichette can opt out after the first and second season of the contract,

  39. I’d like to congratulate my new favorite team on landing Kyle Tucker. They overcame adversity to nab a player that will fill a huge void in their lineup. This might just give them the boost they need to win the division this year.

    Side note: I vaguely remember one of the Yankee signings in the late 90s / early 2000s and thinking “I feel bad that other teams can’t just do this”. Now I just feel bad. Can a new owner buy the team please?

  40. So a 3-year and a 4-year deal for players younger than Belli. The Yankees have no need to go more than 4 years for Belli, who I fear will fall off a cliff by 2027.

    2. Short term but BIG MONEY, so five years at medium money I think is a fair enough tradeoff when Cashman obviously has some sort of cap he is working with.

  41. Madden says the Yankees are holding fast at their last offer to Belli in terms of years and AAV, and with the Mets presumably off the board, I think they’re probably right that they have the best offer out there. They’ll just add in the opt-outs to give him a “win.”

  42. I suppose Toronto could try to snake him from the Yankees, but come on, how are they beating that offer by enough that it would make sense for him to leave the team he actively likes playing for, where he gets to bat behind Aaron fucking Judge?

    2. We knew the Mets WERE going to throw a ton of money at Soto, though.

      You’ll note that no one is even saying what Toronto offered Tucker, and I find it extremely hard to believe it is because it was such a big offer that it would embarrass them. 😉

    4. Brian, of course it’s different, it just sounds so familiar! But different, and Bellinger seems the very opposite of Soto psychologically.
      And I don’t trust the management.
      But I imagine it’ll get done, and when the smoke has cleared they’ll have fought their way to being just not quite as good as last year, as most of their serious competition improves.
      Inspiring!
      (Okay, not entirely fair, if Cole is consistently healthy and the other pitchers, too, then the starting staff could be significantly better, I know.)

    5. “Does he actively like playing here?”

      I mean, could he be hiding it REALLY well? Sure, but he’s been pretty vocal about how happy he was this past season. On par with Rizzo, I’d say.

    1. You can build for the playoffs. You can build for winning short series against better pitching.

    2. I absolutely agree that the Yankees have to get back to being the best team in the AL again. They were in 2024, they were ALMOST there in 2025. They CAN be there in 2026.

  45. The Blue Jays just lost Bichette (and added Cease and Okamoto), and the Red Sox lost Bregman (and replaced a very good Giolito with Suarez and Gray, and added Contreras), how are they even all that improved?

    If the Blue Jays and Red Sox KEEP adding, then fair enough, but I think the Yankees are the odds on favorites in the American League if they JUST sign Bellinger. A big move like adding Peralta will only make them that much better.

    2. He would have led all Yankee pitchers in bWAR last season.

      Of all Yankee pitchers of the past decade, only Cole in 2023 and 2021 had more bWAR in a season than him (Cole prorated more than him in 2020, as well).

    3. Pennants are small potatoes. Nobody cares that the 2024 Yankees made the World Series. Nobody except Aaron Boone cares about 2003 or 1981. (2001 is of course an exception.)

      The goal should be to build a team that doesn’t fall flat against the Dodgers’ pitching. As a start, it will take a real leadoff hitter. I’d suggest a trade for Kwan. Would also sign Bellinger, counting on some combination of injuries to Stanton (with Judge shifting to DH), Grisham, etc, to make room for him to play in the OF every day along with Kwan and Dominguez/(hopefully Hays), and 1B on other days (with Rice at C).
      Would rest Volpe twice a week, and have him work on hitting like Kwan rather than like Judge.

    4. Brian…huh, didn’t expect. Of course, there was no Cole last year, and Schlittler only very late.
      Veggie I like that plan a lot.

    5. Not counting Cole, you’d have to go back to CC in 2011 for the last Yankee pitcher to have more bWAR in a season than Peralta did last season (Sevy in 2017 and Tanaka in 2016 both came close. Boy, they fucking wasted Tanaka in 2016).

  46. Also, if the Yankees just gave 5 years/$130 million to a 30-year-old pitcher who never hit 160 innings in his career and has seen his fastball lose velocity every year for the past three years (to the point where it’s barely over 90 MPH now), I don’t think we’d be crowing about it.

  47. Truly, these contracts have gotten out of control. I liked Bichette, but 3/126 and opt-outs with a career OPS+ 121?!? Thinking he could get more than an AAV of 42?

    1. I don’t think that’s what his thinking is. He just got 7/$200 million from the Phillies, right? And that’s with a terrible 2024. So he thinks he banks $47 million (the Mets pay him $5 million if he opts out), and then goes back out there with back-to-back great seasons, and gets probably 6/$200, ya know?

      It was a great call by him, but a great call by the Mets, too, since they know they’ll only have to commit to him for one year.

  48. I think everyone, on both sides is worried about the next CBA. Teams don’t want to get stuck with a huge contract and players don’t want to miss out on big money, so everyone is willing to do big AAV short term.

    IMO, we’re almost certainly going to see a work stoppage, and probably longer than the last one.

    1. The smarter players have realized that they need to cash in now, because Manfred and the owners plan to replace the players with a LLM-based AI that illegally scrapes and colludes with betting sites.

      Frankly, I think Strat-O-Matic would be a better approach, but the RNG makes it too difficult for them to fix.

      Of course, either a pure RNG or a LLM could build a better roster than Cashman and manage better than Boone.

  49. Sarah Langs

    ‪@slangsonsports.bsky.social‬
    The Mets could start Bo Bichette (0 MLB games at 3B) & Jorge Polanco (1g at 1B) at 3B/1B on Opening Day

    Only team in last 100 years to start 2 non-rookie INFs on Opening Day w/1 or 0 prior MLB games at that position:

    1948 Dodgers: Jackie Robinson 2B, Billy Cox

  52. I’m feeling more sanguine about just letting Belli walk if he gets some 6 years/$210 million offer from the Blue Jays, or 3 years/$120 million offer from the Mets.

    In all seriousness, the offense is NOT BAD right now. You can improve it a lot just by adding platoon bats due to the current Yankees who struggle so much against lefties. You add Austin Hays, and the Yankees’ left field platoon would have a BETTER than Belli’s OPS+ last season, with Dominguez obviously also being young enough for an upturn to be possible. Add Bader to platoon in center with Grisham.

    Against lefties, you’d be:

    Bader CF
    Judge RF
    Stanton DH
    Rice 1B
    Hays LF
    Rosario 3B
    Jazz 2B
    Wells C
    Caballero SS

    Against righties, you’d be:

    Grisham CF
    Judge RF
    Rice 1B
    Stanton DH
    Jazz 2B
    Dominguez LF
    Wells C
    McMahon 3B
    Caballero SS

    Those aren’t bad lineups.

    Then spend the money on, like, Framber.

    Fried
    Framber
    Schlittler
    Gil
    Weathers

    Warren out of the pen.

    2. Platoons are great against starting pitchers, but in the higher leverage innings they suck.
      You get to switch from your A left to your A righty once, and then when they switch again your screwed.
      MUCH better to have a guy who consistently hits against both, even if a bit worse than the platoon each hitting on the better side.

    3. Sure, you’d also like to have an All Star at every position, but platooning is a pretty darn good alternative. The Blue Jays and Tigers both do it a lot, and they were two of the best team in the AL last year.

    4. Also, even if the numbers are there, will a platoon player really make them pitch to Judge – ever?

    5. That’s why Rice and Stanton are so important, since they’ll be in there against pitchers from both the left and right sides. Rice’s batted ball numbers last year were elite. He just needs to turn those expected results into actual results this season.

      But yes, don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer Belli bat behind Judge. But I don’t think it makes sense to throw $40 million at the dude to do so.

    6. How do we calculate those numbers, though? They’re vs. our expectations of market, right?
      Is it possible that the market prices are just higher than you think, and we haven’t adjusted yet?

    7. im with that, not because i love those lineups but because belli for 6 is revolting.

      he’s way inconsistent and his splits home and away mar me feel like last year is simply the best possible version

      framber is a head case. pillow deal? sure. otherwise, bad fit.

  53. Say what you want about Derek Jeter, about his fielding, say he was overrated if you like.
    But his career highlights reel is absolutely f*ing insane.
    When the career is over and done with, I think I could live with that highlight reel.

    1. Indeed, as legend has it, he was enjoying his own highlight reel even before he retired.

      Yeah, Jeets.

    2. Agree.
      Personally I think fielding might be a bit overrated or perhaps I’m underrating how great the yanks offense was because their defense was terrible in some years yet they kept winning 90-100 games. And Jeter has 5 rings.

      The mid-00s had Jeter as SS, and an OF of Sheffield , the corpse of Bernie later in his career, Matsui, posada behind the plate, and yet they kept winning games (though not championships).

      How many championships did Ozzie (best fielder I ever saw) win?

  54. Brian Cashman never sleeps. The Yankees and first baseman/outfielder Seth Brown have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Aram Leighton of Just Baseball.

    1. Who needs Belli when we have Seth and the Mexican MVP! And Volpe who this year will finally prove our arrogant GM right because he’ll lift his OPS to 70 for sure!

    1. We were worried about nothing happening in 2022 and then Cash pulled off a coup that saved the season-Rortvedt, IKF, AND Josh Effing Donaldson.

  57. Katie Woo After signing Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers remain engaged on Freddy Peralta. Given their rotation injuries last season, securing another durable starter is certainly worth exploring.

    2. Well, sure, but why not take the money AND pick up a World Series’ ring? What’s the downside?

  58. I recently read a stat – was it here? If so I apologize – that the cost of Tucker including the luxury tax penalty – is more than the payroll of 11 other teams. This is just stupid.

  60. Congratulations to this year’s HOF class, which consists of a lying cheater, a domestic abuser, and a clubhouse cancer from the SF Giants.

    So basically, Barry Bonds. Just put him in already.

    1. To clarify, the total career WAR of the lying cheater (Beltran), domestic abuser (Jones), and SFG clubhouse cancer (Kent) does exceed that of Bonds (who was all three of those things), but only exceeds it by about 15%,

  62. Time to lower Cody’s offer. Chicago is not sending any cash in the deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Mets are picking up Robert’s $20MM salary and at least a $2MM buyout on next year’s $20MM club option. Rookie infielder Luisangel Acuña and minor league right-hander Truman Pauley are headed back to Chicago, Passan adds.

  63. If he’s still sitting there come Opening Day and could be had for, like, $2 million, would bringing Goldy back to platoon with Rice at first make any sense? With Rice catching on days he didn’t play first base.

    Goldy still killed lefties last year.

    The bench could be:

    Goldy
    Dominguez (if they sign Belli)/Hays (if they don’t sign Belli)
    Waldo
    Rosario

    Prooooooooooooooooooobably a bad idea, and you’d be better off with a backup catcher and just playing Rice every day at first to see if he can hit lefties, but boy, it’s interesting.

  64. Our long National nightmare is over.
    The Yankees and Cody Bellinger are going to reunite on a new deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Boras Corporation client gets a five-year deal worth $162.5MM, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. There are no deferrals, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. Bellinger can opt out after the second and third season, per Passan, who adds that there’s a $20MM signing bonus and full no-trade clause.

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