From Manny Randhawa
:
The Reds have acquired catcher Jose Trevino from the Yankees in exchange for reliever Fernando Cruz and catcher Alex Jackson.
Trevino, who turned 32 last month, spent the past three years with the Yankees after spending the first four seasons of his Major League career with the Rangers. Last season, he served as a backup catcher behind rookie Austin Wells.
A career .236/.275/.362 hitter, Trevino was an All-Star in 2022, when he appeared in a career-high 115 games and hit 11 home runs for New York while winning a Gold Glove Award behind the plate. His defensive excellence also earned him the Platinum Glove Award that year.
The move fills the Reds’ need for catching depth behind starter Tyler Stephenson, who had a breakout season for Cincinnati in 2024.
Cruz, 34, made his MLB debut in 2022, and over three seasons with the Reds, the right-hander posted a 4.52 ERA (100 ERA+) over 147 1/3 innings, striking out 36% of opposing hitters.
Jackson, who turns 25 on Christmas Day, has appeared in 124 games over five seasons with the Braves, Marlins, Brewers and Rays. Tampa Bay released him in October, and he signed a Minor League deal with Cincinnati shortly thereafter. A glove-first backstop, he has a .132/.224/.232 slash line in 340 plate appearances.
Weirdly, there is only the Reds’ take on the trade available on MLB.com.
Okay, so the Yankees clearly didn’t need Jose Trevino anymore, as he was too good to be a backup, and he is a free agent after this season, so to get a live arm for him in a trade made a lot of sense. Jackson is on a minor league contract, so while he WILL have to be added to the 40-man roster, they don’t have to use him on the Major League roster. Either the Yankees plan to add another catcher, they have enough faith in J.C. Escarra that they are prepared to let him get the job (Escarra is not a young man, he’s 29 years old) or maybe t’s possible that they are also okay with using a defensive specialist like Jackson as their backup, since Wells plays so many games. Jackson has an excellent 28% caught stealing rate as a catcher (higher than Wells’ 25%, and MUCH higher than Trevino’s 18%).
Featured image is Trevino’s pitching performance from 2024. I thought that’d be a funny image go with the headline.
Guessing it’s a move based in large part on faith in Blake’s magic (c).
And if Blake can pull it off – this time with a guy who really has stuff – it could prove a truly great move.
Yeah, the way Blake has spun shit into gold, giving him a dude with one of the best strikeout pitches in baseball, but with a lot of other issues, should be fascinating. This might be the Yankees closer of 2026-27 here.
It all turns on whether a Cruz can be taught. Some guys are just hopeless.
Looking forward to Cruz adding 3 mph, being one of the best relievers in the league, blowing out his elbow on June 28th, and rehabbing the subsequent year and a half.
Hope I’m wrong.
I’m coming around to Alex Jackson as the backup. He’s righthanded, he’s a good defensive catcher without any concerns about his ability to throw out runners, he actually HAS had success as a hitter in the minors (he’s just been godawful in the Majors) and Wells is going to play four out of five games anyways, so it’s not like he’s going to play often.
Meanwhile, they can use this time to hopefully develop JC Escarra or Jesus Rodriguez into the next backup. If Ben Rice could transition back to playing catcher, fair enough, but, well, come on, there’s no way that dude is ever returning to being a catcher.
Interestingly, even after this 1 for 2 trade, the Yankees have four open spots on the 40-man. I guess room for a first baseman, a third baseman, and two more relievers (Kahnle and Hill?).
At the moment, the 13-man pitching staff is:
1 Cole
2 Fried
3 Gil
4 Schmidt
5 Rodon
6 Stroman
7 Williams
8 Weaver
9 Cruz
10 Leiter Jr.
11 Cousins
12 Hamilton
13 Effross
Loaisiga to join later on. You figure they’re trying to trade Stroman right now, with presumably Brubaker or Beeter getting his spot as the long man. They might NOT be bringing Kahnle back. I bet they still make a move to bring back Hill, though. He’d be their only lefty (Williams and Weaver are fine against lefties, but it’s always nice to have a lefty). And in that case, do they move Leiter Jr.? Cousins? Hamilton? Effross can be optioned to the minors, but they’ll need his spot for Lo, anyways, so they’d still need ANOTHER spot for Hill.
Tricky times.
I’d be shocked if Stroman makes it to ST on the Yankees.
On the other hand not thrilled about the SP depth without him.
As we fret about the line-up… that has the makings of a crazy good pitching staff.
Yeah, a really nice rotation and what’s looking like a great bullpen.
Clay is right, though, that once Stroman is gone, Warren is next man up, and he was so bad last year.
Maybe Brubaker?