Since New York Yankees Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole revealed earlier this week that he would undergo Tommy John surgery last Tuesday, ending his season, the Yankees have received numerous trade proposals to cover the absence of their star pitcher. But what would the price be?
To get a pitcher even close to Cole’s level, New York will inevitably be forced to part with a player, probably a young one, that the team would prefer not to lose. At the top of the Yankees’ trade target list, one name keeps popping up: right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease, a workhorse for the San Diego Padres.
The Yankees can’t afford to wait
The 29-year-old, who was traded to the Padres before the 2024 season after five years with the Chicago White Sox, was named Thursday as the number one candidate to join the Yankees by Deesha Thosar of FOX Sports.
“The Padres want to compete this year, but if they sell before the trade deadline, Cease will have several suitors, and the Yankees should be one of them,” wrote Thosar.
But can the Yankees afford to wait until the trade deadline to replace Cole in their rotation?
Jon Heyman of the New York Post also mentioned Cease (who is owed $13.75 million in 2025 under a one-year contract he signed with the Padres) as the leading candidate for a trade with the Yankees. However, Heyman also explained what acquiring the veteran Cease (who has started at least 32 games in each of the last few seasons, leading the league in starts on three occasions) would mean in terms of what New York would have to give up.
It would be “unlikely” that the Padres would let Cease go without a substantial reward, Heyman wrote.
Who could the Yankees get rid of?
“Unless the Yankees want to offer starting catcher Austin Wells, starting shortstop Anthony Volpe or starting outfielder Jasson Dominguez, who has struggled in the spring,” Heyman wrote in his Post column Thursday, “it’s hard to see how it works.”
Even one of those players, each key to the Yankees’ plans this season as they look for their second consecutive trip to the World Series, would be a very high price to pay in exchange for a pitcher who will be a free agent after the 2025 campaign.
Wells, 25, is entering his second full season and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. Volpe, just 23, is seen as the Yankees’ first worthy successor at shortstop to Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who retired 11 years ago.
The 22-year-old, despite his struggles in left field, remains the Yankees’ number one prospect and one of the leading contenders for Rookie of the Year this season.
But the Yankees would be getting a pitcher who always shows up for every start, strikes out 10.8 batters per nine innings over his career and posted a 1.067 WHIP in 2024, fourth in the National League.
The question the Yankees must ask themselves is whether it is worth trading one of their best young stars, who could help the team compete for years to come, for a pitcher who gives them a chance to win another American League East pennant and a possible World Series appearance.
Read the full article here
