ESPN | Alden Gonzalez: The Yankees bolstered their pitching staff yesterday, swinging a trade with the Marlins for left-hander Ryan Weathers in exchange for four prospects. The team confirmed the news last night. The son of 1996 Yankees World Series champion David Weathers, Ryan has been a starter and occasionally a reliever in his career, and while he’s always dealt with injury problems, but when he’s on the field he generates great whiff and walk rates. With three years of team control remaining, the club has time to finish sanding off some of the edges of the 26-year-old’s profile. Michael wrote up the trade for Pinstripe Alley yesterday as well.
The Athletic | Chris Kirschner & Brendan Kuty: In The Athletic’s reaction to the Weathers trade, Kirschner and Kuty looked into what the Yankees saw in Weathers and why his stuff enticed them enough to make the deal. They also noted that it doesn’t sound like this will necessarily stop the Yankees from pursuing another starter like Freddy Peralta or MacKenzie Gore.
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MLB.com | Mike Petriello: Cody Bellinger and the Yankees appear to be at something of an impasse, with New York dead set on offering no more than five years and Belli’s camp seeking seven. It feels like the Yankees are the natural destination for the lefty slugger, but what kind of a player would the club have for the next half decade? He’s recovered well from the injury-plagued start of the 2020s, where his power was sapped and he ended up being nontendered by the Dodgers, and Yankee Stadium certainly plays to his strengths. Still, you don’t typically get better at baseball past 30, and that risk is exactly why the team doesn’t want to go to that seven year term.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: The Yankees have yet to hire a director of international scouting, even as the signing period for international free agents opens tomorrow. Donny Rowland’s contract was not renewed back in the fall, and reportedly the club is still in the process of looking look for a replacement. They’re not expected to land any of the highest-ranked teenagers this go-around (honestly that would’ve been hard even if they immediately filled his role), but getting better at identifying international talent has to be a focus of the next administration, as Rowland and his crew consistently fell short.
FanGraphs | Dan Szymborski: While the Yankees technically tied for first place in the AL East, not having the tiebreaker against the Blue Jays meant they had to play an extra playoff round, and lost home-field advantage in that fateful ALDS against Toronto. The Blue Jays seem well-tuned for a repeat performance, spending plenty to shore up the pitching staff and returning a fearsome lineup while still in on the bidding for both Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker. The AL East will once again be a knife fight in the mud, and on paper the Jays look just a bit better than New York for now.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Happy trails to longtime Yankee reliever Jonathan Loáisiga, as the righty agreed to a minor-league deal with the Diamondbacks (shortly after news broke of Arizona trading for Nolan Arenado). Jonny Lasagna will be invited to big-league spring training, as he looks to finally overcome the injury history that’s plagued him most of his career.
