Five Pitching Options For New York Yankees After Missing Out On Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Here are five options for the New York Yankees after missing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

​On December 6th, the New York Yankees pulled the trigger on a massive trade for Juan Soto in hopes of bouncing back from a subpar 82-win season in 2023. 

There is no doubt the talent and firepower that comes with the addition of the three-time All-Star immediately raises the ceiling of this Yankee roster, but such a player does come at a large cost and New York will need to fill in some holes left by the blockbuster deal.

​The full package for Soto included four pitchers in Jhony Brito, Randy Vazquez, Drew Thorpe and Michael King as well as catcher Kyle Higashioka. The bombers also received outfielder Trent Grisham in the deal.

​There is a clear need for New York after dealing four right-handed pitchers, three of which contributed heavily to the big-league pitching staff. Last year, though mainly a reliever, King started nine games and finished the campaign with a 2.75 ERA, second on the team only to Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole in that category. Thorpe took home the Minor League Pitching Prospect of the Year award this past season, meaning the Yanks may have sacrificed a future ace as well for the 25-year-old Soto. Brito and Vazquez were also heavily involved in the rotation, pitching a combined 128 innings last year for New York.

​It is safe to say that the Bombers will need to address both starting pitching and relief pitching this offseason if they really want to make this Soto trade count. Luckily for New York, despite the decision of Yoshinobu Yamamoto to head to Los Angeles and join Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers, there are still a number of talented options available.

​In regards to starters, two names jump off the page when thinking about who New York could add alongside Cole, Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon. One is arguably the biggest free agent left on the market in Blake Snell. The Yankees were willing to spend the big bucks to try and add Yamamoto, so unless injury concerns over Snell scare them away, they could look to add the ace hurler and pair together last year’s AL and NL Cy Young winners.

​An excellent consolation should a deal with Snell fail to occur would be former Yankee Jordan Montgomery, who won a World Series with Texas in 2023. In 11 games with Texas, after being dealt from St. Louis at the deadline, Montgomery pitched to a 2.79 ERA and played a massive role in the Rangers’ unlikely championship run. Should both not come through for New York, Shane Bieber and Corbin Burnes are potential trade candidates with one year remaining on their deals. It is also worth noting that New York could fill one of their empty rotation slots with Frankie Montas, who they acquired at the 2022 trade deadline but has failed to produce due to injury.

​In regards to relievers, Josh Hader remains an excellent option for New York. The four-time All-Star had one of the best campaigns of his career last year, finishing with a 1.28 ERA and 33 saves with Soto and the San Diego Padres.

​There is no doubt that New York put themselves back in the contender conversation with the move to acquire Soto as a lineup with a core of Aaron Judge, Soto, Anthony Volpe, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres is likely to scare teams. However, if the Bombers can add two or even one of the options listed above, they will be a serious rival to the super team formed by the Dodgers.