Another major move could still be in the cards for the New York Yankees after pulling off the blockbuster last month for Juan Soto.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Yankees are “considering” Soto’s former San Diego Padres teammate, Blake Snell.
Fresh off winning the 2023 National League Cy Young Award with the NL West club, the 31-year-old is a free agent with a pricetag too high for the Padres to bring back as they’ve spent the winter cutting costs — hence why they dealt Soto a year before he hits the open market.
Throughout the offseason, the Yankees were first heavily linked to Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who ultimately decided to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers after considering both the Bronx Bombers as well as the crosstown-rival Mets. Ex-Yankee Jordan Montgomery has also been an option this winter — the southpaw using a brilliant half-season with the Texas Rangers to put himself in a position for a big contract.
Snell, however, comes with some question marks despite winning his second-career Cy Young Award.
He’s reached the 180 innings mark just twice in his eight-year career — both times being his Cy Young seasons — as his next most strenuous season saw him pitch just 129.1 frames. The lefty also walked a career-worst 99 batters last season, which led the senior circuit. It was the main reason why his WHIP was 1.189 in 2023 considering he possessed a league-best 5.8 hits allowed per nine innings.
Add that to a rotation that already featured a disastrous debut season in the Bronx for Carlos Rodon and a significant regression from an All-Star season by Nestor Cortes, and the Yankees’ stable of starters becomes mercurial behind Gerrit Cole.
That being said, a 1-2 punch of Cole and Snell — the two Cy Young winners of 2023 — is a tantalizing scenario that would only get better if Rodon and Cortes can rediscover their form.
