The need doesn’t appear as dire as it once did, but the New York Yankees could still certainly trade for a starting pitcher.
Max Fried has been an ace, with Carlos Rodón stepping up into the number-two spot. Will Warren, Clarke Schmidt, and Ryan Yarbrough have all done their jobs too. But Gerrit Cole won’t be back this season, and it’s hard to know what to expect when Luis Gil eventually returns.
If Gil isn’t ready to be the de facto deadline acquisition for the Yankees, perhaps someone else will be. The starting pitching market has been brutally competitive the last few seasons, but New York is usually ready to step up to the plate when they’re serious about something.
One baseball writer believes New York could go after an All-Star in peak form.
On Wednesday, FanSided’s Zachary Pressnell named Milwaukee Brewers ace Freddy Peralta as a top prospective trade deadline target for the Yankees next month.
“The Brewers are no strangers to trading away their top talent before they lose them in free agency. We could see the exact same thing with Peralta this season,” Pressnell wrote.
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“In a blockbuster deal for Peralta, the Brewers would likely target somebody like George Lombard Jr., one of the higher potential players in New York’s farm system. But the Yankees have been adamant they weren’t looking to trade Lombard this season, so that might be quite a difficult catchup in this kind of deal.”
Peralta has been fantastic this year, pitching to a 2.69 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 77 innings. He’s also on a hilariously cheap contract, making $8 million this year with a club option for another $8 million in 2026.
But Pressnell is also correct that the return in this trade would have to be colossal, because the Brewers are under no time pressure to give Peralta up, knowing that they can still get prospects for him if they choose to trade him either this winter or at next year’s deadline.
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