The New York Yankees have gotten off to a strong start in the 2025 MLB regular season with an 18-13 record heading into May.
Even with their success, there have been some glaring areas of need that have popped up over the first month of the season.
They need to figure out a way to get All-Star closer Devin Williams back on track. Manager Aaron Boone removed him from the closer’s role this week and he has responded with two clean outings.
Starting pitching depth is something the Yankees will be on the lookout for. Beyond free agent addition Max Fried and Carlos Rodon, the team is getting very little production from their rotation.
Figuring out the starting pitching trade market at this point is impossible with teams not yet ready to throw in the towel and become sellers. The San Diego Padres, for example, were rumored to be shopping some pitchers during the offseason but look like legitimate contenders.
Where the likliest change for New York is going to come is in their lineup.
The team needs help at third base, where they have been relying on Oswaldo Cabrera to handle a large portion of the playing time along with Pablo Reyes and Oswald Peraza.
Reportedly, the Yankees are in the market for a right-handed bat as well, something they began to address with the addition of Bryan De La Cruz.
He claimed off of waivers from the Atlanta Braves and was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre but is on the 40-man roster after Giancarlo Stanton was moved to the 60-day injured list.
One player who would help the team kill two birds with one stone is St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado.
He would be a massive upgrade at the hot corner and provide the team with another right-handed bat, albeit not one who will be coming off the bench to help against left-handed relievers late in games.
However, according to MLB insider Andy Martino of SNY in a recent fan mailbag, there has been zero interest shown previously by New York in the eight-time All-Star.
“As for Arenado, the next time that the Yankees are interested will be the first time,” he wrote in response to a fan question.
That is certainly a surprising tidbit of news as there were a lot of reports linking him to the Yankees during the offseason when the Cardinals were shopping the market. He possesses a full no-trade clause, so he can handpick where he wants to go if he were to be traded.
There has been a lot of predictions made linking Arenado to New York, but it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the Yankees haven’t shown an interest in him since they weren’t on his list of teams he would accept a trade to over the winter.
That list reportedly included the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Padres, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.
On the season, Arenado has a .243/.336/.411 slash line with three home runs, nine doubles and 13 RBI.
