The New York Yankees, the franchise that has won more World Series championships than any other with 27, have now endured 16 seasons since their last title — and they have won only that single 2009 ring, capturing three straight from 1998 to 2000.
How far are the Yankees willing to go to build a team capable of winning it all next season? Baseball analyst Christopher Kline of FanSided on Tuesday named the Bronx Bombers as a potential trade destination for this year’s American League Comeback Player of the Year winner, who also happens to hold the lowest career ERA (2.57) of any active pitcher with more than 1,000 innings pitched.
The 37-year-old Jacob deGrom of the Texas Rangers is also the all-time record holder in ratio of strikeouts to walks, with 5.37 batters whiffed for every one he has allowed to reach via base on balls. In addition, deGrom won the National League Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019, and Rookie of the Year in 2014, all with the New York Mets before signing a five-year, $185 million free-agent contract with the Rangers before the 2023 season.
Adding deGrom, who has two years to go on his deal at a total cost of $75 million, plus a club option year for another $20 million, to a rotation already topped by 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, who will be returning from Tommy John surgery, and 19-game winning left-hander Max Fried — this year’s fourth-place Cy Young Award vote-getter — followed by Carlos Rodon, an 18-game winner, and this year’s rookie sensation Cam Schlitter, would likely create an instant World Series favorite in the Bronx.
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“Is this New York Yankees front office, this New York Yankees ownership group, really going to foot the bill on a top three of Gerrit Cole (post-Tommy John), Max Fried and deGrom? It’s unclear,” wrote Kline. “But the Yankees are always in the mix for top trade candidates and free agents. deGrom spent the prime of his career in New York, just across town with the Mets. This outcome would certainly sting for the Yankees’ crosstown rivals, at the very least.”
Assuming deGrom would waive his no-trade clause to join the Yankees, Texas would certainly demand top pitching prospects in return as the Rangers try to build for another World Series run of their own, after winning the first in franchise history in 2023.
Schlitter is probably untouchable at this point, so the Yankees may have to decide whether to part with No. 3 overall prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, a 22-year-old right-hander who came over from the Boston Red Sox farm system in last year’s trade for catcher Carlos Narvaez.
For a pitcher on deGrom’s historic level, however, the Yankees would likely need to add at least one more prime mound prospect, who could be 2024 first-round draft pick Ben Hess, the organization’s No. 6 prospect overall and fourth-ranked pitcher, per MLB Pipeline.
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