New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman mentioned yesterday on MLB Network at the Winter Meetings that they are “having conversations about potentially protecting themselves in the starting rotation.” Currently, the Yankees’ starting rotation is Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Luis Gil, Will Warren, and Ryan Yarbrough. Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt are all injured to begin the season, and the earliest one of them will come back is a month into the season.
New York is playing in one of the toughest divisions in all of baseball, the American League East. They can’t afford to be playing from behind, especially given that these injuries are serious. Cole and Schmidt are coming back from Tommy John surgery, and Rodon is coming back from elbow surgery to remove loose bodies and a bone spur.
Tatsuya Imai is a 27-year-old Nippon Professional Baseball phenom who had a dazzling 1.92 ERA and 28% strikeout rate in 163.2 innings in the 2025 season. Imai was posted on November 19th, 2025, and has until January 2nd, 2026, to sign with an MLB team. Scouts have mentioned him as an intriguing arm with a high velocity fastball and a gyro slider that he’s able to tunnel well.
The Yankees haven’t been able to sign a Japanese free agent since they signed Masahiro Tanaka to a seven-year $155 million contract in 2013. This hasn’t been because they haven’t tried, as they were in the sweepstakes for both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki; they both opted to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Japanese market is evolving year by year in the major leagues, and New York would be smart to try to dip their toes into it again. Imai has mentioned that he would like to beat the Dodgers and has no problem with being on the East Coast, so it could be a real possibility.
The Yankees also had additional Japanese success when they inked Hideki Matsui to a three-year $21 million contract in 2002, and he ended up winning World Series MVP for them in 2009. Matsui hit .389 with four home runs, 12 runs batted in, and a 1.213 On Base Plus Slugging Percentage in 36 World Series at-bats. This would be a perfect time to tap back into that market and add to their pitching rotation. Imai is rumored to sign anywhere from five to seven years and topping out at the $200 million range.
Michael King previously starred with the Yankees as a reliever from 2021-2023 before he was traded to the San Diego Padres in the blockbuster Juan Soto trade. King was beloved by New York; they really didn’t want to trade him away, especially after he performed well as a starting pitcher towards the end of the 2023 season.
The game that really started all of the King starter hype was his 13-strikeout performance against the Toronto Blue Jays on September 23rd, 2020. King threw seven innings of one-run ball; it was a “whoa” moment for sure. This was when a ton of people realized just how special King could really be in a starting role, and the Padres instantly jumped at the idea of trading for him. Cashman tried desperately to orchestrate the Soto trade without King. San Diego wouldn’t budge, though; the Yankees had to include him and acquire a generational talent in Juan Soto.
In two years with the Padres, King had a 3.10 ERA and 277 strikeouts in 247 innings and 46 appearances. In the 2025 season, he had a 3.44 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate, 4.30 Expected ERA, a 4.42 Fielding Independent Pitching, and 0.8 Fangraphs Wins Above Replacement season.
King has had immense talent for a long time, but the only thing holding him back is injuries. We saw that this season, as he was limited to only 15 starts and 73.1 innings after he threw 173.2 innings the year prior.
King isn’t expected to sign a gigantic five-year contract like some other pitchers in the market, and a three-year deal for about $75 million has been heavily rumored. This is a guy who has potential ace-level stuff with a 26.2% strikeout rate, paired with his sinker, four-seam fastball, changeup, sweeper, and slider repertoire.
There’s definitely risk in signing King, who took a step back last season, but the talent is evident, and the Yankees are obviously very familiar with him. For that amount, though, why not take the gamble?
Edward Cabrera enjoyed a breakout 2025 campaign. He had a 3.53 ERA, 25.8% strikeout rate, 2.0 fWAR, and easily the best walk rate of his career at only 8.3% with the Miami Marlins. This was a guy who struggled immensely with his walk rate as from 2021, in order his walk rate being 15.8%, 11.3%, 15.2%, and 11.8%.
Cabrera owns a five-pitch mix including his changeup, curveball, sinker, slider, and four-seam fastball. This is also another risky option. His command finally improved, but he still was only able to pitch at least six innings in only seven of his 26 starts in his 27-year-old season.
Cabrera also won’t come cheap, as this is probably the highest his value has ever been, and he’s under team control until 2029. This might be the perfect time to trade him. He’s dealt with injuries throughout his career, and this is the first time that he’s eclipsed at least 100 innings. Cabrera pitched 137.2 innings in 2025, after pitching 99.2 innings in 2023 and 96.1 innings in 2024.
The Marlins could look to acquire another outfielder like Spencer Jones or Jasson Dominguez from the Yankees. Either would be in a package to pair with their 2025 breakouts, Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee. Miami also has an immense amount of pitching talent in both the majors and minors. They can afford to trade from their surplus of talent in exchange for a bat. New York makes a ton of sense, especially if it believes in Cabrera’s command looking more like it did in 2025 compared to years past.
MacKenzie Gore is reportedly available for trade, according to Ken Rosenthal. Gore is 26 years old and is coming off an All-Star season with a 4.17 ERA, where he threw 159.2 innings, struck out 27.2% of batters faced, and had 185 strikeouts in total. It was a tale of two halves for him as he had a 3.02 ERA in the first half and a 6.75 ERA in the second half. His season was prematurely ended with right ankle impingement in September.
Gore possesses a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, and cutter, including four of those pitches having over a 35% whiff rate on them. The Washington Nationals still seem years away from playoff contention, even with the intriguing core that they were able to acquire from the San Diego Padres in exchange for Juan Soto.
Gore also has three years of control, so they should be able to get a decent amount back, including a couple of pitching prospects for their future. Thankfully for the Yankees, they have multiple pitching prospects, including Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodriguez, Bryce Cunningham, Ben Hess, Chase Hampton, etc.
This is a pitcher that’s soon to be a walking 200 strikeouts yearly as long as he can stay healthy and learn to limit damage contact on his fastball. Gore also has two years of team control remaining on his contract.
It would be ideal for the Yankees to add an impact starter to take some pressure off of guys coming back from major injuries and inevitably going through a blip early on.
In terms of potential trades, this seems like the perfect opportunity for New York to acquire a cost-effective starting pitcher and send off a couple of their built-up pitching prospects.
In acquiring any of these four pitchers, the Yankees would have them for multiple seasons. New York could tweak their games and have pitching coach Matt Blake work his magic with them.
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