DO THE YANKEES HAVE A CHANCE TO SNAG TARIK SKUBAL?

Everyone is watching, waiting and wondering what the Detroit Tigers are going to do this summer, especially me. The Tigers are at the bottom of the AL Central which means the Tigers might be ready to move Tarik Skubal soon.

This season feels like it is moving faster than normal. Summer is here which means in a couple of months the trade deadline will be here. Teams will be looking to bolster their rosters for a postseason run and the Tigers and Skubal could be parting ways soon and another team could get a VERY good, shiny new rotation piece. 

"It's trending that way. Talking with people around the game, that is their feeling," Rosenthal said when asking if a Skubal trade on Saturday’s MLB on FOX pregame show was realistic. "The outlook right now is rather bleak, and honestly, it's difficult to imagine them making up a 14-game under .500 deficit, getting back to .500, and then contending even in a weak American League. So the question becomes, 'Will Skubal be healthy enough?' It's what we don't know." Read more HERE.

That is a wild card, but if he is what an amazing instant upgrade. Before Skubal hit the Injured List he had a 2.70 ERA on a terrible Tigers team that doesn't score a lot of runs. It would be fun to watch what he could do on a team with a more potent offense. It would be even nicer to have Skubal plug into a rotation with Max Fried and Gerrit Cole. But is THAT realistic?

Probably not for more than one reason. I'm sure Brian Cashman will be listening like he always does but if Fried's elbow injury is just a contusion and he comes back healthy the Yankees have other strong pieces like Cam Schlittler, Carlos Rodon and progressing Will Warren. The Yankees have some strong pieces in the rotation, there wouldn't be a great need to trade top prospects to get a short rental for Skubal. So there's reason number one.

When you look at the Yankees trade chips, they have some pieces but not ones they are willing to part with to get the Tigers to send us Skubal. If we could dangle Spencer Jones and they would bite that would be one thing but Detroit is going to want a lot more than Jones and that likely starts with George Lombard Jr. or Carlos Lagrange.

 The Yankees don't want to part with Lombard Jr at all, let alone for a short term rental. There are other teams out there with a deeper pool of top prospects that will not only have more to offer the Tigers, but will also be willing to deal them and the first team that comes to mind should be no surprise....the damn Dodgers. They have more top ranked prospects than any team and are highly motivated to do what it takes to complete a dynasty run for another championship. It could happen, but I am not sleeping on the Cubs or the Padres either.

So, there it is. I sit here and drool thinking about Skubal but realistically have to tell myself he's an unrealistic move for the Yankees. A girl can dream, I guess.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj

STUBBORN YANKEE FRONT OFFICE REFUSING TO BE COMPETITIVE

The Yankees front office isn’t just misfiring—they’ve turned dysfunction into a long-term investment strategy. And if you’re a fan, you’ve seen this exact production on repeat for over a decade. Same rigid thinking, same recycled excuses, same hollow October ambitions. Since 2009, the only thing that’s evolved is the price of the tickets and time wasted.

Let’s start at the top, because that’s where the rot lives.

Brian Cashman has somehow mastered the art of doing nothing while calling it stability. In most industries, 15+ years of the same underwhelming results would get you a polite escort to the exit. Here? It gets you a lifetime appointment. Cashman operates like a man who solved baseball in 2009 and has refused to update the software since. Every bad contract, every blocked prospect, every “trust the process” and "mission accomplished" press conference—it all traces back to a front office that confuses stubbornness with intelligence.

And then there’s Aaron Boone—a manager in the same way a GPS is helpful when it refuses to reroute. Boone doesn’t manage games; he narrates them after they happen. Lineups feel like they’re printed in permanent marker, bullpen decisions come straight out of a hat, and accountability is treated like an optional feature. Watching him manage is like watching someone try to microwave a steak—technically it’s being done, but nobody feels good about it.

And the front office as a whole? They don’t understand how to run a baseball team in 2026. They run it like a spreadsheet with emotional attachment issues. Performance is secondary. Contracts are sacred. Prospects are decorations until they become inconvenient.

This Spring training is the perfect example of their backwards logic. You can dominate—hit .500, crush 10 home runs, outplay everyone on the field—and it means absolutely nothing if you’re not already part of their pre-approved script. It’s not a competition; it’s a formality. The roster isn’t earned—it’s pre-written.

So, when a talent like Jasson Domínguez gets sent down, it’s not shocking—it’s predictable. Because this organization doesn’t reward production, it rewards payroll. A guy like Trent Grisham gets priority not because he’s better, but because he’s expensive. That’s not roster construction—that’s financial obligation disguised as strategy.

And don’t even get started on the pitching decisions. Watching Carlos Lagrange outperform guys like Ryan Weathers and still get buried is the kind of logic that would get you laughed out of a fantasy league. Fewer hits, fewer runs, better overall performance—but hey, Weathers cost prospects in that trade, remember? So now we’re emotionally invested. The Yankees don’t cut losses; they double down on them.

That’s the philosophy: once they make a mistake, they commit to it harder.

This isn’t a championship-caliber operation—it’s a bureaucratic maze. Decisions aren’t made based on winning; they’re made based on protecting previous decisions. It’s baseball run by ego, not evidence.

And the biggest casualty of all this? Aaron Judge.

Judge should be the face of a dynasty. Instead, he’s the centerpiece of a cautionary tale. When he spoke out about his frustrations in which the Yankees didn't upgrade on top free agents this off season, it wasn't a misspeak, it was a cry for help.  We’re watching a generational talent get boxed into a system that refuses to maximize him. He’ll hit historic numbers, collect personal awards, and carry the team on his back—only to fall short because the people building around him are stuck ten years in the past.

He deserves rings. Instead, he’s getting press conferences about “staying the course.”

At some point, fans have to stop pretending this is acceptable. This isn’t bad luck—it’s bad leadership. It’s complacency at the highest level. It’s an organization more concerned with being right than being successful. Boycott, boycott, boycott.

If this were any other franchise, changes would’ve been made years ago. But this is the Yankees—where tradition apparently includes refusing to admit you’re wrong.

Until Brian Cashman is gone, until Aaron Boone is replaced by someone who actually manages, and until the front office learns that winning matters more than saving face, nothing changes.

And that’s the real tragedy—not that the Yankees aren’t winning, but that they don’t even seem to understand why they aren’t.

LIKE THIS? READ THESE:

ENOUGH! LET'S BOYCOTT THE YANKEES TO CHANGE THIS TEAM'S FUTURE

YANKS NEED TO MAKE A BIG SPLASH, BUT WE'RE NOT AS PRESTIGIOUS AS WE USED TO BE

THREE STARTERS ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH

All offseason I kept saying the same thing. Actually, scratch that—I said it last season too. The Yankees needed one more legit starting pitcher to sit next to Max Fried. Just one. Then when Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole come back, suddenly the rotation looks nasty. Add Cam Schlittler into the mix and you’ve got the makings of something serious.

But nobody wanted to hear it.

Instead, the Yankees went out and traded for Ryan Weathers, wrapped the move in a nice little bow, and Yankee social media tried to sell it like they’d just discovered the next ace hiding in a clearance bin. On top of that, everyone just assumed Luis Gil would magically snap back into Rookie of the Year form, like there’s some kind of “reset to dominance” button you press every March.

Fast forward to now—just weeks from Opening Day—and the Yankees rotation looks… shaky. And honestly, that’s not fair to Max Fried. The guy can only carry so much of the load.

Sure, Will Warren is opening some eyes this spring, and Cam Schlittler looks promising. But let’s be real for a second: promising isn’t the same thing as ready. And right now, ready is exactly what the Yankees need.

Fans love to point to the eventual returns of Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole, and yes, that will help. But the team actually has to stay afloat until they get there. If two of your five starters are consistently struggling before those guys return, things can spiral quickly.

Even Sports Illustrated writer Jordon Lawrenz is sounding the alarm with a wrote that “Three Quality Starters Isn’t Good Enough.” Funny… that sounds awfully familiar. Oh right—I’ve been saying that exact thing right here at Bleeding Yankee Blue.

Lawrenz points out that the Yankees know they have prospects like Carlos Lagrange waiting in the wings, but it’s way too early to start calling those names over Gil and Weathers. Early spring struggles happen, sure—but when it’s multiple starters, that’s when the concern meter starts flashing.

But this is the Yankees’ pattern. They don’t act before problems happen. They wait until the problem is staring them in the face… and then they react.

Let’s call it what it is: Ryan Weathers was never the answer. It was a questionable move from the start. And simply waiting around for Cole and Rodón to return is basically handing wins to your opponents and hoping you can play catch-up later.

If the Yankees want to be contenders—hell, if they want to talk about being 2026 World Series champions—the front office needs to get its act together.

But will they? Probably not.

And hey, why would they listen to me over here at Bleeding Yankee Blue?

I only called it months ago. Losers.

CARLOS LAGRANGE IS A STARTER. STOP TINKERING!

Every spring there’s at least one pitcher who shows up, throws absolute thunderbolts, and makes everyone watching wonder why he isn’t already penciled into the starting rotation. This year, that guy is Carlos Lagrange.

The kid is lighting up radar guns at 102 mph and mowing down hitters like he’s late for dinner. Spring Training lineups, minor leaguers, veterans—it hasn’t mattered. Lagrange has handled all of them without blinking. When someone throws that hard and actually knows where the ball is going, the baseball conclusion is pretty simple: that’s a starting pitcher.

Which means the obvious move for the New York Yankees should be… let him start.

But then there’s the complication known as Aaron Boone.

Because whenever a young pitcher looks promising, Boone seems to develop a sudden urge to get creative. Not “smart baseball creative,” mind you. More like the kind of creative that makes fans stare at their TVs wondering if the manager accidentally flipped to the wrong page in the playbook.

And right on cue, Boone has already started floating the idea of using Lagrange out of the bullpen.

His explanation?

“There’s no denying he could be good out of the pen, but we’re certainly not gonna rush him to fill a need… as he logs some innings and it becomes a real need… anything is possible.”

Translation: the bullpen is thin, so we might shove the kid there if things get uncomfortable.

This is classic Yankees prospect management. A young pitcher proves he can start. He shows starter stuff. He develops like a starter. And then—because the big league roster has a temporary hole—the organization starts thinking about turning him into something else entirely.

It’s baseball’s version of buying a Ferrari and using it to deliver pizza.

Lagrange isn’t some soft-tossing middle reliever in waiting. He’s a legitimate starting pitcher. The eye test alone tells you that. The fastball is explosive, the presence is there, and the ability to handle hitters multiple times through a lineup is exactly what he should be developing.

So the solution is painfully obvious. Send him to Triple-A and let him start.

Not warm up in the fifth inning. Not appear in random bullpen experiments. Start. Every fifth day. Build innings. Refine the secondary pitches. Let him develop like an actual starter instead of some emergency bullpen patch. And here’s the other part of the equation nobody in the Yankees’ decision-making circle ever seems to acknowledge: a Yankees starter getting hurt this season is practically a calendar event. It happens every year.

When that inevitable injury pops up—and history says it will—then you call up Lagrange. Let him make his debut the right way, sliding into the rotation where he belongs instead of trying to reinvent him on the fly.

But that would require common sense.

Instead, fans are probably about to witness the usual Yankees routine: a talented young pitcher earns a role, the organization gets nervous about roster needs, and suddenly the kid is bouncing between assignments that have nothing to do with his long-term future.

Lagrange is a starter. The arm says starter. The results say starter. The development path says starter.

So naturally, there’s a real chance the Yankees will try to make him something else.

Because when it comes to young pitchers, the Yankees’ favorite hobby seems to be overthinking things until something breaks. 

WHY CARLOS RODON IS IMPORTANT

For a while there, Carlos Rodón looked like a guy trying to assemble a complicated piece of IKEA furniture without the instructions. Lots of parts, plenty of effort… but something clearly wasn’t clicking.

When the New York Yankees signed Rodón before the 2023 season, the expectation was simple: this was supposed to be the guy who shoved. The fiery lefty who dominated with the Chicago White Sox and later the San Francisco Giants was supposed to slide into the Bronx and become a frontline monster.

Instead, his first season in pinstripes felt like watching a sports car stuck in traffic.  Rodón’s early Yankees tenure was defined by injuries, inconsistency, and plenty of frustration. The velocity wasn’t always there, the command wandered, and the results often looked nothing like the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting.

Fans who expected dominance got turbulence instead. And in New York, turbulence doesn’t stay quiet for long.

But to Rodón’s credit, he didn’t completely fold. By last season, he began to show signs that he was finally figuring things out. The fastball had more life, the slider started biting again, and the confidence that once made him one of the more intimidating lefties in baseball slowly returned.

It wasn’t a full resurrection, but it was progress. Just when things started to stabilize, however, Rodón ran into another speed bump. During the offseason, Rodón underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow — never exactly the phrase a fanbase wants to hear when discussing a starting pitcher.

The procedure forced him to hit pause again.

Fortunately for the Yankees, the recovery appears to be moving in the right direction.

After another bullpen session on Saturday, Rodón received some encouraging news: he’s expected to face live hitters next week for the first time since the surgery.

That’s a meaningful step forward. Rodón has said the elbow feels good and his range of motion has improved considerably, but there’s still some rust to shake off. He admitted he's still “trying to figure out how everything moves again and just find the pitch shapes.” Translation: the arm works — now he just needs to make the baseball behave again. Here’s the reality for the Yankees.

If Rodón is right, he can still be really good. Not “serviceable.” Not “fifth starter who eats innings.”

Good. We’ve seen the version of Rodón who overpowers hitters and racks up strikeouts in bunches. That guy is still in there somewhere, and if he shows up in the Bronx this season, the Yankees rotation suddenly looks a lot more respectable.

But if he doesn’t?

That’s where things start getting uncomfortable. Right now, the Yankees rotation has one thing going for it: Max Fried at the top. Cole? Not back yet.

Behind him? It gets shaky in a hurry.

There’s a lot of talk about depth, internal options, and young arms waiting for their shot. But depth on paper and depth on the mound are two very different things.

For example, the Yankees are not simply handing a rotation spot to Carlos Lagrange. Prospect hype is great for spring conversations and spring training headlines, but it doesn’t guarantee big-league readiness, especially if you're on the Yankees. Most likely they will keep you in the minors and waste you. Then there’s the growing drumbeat around Will Warren, who the organization keeps promoting as the next promising arm ready to help stabilize the staff.

Maybe he will be.

But right now? That remains more projection than proof. Which brings us right back to Rodón.  For all the hype about prospects and depth charts, the Yankees’ rotation might ultimately hinge on whether Rodón can stay healthy and pitch like the guy they thought they were signing.

Because if he does, the Yankees have a legitimate weapon.

If he doesn’t… well, suddenly that rotation starts looking a lot thinner than anyone in the front office would like to admit.

And in a division where every win matters, thin rotations have a nasty habit of turning October dreams into September autopsies. 

NICO HOERNER IS STILL BEING CONSIDERED FOR THE YANKEE INFIELD

Picture this: the Yankees' second base dilemma finally solved by none other than Nico Hoerner, a defensive wizard with the speed to match. Hoerner's got the chops to bring some much-needed stability to a position that’s been up in the air since Gleyber Torres packed his bags. This guy isn’t just a one-trick pony—he’s got a well-rounded game that’s bound to make any team happy.

Let’s talk stats. In 2024, Hoerner was a busy bee, clocking in 151 games with a respectable .273 batting average. He didn’t exactly light up the home run charts with seven dingers, but his 48 RBIs and a slick 31 stolen bases show he knows how to make things happen on the field. At 27, he’s still got plenty of mileage left, and with two years of team control plus an $11.67 million salary, he’s a pretty sweet deal for any team looking to win now.

So, what’s the catch? A potential trade scenario, cooked up by the ever-sharp minds over at Empire Sports Media, suggests the Yankees could part with prospects Will Warren, Jake Cousins, and Carlos Lagrange to bring Hoerner to the Bronx.

Will Warren, at 25, made his MLB debut in 2024. Sure, his 10.32 ERA over 22.2 innings might make you wince, but those strikeout numbers hint at some untapped potential. He’s a work-in-progress back-end starter, but hey, the Cubs could use some depth, right?

Then there’s Jake Cousins, a 30-year-old reliever who was lights out in 2024, posting a slick 2.37 ERA across 38 innings. He’s the kind of steady arm that any bullpen would love to have on standby.

And yeah, we get it—there’s no shortage of infield names being tossed around for the Yankees. Nico’s name has popped up before, and if you want the deep dive, you can check out BYB's article, COULD THE YANKEES BE IN THE MIX FOR THE CUBS' NICO HOERNER?

Trust us, it’s worth the read.

So, is Nico Hoerner the solution to the Yankees' second base conundrum? Stay tuned, because this could be the move that shakes things up in the Bronx!