The Yankees suffered a huge blow when it was announced that their ace Gerrit Cole is undergoing Tommy John Surgery and will miss the entire 2025 season.
What will the Yankees do now?
New Yankees Landscape
After the Yankees saw Juan Soto leave for the Mets, they knew that they had an opportunity to build a more complete roster around Cole and two-time MVP Aaron Judge.
Now, with Cole out, it remains to be seen how interested the team is in signing a replacement. They will be receiving a $27 million insurance recoup payment toward the $36 million that Cole is owed for 2025, and fans think that is money that should go toward fortifying the roster.
Why are the Yankees “crying poor” and not heavily pursuing multiple bats and a SP with these injuries? They get insurance money from Stanton and Cole I believe and they got record revenue last year on top of rays stadium money and drop payroll
— Zachery Goldstein (@ZacheryGoldste4) March 12, 2025
There’s a pretty similar rhetoric among many other Yankees fans on X.
It now looks way better the Yankees allocated funds to get SP Max Fried, 1B Paul Goldschmidt and OF Cody Bellinger, among others. They also traded to improve at closer by acquiring Devin Williams from the Brewers.
What Are the Options Moving Forward?
With this being the Yankees’ current situation, what are their options? There are multiple paths New York could opt to take in the wake of the season-altering news regarding Cole.
Trade for Another Front-Line Starter
In terms of patching things up right away, there is no second Cole out there, but for $27M, an extremely talented player could be acquired. Some options that come to mind are Miami starter Sandy Alcantara ($17.3M), old friend Jordan Montgomery ($22.5M) and Robbie Ray ($25M).
There are certainly more possibilities, but the criteria for those examples was identifying high-caliber arms on teams that would actually be looking to shed some salary.
Patch Multiple Holes
With a few spots in the rotation potentially needing to be filled, the Yankees could opt to target multiple spots with the windfall.
One hypothetical involving multiple players would be the following: Acquiring Ryan McMahon from the Rockies ($12M), signing Spencer Turnbull for the same contract as last year ($4M), and pursuing the Dodgers’ Chris Taylor ($12M) as well.
The criterion for these players is that the team either has a surplus or would be willing to give a young player at the position. Turnbull is an exception, because he is the free-agent arm with the highest WAR from last year and would come at a reasonable price.
Wait and See
While the team won’t publicly admit it, the Yankees will be keeping a very close eye on the Kyle Tucker situation in Chicago. They’re likely to kick the tires on his services often and eventually try to get their guy, either in July or in the offseason.
This also dovetails with their tax situation, as it could be much more worthwhile to spend at the trade deadline if they’re in contention at that point, as opposed to doing so at this juncture amid some uncertainty.