Grading Yankees’ offseason signings and trades ahead of Opening Day

Yankees’ Offseason Trades

• Yankees trade UTIL Tyler Wade to Angels (D+)

First, the Yankees DFA’ed Tyler Wade, who had his best MLB season to date with the Yankees after coming up through the farm system. Already a fairly senseless move. But it was even more crazy it happened after Gleyber Torres was moved off of shortstop and the Yankees … didn’t have a single shortstop on the roster. Wade’s primarily a shortstop, though he transitioned into more of a utility role, but in hindsight it would’ve been prudent to keep him on the roster as the backup SS/utility guy/speed option off the bench instead of signing Marwin Gonzalez, who is old and slow. After the DFA, Wade was traded to the Angels, and we’ll be tracking his progress in 2022 without a doubt.

• Yankees trade Gary Sánchez and Gio Urshela to Minnesota Twins for Josh Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt (B-)

The “blockbuster” of the offseason, if you even want to call it that. This confusing move imported Yankees’ enemy Josh Donaldson, who has trash talked this team plenty in the past, with the most recent incident coming last year with Gerrit Cole. He’ll cost the Bombers $50 million through the 2023 season. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is the new starting shortstop, so we guess that’s good, but again, not a move that sends a message or puts this roster above and beyond by any means. Ben Rortvedt is already injured, too, and we have no idea what he’ll bring to the table. Though Sánchez being shown the door is largely a good thing, the Yankees don’t have a starting catcher and will look to figure out that area of the roster with a defense-first platoon. Hope it works!

• Yankees trade 1B Luke Voit to San Diego Padres for prospect P Justin Lange (B-)

Had the Yankees properly balanced their lineup with lefty hitters and more capable contact bats, Luke Voit would’ve never had to be traded and we wouldn’t have had to deal with any awkwardness since last July. Voit’s been one of the Yankees’ best hitters when healthy, but he’s struggled with injuries ever since arriving in a trade from the Cardinals. Replacing him with Rizzo isn’t a bad situation, but it definitely played a role in upending chemistry in some capacity. But now that he’s gone and the Yankees got a top-10 Padres prospect out of it in the hard-throwing Justin Lange, everybody can move on from this complicated situation without feeling too badly about. Again, solid move, nothing special.

And that sums up the entire offseason for the Yankees.

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