4 big moves at Winter Meetings Yankees fans should be anticipating

2. High(-ish)-Leverage Reliever Acquisition

OK! Get me AMPED! With New York losing all of Chad Green (free agent), Zack Britton (FA), Aroldis Chapman (FA), Miguel Castro (FA), Scott Effross (to injury), Luis Gil (to injury), Deivi Garcia (to the Monstars) and others to trade in the middle of the 2022 season, the bullpen needs to be addressed badly.

Right now we’re looking at Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, Michael King (??), Lou Trivino and Jonathan Loaisiga as the main core of relievers. Is that enough? Probably not, if we’re to judge how the group collectively performed down the stretch, especially after King’s injury.

There’s no defined closer. Holmes fell off a cliff in the second half, and we’re not sure how many fans are trusting him heading into 2023. Then there are consistency issues with Trivino and Loaisiga. Peralta is a free agent after 2023. Notice how we didn’t mention Clarke Schmidt.

Ron Marinaccio is a promising option, should he reemerge, as is Greg Weissert. But this is assuming everything goes right with what the Yankees have. Also, what even is Lucas Luetge’s role, anyway?

That said, they need a more reliable option in the back end. Perhaps the White Sox would be open to trading Liam Hendriks. Could be fun and smart. But what other trade options are there? Not a whole lot. Then you have guys like Kenley Jansen, Andrew Chafin and Michael Fulmer available in free agency. The next tier of Matt Moore, David Robertson and Matt Strahm could help.

We have no idea who it’ll be, but expect a 7-8-9-inning guy to be acquired next week.