Elmer Rodriguez may help Yankees play long game in getting edge over Red Sox

Which is worth more, a dollar today or a dollar a year from now? The simple answer is you'd rather have your value today. But what if you could either have a dollar today or 100 dollars in a year? You'd have to endure the pain of having your pockets be a little lighter for the time, but the payoff is much sweeter. That's what the New York Yankees are hoping will happen after trading Carlos Narvaez for Elmer Rodriguez.

When the trade was consummated back in December of 2024, it seemed like one of those deals where the two clubs were just shuffling around the margins. The Yankees rarely make impactful deals with the Boston Red Sox, and in this particular one, they were moving a mid-20s catcher who had a total of 15 major league plate appearances for a mid-ranked prospect. Neither seemed to stand much to gain.

However, as the 2025 regular season kicked off, Narvaez started turning heads. He rounded into form in May, and we wondered what the heck the Yankees were thinking. By the All-Star break, the forgotten backstop was hitting .273/.347/.439 (and killing the Yankees/walking them off at every turn). Advantage Boston.

For much of the first half, Rodriguez was down in Hi-A Hudson Valley. The numbers weren't just good, they were great, coming in with a 2.26 ERA and 29% strikeout rate over 83 2/3 innings. But this was Hi-A. A lot still needed to go right for the former fourth-round pick, and at that level, many live arms get by on stuff alone. We'd need to see what happened at the next level before we could truly get excited.

The Yankees playing the long game might have them winning big over the Red Sox in the Elmer Rodriguez-Carlos Narvaez trade

Cruz's final 11 starts came at Somerset, and rather than hit the Double-A wall, he kept on chugging. Despite taking on more polished hitters, he actually improved his walk rate from 10.9% at Hudson Valley to 8.2% in Somerset, all while goosing the strikeout rate up to 30.3%. The young right-hander ultimately posted a stellar 2.64 ERA at the make-or-break level.

Meanwhile, Narvaez cratered. In the second half, he hit just .187/.233/.387 while battling injury. In reality, it was a torrid May and June that carried him through, as in four of the season's six months, he posted wRC+ numbers of 86 or below.

Rodriguez would get one more promotion, making his final start of the year at Scranton, and though that was a rough outing, it didn't stop him from being named the Yankees' Minor Leaguer of the Year by Baseball America.

Fast forward to today, and Rodriguez is New York's No. 3 prospect and a consensus top-100 entry. He's also impressing a lot of people in big league spring training.

"Big fan. He's another guy that I think has a really, really bright future as a starting pitcher," Aaron Boone said this past weekend. We agree.

Typically, you have to give up top major league talent to get back a prospect like Rodriguez. Whether the Yankees got lucky or actually saw something in him is up for debate, but at the time of the deal, he didn't seem to be that guy. That's why the cost was a guy who is a good defender behind the plate with a questionable bat. We're still not sure if Narvaez is a quality starting catcher or simply a high-end backup.

We could see the 22-year-old hurler in the Bronx this season. With a bit more time, we could see him ascend to a top-half-of-the-rotation arm. If that happens, and the cost was just Narvaez, the Yankees will have won big. They might have just taken today's dollar and turned it into something much greater. We're not at the point where we can declare victory yet, but boy, are we getting close.