Giants officially pull off the long con in Yankees' Camilo Doval trade with end-of-year move

The San Francisco Giants, smelling blood in the water at the end of a lost season, just pulled off the kind of move you rarely see. An eventual reunion with a free agent you set free at the trade deadline? Classic maneuver; the Yankees pulled it off with Aroldis Chapman, and it's been done to death. A late-season waiver claim of a guy you dropped in a sell-off a year and a half (and two teams) later? Congrats, Giants. You might've just broken the mold with your Camilo Doval acquisition.

Doval pitched for the Yankees between the 2025 and 2026 trade deadlines, despite being controllable through the 2027 season. That's how you know it's good. After a turbulent year of decidedly not being fixed by Matt Blake, the Yankees dealt Doval to the Pittsburgh Pirates this July, in what we all assumed was a precursor to replacing him with a more trustworthy arm.

Nope. The Yankees added zero relievers at the deadline. They just wanted Doval gone.

Pittsburgh tired of him quickly, too, and instead of non-tendering him, they DFA'd him this week, ensuring his next 40-man roster spot (with an escalating cost) would be elsewhere. That elsewhere? San Francisco! Why not try this whole thing again?!

Giants cement trade heist over Yankees with Camilo Doval addition

For those keeping score at home, the Yankees have Double-A catcher Omar Alfonzo to show for their 2026 Doval swap, while the Giants have breakout bat Parks Harber, Jesús Rodriguez, Trystan Vrieling, and lefty Carlos De La Rosa ... oh, and Doval, too. Doval's there.

The Pirates end up with decidedly the shortest end of the stick after a midseason bullpen revamp that kind of worked, but left Doval out in the cold and Luke Weaver dealing with shingles.

Will Doval make it to Opening Day with the Giants? We hope so. If it's a four-game cameo in a season so lost it stars Terry O'Quinn and Matthew Fox, that'll be an unsatisfying ending. Either way, this is clearly a coup; the Giants got everything they ever wanted, and the Yankees got burdened with a temporary tantalizing talent.

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