'Ominous' Twins injury all but killed another Yankees trade dream before Opening Day

If you're one of those Yankees fans expecting a surprise right-handed bat to show up just ahead of the Opening Day roster reveal, your hypothesis was dealt another blow on Sunday.

MLB insider Joel Sherman has been all over Brian Cashman's potential last-minute maneuvers, predicting that a righty fourth outfielder/third baseman will be added in order to provide another professional hitter to the group. He did also theorize that Everson Pereira would be carried for that purpose, though, which we now know didn't materialize; he was demoted one week ago.

As for those righty bat options? They're slim and growing slimmer. Cashman will have to pull a rabbit entirely out of a hat here in order to find impact talent, even though it seems more likely that he tugs the rabbit slightly, can't dislodge the rabbit, and simply leaves it in the hat.

Luis Rengifo made a degree of sense as a contact-making lineup diversifier, but he's come down with an injury and will likely miss Opening Day and beyond. If versatility was Cashman's preference, Willi Castro of the Twins felt like a natural choice, coming off a league-average offensive season in the outfield/at third base/at shortstop. He's in his walk year/final season of arbitration making $6.4 million. Maybe combine that with Trent Grisham's salary, and the Broke Yankees could have a deal?

Alas, Castro just accidentally became much more important at work overnight, and it's ruining Cashman's life. Slugging Twins infielder Royce Lewis came up lame legging one out on Sunday, and will start the season on the injured list as he heads for further evaluation; he's out indefinitely. Now, it's on Castro to help shoulder the burden, alongside youngsters Brooks Lee and Edouard Julien. The Twins, once overflowing with potential trade options, now need all of their ducks to cover for their own injury issues.

Twins' Royce Lewis injured again, which means Willi Castro is even further off the table for the Yankees

Lewis himself would be an interesting pie-in-the-sky "buy low" candidate for the Yankees, though he's swiftly becoming more Byron Buxton-adjacent by the day.

An idolizer of Derek Jeter who imitated the Captain's pre-pitch routine when he visited Yankee Stadium in 2024, Lewis posted a 149 OPS+ and drilled several key homers during Minnesota's first further-than-the-first-round playoff run in decades in 2023. Last year, he only played 82 games, though, following an abbreviated 58 the year prior.

Hoping for a full season for the first time in his MLB career, Lewis' dreams were all but dashed on Sunday afternoon. So were Cashman's.