Padres blog proposes blockbuster trade deadline deal Yankees should make in a heartbeat

Trade deadline season always features enough rumors, trade proposals and transactions to make your head spin. And sometimes those aforementioned trade proposals are so bad you can’t close out of a story fast enough. 

But then sometimes the occasional one pops up that makes so much sense you’ve got to wipe off your screen just to make sure that you’re reading everything right. 

That sentiment was on display this week when the East Village Times’ Mike Ursery put out a proposed megadeal between the Padres and Yankees that New York should make in a heartbeat.

Padres blog proposes blockbuster trade deadline deal Yankees should make in a heartbeat

The hypothetical trade is as follows: 

The Yankees receive RHP Dylan Cease, RHP Robert Suarez and INF Jake Cronenworth in exchange for OF Spencer Jones, C Rafael Flores, LHP Brock Selvidge and INF Jorbit Vivas.

As you can see, the Yankees would dip into their MLB-ready prospect pool to reinforce their current major league roster in their quest to add some established talent to their current roster. 

The biggest addition in the trade would arguably be Cease, who has struggled this year but is coming off a season where he earned Cy Young votes.

While getting Cease would be a good move in a vacuum, it would look even better considering the Yankees just lost Clarke Schmidt for the rest of the season (and likely all of 2026) with a UCL injury. 

Yankees starters have posted a solid 3.67 ERA so far this season, but they currently have a Schmidt-sized hole in their rotation and are also relying on Marcus Stroman and Will Warren. They’re playing with fire, and need to make a move before they get burned. 

Cease has a 4.62 ERA in 97 1/3 innings this year, but he still has a career ERA of 3.84 and has tallied two seasons with Cy Young votes and has a no-hitter on his resume. 

The Yankees got a first-hand look at Cease’s stuff earlier this year when he allowed just one run across 6 1/3 innings against the Bombers in May. 

He’s an impending free agent, but that shouldn’t be a roadblock standing in the way of the Yankees’ acquisition of him. 

Suarez, who was just named an All-Star for the second time in his career, would serve as a useful reinforcement for a bullpen that’s struggled as of late. Although Devin Williams appears to have put his rough start behind him, Luke Weaver has struggled since returning from the injured list and Mark Leiter Jr. recently joined Fernando Cruz on the injured list.

The last piece of the trade is Cronenworth, who would be a valuable utility piece at first and second base. Although the Yankees finally shifted Jazz Chisholm Jr. back to second base, Cronenworth could also spell Paul Goldshchmidt at second base. At the very least, he’d be a better bench piece than DJ LeMahieu.

And then there are the pieces the Yankees would give up. The loss of Jones (the Yankees' No. 2 prospect, per MLB Pipeline) would hurt, but he’s always felt like a prospect who would start his MLB career somewhere else due to a trade.

Flores was the Yankees' Minor League Player of the Year last year, but it looks like the Yankees already have their catcher of the future in Austin Wells. The same can be said for the left-handed Selvidge, who projects as a No. 4 or 5 starter. 

Lastly is Vivas, who hit .156 in 22 games with the Yankees this season. He’s played well in Triple-A this year, but it doesn’t look like the Yankees have the chance to give him the runway he’ll need to succeed.