Yankees have easy Tarik Skubal trade alternative after recent Twins rumors

Rumor has it the New York Yankees want to fill their void behind the plate with right-handed-hitting Ryan Jeffers of the Minnesota Twins, and if it's true, and they make a play for the best available catcher, there might be another prize there for the taking.

Aside from Jeffers, the player with the most buzz connecting him to the Yankees has been Tarik Skubal. Skubal would be something of a luxury play. Max Fried's injury and some uneven showings from Ryan Weathers and Will Warren might indicate that adding another starter is an underrated need.

Skubal will not come cheap, and the competition for his services will be fierce. The Los Angeles Dodgers are lurking, and even small-market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays could get in on the mix. In that case, New York might benefit from pivoting to the rumored next-best option, Joe Ryan of the Twins.

Joe Ryan is surprisingly similar to Tarik Skubal in Yankees' trade deadline dream

In order for the Yankees to add a starter, barring injury, the player in question would have to be a true front-end hurler. Anything below that top tier would have trouble cracking the rotation in the Bronx.

With a 2.99 ERA over 16 starts and 87 1/3 innings, Ryan is every bit an ace and could threaten a healthy Fried for the second-best starter on the team behind Cam Schlittler. And, in more ways than one, he's the most Skubal-like arm out there.

What makes Skubal so special is his ability to rack up strikeouts at an insane rate while keeping his walks to a minuscule level. Entering the 2026 campaign, Ryan was the only other pitcher in Skubal's club in terms of starters with at least 10.00 K/9 and under 2.00 BB/9 in the entire league.

So far in 2026, Ryan has continued down that dominatingly efficient path with 10.2 K/9 and 1.85 BB/9, all while limiting his one bugaboo, the home run. For his career, Ryan has averaged 1.35 HR/9, but this year that number has plummeted to 0.82.

There's also one area where Ryan is clearly a better option than Skubal, and that has to do with his contract. While whoever acquires the reigning AL Cy Young winner also gets the balance of his record-setting $32 million arbitration salary, plus the right to hand out a record-setting free-agent contract in hopes of retaining him in the offseason, whoever lands Ryan gets a bargain.

The 30-year-old right-hander is making $6.2 million this year and has a $13 million mutual option that could cover his final year of team control in 2027. The biggest takeaway here is that while Skubal is a rental, Ryan is a piece for next season as well.

If the Yankees land both Ryan and Jeffers (as opposed to just Ryan Jeffers alone), they'd come away clear winners at the trade deadline.

There's a lot that says Brian Cashman wouldn't be so bold. This would represent him dipping into the top of the market not once, but twice. However, there was some friction between Ryan and Minnesota during arbitration negotiations, and the Twins' financial struggles resulted in a front office shakeup over the winter. Perhaps that could motivate them to give the Yankees an ever-so-slight discount if New York were to take both veterans off their hands.

Landing both, plus adding some bullpen help, would have the Yankees sitting pretty for the stretch run and could be the best possible trade deadline outcome.

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