Yankees let their hubris lead the way with Cade Winquest roster decision

The New York Yankees have an optics problem this spring, with many "roster battles" ending with a pre-determined result. Jasson Domínguez out-hit Randal Grichuk (and so did Spencer Jones), but Grichuk's strengths are his weaknesses, so he lost a competition that was rigged before it began (as long as they were able to, uh, sign Grichuk). Carlos Lagrange out-pitched Ryan Weathers by leaps and bounds, but wasn't even really considered for either the Yankees' four-man or five-man rotation units. And now, with one final cherry on top, Cade Winquest arrived in the Rule 5 Draft, which requires the claiming team to return the player to his original team if they are ever removed from the active roster.

Winquest pitched poorly. He did so all February and March. His fastball briefly ticked up in velocity midway through the process, which didn't make him any less hittable. He arrived as a Double-A arm with some supposed wickedness. He left camp as a Double-A arm with less wickedness than advertised — a Double-A arm who'd better survive at the MLB level or else.

Or else what? The Yankees will have to admit they didn't have the quick fix they believed they did when they snagged him from the Cardinals back in December? They might have to watch him succeed back in St. Louis using their tools?

Since they couldn't bear the thought, Winquest has made the Yankees' Opening Day roster on the strength of a 7.20 ERA/1.70 WHIP/bad data all around.

Yankees never acquired any real competition for Cade Winquest. That's the actual issue.

Of course, the main difference here is that no seemingly perfect candidate out-performed Winquest this spring and made the choice particularly tough. This was especially true after Luis Gil's likely demotion gave the Yankees a third open bullpen spot to work with.

Lagrange is too tantalizing as a starter for the Yankees to consider making him a reliever on Opening Day (and I get that). Yovanny Cruz might be a candidate soon, but he was limited to start spring and only made a few appearances (albeit brilliant ones). He'll need to prove in the high minors that his walk-related trauma is behind him.

Beyond those two, there was no other logical choice than to give Winquest a low-leverage shot. And that's the issue. The Yankees' bullpen was porous in 2025. They lost Luke Weaver and Devin Williams this season, among other assorted struggling spare parts (Mark Leiter Jr., Ian Hamilton, Jonathan Loaisiga). Instead of signing someone like Robert Suarez to a palatable deal (three years, $45 million in Atlanta) to slot in behind David Bednar (in a walk year) and Camilo Doval (totally unpredictable), the sum total of their proposed solution was grabbing/fixing Winquest and grabbing/fixing Angel Chivilli.

Chivilli is in the minors after a dreck-filled spring, and Winquest is in the majors on a technicality. He'll be barred from appearing in any situation where his flat fastball can cause harm. All because the Yankees liked his scouting report in the Cam Schlittler draft and want to prove their 2022 selves right after taking another chance on him this winter.

The Yankees' continued "we can fix him!" hubris wouldn't be so painful if they'd supplemented their experiments with a few additions who have longer track records of success. Alas, here we are, as the Yankees have bought themselves more time to convince themselves Winquest is something he isn't.