Yankees News: Cubs, Dodgers sign former NYY pitchers, 2024 trade acquisition released

For the moment, USA Today Bob Nightengale's column has taken MLB by storm with his plentiful tidbits of free agency information. But underneath the surface, other news is happening, and New York Yankees fans must stay on top of it.

Well ... sort of. It's not exactly anything that will affect the 2025 outlook, but whenever former Yankees are changing hands it's worth mentioning. And a bunch of stuff happened over the weekend.

A couple of NL teams got involved in the Former Yankee Market, first with the Chicago Cubs signing reliever Phil Bickford late on Friday night. If you recall, Bickford spent all of 2024 with the Yankees after being signed to a minor-league deal.

He logged eight games in the majors to aid the thin bullpen. He came on in late June and then again in late August/early September, with most of his time being spent with the Triple-A Scranton RailRiders. At the big-league level, half of Bickford's outings were good and the other half were bad, so it was clear he was only going to be utilized in an emergency and wouldn't be called upon much further. He'll now have a different home in 2025.

Additionally, the World Series champion Dodgers signed a Yankee from waaaay back when. On Saturday they agreed to a deal with Giovanny Gallegos, who was part of the Luke Voit trade with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018.

Gallegos emerged as a closer for the Cardinals for a short period of time before falling off a cliff in 2023 and 2024. The 33-year-old did put up a few All-Star-caliber campaigns, so perhaps the Dodgers and their famous pitching lab believe they can correct a mechanical issue or pitch mix oversight to utilize him in 2025. The Cardinals released him in August and opted to move on sooner than the offseason.

And finally, the Yankees parted with a 2024 acquisition of their own after they released pitcher Cody Morris on Saturday. Morris never appeared in an MLB game with the Yankees after being acquired from the Cleveland Guardians for Estevan Florial, and many wondered why since his numbers at Triple-A weren't bad at all.

The right-hander appeared in 26 games, logging a 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP and 46 strikeouts in 38 innings. The Yankees' pitching staff badly needed to cover innings throughout all of this past season, but Morris was apparently not an option.

What do you know?! Another "nothing for nothing" Brian Cashman trade! Well, Florial actually beat the Yankees in 2024, so this is a win for the Guardians. Pretty ridiculous if you ask us.