Yankees' recent trade loss is already crushing baseballs at Rockies spring training

The New York Yankees have developed a strange affinity for Colorado Rockies players recently. While it might seem strange that a team with World Series aspirations would consistently be raiding the roster of a team that went 43-119 last season, that's exactly what New York has done.

In two separate trades at last year's deadline, New York swung a deal with Colorado to bring in Ryan McMahon and Jake Bird. At the time, there seemed to be at least some logic, though the Bird deal quickly seemed like the Yankees got fleeced, and it's become clear that McMahon would be better served as part of a platoon rather than as an everyday option.

The Yankees went back to this well once more over the offseason, trading blocked first base prospect TJ Rumfield to the Rockies in exchange for 23-year-old reliever Angel Chivilli and his career 6.18 ERA.

The move might have seemed unnecessary. Chivilli has a live arm, but provides zero present-day value to a bullpen that is full of question marks. However, Rumfield, a lefty swinging first baseman who turns 26 in May, had no clear pathway to the big league roster.

This seemed like a spare-part-for-spare-part type of swap, but in typical Yankees fashion, Rumfield is now raking in spring training for Colorado.

Forgotten former Yankees prospect TJ Rumfield is raking in spring training with the Rockies

So far this spring, Rumfield has put on an impressive power display for Colorado. He's played in five games, logging 14 plate appearances with 3 homers and a .364/.500/1.182 slash line. Known as a hit-over-power bat, the six-foot-five first baseman has shown that there might be a little more pop in his lumber than we originally thought.

Of course, it's unreasonable to overreact to a small sample size, and a few home runs over some sparse spring training at-bats shouldn't change the outlook on a player who is currently ranked as Colorado's No. 29 prospect.

Still, Rumfield has a chance to win the first base job for the Rockies, thanks in large part to the talent void present on their big league roster. That's an opportunity he never would have gotten with Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt both ahead of him on the depth chart.

The bigger question is, will the Yankees ultimately live to regret giving the Rockies these mid-level prospects in exchange for a trio of relatively uninspiring veterans? Last summer, the Yankees sent out Griffin Herring, Ben Shields, Roc Riggio, and Josh Grosz for McMahon and Bird.

Herring finished 2025 with a 1.89 ERA over 119 1/3 innings split between Single-A and Hi-A, while striking out 31.4% of batters faced. Riggio put up a combined .263/.363/.517 line with 20 homers and 17 steals between Hi-A and Double-A. Grosz had a 4.67 ERA and was flipped to the Arizona Diamondbacks, while Shields put together a 2.78 ERA in 55 innings.

Now including Rumfield, the chances of any of these guys becoming stars are very slim, though a useful player or two might blossom from the collection. What the Yankees need to reckon with is the fact that, as part of a larger package, these guys could have been used to land a much bigger fish than what they received in return, especially as they continue to post impressive numbers in the minors.

The Yankees didn't need Rumfield, but that doesn't mean he couldn't have been part of a more substantial return. Now, with him showing out this spring, it shows that the Yankees might have sold him low, just like the others.