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Yankees reportedly sign slugging catcher after we begged Brian Cashman for trade deadline action

We've been begging...for something.
Adam Weinrib
Adam Weinrib

Yanks Go Yard

Jun 9, 2026; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Mitch Garver (18) looks toward the dugout during the second inning against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: James A. Pittman-Imagn Images / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Was Mitch Garver the prize of the trade deadline for New York Yankees fans? Absolutely not. Adley Rutschman was available to in-division squads, apparently. Tyler Stephenson ... yeah, we still don't know why the Reds didn't trade him. But if you can't get Ryan Jeffers, you might as well get the man who played the same role in Minnesota before he arrived, and the Yankees reportedly inked a minor-league deal with Garver on Friday.

Zero risk. Ali Sánchez stays, for the time being, but if he's unsatisfactory and Garver scorches, the Yankees now have options with a simple path to a 40-man spot.

As utterly insane as it sounds to say out loud, the Yankees' options (sans-Jeffers, Stephenson, and Hunter Goodman) essentially equated to an Adley Rutschman overpay, a Joey Bart bargain (his hand was broken in a freak on-field accident against the Red Sox on Thursday), or a waiver wire Garver nab.

Garver it is, per Ted Schwerzler and corroborated by Talkin' Yanks.

Yankees' waiver-wire shopping probably won't end with Mitch Garver

Look around you. The Yankees still have one or two bullpen roles to fill with experienced arms, and while trades have ceased (by law!), DFAs will continue. Matt Strahm of the Kansas City Royals, in the midst of a 7.32 ERA season, is available. Zack Littell - 4.97 mark in Washington - is on the table as well. If either inspires you more than Yerry de los Santos, they're probably worth taking a flier on.

Garver was the most obvious fit of all, though. Despite his season of drudgery, his positive bWAR (0.4!) indicates he's been Austin Wells' equal while out-OPS+'ing him 73 to 57 (again, we're talking about a bleak range here). His .432 OPS at home vs. .731 on the road tells a story of being spooked by Seattle's unfriendly confines. The Yankees will be explicit about righty-lefty matchups, too; Garver got near-equal ABs against both in Seattle and was quite pungent no matter who was throwing him the ball ... but, again, standards have never been lower.

The risk is zero. Garver only has a place laid out for him in Scranton, unless he produces. And while it feels awful the Yankees didn't get definitively better at the deadline, at least they threw a dart at the board after it ended.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.