The current state of the New York Yankees’ offseason can best be described as an eerie, calculated silence that has the fanbase twitching with anxiety.
Aside from minor housekeeping moves like extending Amed Rosario and bringing back Paul Blackburn on a modest one-year deal, General Manager Brian Cashman has largely kept his powder dry while the rest of the league maneuvers. This lack of activity isn’t negligence; it is the calm before a strategic storm that I believe will define the franchise’s direction for the next half-decade.
The front office is playing a high-stakes game of chicken, waiting for the market to come to them rather than chasing overpriced assets in a panic.
Winning the Staring Contest for Cody Bellinger
The first domino to fall will almost certainly be the return of Cody Bellinger, but on terms that make sense for the Bronx Bombers, not Scott Boras.
Right now, Bellinger’s camp is asking for the moon and stars, trying to leverage his name value into a contract that simply doesn’t exist in this sinking market. However, reality is setting in, and I predict he will settle for a five-year, $170 million deal once he realizes the Yankees are the only team offering both the money and the familiarity he’s looking for. This aligns with the front office’s broader strategy, which involves the complex Yankees architecture of signing two Boras clients in the same offseason.
Bellinger is the perfect fit for this roster because he offers a specific set of skills that this lineup desperately needs to balance its heavy hitters.
In 2025, he posted a solid .272 batting average and swatted 29 home runs, proving that his swing is tailor-made for the short porch in right field. While his power metrics have dipped—ranking in the 24th percentile for average exit velocity and 26th for hard-hit rate—his ability to make contact remains elite, with a strikeout rate in the 91st percentile. Defensively, he is still a wizard, providing 93rd percentile range in the outfield, which gives the Yankees immense flexibility to rotate players through the DH spot.
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The Blockbuster Trade for Freddy Peralta
Once the lineup is secured, I expect Cashman to aggressively pivot to the rotation by targeting Milwaukee Brewers ace Freddy Peralta. The Yankees and Brewers already have a well-oiled trade pipeline, established last winter when New York sent Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin to Milwaukee for Devin Williams. While the recent move where the Yankees re-sign Paul Blackburn to a one-year, $2 million contract provides depth, it does not move the needle for a team trying to win a World Series. Peralta is the legitimate frontline hammer that helps protect a unit already dealing with major injury questions.
Peralta is coming off a dominant 2025 campaign where he posted a 17-6 record with a stellar 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts. His underlying metrics are even more terrifying for opposing hitters; he ranked in the 97th percentile for pitching run value and the 96th percentile for offspeed run value, proving he can dismantle lineups in multiple ways. He is an ace in his prime, and acquiring him would instantly give the Yankees arguably the best one-two punch in the American League.
The Cost of Doing Business
Of course, landing a pitcher of Peralta’s caliber will require a painful exit of young talent.
I anticipate the package will center around a young MLB-ready arm like Will Warren or potentially even Luis Gil, along with a bundle of prospects (potentially including Spencer Jones/or even Jasson Dominguez) to replenish Milwaukee’s system.
It is a steep price to pay, but for a Yankees team that is firmly in “win-now” mode, hoarding prospects while the championship window is open is malpractice. These two moves—locking in Bellinger and trading for Peralta—transform a quiet winter into a terrifying spring for the rest of the AL East.