Forget the big-ticket free agents or the blockbusters that light up the back pages for a week. The New York Yankees just made a move that smells exactly like the kind of low-risk, high-reward theft that keeps this organization afloat. On Wednesday, Brian Cashman sent minor league first baseman TJ Rumfield to the Colorado Rockies for right-hander Angel Chivilli.
It is a classic “trade from depth” scenario that should have fans leaning in. Chivilli is 23 years old and throws a baseball like it was shot out of a cannon. We are talking about a guy who averaged 97.1 mph on his heater last season. That velocity alone put him in the 88th percentile across the entire league.
The Matt Blake Project
The ERA is the elephant in the room. A 7.06 mark over 43 games in 2025 looks like a typo, but context is everything in this game. You try pitching half your games in the thin air of Coors Field with a four-seamer that has subpar shape. It is a recipe for a flight to the bleachers.
Moving to the Bronx gives him a fresh slate and, more importantly, a meeting with Matt Blake. The Yankees pitching coach has a habit of turning these “broken” high-velocity arms into late-inning monsters. Look at Clay Holmes or Luke Weaver if you need a reminder of what happens when this lab gets a hold of a live wire.
More Than Just a Heater
Chivilli can be more than just a thrower. The kid has a changeup that induced a 42.6 percent whiff rate last year and a slider that sat at 45.5 percent. Those are elite, bat-missing numbers that suggest the stuff is far better than the results.
The strikeouts were low at 6.60 per nine, which is bizarre for someone with those whiff rates. It tells me his sequencing is a mess or he is nibbling when he should be attacking. He doesn’t walk the world, either, sitting at 3.53 free passes per nine. That is a manageable baseline for a guy who just needs to learn how to professionalize his arsenal.
The Cost of Doing Business
Losing TJ Rumfield stings a little if you value high-floor organizational depth. The guy is a professional hitter who put up an .825 OPS in Triple-A last year and won an AFL batting title. But let’s be real here. Rumfield is a 25-year-old first baseman who lacks the massive power you need to stick at the corners in the Bronx.
He was blocked, plain and simple. Trading a fringy prospect for a potential high-leverage arm is a win every single day of the week. Chivilli has a 40-man spot and middle-relief upside that could play as early as Opening Day. If the Yankees can fix the fastball shape and get him to trust those secondary weapons, the Rockies are going to regret this one by July.