Thoughts after the Yankees trade Jose Trevino to the Reds

The Yankees have not gone more than four days without making a trade or free agent signing since Juan Soto left for the Mets two Sundays ago. Friday night, the Yankees sent Jose Trevino to the Reds for righty reliever Fernando Cruz and journeyman catcher Alex Jackson. The press release hit my inbox at 10:34pm ET. On a Friday. Please keep it to normal business hours, guys.

Trevino is the second catcher the Yankees have traded within the last week (Carlos Narváez went to the Red Sox), so they’re putting all their eggs in the Austin Wells basket. The catching depth chart behind him is Jackson, Ben Rice, and JC Escarra in some order. I expect the Yankees to bring in a depth catcher at some point. Someone to compete for the backup job in Spring Training and stash in Triple-A.

Clearly, the Yankees are comfortable with their catching depth, and they used Trevino’s final year of team control to net a high-strikeout reliever and a body behind the plate. Cruz is quite the story. He was drafted by the Royals as an infielder in 2007, but he didn’t hit, so he converted to pitching and bounced from the minors to independent ball to the Mexican League before making his MLB debut at age 32 in 2022.

Now 34, Cruz threw 66.2 innings with a 4.86 ERA (3.27 FIP) and the sixth highest strikeout rate (37.8%) and the tenth highest swinging strike (17.0%) among 169 qualified relievers in 2024. He has a mid-90s four-seamer and an upper-80s cutter, and his moneymaker is a knuckling low-80s splitter that had a 59.3% whiff rate (!) and allowed a .149 SLG (.119 xSLG!) this past season (GIF via Fireside Yankees).

With Cincinnati, Cruz threw his splitter 40% of the time, and my guess is the Yankees will put him on the Tommy Kahnle plan, and have him throw it closer to 60% of the time. The downside here is Cruz walks too many batters (career 11.4%) and the fastball and cutter are not good. He’s essentially a one-trick pony, though that one trick is really good. Cruz’s splitter is one of the best pitches in baseball.

Between Cruz, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver, and Devin Williams, the Yankees have loaded up their bullpen with high-whiff changeups and splitters. I guess that’s their thing now? My initial thought was Cruz closed the door on Kahnle’s return, though maybe there is still a path to Tommy Tightpants coming back given the apparent emphasis on changeups/splitters? We’ll see. Either way, the Yankees still need a lefty reliever. 

Cruz is entering his final pre-arbitration year. He has four years of team control remaining and all three minor league options remaining too. He’s cheap and optionable, though I wouldn’t get excited about four years of team control. Cruz turns 35 in March. It’s unlikely he’ll make it through all four years because that’s baseball. I consider him a 1-2 year pickup. Anything more than that is gravy.

Jackson, 29 next week, is another guy with an interesting backstory. He was the No. 6 pick in the 2014 draft as a catcher, the Mariners put him in the outfield to move his bat through the system quicker, but Jackson didn’t hit at all, so he eventually moved back behind the plate because that was his best chance to make it. He has big league time with the Braves, Marlins, Brewers, and Rays. You may remember this annoying homer.

The Reds signed Jackson to a minor league contract on Nov. 8th and traded him a little more than month later. You don’t see that often. Free agents who sign Major League contracts can not be traded without their consent until June 15th. Minor league contract guys can be traded at any time though. I wonder if the Yankees tried to sign Jackson, he said no and went to Cincinnati because they offered a clearer path to playing time, so they got him now?

Jackson is a career .132/.224/.232 (29 wRC+) big league hitter in 340 plate appearances scattered across the last six seasons. He rates well as a pitch-framer and he has a healthy 29% caught stealing rate, but there is a minimum acceptable standard on offense, and Jackson doesn’t meet it. If the Yankees see him as the backup behind Wells, I don’t like it. They should bring in a veteran backup type.

The trade saves the Yankees a little money. Trevino is projected to make $3.4M in 2025, though the Yankees have to pay someone to fill his roster spot. The projected $3.4M minus the $760,000 league minimum equals $2.64M in savings. It ain’t much. I don’t think money was a significant factor in the trade. I think the Yankees wanted Cruz’s splitter and strikeouts in their bullpen, and are okay with Jackson as depth.

Acquired from the Rangers near the end of Spring Training 2022, Trevino went to an All-Star Game with the Yankees and put up +6.2 FanGraphs WAR (includes framing) in 244 games and 201 starts during his three years in pinstripes. He did that despite not being much of a hitter (.230/.279/.361 and 80 wRC+ as a Yankee). Trevino’s throwing became a major issue this past season too. Still, a good backup, he was.

Trevino’s a likable guy (remember when he went to his son’s career day in full uniform?) and he’s a great teammate who mentored Wells even while he was in the process of taking his job. His game planning work will be missed too. Trevino’s like an extra coach. It is completely insane that the Yankees pinch-hit him with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series game, but that’s not Trevino’s fault. He did his best.

Long story short, the Yankees traded one year of a backup catcher for a high-strikeout reliever who could stick around for four years, but probably won’t given the nature of bullpen arms. Jackson doesn’t figure to move the needle. It’s essentially Trevino for Cruz, and the Yankees added an elite swing-and-miss pitch to a relief crew that was short on those in 2024. Good luck in Cincy, Jose. I’d skip Skyline.