Yankees Had Interest In Key Padres Reliever During Season

The San Diego Padres have a lot of good relievers, and the New York Yankees have had ongoing interest in several. The most prominent one was closer Mason Miller back when the Padres slumped before the trade deadline, but according to a report from Mark Polishuk of MLBTradeRumors.com, the Yankees have also “long eyed” right-handed reliever Jeremiah Estrada. 

The report also referenced material from Joel Sherman of the New York Post, who wasn’t specific about when this happened or whether any conversations between the two teams actually occured. Estrada was also reportedly discussed when the New York Mets supposedly tried to line up a deal for the reliever. 

Estrada will be going into his age-28 season next year, and he’s been a successful member of the Padres’ bullpen for three seasons now. This year he struggled with health issues, however, as he was limited to just 31 regular-season innings due to three trips to the injured list.

His injuries were varied. Estrada missed time with elbow tendinitis, knee inflammation and a shoulder impingement, per Polishuk, and the last of those injuries ended his season in late August and kept him out of the Padres’ playoff run. 

Padres GM A.J. Preller did indicate that Estrada might have been available if the Padres had made it to the NLCS, and he’s expected to have a normal offseason. 

The result was a dropoff in performance and stats. The reliever had a 3.22 ERA over 134 innings in the 2024-25  seasons to go with a nine percent walk rate and an elite 36.3 percent strikeout rate.  In 2026, Estrada’s ERA was 3.48, and his strikeout rate dropped slighly to 30.2 percent. His walk rate did jump to 12.7 percent, though, and his  fastball velocity dropped from 97.9 mph in 2025 to 95.9 mph this year.

The concern there is that Estrada has had Tommy John surgery, and some pitchers experience ongoing health issues in the aftermath of their recovery. That was how the Padres acquired him back in 2022-23 when they got him off waivers from the Chicago Cubs, which was a sharp acquisition move from Preller. 

Estrada is heading into an arbitration year, but his projected number of $1.3 million is very low for a quality reliever. That makes him a valuable bargaining chip if the Padres want to move him, and they don’t have a lot of those after once again stripping their farm system to acquire starters Casey Mize and Robbie Ray.