New York Yankees' Newest Trade Rumor is Beyond Confusing

The New York Yankees finally landing a starting pitcher, completing a trade with the Miami Marlins to land Ryan Weathers on Tuesday evening.

The Yankees gave up four prospects in the deal, including outfielder Dillon Lewis, who was recently ranked eighth in New York's system by Baseball America.

With the Weathers acquisition, the Yanks now have seven legitimate big-league pitchers on their roster. That also includes Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Luis Gil.

Yes, Cole and Rodon are both slated to be sidelined to start next season, but they are expected back at some point over the first couple of months.

So the Yankees are probably good on starting pitching now, right?

Well, apparently not.

Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty of The Athletic have reported that New York is still pursuing another "higher-level" arm and mentioned Freddy Peralta and MacKenzie Gore as possibilites.

So why trade for Weathers then?

It's not like the Yankees bagged Weathers on the cheap. Lewis (not to mention fellow outfielder Brendan Jones and the two other prospects) is a pretty steep price to pay for a pitcher who made just 24 combined starts in 2024 and 2025 and has never thrown 100 innings in a single season.

Unless New York knows something concerning about Cole or Rodon, there really was no reason to go out and spend rather significant prospect capital on Weathers when you were planning on swinging a trade for Peralta or Gore anyway.

What exactly is the deal here?

I understand the "you can never have enough pitching" mantra, and that is true to an extent. But when you get to a point where you are trading legitimate assets to add to a surplus, you are getting beyond the point of overkill.

Peralta should have been on the Yankees' radar all along, and we have heard all offseason that they have been engaged in discussions for him. But now, they just traded a key piece that could have been used in a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers.

At this point, New York would have to move one of Jasson Dominguez or Spencer Jones in a trade for Peralta. It's almost a necessity now that Lewis is no longer an option.

I've said all along that the Yankees probably want to ensure they re-sign Cody Bellinger before jettisoning one of Dominguez or Jones, so is it possible Weathers is just a safety net in the event that Bellinger departs?

Maybe New York will only swing a trade for Peralta if it were to re-sign Bellinger because it knows it would likely have to move its current starting left fielder in Dominguez to make that happen.

But even then, you just traded Lewis — a rising prospect some have actually ranked above Jones — for a security blanket.

I'm not sure what the thought process is here, but we will surely find out soon.