Yankees Rumors: 3 Trade Candidates To Fill Gaping Holes in Rotation

The New York Yankees will have to get by for quite a while without two of their top starters. The devastating injury news from camp this spring includes the season-ending Tommy John surgery for Gerrit Cole, and the months-long absence of 2024's Rookie of the Year Luis Gil.

So what will the Yankees do to fill those massive voids? Marcus Stroman? A rookie, Will Warren? Bottom of the barrel free agents?

According to insider Joel Sherman of the New York Post on Wednesday, he's got some viable targets for the Yanks to go after, and they are all on the same pitching staff.

Potential starting pitching trade targets for the Yankees after losing Gerrit Cole 👀

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"If you asked 'Who's a team that has a lot of veteran starters, and probably wouldn't care (about losing them) the day they traded them?', it would be the St. Louis Cardinals."

Erick Fedde

A solid No. 3 starter who the Cards got from the Chicago White Sox last season, he'll be a free agent after the 2025 campaign, and St. Louis is not likely going to re-sign the 32-year-old.

"Fedde would be high up on my list... of people would will be traded... If he were on the Yankees today... he'd have a chance to pitch 5 or 6 innings at a pretty decent level and give them a chance to win," says Sherman.

Steven Matz

Now we're looking at a 5th-starter type. He hasn't had a ton of success since moving to the Cardinals three years ago, posting a 4.47 ERA, and has even been in and out of the bullpen.

"(The Cards) have been trying to trade him for like two years," says Sherman, "and they haven't, and there's a reason for that: he's been disappointing... (But) the one thing that Matz has done well in the last three years is when he's been forced to the bullpen, he's been a good lefty out of the pen." Bringing Matz in as the fifth starter would allow them to send solid prospect Will Warren to the minors for more seasoning. Then when either Warren (or Gil) are ready to join the rotation, Matz could be moved back into a relief role.

Sonny Gray

This, of course, would be the No. 1 option off the Cardinals' staff that the Yankees would want. The veteran starter was the runner-up for the Cy Young in 2023 with the Minnesota Twins, and had another solid season in his first year in St. Louis. But he does have a no-trade clause, and Sherman feels that he would not waive it to come back to New York, where he had a rough time in the Bronx back in 2017/2018.