The MLB offseason has only just gotten underway, but the New York Yankees have found themselves in an arms race with the rest of the American League East division. While they haven’t made any flashy moves like the rest of their division rivals, the expectation is that the Yankees will be quite busy over the upcoming weeks.
Unsurprisingly, the potential moves that the Yanks could make are what is drawing the most attention among fans right now. However, it’s also worth keeping tabs on which players the team could lose, and with the Rule 5 Draft set to take place on Dec. 10, New York has been predicted to lose one of its top pitching prospects, Harrison Cohen.
Yankees Won’t Like Latest Harrison Cohen Prediction
Cohen has been in the Yankees farm system since 2023, and while he’s never been a very highly touted player (he went undrafted out of college), he has gradually turned himself into an intriguing pitching prospect for New York. With his 27th birthday coming up in May, it’s beginning to become crunch time for Cohen, and it remains to be seen if he has a future with the Yanks.
In 2025, Cohen split the season between Double-A and Triple-A for the Yankees. He was dominant at both levels, and he finished the season with a 3-2 record, a 1.76 ERA, and 59 strikeouts in 49 appearances. Cohen was a bit of a Swiss Army knife out of the bullpen, as he can work multiple innings if needed, or he can fill in a late-inning role, as he also racked up five saves on the year.
Cohen is not on New York’s 40-man roster, which means any team that wants him could steal him from the Yanks and add him to their own 40-man roster. It’s a risky proposition for sure, but that’s what makes the Rule 5 Draft so intriguing. And according to a recent prediction from Sam Dykstra and Jesse Borek of MLB.com, if there’s a Yankees player who will get stolen during the Rule 5 Draft, it’s Cohen.
“The 6-foot reliever has posted back-to-back seasons with sub-2 ERAs. In this most recent campaign, he finished with a 1.76 mark and 1.10 WHIP while striking out 59 in 51 innings between Triple-A and Double-A,” Dykstra and Borek wrote.
“He ran pretty even splits by relying on a tight mid-80s cutter against righties and mid-80s changeup with good armside fade against lefties, all while sporting a more mundane 92-94 four-seamer from a low arm slot. The deception can be an issue for his control, but it also could make him a plug-and-play option in an MLB bullpen.”
Should the Yankees Be Worried About Potentially Losing Harrison Cohen?
GettyNew York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman
You can only have so many players on your 40-man roster, and Cohen simply did not make the cut. Obviously, New York would rather keep him in town, but it isn’t exactly the end of the world if it loses him. Cohen is only the team’s No. 30 overall prospect according to MLB.com, so it’s not as if he is guaranteed success once he finds his way to the majors.
Should Cohen stick around, he’d have a decent shot at carving out a role for himself in the Yankees’ bullpen in 2026. He’ll have to make it through the Rule 5 Draft first, though, and with rumors suggesting he could be on the move, his status will be worth keeping tabs on. The Rule 5 Draft is scheduled to get underway at 2 p.m. ET on Dec. 10.
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