The New York Yankees will be looking to get off to a solid start to the 2026 season as they hope to return to the World Series for the second time in three years. The 2025 seasonâs abrupt end at the American League Division Series stage can only be considered a serious disappointment, and establishing themselves in the formidable AL East will be key to their chances of reasserting dominance in the division.
The problem is simple. The Yankeesâ starting rotation will be starting off at a serious disadvantage, with 2023 Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, 2025 18-game winner Carlos Rodón and former first-round draft pick Clarke Schmidt all remaining on the injured list, most likely until May at least.
A new trade proposal from longtime SB Nation Yankees writer Peter Brody would go a long way toward solving the Yankees’ early-season rotation deficit, as well as paying dividends throughout the rest of the 2026 campaign.
But the deal would come at a high cost for the Yankees, who would essentially be giving away a significant piece of their future for a chance at capturing championship No. 28 right away.
Yankees Pressed to Deal With Reds
In 2017, the Cincinnati Reds made a two-way player from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, the second overall pick in the draft. In fact, MLB Pipeline had the then-17-year-old ranked as the No. 1 prospect available in the draft. As a pitcher, Greene had already been clocked at 102 mph.
Now, after four years in MLB, Greene is fulfilling the promise he showed eight years ago as a prep star. Converted to focus solely on pitching, injuries have been the only obstacle to Greene emerging as a top-five starter in the game. But even limited to just 19 starts in 2025, Greene posted a 2.76 ERA, which translates to a 166 ERA+. In other words, Greene’s ERA was 66 percent better than the average major league hurler.
The 6-foot-5, 242-pound righty has struck out 617 in his four-year career, in just 495 2/3 innings, a rate of 11.0 per nine innings. If he had pitched the required 1,000 innings, that rate would rank him third all-time.
So what would it take for the Yankees to acquire Greene, who will be pitching the fourth season of his six-year, $53 million contract with the Reds?
Greene Trade Appears Unlikely, But…
In his trade proposal published last week, Brody concedes that persuading the Reds to part with Greene will be difficult, to say the least.
“Itâs almost certain that Greene will not be dealt this offseason,” Brody wrote. “Greeneâs name is by far the highest caliber of all the pitchers they have been linked to.”
Is there a package that could do the trick?
“At a minimum, it looks like the Reds could demand a pair of consensus top-100 prospects,” Brody wrote. He proposed that New York’s No. 1 rated prospect, per MLB Pipeline, George Lombard Jr., headline the deal.
2 of 3 Top Prospects on Block in Trade Scenario
The Yankees first-round pick in 2023, Lombard is the son of Detroit Tigers bench coach George Lombard. According to a Pipeline scouting report, “not only does Lombard feature the potential for solid or better tools across the board, he has the high baseball IQ to make the most of them.”
But according to Brody, the Yankees would also need to add their No. 3 overall prospect to the deal â 22-year-old right-handed pitcher Elmer RodrÃguez, a fourth-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2021. The Red Sox traded him to the Yankees prior to the 2025 season in a deal that brought catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston.
At least “several of the impressive crop of (Yankees) upper-level pitching prospects” would also be required to complete the proposed trade, according to Brody.
The package he outlines would be a remarkably high price to pay for the Yankees. But with Greene joining a rotation that includes, when healthy, Cole, Rodón, Schmidt and 2024 Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, the Yankees would certainly be catapulted to World Series favorite status.
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