Yankees Mag: Reloaded

In the weeks immediately after the 2024 World Series, it seemed as though the pilot light was out on baseball¡¯s Hot Stove. For things to start cooking, one supersized domino needed to fall first. The Yankees made a strong play to retain Juan Soto, but once the All-Star outfielder decided to switch boroughs, Brian Cashman and his crew were freed up (pun intended) to redirect those resources in other exciting ways. The general manager and his trusted confidants looked up at their big board of potential additions and saw several enticing options, including some of the sport¡¯s most dynamic pitchers.

¡°Selfishly,¡± admitted Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, ¡°I didn¡¯t hate the idea that we might pivot to more arms.¡±

The Yankees¡¯ bullish offseason began in earnest on Dec. 13, when the team announced that it had traded for one of the top closers in baseball: Devin Williams. Four days later, the biggest offseason news in the Bronx became official, as free-agent starter Max Fried inked an eight-year deal with the Yanks.

The wheeling and dealing didn¡¯t end with bolstering the pitching staff. Mere hours after the Fried news dropped, another press release came out revealing that versatile infielder/outfielder Cody Bellinger was headed to New York. And before the ball dropped in Times Square, another former MVP, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, was also on board for 2025.

Happy New Year, indeed.

¡°The goal always is to put together a team that our fans can be proud of and can believe -- and our players can believe -- has a chance to take a shot at the title,¡± Cashman said. ¡°We¡¯re getting after it, and our intention is to find a way back to the World Series. So, stay tuned.¡±

***

Hitting free agency after a superb eight-year run in Atlanta, Fried knew he would have no shortage of suitors. In 168 career games (151 starts), the 6-foot-4, 190-pound southpaw had flummoxed left-handed and right-handed batters alike, going 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA.

He just never imagined that the Yankees would be one of those teams.

Fried¡¯s 71 wins from 2019 through 2024 were second most in the Majors, trailing only Gerrit Cole¡¯s 79. He hardly expected that a team with a bona fide ace atop its staff would come calling, ¡°but when the Yankees say that they¡¯re interested in you,¡± Fried said, ¡°you perk up, and you listen.¡±

It wasn¡¯t hard to see why he was at the top of Cashman¡¯s wish list. The two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner is a ground-ball guru who rarely gives up the home run. Offering a dizzying array of variations on his pitches, Fried, who turned 31 in January, is murder on opposing batters. When he defeated the Yanks at Truist Park in 2023, Aaron Boone recalled thinking to himself, Man, this guy is cutting us up -- and doing it in a lot of different ways.

¡°He¡¯s just really fluid and athletic on the mound,¡± the manager said after the signing was made official. ¡°What I like about him is, he has been able to allow his arsenal to evolve over the years. I think that¡¯s going to be something that really serves him well in the long term.

¡°Look, we¡¯re trying to chase down that championship, and we feel like we¡¯ve added a championship piece to what we believe is already an outstanding rotation.¡±

After a lengthy Zoom call in which both sides came away feeling like a union would be a perfect fit, Fried and the Yankees came to terms on an eight-year deal through 2032. With Cole signed through 2028, the two Southern California natives -- who first met when Fried visited UCLA on a recruiting trip many moons ago -- will get to push each other as they aim to bring World Series title No. 28 to New York.

¡°Gerrit¡¯s one of the best pitchers of the generation,¡± said Fried, who tossed six scoreless innings of four-hit ball in Atlanta¡¯s World Series-clinching Game 6 victory at Houston in 2021. ¡°For me to be able to be in a rotation and pick his brain a little bit, I feel like there¡¯s only going to be benefits. I¡¯m excited to be able to sit and watch every single one of his starts.¡±

As far as the Yankees¡¯ manager is concerned, that feeling is mutual.

¡°We talk about Gerrit a lot during the year [and how] Gerrit keeps evolving,¡± Boone said. ¡°He has different ways to beat you on any given night, and I feel like Max has that as well.¡±

Off the field, Fried is soft-spoken, mild-mannered and humble. Asked what he might splurge on after being awarded the most lucrative contract ever for a left-handed pitcher, he said he wasn¡¯t really interested in such things: His thoughts turned to getting food for his mutt, Apollo.

But Fried¡¯s reserved nature belies an intensity on the mound that will play well in the Bronx.

¡°This is a guy that¡¯s tenacious between the lines,¡± Boone said.

***

Bellinger has spent his entire eight-year career in the National League, but he has a good idea of what it¡¯s like to be a Yankee.

A fourth-round Draft pick of the Dodgers in 2013, Bellinger grew up going to Yankee Stadium, where his father, Clay, spent three seasons from 1999 to 2001 filling in at every position other than pitcher and catcher. Young Cody palled around with Andy Pettitte¡¯s boys in the family room and remembers being out in Arizona for the 2001 Fall Classic -- the same World Series Cole famously attended as a kid.

Bellinger¡¯s agent, Scott Boras, had made it known to Cashman that his client would love to one day wear the pinstripes, just as his father had. So, when the opportunity arose this past offseason to acquire Bellinger from the Cubs for right-hander Cody Poteet, both parties were happy to consummate the deal.

Rest assured, this is no Field of Dreams nostalgia trip. With Soto, Alex Verdugo and Anthony Rizzo gone, the Yankees had three everyday spots to fill. And Bellinger -- who won the National League¡¯s Silver Slugger Award at the utility position in 2023 -- can¡¯t wait to contribute in every way possible.

¡°I try not to set future numbers; I just want to go out and play the best baseball I can play -- defense, running the bases and just helping the team win,¡± the 29-year-old said. ¡°For your life, the baseball career is short. I have an opportunity here to play for one of the best franchises in all the sports, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. I¡¯m just glad that it was all able to work out.¡±

Bellinger burst onto the scene in 2017, making the NL All-Star team and competing in the Home Run Derby alongside Giancarlo Stanton and eventual winner Aaron Judge. He finished that season with 39 homers and 97 RBIs, capturing NL Rookie of the Year honors. Two years later, Bellinger topped those numbers, batting .305 with a career-high 47 homers and 115 RBI to earn the 2019 NL MVP Award.

Making the postseason in all six seasons with the Dodgers, Bellinger was named MVP of the 2018 NLCS and helped Los Angeles topple the Rays in the 2020 World Series. And while shoulder woes sapped him of some of his power in recent years, the left-handed hitter believes he is primed to pop at Yankee Stadium.

¡°I¡¯m very confident where I¡¯m at right now,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m confident in my ability, and at the end of the day, honestly, I just strive to be the best player I can be. I know how good I can be, and that¡¯s what I strive to go out and show and produce. That¡¯s what keeps me going and keeps me motivated.¡±

As to where Bellinger will be deployed exactly, time will tell. A Gold Glove winner in the outfield in 2019, he figures to see plenty of time in center field and bat in the middle of the Yankees¡¯ lineup. He¡¯s open to anything Boone has in mind.

¡°Before I even broached the subject of where we¡¯re going to play him, he¡¯s like, ¡®By the way, don¡¯t worry about where you play me. I¡¯ll play wherever,¡¯¡± said Boone. ¡°When we did our due diligence on Belli, we talked to a player that said he was playing the outfield for a couple months and then switched over to first base, hadn¡¯t played there in a couple months, and he was like a Gold Glover at first base. So, he¡¯s got that kind of athletic, defensive ability. I really believe he¡¯s going to play up offensively in our yard, and I think we¡¯re getting a great person to add to the room. So, I¡¯m excited, I know he¡¯s really excited, and I think he¡¯s going to be an important piece to the puzzle that hopefully allows us to go out and compete for it all.¡±

***

In recent years, the Yankees¡¯ coaching staff has earned praise for bringing in relievers and unlocking their potential, honing specific pitches to help them level up. And while Blake and his crew are surely excited about working with intriguing new additions, such as former Reds right-hander Fernando Cruz in 2025, it is hard to imagine what a higher plane could look like for the team¡¯s new closer.

Williams¡¯ signature pitch -- the ¡°airbender¡± changeup -- is just that good.

To hear the 30-year-old right-hander tell its origin story, he always threw a good changeup, going all the way back to playing catch in his backyard while growing up outside of St. Louis in Hazelwood, Mo. In 2019, when he and Trent Grisham were just a couple of young Brewers prospects hoping to make a good impression in spring camp, Williams tried switching from a two-seam grip to a four-seam grip during a live at-bat against Grisham and saw an immediate difference. The following year, while at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued to develop it, realizing that if he threw his four-seam changeup even slower and spun it more, it had even more movement.

That summer, Williams was ready to unleash a pitch that today is widely regarded as the nastiest in Major League Baseball. From 2020 through 2024, he held batters to a .145 batting average -- the best mark of any Major League reliever. It sits around 84 mph and spins at more than 2,500 RPM -- a figure about 1,000 RPM higher than the average changeup -- and breaks a whopping 19 inches toward right-handed batters, a reverse slider of sorts. The elite pitch plays off a 94 mph fastball that batters managed to hit just .111 against last season, and has led Williams to the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year Award, two NL Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Awards and two All-Star Game selections.

The December trade from Milwaukee for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin was a ¡°bit of a shock,¡± since rumors had been swirling about the Dodgers¡¯ interest in him. ¡°I thought I¡¯d be going to L.A.,¡± Williams said. ¡°That was just kind of the vibe I was getting. I hadn¡¯t really heard much about the Yankees¡¯ interest in me up until the moment that they traded for me.

¡°The Yankees snuck in there under the table and got the deal done.¡±

For all his regular-season success with Milwaukee, Williams had limited opportunities to pitch in the postseason, and they didn¡¯t always end well. His final appearance in a Brewers uniform saw him give up a three-run homer to the Mets¡¯ Pete Alonso in the ninth inning of a 4-2 season-ending loss in Game 3 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series. But those experiences have not shaken the closer¡¯s confidence one iota.

¡°I know that I haven¡¯t had the most success in the postseason so far, but at the same time, it¡¯s been three innings,¡± Williams said. ¡°Obviously, I wish things would have turned out differently. But I¡¯ll put myself in that situation every time. I¡¯ll never shy away from that moment. I want the ball, and I¡¯m looking forward to my next opportunity.¡±

That next opportunity could very well come this October, for a city and a franchise that Williams is excited to be a part of. His offseason vacation last year, well before getting traded, was to New York City, where he spent 10 days enjoying the Big Apple¡¯s museums, restaurants and art galleries. And he knows that when he comes charging out of the bullpen at Yankee Stadium, he¡¯ll be carrying on a legacy of great closers in pinstripes.

¡°I¡¯m excited for it, man,¡± he said. ¡°They obviously have a long history with Mariano [Rivera], Aroldis [Chapman]. Those guys, they¡¯ve been the best of the best. I¡¯m just trying to add my name to that list, hopefully.¡±

***

Goldschmidt comes to New York looking to put the finishing touches on a career that could be immortalized with a bronze plaque in Cooperstown one day.

A four-time Gold Glove Award winner and member of the Fielding Bible All-Decade Team (2010¨C19), Goldschmidt is one of the best defensive first basemen of this (or any) generation. Among players with at least 500 games played at the position, his .9968 fielding percentage ranks fourth -- .001 percentage points higher than Yankees legend Don Mattingly -- and with more than 16,000 innings under his belt, Goldschmidt has put in about as much work at first base as the three players ahead of him (Casey Kotchman, Ty France and Kevin Youkilis) combined.

He was the 2009 Southland Conference Player of the Year at Texas State -- where he is the school¡¯s all-time leader in home runs and RBIs -- before being drafted in the eighth round by the Diamondbacks. Goldschmidt cracked the bigs in 2011, became a regular the following year and in 2013 began a run of six straight All-Star campaigns, finishing second in NL MVP voting twice and placing third in 2017, but never advancing past the NLDS.

Entering his age-31 season in 2019, Goldschmidt was traded to St. Louis for three younger players, including current Yankees reliever Luke Weaver. The Cardinals viewed the perennial All-Star as the missing piece in their quest to end a three-year playoff drought, but while Goldschmidt finally captured his first NL MVP Award with St. Louis in 2022, he never enjoyed a postseason run of any great length. His first campaign with the Redbirds ended in a 2019 NLCS sweep at the hands of the eventual world champion Washington Nationals, who held the slugger in check. First-round losses to the Padres, Dodgers and Phillies meant early exits in each of the next three postseasons, and after missing the playoffs entirely in 2023 and ¡¯24, Goldschmidt and the Cardinals parted ways.

A free agent for the first time in his career, the 37-year-old signed a one-year deal in December, and calling Yankee Stadium home should bode well for both team and player. When the Cardinals came to the Bronx in 2024, Goldschmidt collected seven hits during the three-game series, including four doubles.

A workhorse whose percentage of games played is only slightly lower than his fielding percentage, Goldschmidt has been on the injured list just once in his career, after suffering a broken hand in August 2014. And while a World Series trophy has eluded him thus far, Goldschmidt knows the feeling of going out on top. As a senior third baseman, he helped lead his team from The Woodlands, Texas, to the 2006 high school national championship, and 11 years later he was part of the Team USA squad that captured gold at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

It has been an impressive career, to say the least, for the 246th overall pick in the 2009 Draft. Among active players, he enters 2025 second in RBIs and doubles, third in runs scored and homers and fourth with 2,056 hits. All that is missing from Goldschmidt¡¯s Hall of Fame resume is a World Series ring.

¡°As I get toward the end of my career, that was probably the top priority for me: go to a team that was going to have an opportunity to win the World Series,¡± Goldschmidt said. ¡°Obviously, the Yankees have a great shot.¡±

Nathan Maciborski is the executive editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the Spring 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.