One thing I have always admired about Brian Cashman is that despite his occasional ridiculous moves, most of his moves intuitively made sense.  For example, at the trade deadline in 2025, the Yankees were searching for controllable relievers.  At the very last second (literally), the San Francisco Giants offered the Yankees Camilo Doval for four mid-tier prospects and the Yankees jumped on it.  Almost exactly one year later, Doval has been dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In this case too, the trade makes perfect sense, let me explain.

Doval was a Dud

In four seasons with the Giants, Doval had a 3.29 ERA and a 3.18 FIP as a high-leverage reliever.  Alas, that wasn’t how he performed as a Yankee.  Over one full season, he posted a 4.63 ERA and a 4.45 FIP, and he was worth -1.1 WAR, which means he was bad.  Even worse, he was bad both seasons.  Despite an electric fastball, he only averaged a strikeout an inning to go along with one hit an inning and a walk every two innings.  None of that translates to success, and he fell down the bullpen ladder to arguably the last slot.

Doval wasn’t DFA material

A lot of Yankee fans wanted them to cut Doval, but he still had value. Sending him down also would have tanked his value. With very few teams trading players and teams desperate for relievers, a trade always made sense. The Yankees also have multiple relievers who could take his slot, and they likely will have to move a starter to the bullpen before the season ends. In other words, there would eventually be a judgement day for Doval (also note he occupied a 40-man roster spot and after the trade deadline those might be at a premium).

Yankees learned from Devin Williams

At the trade deadline in 2025, a lot of Yankee fans (including me) thought we should trade Devin Williams.  The offseason trade clearly didn’t work out as he couldn’t adapt to New York.  The Yankees weren’t going to resign him, and he had value in a market where teams wanted relievers.  Instead, the Yankees held on to him, moved him to a low-leverage spot, and then got nothing in return, after he signed a big-time deal with the New York Mets.  The Yankees missed out on prospects that could be trade chips.

Yankees got prospects

This time, the Yankees got prospects in exchange for a reliever they didn’t value.  In 2025, they traded away a Top 20 prospect in catcher Jesus Rodriguez.  Rodriguez has already cracked the big leagues for the Giants, and he was one of five catchers the Yankees have traded since the end of the 2024 season.  Omar Alfonzo is a right-handed hitting AA catcher who was ranked #17 in the Pirates system, which probably puts him around #12 in the Yankees ranks.  Don’t be surprised if he is the starting AAA catcher next year and knocking on the door to the big leagues.   

I imagine pundits will give his trade a poor grade, but to me it is at least a B.  Doval was arbitration eligible and was going to cost over $7 million to keep in 2027 and now he is gone and the money can be spent elsewhere.  The Yankees basically got to try the Doval experiment for one year and basically get back what they got for him.  The experiment didn’t work, but at least they didn’t come back empty-handed like with Devin Williams