It hasn’t been 48 hours yet, so New York Yankees fans can still be forgiven if they still feel hurt by the loss of Juan Soto.

Now that Soto has signed with the New York Mets, the Yankees need to find a way to pivot. And the Arizona Diamondbacks, as a middle-market team that rarely gets involved in big free agent sweepstakes, could have their moment to shine on the trade market.

Without Soto, the Yankees have a hole in their outfield and the Diamondbacks have spare outfield pieces. If they were to trade one, Jake McCarthy would be the most logical candidate, given his high value after a strong 2024 season.

The points line up if the Yankees want to fill their hole in the outfield via trade, and Peter Appel of Just Baseball recently urged New York to do so. He named McCarthy as a leading business candidate for New York following the Soto decision.

“McCarthy is a good fit for the Yankees if they draft (Anthony) Santander or Teoscar (Hernández),” Appel said. He’s not a good enough player to be the big piece they add on his own, but he’s worth a phone call to Arizona. »

“The 26-year-old is coming off a 3.0 fWAR season while posting a 110 wRC+. He’s not a power threat, and he doesn’t hit the ball that hard, but he does everything else. Consider Alex Verdugo with better defense and much more speed.

McCarthy is by no means a “bonus piece” for the Diamondbacks, but they could handle losing him better than most teams could under similar circumstances. They went to the World Series without him in 2023 and that whole outfield (Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.) is still there.

Will McCarthy don the pinstripes by opening day of the 2025 season? That’s a question best left to Brian Cashman and Mike Hazen.

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