Brian Cashman appeared Sunday on YES Network for an interview from the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla. Here is the latest from the Yankees‘ general manager on New York’s pursuit of Cody Bellinger and Tatsuya Imai, plus where things stand at key spots after Trent Grisham‘s qualifying-offer acceptance and Ben Rice‘s breakout season.
Bellinger ‘still in play’
Bellinger opted out of his contract with the Yankees and became a free agent last month, but he is “still in play,” Cashman said.
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“I talked to (agent) Scott Boras (Saturday),” Cashman said. ” … We’re going to continue to have dialogue. He’s got a number of players in the marketplace. He’s got a very deep roster. Cody Bellinger also is one of ’em. Again, my job is to stay fluid, make sure I have all the intel that’s coming in — as much as I can share with ownership — and, at some point, something might materialize.”
Imai and ‘big swings’
The Yankees are reportedly among the most interested clubs for Imai, the Japanese right-hander who is among the prizes of this offseason.
“Very talented player coming over from Japan, and we’ve certainly taken our big swings for trying to add some more talented players — whether they’re local or overseas, as far as Japan,” Cashman said. “So, Scott Boras represents him. So, he’s got a long list of talented players on his roster. So, I’m talking to a lot of different agents. But he’s obviously one of ’em as well.”
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Grisham’s ‘reassurance’
After Cashman explained Grisham’s return last month, where does the move leave the Yankees’ outfield?
“It gave us some reassurance because, ultimately, we entered the winter down two highly productive, impactful players that led us to be tied with the best record in the American League in the toughest division — and some of those reasons were Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham,” Cashman said. “So, when Trent accepted the qualifying offer, it gave us — now we’ve got our center-field situation locked down for the next year.
“We believe the changes he made with his swing were real. And so, we were very happy with that. So, now it’s a little bit less pressure to — now, instead of being down two, we’re down one and it gives us a little bit more flexibility. Go with the kids, see what the price tags are in free agency, whatever challenge trades come your way and make a decision when they come your way. And so, the Grisham qualifying-offer acceptance is a good thing for us.”
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Rice ‘manning first base’
Cashman does not feel like he needs “outside help” beyond Rice, who enters 2026 “manning first base for” the Yankees.
“No, Rice at first is fine,” Cashman said. “He can catch, he can play first and first base was a secondary position for him — one he was learning on the run — and he got better and better as the year went on, so we’re really proud of what Rice is and what he brings to the table. And as far as I’m concerned, he’s manning first base for us with (Austin) Wells catching. But the one thing, as I touch base on all that stuff, is we’re obviously too left-handed.
“So, we need to find a way to balance out. I thought we had a good trade deadline last year ’cause we were able to bring in few right-handed bats. We already had (Paul) Goldschmidt, you had (Giancarlo) Stanton. We had (Amed) Rosario coming in on the trade deadline with (Austin) Slater. … At the end of the day, it gave Booney some more choices, balanced us out. The deadline we also just had, that we came off of, was fruitful in the fact that it gave us some more controllable inventory.
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“A lot of the players we brought in are collapsing right into our winter. They weren’t here for three months and gone. They protected us in many ways. So, for instance, if we try to rebuild the bullpen, we have (Camilo) Doval and (David) Bednar now as we move into the 2026 season, but we’ve lost Devin (Williams) and (Luke) Weaver. So, thankfully, a lot of the things we did at the deadline — we still have to show, and it gives us some protection, but we need to add to it.”
