NEW YORK — With hours left before Monday’s trade deadline, the New York Yankees are pushing to fix the one hole their new slugger did not touch. The position is catcher, and the club has narrowed its final list to two names while pointedly passing on a third.
The Yankees are targeting Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman and Cincinnati’s Tyler Stephenson. Both are right-handed hitters. That detail is the whole story.
The gap between need and preference defines New York’s deadline. The catching group has been among the worst offensive units in baseball. The front office still drew a hard line on which kind of bat it would accept behind the plate.
That choice matters because the clock is nearly out. The Yankees ranked 29th in the majors in catcher OPS, at .559, entering the final stretch of the deadline. Fixing that was a stated priority. Yet the club is willing to bypass a productive hitter to hold out for a right-handed one, a bet that the platoon math outweighs the raw production.
Two right-handed names top the wishlist
The Yankees have cast a wide net at the position for weeks. As the deadline tightened, the list narrowed to Rutschman and Stephenson. Both fit the right-handed profile the club has insisted on, and both would upgrade a lineup spot that has produced almost nothing.
Stephenson may be the more realistic target. The Reds have told teams they are open for business, mainly on players headed toward free agency, and Stephenson qualifies. He is a right-handed bat with a career 104 wRC+ and a .463 expected slugging mark this season that ranks in the 80th percentile. Cincinnati has him on an expiring deal, which lowers the cost.
Rutschman is the bigger name and the harder get. The switch-hitting three-time All-Star is controllable through 2027, and Baltimore does not have to move him. The Orioles sit at 54-58 but remain within range of a wild-card spot, and dealing a franchise catcher to a division rival is not their preferred path. Rutschman is also on the injured list with left wrist inflammation, another complication as the hours dwindle.
Why New York is passing on the top backstop
The most telling development is the one the Yankees chose not to pursue. They have stepped aside from Miami’s Liam Hicks, arguably the best catcher who could move before 6 p.m. Eastern on Monday. Hicks is hitting .283 with an .798 OPS and 14 home runs. He is also left-handed, and the Yankees decided that was disqualifying.
Hicks has drawn heavy interest, and reporting from The Athletic placed the decision in plain terms. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon detailed which contenders were in on the Marlins catcher and which were not.
“The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox are among the teams interested in Hicks, the person said,” Rosenthal and Sammon reported. “The New York Yankees are not involved in the talks. Hicks bats left-handed, and the Yankees want a right-handed hitting receiver.”
The reasoning traces to the roster the Yankees already have. Austin Wells and Ali Sanchez have given the club strong defense behind the plate, but little offense. Adding another left-handed bat would not balance a lineup that already skews that way, especially after the Luis Garcia Jr. acquisition brought in more left-handed thump. The Yankees want a receiver who can punish left-handed pitching, not duplicate what they have.
A source told Feinsand on Saturday that the club would land a catcher, but perhaps not its top choice. Two executives tabbed Stephenson as the likely answer. Another predicted Rutschman ends up in the Bronx. The common thread is that both swing from the right side.
A stated need, a stubborn standard
The Yankees entered the deadline in a familiar spot for a contender with holes. They sit 63-49, two games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and firmly in the postseason race. Their pitching has carried them through a brutal offensive stretch tied to the absence of Aaron Judge, who has not played since late May.
General manager Brian Cashman has already made two moves. He sent reliever Camilo Doval to Pittsburgh on Saturday, then landed Garcia from Washington on Sunday for four right-handed pitchers. The catcher remains the unfinished piece. Manager Aaron Boone spoke about the swirl of deadline reporting after Sunday’s win over the Cubs.
“You never know how these things are going to shake out,” Boone said. “You just know that obviously the organizations are all knee-deep in this stuff right now and trying to find matches where you can.”
Boone framed the pressure of the day as routine for a franchise built to contend every season. He kept the focus on the outcome rather than the noise.
“The reality is, it’s part of the business,” Boone said. “We know this day is coming every year. We’ll see what happens [Monday], and then it’s our job to put ourselves in position to get to October.”
Where the catcher search stands
For now, the Yankees have their two finalists and a firm requirement. Stephenson offers the cleaner path, a right-handed bat on an expiring contract from a seller. Rutschman offers the higher ceiling and the steeper price, clouded by his wrist injury and Baltimore’s reluctance to deal inside the division.
The decision to skip Hicks sharpens the stakes. If the Yankees land Stephenson or Rutschman, the insistence on a right-handed hitter will look like discipline. If both slip away and the position stays cold into October, walking past the best available catcher will read very differently. The deadline hits Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern, and the Yankees are still one catcher short of the roster they want.
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