NEW YORK — With four days left before the deadline, the Yankees are working the phones hard, and one call has led them to a familiar kind of name.
It is a hitter with October pedigree, a right-handed bat with real power in his past, and a connection to a piece of Yankees history that ended only recently. The fit is not obvious, but the interest is real.
The club’s need is not in dispute. A lineup gutted by injuries has gone cold, especially against left-handed pitching, and the front office has spent the week hunting for thump from the right side.
That search has pulled the Yankees into conversations with a rebuilding club out West, and into a discussion about a veteran slugger who has already won it all twice.
The Angels open the phone lines
The report came Thursday from Dominican baseball reporter Francys Romero, who indicated the Los Angeles Angels are in active trade talks with several teams, including the Yankees. Two Angels outfielders surfaced as names that could move quickly.
Romero laid out the situation in a post on social media, framing both players as candidates to be dealt in short order.
“The Angels are engaged in active trade talks with several teams, including the Yankees, according to sources,” Romero wrote. “Jo Adell and Jorge Soler are two names that could be on the move in the coming hours, per sources.”
The name that carries the most history is Jorge Soler. The two-time World Series champion is 34 and in his second season with the Angels, a well-traveled slugger now available as Los Angeles leans into a rebuild.
His resume is the hook. Soler won a title with the 2016 Chicago Cubs, the team that broke a 108-year drought, sharing that clubhouse with Anthony Rizzo. He won again with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, taking home World Series MVP honors that fall.
The power has been real across a long career. Soler led the American League with 48 home runs for the Royals in 2019 and earned an All-Star nod with the Marlins in 2023. His stops also include the Braves, Giants and now the Angels, a well-worn path for a slugger whose bat has always been the calling card.
Why the fit is a question, not a lock
The appeal is the bat against lefties, at least in theory. For his career, Soler has punished left-handed pitching, exactly the weakness the Yankees are trying to fix. He could also slide into the designated hitter role while Giancarlo Stanton is out.
The complication is this season. Soler’s production against lefties has cratered to well below his career norm, which is why one evaluator openly questioned the fit even while acknowledging the track record. The upside is real, but so is the risk that the Yankees would be buying a name more than a solution.
A national baseball writer covering the Angels captured the skepticism, noting the gap between what Soler once was against lefties and what he has been in 2026.
“I’m not exactly sure what the Yankees or any other team would see in Soler right now, but he has historically hit lefties quite well and could potentially replace Stanton at DH for a little while,” the writer wrote.
That is why the other name matters. Jo Adell, 27, is viewed around the league as the more valuable piece, a former first-round pick who hit 37 home runs last season and has crushed left-handed pitching this year. He is controllable through next season, which makes him a longer-term fit than a rental.
Adell’s overall line this season sits at .244 with 16 home runs, 62 RBIs and three steals in 108 games, modest on the surface but backed by a strong platoon split. Clubs believe there is more to unlock, and his projected salary of roughly $8 million through arbitration next year is easy for a big-market team to absorb.
A lineup desperate for right-handed thump
The urgency traces back to the injury list. The Yankees are without Aaron Judge, who has a fractured rib, and Stanton, who is nursing a calf strain, with no firm timetable for either. Cody Bellinger then went down with a grade two hamstring strain that could keep him out until September.
Those absences have stripped the middle of the order of its biggest power sources. The offense has sputtered for weeks, and the split against left-handers has been especially grim, ranking near the bottom of the majors over the past two months.
That context explains the interest in a right-handed bat, even an imperfect one. The Yankees need bodies and power in the outfield and at DH, and they need them now, not in the offseason. Adell offers both plus club control. Soler offers the pedigree and the platoon history, if the swing can be revived.
The Yankees enter the final weekend before the deadline at 61-48, second in the AL East and chasing the Rays. They have leaned on pitching to stay in the race while the lineup heals, and every added bat changes the math for a stretch run.
For now, the talks are just that. No deal has been reported, and the Angels are speaking with multiple suitors. But the Yankees are clearly in the mix for Angels outfield help, and a champion with a Cubs pedigree is one of the names on the table with the clock ticking toward Monday.
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