TAMPA — The Yankees needed to clear a 40-man roster spot before Opening Day. They also needed to get something back for a player who was not going to make the team. On the morning of their Grapefruit League finale Sunday, they accomplished both with one phone call.
The Yankees traded infielder Jorbit Vivas to the Washington Nationals for right-handed pitching prospect Sean Paul Linan. On the surface, it looked like a minor roster housekeeping move. Then the scouting reports on the return started circulating, and the deal took on a different feel.
Linan throws a changeup that has drawn comparisons to the pitch that made Devin Williams famous. The same Devin Williams whose Airbender baffled hitters for years in Milwaukee before a rocky stint with the Yankees and a move across town to the Mets. The Yankees may have just found a farm system version of that weapon.
Why the Yankees had to move Vivas
Vivas, 25, was out of minor league options. If the Yankees did not trade him, they would have had to designate him for assignment and risk losing him for nothing on waivers. He was competing for a bench spot this spring but lost out to non-roster outfielder Randal Grichuk, whose opt-out clause forced the Yankees’ hand on Saturday.
The left-handed hitting Venezuelan appeared in 29 games for the Yankees last season. He hit .161 with one home run, five RBIs and a .516 OPS across 66 plate appearances. This spring, he went .227 with one RBI in 27 plate appearances across 18 games. The numbers were not enough to hold off Grichuk’s career track record against left-handed pitching.
Trading Vivas opened a spot on the Yankees’ 40-man roster. The club needed at least one open spot to officially sign Grichuk, who is making the team after spending camp on a minor league deal. Vivas was originally signed by the Dodgers out of Venezuela before the Yankees acquired him along with reliever Victor Gonzalez in a trade for Trey Sweeney ahead of the 2024 season.
The return has scouts talking about the Yankees’ new arm
Linan, 21, is a 6-foot, 185-pound right-hander from Colombia. He pitched in the Dodgers and Nationals farm systems at three levels last season. He went 3-4 with a 3.03 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 77.1 innings across 19 games and 15 starts split between Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, High-A Great Lakes, High-A Wilmington and Triple-A Oklahoma City.
The strikeout numbers are impressive on their own. But it is the changeup that has evaluators buzzing.
“Linan has a legitimate claim for the best changeup in minor league baseball,” MLB Pipeline wrote in its 2026 scouting report. “The 6-foot right-hander throws the 79-82 mph offering like a screwball with significant drop and armside run, and oddly, it’s also his highest-spin pitch.”
MLB Pipeline added that “batters whiffed on 60 percent of their swings against the cambio that earns Devin Williams comps from virtually all that witness it.”
A 60 percent whiff rate on a single pitch is elite at any level. Williams built his entire reputation on a changeup that moved unlike anything hitters had seen. The pitch earned the nickname Airbender for the way it seemed to defy physics. Linan’s version generates similar movement with heavy drop and armside run at 79 to 82 mph.
Where Linan fits in the Yankees pipeline
The Yankees have assigned Linan to High-A Hudson Valley. He was ranked as the Nationals’ 27th-best prospect before the trade. He was in the Nationals’ big league spring training camp this year, which speaks to the organization’s belief in his ceiling.
Linan was originally signed by the Dodgers out of Colombia as an international free agent. The Nationals acquired him last summer in a package for outfielder Alex Call. Now he moves to his third organization in less than a year.
The Yankees have a history of developing pitchers with elite individual pitches into high-leverage weapons. Pitching coach Matt Blake and the Yankees development staff turned Cam Schlittler from a common right-hander into a top-of-the-rotation arm in one year. They added a sinker to Cade Winquest’s arsenal in a single offseason. The Yankees clearly believe they can do similar work with Linan’s already devastating changeup.
A small trade with big implications for the Yankees
The deal will not move the needle on any power rankings. Vivas was a fringe roster player. Linan is a 21-year-old who has never pitched above Triple-A. But the Yankees turned a forced roster move into a prospect acquisition that could pay dividends down the road.
If the Yankees’ pitching development machine can polish Linan’s secondary stuff and build on that changeup, they may end up with a late-inning weapon who carries the same kind of swing-and-miss magic that made Williams a two-time All-Star. The Airbender left the Bronx. A potential clone just arrived in the Yankees system.
What do you think about the trade?
