November 13th, 2025: Domínguez, Rowland, Imai, Coaching Staff, Awards, Mailbag

Three reminders. One, the Offseason Plan is coming tomorrow. Two, the MVPs will be announced tonight. Aaron Judge will either win his third or be the runner-up for a second time. And three, I’m planning to skip the regularly scheduled post on Friday, Nov. 28th. That’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. Unless there is breaking news that requires immediate attention, I’m laying low that weekend. Let's get to today's post on Offseason Plan Eve.

1. Mining the news. The GM Meetings were held this week in Las Vegas but Brian Cashman did not attend because “something non-baseball related” popped up, the Yankees said. He did his press conference on Zoom and the rest of the front office (assistant GMs Mike Fishman and Jean Afterman, director of player development Kevin Reese, etc.) was in Las Vegas. If it were 1985 and not 2025, Cashman missing the GM Meetings would be a bigger deal. Everything gets done over the phone or via text now (including with emojis and GIFs). It's fine. Here now are a few stray notes and nuggets.

Domínguez set for winter ball

Jasson Domínguez has joined Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League and is expected to be added to the active roster next week, the team announced the other day. He’s getting ready in what they call the Parallel League, which I understand is a taxi squad where LIDOM teams stash extra players they may need throughout the season. Here’s video of Jasson arriving at practice, if you care.

A few weeks ago Aaron Boone said Domínguez was expected to play winter ball, so this didn’t come out of nowhere. I’m glad. Domínguez didn’t play much the last few weeks of the season and he needs all the left field time and right-handed at-bats he can get. Most big leaguers who play winter ball don’t play a full season. They sometimes play as few as 5-10 games (it’s a 50-game season). Not sure what the plan is for Domínguez, but some games are better than no games. This will be his first time playing winter ball.

Yankees dump Rowland

While on the subject of big money international free agents, the Yankees jettisoned longtime international scouting director Donny Rowland earlier this offseason, per Francys Romero. Rowland’s contract was up, so technically he wasn’t fired. He just won’t be brought back. Rowland, 62, had been the international scouting director since 2010 and first joined the Yankees in 1995 (he had stints with other teams from 2000-06).

I was planning to write about this later in the offseason, once we got closer to the Jan. 15th open of the 2026 signing period, but I guess now is as good a time as any. The Yankees have whiffed on so many big money IFAs the last 7-8 years. So many that something had to change, and that change starts with Rowland. Look at this (there was no IFA signing period in 2020 because of the pandemic):

• OF Raimfer Salinas ($1.85M in 2017): 65 games above rookie ball, out of baseball since 2024

• OF Antonio Cabello ($1.35M in 2017): 44 games above rookie ball, traded for Rougned Odor, out of baseball since 2023

• SS Alex Vargas ($2.5M in 2018): Career 80 wRC+, released in August

• OF Kevin Alcántara ($1M in 2018): Traded for Anthony Rizzo, now a top 100-ish prospect

• OF Jasson Domínguez ($5.1M in 2019): Good!

• SS Hans Montero ($1.6M in 2021): Career 98 wRC+

• SS Roderick Arias ($4M in 2022): 89 wRC+ while repeating Low-A in 2025

• OF Brando Mayea ($4.35M in 2023): Still in rookie ball, can’t stay healthy

It’s too early to pass judgment on the 2024 and 2025 signings, but those aren’t looking so hot either. OF Francisco Vilorio ($1.75M in 2024) has an 87 wRC+ and 28.4 K% in two years in the Dominican Summer League. SS Mani Cedeno ($2.5M in 2025) had an 88 wRC+ and 35.7 K% in the DSL this year. When that is your recent big money IFA track record, and Vilorio and Cedeno do that, it ain’t great.

Excluding Alcántara and Cabello because they were traded, those players above have combined to play 655 games above Low-A, and it’s all Domínguez (366) and Vargas (289). That is unacceptably bad even while acknowledging there is more to it than just scouting and signing. The player development folks get a share of the blame, plus you’re going to have misses because that’s baseball. But that many misses on big money prospects?

The Yankees have done well with small bonus IFAs (most recently Carlos Lagrange but also Miguel Andujar, Luis Severino, a small army of trade chips, etc.), but when you never pick high in the draft, your only access to elite amateur talent is through IFAs, and the Yankees have whiffed way too often on their biggest signings the last 7-8 years. This is a better late than never situation because replacing Rowland was justifiable 2-3 years ago.

Imai will be posted for MLB teams

The Seibu Lions will indeed post righty Tatsuya Imai this offseason, the team announced the other day. "Every season, I have played with the goal of winning the league championship and the Japan Series, and that ambition will not change with a new team. I will continue to compete with a strong desire to win and do my best to contribute to my team’s success,” Imai said in a statement.

The Lions have only stated their intent to post Imai. It has not actually happened yet. Scott Boras, Imai's agent, said he will be posted next Wednesday, Nov. 19th. His 45-day window will then open the next day and run through 5pm ET on Saturday, Jan. 3rd. Imai has to be signed, sealed, and delivered by that date. Physical passed, contract signed, the whole nine.

I answered a mailbag question about Imai last week and I think he’s the best bet for the Yankees among this winter’s top Japanese free agents. Kazuma Okamoto, who has not been posted yet, is approaching 30 and a poor positional fit. Munetaka Murakami, whose 45-day posting window closes on Dec. 22nd, comes with real questions about his contact skills and defense. Imai’s a 27-year-old starting pitcher. You always need them.

“We have been very aggressive in the more recent (Japanese player) market, but fell short," Brian Cashman told Gary Phillips this week. "Those players made the decision to go play for the Dodgers and clearly the success has followed them. So I’m interested in gravitating to any player anywhere in the world, including Japan, and we’ll play in those markets if it’s a fit for us."

Fiorito joins MLB staff

Longtime RAB readers and DotF diehards will remember Dan Fiorito, a Yonkers native who signed with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 2012, and played in the farm system from 2013-16 (he was a very popular teammate). Fiorito began coaching in the system in 2017 and was Double-A Somerset’s manager for their 2022 Eastern League championship season. He spent the last two years as a roving defensive coordinator.

Now 35, Fiorito is joining the big league staff as the new first base coach, per Greg Joyce. He’ll replace Travis Chapman, whose contract wasn’t renewed. Given his years in the system, Fiorito has worked with all the young Yankees at one point or another. That 2022 Somerset team was particularly stacked. Jasson Domínguez, Randy Vásquez, Anthony Volpe, Will Warren, and Austin Wells were on that club at various points throughout the season.

The Yankees will announce their coaching staff all at once at some point later this offseason. We have a decent idea what it’ll look like though:

• Manager: Aaron Boone

• Bench coach: ???

• Hitting coach: James Rowson?

• Assistant hitting coaches: Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst

• Pitching coach: Matt Blake

• Assistant pitching coach: Preston Claiborne or Desi Druschel

• First base coach: Dan Fiorito

• Third base coach: Luis Rojas?

• Bullpen coach: Claiborne or Druschel

• Catching coach: Tanner Swanson

Rojas (Orioles) and Rowson (Twins) interviewed for managerial jobs in recent weeks but did not get them. I think they’re both coming back? I’m not sure if they’re still pursuing jobs elsewhere (the Rockies are the only team with a managerial opening), but Brian Cashman made it sound like the Yankees wanted both back during his end-of-season press conference. They just had to let the process play out.

As for the bench coach, Brad Ausmus’ contract expired after the season, and I don’t know what’s going on there. Don Mattingly stepped away from the Blue Jays last week and I’m surprised there haven’t been any “the Yankees need to bring Donnie Baseball back!” takes in the tabloids. (Or maybe I just missed them.) I’m not really a fan of the “franchise legend as a coach” thing. Besides, the Yankees have been there, done that with Mattingly. He was the hitting coach from 2004-06 and bench coach in 2007.

(The Blue Jays had a great offense this year, but that only happened after they took offensive coordinator duties away from Mattingly and hired analytically inclined hitting coach David Popkins last winter.)

The Yankees could shift Rowson (Marlins bench coach from 2020-22) or Rojas (Mets manager from 2020-21) to bench coach and bring in a new hitting or third base coach, but I dunno, the path of least resistance is bringing back Ausmus, and that tends to win out. We’ll find out soon enough. Right now, it seems like the 2026 coaching staff won’t look too different from the 2025 coaching staff.

(Randy Miller says former utility man Ryan Goins was in the mix for the first base coach job. He's been with the Angels as their infield coach the last three years, and had an interim stint as their bench coach this season after Ron Washington stepped away for health reasons.)

Non-MVP awards voting

Tonight we’ll find out if Aaron Judge becomes the 13th player with three MVPs or the, uh, I-don’t-know-how-many-th player with two MVP runner-ups. The all-time record is four MVP runners-up. Let’s hope Judge never approaches that. Anyway, Nick Kurtz (Rookie of the Year), Stephen Vogt (Manager of the Year), and Tarik Skubal (Cy Young) won AL awards. I don't think any of those qualify as a surprise. 

Here’s how the Yankees fared in the voting for the three awards that have been announced:

• Rookie of the Year (full voting): Will Warren got a third and fourth place vote. Jasson Domínguez got a fifth place vote.

• Manager of the Year (full voting): Aaron Boone did not get any votes.

• Cy Young (voting): Max Fried finished fourth in the voting. Carlos Rodón got a few votes too.

Apparently the BBWAA did expand the Rookie of the Year ballot from three names to five. I wasn’t sure they went through with it. With a five-player ballot, I’m surprised Cam Schlittler didn’t get a stray fifth place vote. Luis Morales got one and he had a 3.14 ERA (4.68 FIP) in nine starts (and one relief appearance) for the Athletics. Schlittler had a 2.96 ERA (3.74 FIP) in 14 starts. Eh, whatever.

I argued that Boone could get some Manager of the Year support a few weeks ago. Instead he didn’t get any votes. It is the fourth time in his eight years he didn’t get a single Manager of the Year vote, equaling the number of times the Yankees’ manager did not get a single vote in the previous 32 years. It’s a silly award though. I don’t think the lack of Manager of the Year votes is an indictment of Boone. Look at the winners the last decade. It’s a small market manager’s award now.

As for Cy Young, Fried wasn’t too far behind Hunter Brown for the third finalist spot. The voting was pretty straight forward. Skubal got most of the first place votes. Garrett Crochet got most of the second place votes. Brown got most of the third place votes. And Fried got most of the fourth place votes. That seems right to me. I didn’t have a Cy Young vote but Skubal, Crochet, Brown, Fried in that order would have been my top four, I think.

Rodón got two fourth place votes and a fifth place vote, and was sixth in the voting overall. This is the first time the Yankees had two pitchers receive Cy Young votes since Nestor Cortes and Gerrit Cole finished way down the ballot in 2022. It’s the first time they had two pitchers finish the top six of the Cy Young voting since Mariano Rivera (fifth) and Mike Mussina (sixth) in 2008. Didn’t realize it had been that long.

We’ll see what happens with MVP tonight. Judge will finish first or second. I would guess Cody Bellinger gets a few down ballot votes, and maybe Fried too. Maybe Trent Grisham or Jazz Chisholm Jr.? The voting is so homogeneous these days. We don’t see as much down ballot weirdness as we did even five years ago. Blame WAR, I guess.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Joshua asks: Is Tatis available via trade? He would be an ideal player for the Yankees, right?

If the Yankees trade for Fernando Tatis Jr. and give me even just one season of Tatis and Jazz Chisholm Jr. as teammates, I would forgive them for every Josh Donaldson at-bat and Marcus Stroman inning I had to watch. Those two on the same team would smash the record for FAHAR (fun as hell above replacement). 

Anyway, I’ve seen speculation about Tatis being available but no actual reporting. If Tatis is really available, yes, 100% you go get him. His power hasn’t come all the way back following his 2022 shoulder surgery (and 2022 PED suspension), but this is top tier production:

Tatis turns 27 in January, so he’s entering what should be his best years, and he impacts the game in so many ways. The underlying data supports the offense (16th in xwOBA since 2023) and he’s a spectacular defender in right field*. Runs down everything in the gap, seems to rob a home run a week, and he has a cannon arm. I would be more than comfortable playing Tatis in center until Aaron Judge ages into a DH.

* Tatis shifted from shortstop to right field midway through 2021. He’s played a handful of games in center over the years.

The contract is reasonable too. Tatis has nine years and $286M left, or $31.8M per year. That covers his age 27-35 seasons. Tatis will be younger when his contract expires than Giancarlo Stanton is right now! In an offseason where we’re talking about Kyle Tucker possibly getting $400M, Tatis at less than $300M through his prime is a great deal. (We’re like five years away from $31.8M being the qualifying offer.)

Since Peter Seidler passed away, his kids have clamped down on payroll (second generation owners, I swear), and trading Tatis would be the most straightforward way to save money and get back talent. I’d put every young player on the table for this guy. Cam Schlittler, Ben Rice, your favorite prospect, whoever. Tatis is young and about as complete a player as there is in his game, and he’s electrifying. You can’t take your eyes off him on the field.

Nick asks: I've seen a fair amount of social media chatter downplaying the value of a potential deal to bring in Steven Kwan, and I've seen the "under the hood numbers," but don't his "plus skills" do a nice job addressing current Yankee needs?

I do think Kwan, who is a very good player, has gotten overrated. He’s a low power/average walks corner outfielder whose offense is almost entirely BABIP dependent, and Yankee Stadium is a terrible ballpark for lefty singles hitters (it’s a terrible park for righty singles hitters too). The fact of the matter is Kwan has had a 99 wRC+ twice in the last three years, and he would have ranked eighth on the 2025 Yankees in OBP. To me, Kwan is a dynamite No. 9 hitter who drives the other team nuts, not someone who gets the most at-bats on a World Series contender. The excellent left field defense makes him a +3 to +4 WAR player, but it is left field defense, not center field/up-the-middle defense. Kwan is a better player than Jasson Domínguez and he would make the Yankees better, and if they got him, I would be happy (depending on the trade package). I don’t think he’s exactly what they need or a perfect fit though, which I’ve seen parroted in a few places.

Adam asks: It feels like people are sleeping on an opportunity to potentially land Devin Williams on a bargain contract given the backdrop of this past season. What is more likely? That Devin Williams will return to his prior levels of complete and total dominance over the next few years or that his struggles over a small sample of innings at the beginning of 2025 will be the norm going forward? Timing helps too, the fact that he closed the season looking like his usual self certainly doesn’t hurt. I feel like a smart team is going to eventually be happy looking back at this offseason when they signed him to something in the neighborhood of $60-70 over 4 years.

Well, I’m not sure I would call $60M to $70M across four years a bargain, that would be one of the richest reliever contracts ever, but I get your point. When Williams struggled this year, it was really ugly, but he recovered to finish the season very well, and was a trusted leverage guy come October. That says a lot about him, no? To struggle that much early on, then to bounce back and be an important part of the team, tells us Williams can handle failure and criticism. Good trait for a late-inning reliever.

The contract projections for Williams are all over the place, which is another way of saying no one has any idea how to value the guy.

• The Athletic (subs. req'd): 1 year, $18M

• ESPN: 3 years, $45M

• FanGraphs: 2 years, $24M

• MLBTR: 4 years, $68M

I think I’d call two years and $24M the closest thing to a bargain? It’s only one year, but $18M would be awfully pricey for a reliever. It would be the third highest single-season salary for a reliever behind Edwin Díaz’s $20.4M and Josh Hader’s $19M, and those guys signed their contracts in their 20s. Williams turned 31 in September. He’s got a “two years older than you think he is” thing going on.

I agree Hi Lev Dev has a chance to be a really nice pickup for somebody. A lot of people have soured on him (not just Yankees’ fans) and I totally get it, but when Williams was good this season, he was excellent. He struck out 34 of the final 70 batters he faced this year (48.9%) and there just aren’t many relievers who can do that, even for a six-week stretch. Unless his market really craters, I don’t see the Yankees bringing Williams back. They just don’t do big salaries (i.e. $10M+ a year) for relievers anymore.

Billy asks: Any chance of a McMahon for Sevy swap? Money is fairly close, Yanks get SP depth and more importantly open the door for a 3B upgrade. 

I don’t think the Athletics would go for it. They have a few young infielders worth giving a look at third base (Darell Hernaiz and the other Max Muncy), and their unstated plan is to have a postseason contender in place when they move to Las Vegas in 2028 or 2029. Trading for two years of Ryan McMahon doesn’t align with that. I’m sure the A’s would trade Luis Severino. Just not for a McMahon type. (If the A’s want a glove-first third baseman, they have Brett Harris, who’s a great defender.)

I never sensed things soured between the Yankees and Severino. Both sides seemed to know it was time to go their separate ways. Severino was much better on the road (3.02 ERA) than in Sacramento (6.01 ERA) this year, though the underlying numbers were similar (4.34 FIP vs. 3.87 FIP). If anything, he’s got some home run rate regression coming his way on the road (0.67 HR/9). Now 31, Severino these days is a solid mid-rotation guy who manages contact more than he misses bats (17.6 K% in 2025).

Realistically, the only available third base upgrades are Bo Bichette, who’s never played third and will require a big contract, or Eugenio Suárez. The Yankees didn’t sign Alex Bregman when they had no third baseman and he was willing to take a short-term deal last offseason, so it’s hard to think they’ll give him a long-term deal now. Neither Munetaka Murakami nor Kazuma Okamoto are expected to stay at third.

I don’t love McMahon because he has some of the worst contact rates in the league and it’s only 20-homer power, not 30-35 homer power, but I can understand hanging onto him. I think it would be a lot easier for the Yankees to drum up a Severino type in free agency (perhaps for less than the $42M Severino has coming to him the next two years) than it would be to upgrade over McMahon. If they can upgrade third base though, of course they should explore it.

Phil asks: What about Miguel Rojas? Will he accept a utility role? Could we promise him the starting SS job while Volpe is out and then 2-3 games a week subbing for McMahon/Jazz? Can he play 1B in a platoon with Rice? Either way, he seems like the kind of role player we need and an upgrade for the bench/LHP lineup. 

I assume Rojas is a non-option. Jazz Chisholm Jr. identified Rojas as one of the veterans who treated young players poorly when they were teammates on the Marlins, and that turned into a bit of a public back and forth. For a utility infielder, there’s no reason to go to Jazz and ask him to bury the hatchet with Rojas. Just get someone else. With Gerrit Cole and Josh Donaldson, you could at least see how Donaldson could be an above-average player, and was worth pursuing. A utility guy’s not worth the headache.

Josh asks: Giancarlo Stanton's got 453 HRs and is closing in on the magic number of 500 and what will probably be an induction into the HOF. You said in your last piece that Stanton's gone in two years at the latest. You don't think if he's in striking range of 500 and *if* he stays Stanton healthy he could be hovering around that number and the NYY won't keep him? I've got to think that they will want him in a Yankees uniform for 500…

As long as you’re not credibly connected to PEDs, 500 homers still punches your ticket to Cooperstown. There are 28 players in a 500-homer club and 19 are in the Hall of Fame, two will be in the Hall of Fame as soon as they’re eligible (Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols), and seven haven’t gotten close to getting into the Hall of Fame for PED reasons. 500 is still one of baseball’s magic numbers.

Stanton hit 24 homers in 281 plate appearances this year. The power’s still there and 47 homers the next two years to get to 500 is not a long shot. It’s within reason. As for keeping Stanton beyond 2027 to get No. 500 (or, more accurately, to profit off the No. 500 chase), nah, I don’t think the Yankees will do that. They were going nowhere in 2016 and still released Alex Rodriguez when he was four home runs short of 700. With another year remaining on his contract too. They could have milked it into 2017. On the list of things that worry me about the Yankees, keeping Stanton beyond his expiration date to profit off his 500th home run doesn’t crack the top 100.

Jason asks: if a player was only able to foul off pitches and never got a hit, how many pitches per at bat would he need to average to be worth a regular lineup spot

I went to check linear weights (i.e. the run value of specific events) but they don’t calculate linear weights for foul balls, so my answer is 100% theoretical. I’ll set the number at 20 pitches per plate appearance. Even if we assume a league average walk rate, this guy makes A LOT of outs, and he’ll need to really wear down the opposing pitcher to have any value. Wear down the starter, get into the bullpen early, then wear those guys down too. That would have value beyond that game too, because you’re tiring the pitching staff out for the rest of the series. Still, it’s a lot of outs. Maybe it’s 10 or 15 pitches per plate appearance instead of 20, but it has to be a very big number. Also, I would hate watching this player. His at-bats would be a great time for a bathroom break.

(Send your questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for if/when it returns.)