Will the Yankees pull off the same risky move two years in a row?

It’s not easy to recover after losing someone you valued; for the New York Yankees, they are in scramble mode in the aftermath of Juan Soto’s decision to leave them for the New York Mets. The Yankees already commenced step one of their post-Soto breakup plan, signing quality left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract, but there remains a major void in their lineup now that Soto is with their crosstown rival.

Simply put, the Yankees have to be aggressive yet again, both in free agency and on the trade market, to help replace Soto and his 8.1 WAR (per Fangraphs) in 2024. And one such major trade target has emerged for the Yankees in Houston Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker — with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic urging New York to put their best foot forward and dangle whomever is necessary, including 2024 AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, to acquire the 27-year-old right fielder to rebound from the loss of Soto.

“It doesn’t matter if the price is American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil plus a prospect or three. The New York Yankees need to trade for Houston Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker, and wash their Juan Soto blues away,” Rosenthal wrote.

Indeed, a rebound might be beneficial to make one forget about what they lost. For the Yankees, they have no time to lick their wounds; building off a World Series appearance in 2024, they cannot sit idly and rely on internal options to replace Soto.

However, there may be a bit of deja vu in play for the Yankees in any trade pursuit for Tucker. Like Soto, the Astros right fielder is set to be a free agent following the season, and he will only be 28 when he does reach free agency — putting him in line for a monster contract himself. Will the Yankees take the same risk? Only time will tell.

Astros laugh in the face of the Yankees’ offer

At this point, Rosenthal made it clear that there is no guarantee that the Astros would even trade Kyle Tucker away. But the Yankees aren’t helping themselves with the platter of poop they’ve been serving up Houston in preliminary trade talks.

As per Randy Miller of NJ.com, the Astros have described the Yankees offer for Tucker as “crap”, which means that they are hanging on to Luis Gil for dear life. But there is plenty of risk in acquiring Tucker; he is coming off an injury-ravaged season, he has only one year of team control left, and he could depart the team after just one season like Soto did — something the Yankees cannot afford to have happen to them again.