Yankees trade Jose Trevino to Reds for Fernando Cruz, Alex Jackson

With a surprise late-Friday trade, the Yankees added a true strikeout artist to a bullpen that looks potent, lost one season of an elite pitch-framer and trimmed a bit of payroll. 

Jose Trevino, an All-Star in 2022 and among the game’s best at making balls look like strikes, has been shipped to the Reds for high-octane righty Fernando Cruz and catcher Alex Jackson. 

Trevino arrived from the Rangers at the tail end of ’22 spring training and broke out, but he was mostly hurt in 2023 and lost his starting job in 2024, when Austin Wells emerged as what looks to be the future of the Yankees’ catching position. 

Trevino was owed around $3.5 million in arbitration for 2025, which will be his walk year, and the Yankees can go cheaper on a backup and redirect that money elsewhere. 

Jackson, a 28-year-old journeyman whom the Reds had signed to a minor league deal, is well regarded defensively but has never hit in five major league seasons.

Cruz is the more significant piece of the trade. 

The Yankees’ bullpen often struggled to pile up strikeouts last season, and Cruz does not struggle to miss bats.

Relying heavily on his splitter, Cruz struck out 109 in 66 ²/₃ innings last season — 14.72 per nine innings representing the highest rate in the majors among pitchers who threw 50 innings.

He also walked 35 and pitched to a 4.86 ERA, making him another project for pitching coach Matt Blake. 

A three-year major leaguer, Cruz is 34 but has not even reached arbitration yet.

For several years, he can be optioned to the minor leagues, and the Yankees own four years of contractual control. 

With this swap, the Yankees have traded for a higher ceiling but have given away a high-floor player in Trevino.

Pitchers love throwing to Trevino, who is excellent at framing and blocking potential wild pitches but has a throwing arm that often was exposed last season.

At the plate, Trevino had not yet approached the heights of his first half of ’22 and posted a combined .611 OPS in ’23 and ’24. 

Jackson becomes the most likely backup to Wells, but the Yankees have a pair of prospects on the 40-man roster (J.C. Escarra and Jesus Rodriguez) who could become options. 

The Yankees’ bullpen eventually solidified last season, but it took several months of rock flipping to find a combination that worked, and a lack of strikeouts often became highlighted.

This offseason, the Yankees have added electric closer Devin Williams, re-signed electric-when-healthy Jonathan Loáisiga and now have imported arguably the best relief arm at missing bats in baseball.

Considering the holdovers include Luke Weaver, Ian Hamilton, Mark Leiter Jr. and Jake Cousins, the club’s bullpen looks potentially dominant.