Free agency could make Yankees bullpen look very different in 2025

There is plenty of deserved attention paid to Juan Soto, who is looking at hundreds of millions of dollars and what should be 30 suitors.Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo may have played their final games in pinstripes.

Gerrit Cole could opt out and trigger a Yankees decision. Understandably less attention-grabbing has been the fact the Yankees could lose three relievers who logged about half of their postseason bullpen innings. Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Tim Hill combined for 29 of the club’s 60 ⅔ playoff innings of relief, the trio three-fourths of the trust tree established by Aaron Boone.Only Luke Weaver, whose club option the Yankees officially picked up Friday, logged significant October innings in relief and is assured of returning in 2025.Though all three pending free agents expressed an interest in returning, a bullpen that the Yankees seem to rebuild every season will need to be rebuilt again. “It’s been incredible,” Holmes said about being a Yankee.

“Just thinking back three and a half years when I got traded over here to now — there’s a lot of special people here, and the whole process, and the leaders in this clubhouse, and just the things that I’ve learned here, it’s been invaluable. “It’s something I’ll always remember and take with me.” Since Holmes was sent from the Pirates to the Yankees on July 26, 2001, 222 pitchers have logged at least 200 major league innings.Holmes’ 2.69 ERA ranks seventh among the group. Holmes, who unleashed his power sinker with the Yankees and rode it to two All-Star Games, lost his closing spot this year but settled in as a setup man.

In 20 postseason innings in his Yankees career, he allowed three earned runs (1.35 ERA). The righty would hit the open market for a first time at 31 and is deserving of a multi-year deal for a higher annual average than the $6 million he made in 2024.He can be replaced, but the Yankees would miss the steadiness of a pitcher whose results were bett...