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(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

The American League is wide open for any team, like the New York Yankees, to take advantage of, and the upcoming MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3 will be crucial. It will allow any team to separate itself with one or two major moves to reach the World Series.

As of June 17, New York is 44-27 with a three-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. It doesn’t look like the Rays will be going away, and the Yankees might need to make a move to separate themselves from Tampa in the final stretch of the 2026 MLB season.

With the trade deadline still a month and a half away, the question will be what move the Yankees will make to establish themselves as the clear favorite in the AL. FanSided’s Jake Elman believes that New York is a landing spot for a player who is familiar with the AL East in Rafael Devers.

“Objectively speaking, Devers makes perfect sense for the Yankees,” Elman wrote in a June 17 article. “His swing is tailor-made for Yankee Stadium, and he’d certainly be a more reliable DH than Giancarlo Stanton, at least from a health perspective. Actually, the more that we think about it, a Stanton for Devers salary dump isn’t the worst idea.”

Since being traded last year from the Boston Red Sox to the San Francisco Giants, Devers is hitting .235 with 146 hits, 30 home runs, 85 RBIs, and 86 runs scored in 163 games, per StatMuse.

Rafael Devers to the Yankees Does Have One Major Hurdle

Nonetheless, Elman believes Devers and the Yankees fit on paper but acknowledges that a move would be financially challenging.

“The problem is the Yankees’ overall budget, especially with the possibility of a salary cap looming,” Elman added in his article.

“Even if the Giants eat some of Devers’ contract, the Yankees only have so much money to go around, assuming a cap is implemented this winter. We’ll nonetheless include Devers, if only because the idea of him in a Yankees uniform is so ludicrously amusing that we need to see it. 

Should New York Look to Upgrade Its 3B Situation?

New York’s third base situation could use improvement as Ryan McMahon is batting .211 with 36 hits, seven homers, 21 RBIs and 18 runs scored in 64 games this season, per StatMuse. So, who could be a potential candidate for the Yankees?

Aside from Devers, which might be unrealistic due to the economics, what third baseman could New York pursue? In a June 15 article, Karl Rasmussen of Sports Illustrated floated Houston Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes as a potential trade target to improve the hot corner midseason.

“Paredes is a right-handed hitter and a capable third baseman who could step into a platoon at the hot corner with Ryan McMahon,” Rasmussen wrote. “Paredes, a two-time All-Star, is an above-average hitter who hit 31 home runs and drove in 98 RBIs in 2023 with the Rays.”

The Astros’ third baseman has experience playing in the AL East, having played for the Rays from 2022 to 2024. As a result, he wouldn’t be a stranger to playing in the different ballparks within the Yankees’ division and would be a good platoon player with McMahon.