NY Yankees depth chart is collecting former NY Mets players who've seen better days

When a player goes from one New York baseball team to the next, especially when it’s someone who isn’t all that good, one fan base will roast the other. A petty back-and-forth between New York Mets and Yankees fans, it’s one of those reasons why living in the Tristate area and following either club is a unique situation. We’re right on top of the enemy.

The Mets haven’t stopped adding ex-Yankees. Juan Soto, Clay Holmes, and Frankie Montas are all well-known one-time Yankees players who’ve made the jump—the former two directly. 

The Yankees aren’t completely clean in taking players from their crosstown rivals. They’re collecting ex-Mets like it’s going out of style.

The Yankees have added a lot of former Mets this offseason

Joining Marcus Stroman, for now, will be Dominic Smith, Pablo Reyes, Allan Winans, and Carlos Carrasco. Can we include Geoff Hartlieb in there? He pitched in 3 games for the 2021 Mets. The Yankees signed him to a minor league deal on October 18, 2024. Technically not an offseason addition because the Yankees were still playing ball at the time, he does go up in the collection. We'd also have to include Duke Ellis in there. He had a blink-and-you-missed-it stint with the Mets last year in the minors. He's different from the others as he was with the Yankees in 2024.

Only Winans, a 17th round draft pick from 2018, was on the current 40-man roster for the Yankees until getting DFA'd Wednesday afternoon. His MLB experience only included 8 games with the Atlanta Braves in 2023-2024. He ended up with our NL East rival via waiver claim. If retained after passing through waivers, he'll be a candidate to pitch in relief as part of the rotation of bullpen arms who’ll go back and forth between the majors and minors.

The others don’t seem to have much of a pathway to the majors. Smith is blocked at first base by Paul Goldschmidt. An injury, of course, could always give him some hacks in Yankees pinstripes. For his sake, let’s hope it gets better than what J.D. Davis managed to do for them last year. His batting average was so low Dr. Nowzaradan told it to consume more calories. Reyes is inconsequential and nothing more than a depth chart guy who can add versatility much like the brief time he spent with the Mets organization last year. If he’s ever a Yankees contributor, being an ex-Boston Red Sox player is the far more intriguing element.

Then there’s the most recent addition, Carrasco. Signed to a minor league deal, the nearly 38-year-old is probably in his last professional season. A 5.64 ERA last year for the Cleveland Guardians plus a season-ending injury was probably his body telling him it was time to hang them up last year.