Yankees Must Trade for Keller, Bednar to Solidify World Series Chances amid MLB Rumors

The New York Yankees are part of the World Series race, but they certainly aren't the favorites.

Perhaps a productive showing at the 2025 MLB trade deadline could change that.

New York has multiple needs it would be thrilled to fill between now and Thursday's 6 p.m. ET cutoff, and it might view the Pittsburgh Pirates as a one-stop shop to put this roster on a championship path.

The Yankees and Pirates have discussed "multiple players," per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Closer David Bednar is one of them, and starter Mitch Keller is another, although the latter's "price tag might discourage them."

While the Yankees shouldn't take a blank-check approach toward attacking their weaknesses, they should also know this isn't the time to get overly conservative. New York, which last won a World Series title in 2009, only has so much longer to capitalize on the prime of generational slugger Aaron Judge.

The window is open right now, though. Judge might be the best hitter in baseball, and there is no shortage to solid-or-better support bats around him in this lineup. The Yankees have the Majors' most home runs (170) and highest slugging percentage (.451). They sit third in both runs scored (552) and RBI (529).

This is a championship-caliber lineup. The same just can't be said of the pitching staff.

Maybe it would apply if New York wasn't missing the likes of Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt, but that's a moot point when both have been shelved by season-ending elbow surgeries. Plus, having both around wouldn't make this bullpen any less shaky.

That's why the Yankees should be fully focused on a two-birds, one-stone type of trade with the Pirates. While either Bednar or Keller would improve this club, getting both would provide the kind of big boost this pitching staff really needs.

Keller's 3.69 ERA is the best he's ever posted in a full season, and his 15 quality starts are tied for the second-most in the Majors. He'd give reliability, consistency and a bunch of good-to-really-good innings to a rotation that could use all of the above.

Bednar, meanwhile, struggled enough out of the gate to have to stomach an early-season demotion, but he's basically been lights-out ever since. He has a 0.96 ERA in the month of July, and that's actually a step back from his scoreless June, when he had 16 strikeouts against only four hits and three walks over 10 innings.

If nothing else, both would provide added depth to this pitching staff. And when they're in a groove, they'd look like featured parts of it.

The Yankees can look for alternatives, obviously, but trading with the Pirates would allow them to tackle multiple issues at once. It'd be costly to get a big deal done—a demand definitely outweighs the supply for pitching this trade season—but if the potential prize is a World Series title, New York could stomach a (reasonably) high cost.

This lineup should allow the front office to dream that big. Because if the pitching ever catches up, that dream could become a reality.