Around the Empire: Yankees news - 11/5/23

MLB.com | Mark Feinsand: With hot stove season fast approaching, we’re bound to see countless lists of the top free agents available. This one comes right from MLB, as Feinsand lists the top 25 players on the market along with potential fits. Feinsand marks the Yankees down as a top fit for Cody Bellinger, whom the Yankees will surely be connected to again as winter draws closer.

Sports Illustrated | Sam Connon: We’ve already heard a decent amount of buzz about the Yankees’ potential top targets this winter, the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Bellinger among them. There will be plenty other targets to think about, though, and one less-heralded one is Cuban pitcher Yariel Rodríguez. Francys Romero reports the Yankees are among the teams to be interested in Rodríguez, who was just declared a free agent. Rodríguez hasn’t pitched since 2022, when he was a member of NPB’s Chunichi Dragons. He was dominant, running a 1.15 ERA across 54.2 innings.

MLB Trade Rumors | Mark Polishuk: We’ve only just crowned a champion, but the gears are already starting to turn on the hot stove machine. The Brewers and Tigers fired an opening salvo, with Milwaukee sending veteran outfielder Mark Canha to Detroit in exchange for a minor league outfielder. It’s a small move, but it’s moves like these that can help us start calibrating our expectations for the winter to come. Canha, perhaps slightly better than league average last year but entering his age-35 season, will earn $11.5 million to ply his trade for the Tigers next year.

Some other news that came across the transom: Marcus Stroman opted out of the last year of his three-year, $71-million deal with the Cubs. Eduardo Rodriguez opted out of the last three years and $49 million of his deal with the Tigers, Justin Turner decided to hit the free agent market rather than return to the Red Sox, and the White Sox declined their $14 million team option on former face-of-the-franchise Tim Anderson.