Yankees were unwilling to make top two prospects available in potential Luis Castillo trade

The Yankees were known to be interested in Luis Castillo before the trade deadline. Jon Heyman of the New York Post sheds some light on the team’s discussions with the Reds, reporting that New York put outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez on the table. Heyman reiterates that New York refused to make top shortstop prospect Anthony Volpe available, however, and it’s unclear whether they were amenable to giving up fellow infielder Oswald Peraza either.

Volpe and Peraza are the only two Yankees farmhands who appeared on Baseball America’s most recent ranking of the league’s top 100 prospects. Dominguez checks in fifth in the New York system, per BA. The highest-profile player in the 2019-20 international amateur class, the switch-hitting Dominguez has big power potential but is now seen by many evaluators as likely to eventually move to a corner outfield position. He’s impressed offensively during his first full season at an affiliate, however, hitting .265/.373/.440 with nine homers and 19 stolen bases over 324 plate appearances in Low-A before being bumped up to High-A last month.

Details on the Yankees conversations with the Reds are ultimately an historical footnote, as Cincinnati wound up shipping Castillo to the Mariners for a package headlined by infielders Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo (each of whom appeared among BA’s top 50 farmhands). The Yankees then pivoted to Oakland in their search for an impact starter, landing Frankie Montas for a prospect package headlined by Ken Waldichuk and JP Sears.

Some additional notes on the Yankees big league club:

• Luis Severino has missed the past month after suffering a lat strain, but he’s making progress in his rehab. The righty threw off flat ground of a distance of 120 feet on Friday, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com was among those to relay. He’s scheduled for a bullpen session on Monday, his first mound work since landing on the injured list. Severino was transferred to the 60-day IL earlier this month (to his chagrin), but Hoch suggests the club anticipates he’ll make multiple starts in September. That indicates he’s on track to be reinstated around when first eligible during the second week of next month.
• Infielder Matt Carpenter, meanwhile, went for a visit with a specialist after fracturing his left foot on a foul ball on Monday (relayed by Hoch and Marly Rivera of ESPN). He’ll go a couple weeks without weight-bearing and be reevaluated at some point next month. Further testing confirmed the preliminary diagnosis of a six-to-eight week recovery timetable for Carpenter’s return to game action, giving him a chance to make it back for a postseason push. The 36-year-old mashed at a .305/.412/.727 clip through 47 games after signing with the Yankees in May, so it’d be a key boost if the club could welcome his left-handed bat back for the stretch run. Carpenter will be a free agent at year’s end, so a late-season comeback and productive showing in October would also serve as a nice boost to his market.