Do the New York Yankees already have the American League’s nastiest bullpen? Or do they need to make sure of it?

With the addition of Devin Williams, the former two-time National League Reliever of the Year, the Yankees have a back-end tandem that can compete with any team in Major League Baseball–if Luke Weaver can repeat his 2024 success.

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The Yankees’ pitching brain trust, led by pitching coach Matt Blake, completely turned Weaver’s career around in 2024, but his track record was spotty beforehand. And outside of Weaver and Williams, the Yankees don’t have many reliable options for high-leverage situations.

If the Yankees were to follow through on one writer’s proposed trade target, there would be no questions about their preparedness for those very situations.

Jonathan Vankin of Heavy recently proposed that the Yankees should acquire Minnesota Twins closer Jhoan Duran, one of the hardest throwers in baseball history, to shore up their bullpen for the 2025 season.

“The Yankees would likely have to part with some Major League assets to grab Duran, but their roster is deep and even their pitching has some extraneous parts,” Vankin said. “Righty starter Clarke Schmidt appears expendable, for example.”

“The Yankees would need to add more to obtain Duran, so… is it worth it? With a deeper bullpen that takes pressure off the Yankees’ high-priced starting staff, for an addition as economical as Duran the answer is most likely yes.”

Duran, 26, has a 2.59 ERA and 11.7 strikeouts per nine innings in his three big-league seasons to this point. He throws a four-seam fastball that can occasionally top 104 miles per hour and a “splinker” that clocks in closer to 100.

Duran is cheap now, as Spotrac estimates him to be worth $1.7 million this season in arbitration. His salary will continue to go up a bit every year, but he’s under team control for the next three seasons.

Would the Twins be willing to part with Duran for a reasonable price? Probably, since he’s a reliever, and they’re not particularly close to World Series contention. But they’re also in no rush to move him, so the Yankees would have to make a godfather offer.