The New York Yankees made a valiant effort to reach the postseason and compete for a World Series. Ultimately, they fell short to the Los Angeles Dodgers, losing the series at the hands of Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani.

Now that we’re officially heading into the offseason, the Yankees front office can turn their full attention to priority number one: signing superstar shortstop Juan Soto.

While I think Soto will remain a Yankee, bringing him back to the Bronx will have lasting effects on the rest of free agency. With Soto set to take a $500 million deal, there will be other free agents who won’t be brought back to New York in 2025.

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While the Yankees and Aaron Boone have been big fans of Alex Verdugo all season, New York’s outfield of the future is Jasson Dominguez, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto if all goes according to plan. Dominguez has struggled to find consistent playing time and it has everything to do with Verdugo in front of him, but that shouldn’t last much longer.

Verdugo, 28, has struggled badly in 2024. He’s slashed .233/.291/.356, posting a sub-100 OPS+ for the first time since he was 22 years old. He has declined steadily over the past few seasons and the Yankees can’t afford to bring him back for the price another team will be willing to offer.

Dominguez, on the other hand, has all the tools to be a superstar in the game. He is a switch hitter with raw power that blows away scouts. He has yet to get comfortable in the big leagues, but he is still young and growing. 2025 is the perfect time to line him up and let him play.

This is very simple. New York will likely try to bring Verdugo back, but they won’t overpay for him. There are teams around the league that won’t make a shot at big free agents, so they’d be more inclined to overpay for Verdugo.

Clay Holmes was one of, if not the greatest reliever in the game of baseball for a good majority of the first half of the season. Holmes dominated the rest of the world until a few weeks before the All-Star break. And when the wheels fell off for Holmes, they actually fell.

On June 9, Holmes recorded his 19th save, lowering his season ERA to 1.23, along with just three blown saves. Over the next several months, Holmes would see his ERA rise to 3.32 by September 11th. At this point, Holmes is now up to 12 blown saves and 29 successful saves on the year. The righty would finish the year 30 for 43 on save opportunities. He lost his closer role before the postseason.

Now, Holmes is set to enter free agency, and there’s little chance he’ll end up back in the Bronx. The fanbase has long since turned their backs on him and whether you like it or not, that means something to the players in their free agency decisions. Holmes will likely be looking for a fresh start with a new team, earning a good amount of money, while the Yankees will be looking for improved options for their bullpen. These two should break up with each other this winter.

At the start of the season, it was pretty clear that the Yankees would pick up Anthony Rizzo’s $17 million team option that is attached to his contract. But as time went on and Rizzo has either struggled or been hurt, it’s getting harder and harder to imagine the Yankees spending nearly $20 million to bring Rizzo back. They could go out and get a much better first baseman, say Christian Walker or Pete Alonso, for around $25 million to $30 million AAV.

Rizzo, 35, slashed .228/.301/.335 and posted a sub-100 OPS+ for the second straight season. Even the veteran isn’t getting any younger. His performance and health have slowly declined over time, and it’s becoming quite difficult to bet on him being available or playing well when healthy.

At the end of the day, Brian Cashman’s top priority will be getting Soto back, whether that costs the team over $600 million or not. When you’re dealing with a contract this big, the $17 million in Rizzo’s contract would be worth a lot more to Soto in his deal than it is to Rizzo. Baseball is a business at the end of the day.