New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Luis García Jr. has adapted well to life in the Bronx, with a 124 wRC+ before Wednesday’s game and solid play at the cold corner. Can he give the Yankees a bit more defensive versatility, though? Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton are all due back at some point, and Paul Goldschmidt and, of course, Ben Rice, remain part of the first base picture. Can García move around the infield? Here’s manager Aaron Boone’s answer: “You watch him, and I feel like he’s got real natural actions to me,” he said. “He’s got a good arm, so I don’t know. We’ll see. I don’t really have any plans to do that right now, but just watching him work and move and things like that, I feel like he could.”
ESPN | Kiley McDaniel: ESPN updated every team’s top 10 prospects list after the draft and the trade deadline, and the Yankees welcomed a new member to the top 10: right fielder Wilberson De Peña. George Lombard Jr., Dax Kilby, and Carlos Lagrange remain the top three, but Spencer Jones displaced Elmer Rodríguez as No. 4. For what it’s worth, McDaniel said that he ‘loved their top two picks in the draft (Dietz and Duncan), who added some upside to the system, while Matic and De Pena both emerged, adding even more.’
The Athletic | Evan Drellich: As you probably know by now, the Yankees were valued at $10 billion amid Apollo Sports Capital’s $2.6 billion investment announced this week. The valuation certainly comes at an interesting time, as owners and players seem destined to go into lockout mode in just a few months. That has sparked a debate, brought up by Drellich: is the sport blossoming or declining?
Seattle Sports at Mynorthwest.com | Brent Stecker: Rob Refsnyder, who was released by the Seattle Mariners earlier this month to accommodate new deadline acquisition Taylor Ward, might be a retired player at this point. While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, we did learn that he turned down an offer to join the Houston Astros.
Brian McTaggart, an Astros beat writer, said Refsnyder and Houston were “close” to a deal but that he “heard (Refsnyder) retired instead.” The 35-year-old played for the Yankees between 2015 and 2017 after being drafted and developed by the Bombers.