11:06am: The two teams have formally announced the swap. It’s a straight one-for-one deal. The Yankees designated outfielder Michael Siani for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.
10:45am: The Yankees and Rockies have agreed to a deal that will send reliever Angel Chivilli from Denver to the Bronx in exchange for minor league first baseman T.J. Rumfield, reports Jack Curry of the YES Network.
Chivilli is a hard-throwing 23-year-old righty who has shown an aptitude for missing bats and generating grounders but has yet to find consistent success in the majors. He averaged 97.1 mph on his four-seamer this past season and boasts an outstanding 14.4% swinging-strike rate in his young career, and he’s limited walks at a solid 8.1% clip. However, a penchant for serving up the long ball have undercut those swing-and-miss capabilities and otherwise solid command so far; Chivilli has served up an average of 1.99 homers per nine frames in each of his two partial MLB seasons.
Despite that big swinging-strike rate and a healthy 32.3% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate, Chivilli comes to the Yankees with a below-average 17.4% strikeout rate in his career. His opponents have posted an awful 78.4% contact rate against Chivilli’s pitches that fall within the strike zone — league average in 2025 was 85.4% — but he’s put himself at a disadvantage by falling behind in counts far too often. Chivilli’s career 56.9% first-pitch strike rate (55.6% in 2025) is considerably lower than the 62% league average.
It bears mentioning that Chivilli has struggled more at Coors Field than on the road, though his ERA in both settings (7.06 at home, 5.03 on the road) is sub-par. He’s generated enormous swinging-strike rates on both his changeup (26.3%) and slider (23.4%) but struggled to miss bats with his four-seamer he threw in 2025 or the sinker he threw in 2024.
Though the bottom-line results haven’t been there yet, pitchers with Chivilli’s blend of velocity, command, ground-balls and raw bat-missing ability (even if it hasn’t manifested in big strikeout totals yet) are hard to come by. If the Yankees can coax some more swing-and-miss from one of his heaters and/or get him to throw first-pitch strikes with more frequency, there’s potential for Chivilli to develop into a high-quality late-inning option. He also has a minor league option remaining, so he’s someone the Yanks can send to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for further refinement if he doesn’t win a bullpen job in spring training.
Chivilli is controllable for at least five more seasons, which adds to his appeal. If he spends any notable time in the minors this year, the Yankees could push that to six full seasons. Chivilli currently has 1.036 years of big league service time, meaning he’ll need to spend 136 days on New York’s major league roster or injured list to remain on track for free agency following the 2030 season. If he spends about one-third of the season in the minors, that free agency timeline would be pushed back to the 2031-32 offseason, though he’d then project as a Super Two player who’d be arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three.
In exchange for that development project, the Rockies will pick up an interesting 25-year-old first baseman. Rumfield was blocked in the Bronx by Ben Rice but has a clear path to regular first base work in Colorado if he hits his way into the job. Based on his recent minor league track record, Rumfield has a good chance to do just that.
A 12th-round pick by the Phillies in 2021, Rumfield landed with the Yankees by way of the trade that sent righty Nick Nelson and catcher Donny Sands to Philadelphia. He spent the entire 2025 season with the Yankees’ top affiliate in Scranton, slashing .285/.378/.447 with 16 home runs, 31 doubles, a triple, five stolen bases (seven attempts), a huge 11.9% walk rate and an 18.4% strikeout rate that’s comfortably lower than average. The year prior, Rumfield hit .292/.365/.461 with 15 homers and similar rate stats in 114 Triple-A games.
The left-handed-hitting Rumfield is not yet on the 40-man roster. He went unselected in last month’s Rule 5 Draft despite being eligible. Baseball America ranked him 30th among Yankees prospects this offseason, noting that he makes plenty of contact, is adept at pulling the in the air and plays a fine defensive first base. There was no path to regular playing time for him in the majors with the Yankees, and he lacks the defensive versatility to profile as a true bench option for them. With the Rockies, however, Rumfield will head to camp with a legitimate chance to win the first base job this spring.
At the moment, 28-year-old waiver pickup Troy Johnston and perpetually injured veteran Kris Bryant are among the team’s options at first base. Newly hired president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta recently declined to even fully commit to Bryant being in spring training when asked by Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, however, stating only: “That will be up to our medical people.”
Johnston has plenty of experience in the outfield corners as well, so even if the Rockies want to give him a real chance on the big league roster — he does have a solid Triple-A track record with the Marlins organization — he could fit into a bench/designated hitter role if Rumfield seizes the first base job.
Rumfield may not be a star in the making, but if he can turn in even average offense and glovework at first base, he’d be a seismic upgrade for a Colorado club that had far and away the worst first base output of any team in MLB — on either side of the ball. Colorado first basemen posted an atrocious .211/.268/.372 batting line in 2025. The resulting 62 wRC+ (indicating that was 38% worse than average at the position after weighting for ballpark) was 15 points south of the 29th-ranked Giants. Former first-rounder Michael Toglia paced the Rockies in first base appearances last year but hit just .190/.258/.353 with a mammoth 39.2% strikeout rate, -3 Defensive Runs Saved and -10 Outs Above Average in 88 games.
