Jose Trevino

A Major League scout who follows the Yankees closely really likes Saturday night's trade with the Rangers that brought in catcher Jose Trevino for reliever ...

He’s a career .245 hitter with nine homers in 489 at-bats.“This guy can hit the fastball,” the scout said. “Pitchers like throwing to Higgy and I think they’re going to like throwing to Trevino.”Trevino, 29, platooned last season with rookie Jonah Heim and hit .239 with five homers in 285 at-bats playing a career-high 89 games, 81 of them starts. I’m happy for Higgy, and I guarantee you the Yankees pitchers are happy for this.”Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Yankees trade for Jose Trevino, and MLB scout loves this catching upgradeJose Trevino was a platoon catcher for the Rangers last season, batting .239 with five homers and 30 RBI in 89 games, 81 as a starter. The last two seasons, he was Sanchez’ backup and ace Gerrit Cole’s personal catcher.“Higashioka has earned this opportunity,” the scout said. He’s not going to hit for a big average and you’re not going to get many home runs out of him, but he’s not a slouch. No … come on!”This trade assures Higashioka will be the Yankees’ regular, and he’s earned in it a big way. Higashioka hit two more homers on Saturday when the Yankees blitzed the Braves 10-0 in a game that was called after 5 ½ innings due to rain. His receiving is elite and he’s having a sensational spring hitting .478 with seven homers and 11 RBI in nine games. I don’t think the Yankees were going to get any more out of Abreu.”Of course, it’s unknown at this point if Trevino will be optioned to Triple-A early into the season if, as expected, second-year newcomer Ben Rortvedt is ready for action after not playing this spring due to a lingering offseason oblique issue.Rortvedt was part of the Yankees’ haul in their March 13 blockbuster with the Twins that also brought in two starters, third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa, in exchange for catcher Gary Sanchez and infielder Gio Urshela.The scout wouldn’t be surprised if the Yankees opt to keep Trevino and option Rortvedt, a 24-year-old who debuted in the majors last season when playing 39 games with the Twins.“Defensively, I like the Yankees’ catching tandem,” the scout said. He can hit a ball out of the ballpark.”The trade came about three hours after Yankees manager Aaron Boone addressed Higashioka’s Friday statement that he’s not assuming he’s the starting catcher.“I like that assumption,” Boone said with a laugh. APTAMPA — The Yankees didn’t trade for a star or even a starter Saturday night when addressing a catching situation that had spring training homer machine Kyle Higashioka paired with a big question mark less than a week from Opening Day.What this trade for Jose Trevino does is add a quality backup who will be an upgrade over the healthy No. 2 options that the Yankees had been considering, an MLB scout told NJ Advance Media an hour after the deal with the Texas Rangers went down.The Yankees parted with reliever Albert Abreu, who was out of options, and pitching prospect Robert Ahlstrom for Trevino, who has 156 games of Major League experience, all of them with the Rangers from 2018-21.The scout considers Trevino an above-average defensive catcher who can handle the bat a little minus the kind of power we’ve seen from Higashioka, who leads the majors with seven spring homers.“I’ll tell you what, Trevino is a good backup because he can call a good game,” the scout said.