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January 3rd, 2025: Leadoff, LeMahieu, Hart, Mailbag
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 11:00:09 +0000 UTCHappy New Year everyone and welcome to the year the Yankees win the World Series. If it happens, I’ll look like a genius. If not, I’ll pretend this post never happened. 2025, eh? Crazy, man. Younger me would have been disappointed we don’t have flying skateboards yet. Anyway, I liked the throwback quick hit format I used last week, so I'm gonna go back to that today, and maybe a bit more regularly in the future. We’ll see how it goes. Here now is today’s post.
1. The Yankees still have a few items on their offseason to-do list (second or third baseman, lefty reliever, backup catcher), though they’re done with the heaviest lifting, and now that we’re in January, it’s bargain hunting time. This is the time of year when teams sit back and wait out the market, and see which free agents and trade partners get desperate. This is why I won’t close the door on Nolan Arenado despite all the reports the Yankees are uninterested. I doubt the Cardinals want to start the season with him and it seems like they're running out of potential trade partners. At some point St. Louis might put their tail between their legs and come back to the Yankees with a better deal. Maybe that means taking back Marcus Stroman or eating a bigger chunk of Arenado’s contract or attaching a sweetener. I dunno. The larger point is that, because the Yankees have already made their most significant offseason moves, they’re better able to let the market come to them the next few weeks. This is something they’ve done in the past. Stroman, Luke Weaver, and Caleb Ferguson were all post-New Years additions last offseason. Jameson Taillon and DJ LeMahieu (both times) were January moves. It wasn’t until late January that the Yankees traded Sonny Gray even though everyone knew they were going to move him from Day 1 of the offseason. Corbin Burnes and Mookie Betts were February trades! Interested teams waited until the price came down, then pounced. The start of Spring Training functions as a soft deadline. Eventually free agents and teams with players they want to move will feel the squeeze. The Yankees sprung into action once Juan Soto left for the Mets and got a lot of their offseason work done. I bet the next few weeks are much more low-key as they wait for something(s) to fall into their lap.
2. This is not a question that has to be answered on Jan. 3rd, but who’s hitting leadoff in 2025? We know the Yankees want Anthony Volpe to be that guy, they rushed him up to the top of the lineup last year and kept him there for 76 consecutive games even though his bat cooled. Volpe finished 117th out of 129 qualified hitters in OBP last season, and 119th in wRC+. He’s one of the least productive hitters in baseball. You can’t put him atop the lineup. At least not to start 2025. Maybe later in the year things come together (and I don’t mean after two good weeks) and Volpe ascends to the leadoff spot, but not on Opening Day. The best leadoff candidate is probably Jazz Chisholm Jr.? He whittled his strikeout and swinging strike rates down to 24.5% and 12.6% last season, respectively, which are higher than the league average but not excessive. He’ll take a walk (8.5% in 2024), he can give you a quick 1-0 lead with a leadoff homer, and he'll steal bases. Also, the top of the order would flow nicely with a lefty hitting leadoff hitter:
1. Jazz Chisholm Jr., LHB
2. Aaron Judge, RHB
3. Cody Bellinger, LHB
4. Giancarlo Stanton, RHB
5-9. Everyone else
The Yankees haven’t had a proper leadoff hitter since DJ LeMahieu’s last productive year in 2021. Gleyber Torres did great work atop the lineup late last season and in the postseason, but he’s a Tiger now. I think Chisholm is the best leadoff option among players currently on the roster. He hit leadoff a bunch with the Marlins, so it wouldn’t be new to him, and I think he’s the best fit for the top spot given his willingness to take a walk and steal a base, and ability to put a mistake in the seats for a quick strike homer. There is no standout candidate for the job though. The Yankees again lack a true leadoff hitter.
3. Not surprisingly, Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman said last month they believe DJ LeMahieu can still contribute to the Yankees. “I feel like whatever we’ve seen the last couple of years and what’s in your mind, good health goes a long way in potentially putting him right back into the mix,” Boone told Max Goodman at the Winter Meetings. What else are they supposed to say? He's cooked and the only reason he’s still on the roster is the two years and $30M remaining on his contract? LeMahieu turns 37 in July and he looked very much done as a hitter in 2024. I mean done done. Couldn’t drive the baseball, put it on the ground constantly, had his highest chase rate since his first full big league season in 2013. He was also diminished in the field. Anything hit more than one step to his left or right was getting by him. LeMahieu was in the worst player in baseball conversation last year (-1.6 WAR!) and I don’t expect much in 2025. At the same time, the Yankees might as well see what LeMahieu looks like in Spring Training, right? The only reason to release him now would be to rip the band-aid off, and avoid an awkward and potentially unpopular decision during Spring Training or the regular season (unpopular because LeMahieu’s teammates love him). I don’t think the Yankees are worried about that though. I think they want to make sure the tank is on E, that LeMahieu truly can not contribute anything even when fully healthy, before moving on. Right now, in early January, there’s no harm in keeping LeMahieu on the roster. He’s not clogging anything up. We’ll see what he looks like in Spring Training. I don’t expect much, but who knows, maybe he has a dead cat bounce and is a viable platoon bat on the infield corners.
4. The Yankees announced the Paul Goldschmidt signing earlier this week and are all caught up on their official business. Physicals have been taken, contracts have been signed, etc. There are no moves waiting to be finalized. The Yankees currently have four open 40-man roster spots and it was around this time last offseason that they went on their waiver claim spree. They claimed eight players between Dec. 1st and Feb. 28th last offseason (six between Jan. 1st and Feb. 28th) after making eight claims in the previous four calendar years. None of last winter’s waiver claims amounted to much (Jahmai Jones was the best), but the Yankees stayed busy and kept churning through bottom of the 40-man roster guys. With four open 40-man spots, there’s no reason not to do the same these next few weeks. Maybe you stumble into a bench guy or a bullpen arm. Jeremiah Estrada was one of the best relievers in the game last season (remember this?) and the Padres got him on waivers in November. Collin Snider gave the Mariners some really good innings following a February claim. The Diamondbacks originally landed Christian Walker as a waiver claim! Most claims don’t amount to much, but there’s no harm in making them when you have four open 40-man spots to play with. Was last winter’s waiver activity a new annual thing for the Yankees, or a blip? We’ll find out these next few weeks.
5. Will Sammon and Katie Woo (subs. req’d) report the Yankees are among the teams with interest in free agent lefty Kyle Hart. Hart, 32, is looking to follow the Erick Fedde/Merrill Kelly path and go from MLB washout to KBO star to effective MLB pitcher. He spent several years in the Red Sox system and got blasted during his only big league stint in 2020 (21 runs in 11 innings). In 2024, he threw 157 innings with a 2.69 ERA (3.28 FIP) with 28.8 K% and 6.0 BB% for the NC Dinos, and won KBO’s Cy Young equivalent. Here is Eric Longenhagen’s recent scouting report:
The low-slot lefty made some changes to how he deploys his arsenal compared to when he was last in affiliated ball. Hart was taking a slider-first approach while he was with (the Mariners’ Triple-A team in 2023) but pitched more off his 90-mph fastball in Korea. It allowed his well-commanded slider, his best offering, to be used more often as a chase pitch. Hart’s changeup generated plus chase and miss rates in 2024, but that pitch lives off his command of it rather than the pitch’s movement. Hart can vary the speed and shape of his breaking stuff by working in a cutter and a rarely thrown slow curveball. Hart looks like a fifth or sixth starter type, though there’s a risk his fastball-oriented approach won’t be viable against big league hitters due to his lack of velocity.
Fedde and Kelly were a bit younger than Hart when they returned to the big leagues and they were viewed as potential back-end starters who turned into quite a bit more. There was much more buzz about those two than there is about Hart, and more belief in their stuff translating. This might be Hart’s only chance at a nice free agent payday, so he might take the biggest offer no matter what, though I assume he prefers a team that will give him a rotation spot no questions asked. That won’t be the Yankees, and I doubt they’ll outbid other teams to bring him in as a reliever (or Triple-A depth starter). The White Sox hit big on Fedde last offseason and they need more pitching, so maybe they go back to the KBO well with Hart. The Yankees are said to have interest in the southpaw. Not sure I see much of a fit though.
6. I am planning an all-prospect post next Tuesday, including my long overdue 2024 Minor League Awards (here are last year’s), so this is my last chance to touch on the arbitration-eligible Yankees before next Thursday’s salary filing deadline. The Yankees currently have five unsigned arb-eligibles. Here are the five and MLBTR’s salary projections:
Devin Williams: $7.7M
Jazz Chisholm Jr.: $6.9M
Clarke Schmidt: $3.5M
Mark Leiter Jr.: $2.1M
Scott Effross: $900,000
The majority of arb-eligible players will sign before Thursday’s filing deadline. The Yankees got everyone signed before the deadline last year, and all but one player signed before the deadline in 2023 (Gleyber Torres) and 2022 (Aaron Judge). Gleyber signed about two weeks later. Judge didn’t sign until right before a hearing, which is an outlier for the Yankees. They typically get all their arb business handled without a fuss before the filing deadline. Chisholm went to a hearing last offseason, though it seems that was a Marlins thing and not a Jazz thing. Miami also went to hearings with Luis Arraez and Tanner Scott. I guess they were determined to agitate their best players. Anyway, this is just a reminder the arbitration salary filing deadline is next Thursday. I expect the Yankees to get those five players signed before then with no drama.
Mailbag Questions of the Week
Anonymous asks: Would you have signed up for Gleyber’s total output across his seven seasons with the Yankees if given the chance following the Chapman trade in 2016? How about after his 2018 rookie season?
In seven seasons with the Yankees, Gleyber Torres hit .265/.334/.441 (113 wRC+) and averaged 25 home runs and +2.9 WAR per 162 games. His best years came early on …
2018-19: 275/.338/.511 (123 wRC+) with 62 HR and +6.6 WAR
2020-24: 261/.332/.411 (109 wRC+) with 76 HR and +9.5 WAR
… which can be attributed at least somewhat to the rocket ball (a lot of good players looked great in 2019). During those seven years, the league average second baseman hit .253/.317/.397 (95 wRC+) with 17 homers and +2.1 WAR per 162 games. Torres was comfortably above that, especially on offense. He was fifth in WAR and fourth in wRC+ among second basemen from 2018-24.
Clearly, Torres was a productive player in his seven years with the Yankees. A top five second basemen if you believe the numbers. The question asks whether I would have signed up for this production if given the chance after the trade in 2016, and after 2018. After the trade, yes, absolutely. Getting a +16.1 WAR middle infielder for half-a-season of Aroldis Chapman is a huge win. Great, great trade outcome.
As for after 2018 – Torres hit .271/.340/.480 (121 wRC+) with 24 homers and +3.6 WAR as a rookie – yeah, I would say I was let down by what followed (2020-24 more than 2019). That doesn’t mean I think Gleyber was bad, he obviously wasn’t, but early on he looked like a budding star who was about to live up the hype that comes with being a top 10-ish prospect in baseball. Instead he settled in as a good regular.
To answer the question, yes I would have signed up for Gleyber’s output after the trade in 2016, but after 2018, I’m not so sure. He looked so good at such a young age! At the same time, a +12.5 WAR middle infielder from 2019-24 is nothing to scoff at. I think I would have begrudgingly accepted post-2018 Torres because that’s a good player and hard to walk away from, but it was a bit of a letdown he didn’t build on his early career highs.
Overall, Torres was a very productive Yankee and one of the better second basemen in the game for the majority of his tenure. He started out very well (again, in part because of the rocket ball) but didn’t build on that, and was merely good rather than great. Even while fully acknowledging Gleyber was a good player, it was a bit disappointing he peaked early, sure. How can it not be when that happens with a young player?
Brian asks: Seeing rumors of Yankees interest in HS Kim. He’s put up 5 and 6 WAR seasons with mediocre hitting stats. Is he an outrageously good fielder?
WAR can overrate good defenders who are multi-position guys like Ha-Seong Kim, which isn’t to say he’s a bad player, just that his true talent probably isn’t +6 WAR. League average bats with great middle infield gloves typically fall in the +4 WAR range (think Nico Hoerner or 2023 Andrés Giménez/Bryson Stott). The Padres put Kim at short full-time last year and he was weirdly shaky in the field early in the season before settling down.
Now 29, Kim tore his right labrum diving back into first base in August and he tried to rehab the injury so he could be available in the postseason, but it didn’t work, and he had surgery in October. He is not expected to be ready for Opening Day and it’s unclear if he’s looking at a return in April, May, June, etc. The injury is to his throwing shoulder, which is a bit worrisome. Does Kim come back with a second base only arm?
Kim is a great contact rates/plate discipline guy whose power is entirely to the pull field as a right-handed hitter. He’s never hit an opposite field homer, and if you go by Statcast’s expected home runs, Kim would have hit about 34% fewer homers at Yankee Stadium than Petco Park the last four years. Clearly, he’s better than what the Yankees have penciled in second base right now, though the bat may play down in the Bronx.
Scrolling through his MLBTR archive, every team that showed interest in Kim this offseason ultimately went in another direction. The Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández and put Mookie Betts back on the infield. The Tigers signed Gleyber Torres. The Giants signed Willy Adames. The Blue Jays traded for Giménez. Scary medicals? Asking price too high? Just a coincidence? Not sure what’s up there.
I haven’t seen anything linking the Yankees to Kim that isn’t speculation. We haven’t seen a single legit “the Yankees have interest in Kim” rumor. I would rather not sink multiple years into a glove-first middle infielder, especially one coming off major shoulder surgery, but Kim is a good player who would make the 2025 Yankees better (and fits their run prevention kick). I’d prefer a better hitter and even give up some defense to get it, though that better hitter just may not be out there. The shoulder is the great unknown. When exactly will Kim be available to play?
(While on the subject of free agent infielders named Kim, Hye-Seong Kim’s posting window closes at 5pm ET on Friday, as in today. There has been zero buzz about him. My guess is he’ll sign somewhere, though returning to Korea wouldn’t be a complete shock. Kim’s a no power/good glove second baseman whose numbers in KBO are nowhere near Ha-Seong Kim’s. Here’s what I wrote a few weeks ago.)
Greg asks: Gil, Dominguez and Lombard for Ketel Marte? Surrounding Judge with a bunch of number 7 hitters doesn't feel like a recipe for success. Marte isn't ideal but middle of the order bat (still our biggest need) good defense at second base. And while he’s 32, the contract is very team friendly.
I respectfully disagree. Marte would be ideal. He’s a switch-hitter who’s great from both sides of the plate, has very good contact rates and plate discipline, and he’s owed only $49M the next three years. It might be the most team-friendly contract in baseball. Marte hit .292/.372/.560 (151 wRC+) with 36 homers and the underlying numbers to support that slash line in 2024. That was probably a career year, though if you have to settle for 2021-23 Marte (.273/.350/.469 and 121 wRC+), you’ll be more than happy. He’s excellent.
I would trade Luis Gil, Jasson Domínguez, and George Lombard Jr. for Marte. That is a very big package (basically the Yankees’ three best trade chips), but it should hurt to get a player as good and as affordable as Marte. Greg sent this question in before the Diamondbacks signed Corbin Burnes, so they no longer need Gil, and they’re not going to sign Burnes just to turn around and trade their best player (or second best depending which version of Corbin Carroll shows up moving forward). I would love love love the Yankees to get Marte. I just don’t think it’s realistic. He’s essentially unattainable.
Jon asks: The Yankees have a bit of a track record recently highlighting the incompetence of the White Sox with dramatic improvement from some of their castoffs once they join the Yankees. What are the chances Yoan Moncada could join that group and be an effective and affordable 3B option? Is there anything encouraging in his profile?
Moncada played only 12 games and had only 45 plate appearances in 2024. He went down with a serious adductor strain in early April and returned in mid-September. The White Sox activated him on Sept. 16th, he pinch-struck out two days later, and that was it. Moncada was an active player for the final 12 games of the season, and all he did was pinch-hit that one time. I get it, the White Sox were bad and they gave the playing time to younger players, but why carry a free agent-to-be on the roster for those last 12 games? Just DFA him and use the roster spot on someone else. I don’t get it. Well, whatever. White Sox gonna White Sox.
Those 12 games and 45 plate appearances last year are essentially meaningless. They don’t tell us much (or anything) about the player Moncada is now. He didn’t hit from 2022-23 (.234/.288/.386 and 86 wRC+) and his third base defense was just okay. Moncada hasn’t had a good and healthy season since 2021, when he hit .263/.375/.412 (120 wRC+) with good defense and was a +4.0 WAR player. He’s still only 29, which is young enough that he could bounce back with good health in 2025. It’s not like he’s in his mid-30s trying to hang on. Moncada has definitely been more hype than performance though.
I was all for taking on Moncada and the $29M remaining on his contract last offseason as a way to lower the prospect cost for Dylan Cease, and that was more about wanting Cease than thinking Moncada could be a real contributor. I would give just about anyone a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite. It’s been a quiet winter for Moncada. If he’s willing to take a non-roster deal and compete for the third base job, cool, let’s do it. I don’t think the Yankees can guarantee a player who hasn’t been good and healthy at the same time in four years a guaranteed roster spot though. Moncada’s in dice roll territory for me.
(Moncada played winter ball in Puerto Rico last month and got hurt twice. He took a pitch to the hand and then fouled a pitch into his foot, so he shut it down to avoid injury while unemployed. Moncada went 5-for-20 with seven strikeouts in six winter ball games.)
Adam asks: Considering they both essentially signed for the same amount of money, who would you have preferred between Paul Goldschmidt and Carlos Santana? If I had to pick one, I’d have rather they picked up Santana.
I would have preferred Santana too. He’s two years older than Goldschmidt, but he was better in 2024 (at the plate and in the field) and his contact and plate discipline declines have been much smoother and not nearly as significant. Santana turns 39 in April and, at that age, there’s a chance it goes south quickly and without warning. The same applies to the 37-year-old Goldschmidt too though, and his underlying decline is scarier. They have essentially identical age-related risk, but Santana was better in 2024 and the under-the-hood numbers suggest he’ll be better in 2025. Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d) says Santana took less money to return to Cleveland, so this wasn’t a situation where offering Santana the Goldschmidt contract would’ve gotten it done. Doesn’t seem like Santana was a real possibility for the Yankees without a big overpayment. (I can't remember where I read it, but Goldschmidt reportedly turned down more money elsewhere to join the Yankees.)
Steve asks: One of my favorite all-time trades was Jesus Montero straight up for Michael Pineda. You just don’t see very high profile, young prospects dealt in a one-for-one deal. With the Yankees willingness to listen for offers in Gil, who would be a comparable field prospect that you’d be interested in matching up with a trade.
Montero for Pineda wasn’t straight up! It was Montero and Hector Noesí for Pineda and Vicente Campos. Noesí didn’t stick with the Mariners and then bounced around from 2014-20, including a stint in Korea. He’s been out of baseball since the pandemic season. The Yankees traded Campos for Tyler Clippard and he got into one big league game with Arizona in 2016. Now 32, Campos is still active in the Mexican League. He’s pitched in independent leagues, the Italian Baseball League, Mexico, you name it.
I definitely agree that young player for young player “challenge” trades are a blast. Montero for Pineda definitely fits even with Campos and Noesí involved. Jazz Chisholm Jr. for Zac Gallen is the most notable such trade in recent memory. Gallen had already made his MLB debut with the Marlins, though it was only seven starts and 36.1 innings before the trade. Chisholm was in Double-A at the time. Brandon Marsh for Logan O’Hoppe is another good one. Also A.J. Puk for JJ Bleday to a lesser extent.
Gil has four years of team control remaining, not five (or even six) like the typical Rookie of the Year winner because he spent 2023 on the MLB 60-day injured list while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. That makes this exercise a little more difficult because teams will hesitate to give up 5-6 years of a good young hitter for four years of a good young pitcher with an injury history. Anyway, some names:
IF Tyler Fitzgerald, Giants: Like Gil, Fitzgerald was a slightly older rookie in 2024 (age 26 season), and he had a breakout year that saw him hit .280/.334/.497 (123 wRC+) with 15 homers and 17 steals in 94 games. The downside is he’s a righty bat with a lot of strikeouts (31.7%), and that has more to do with his tendency to swing and miss rather than a poor approach. I’m not sure the Yankees need another high strikeout righty. The Willy Adames signing bumps Fitzgerald to second base, where he fits best defensively. Five years of control. A hitter who strikes out too much for a pitcher who walks too many. Yay? Nay?
3B Josh Jung, Rangers: Four years of control, gets hurt a bunch, has been good more than great when healthy (career .257/.301/.450 and 106 wRC+). The Rangers need pitching and could plug Josh Smith (or Justin Foscue) in at third base. I don’t think Texas would go for the Gil for Jung framework, but I didn’t think they’d trade Nate Lowe for a reliever either, so what do I know? Rangers GM Chris Young is a former pitcher. Maybe he overvalues arms and undervalues bats?
3B Royce Lewis, Twins: The last few years, the refrain in Minnesota was “I wish we could see what a healthy Lewis can do,” and the answer last year was a .233/.295/.452 (108 wRC+) line. Lewis had quad and groin injuries in 2024, so he wasn’t actually healthy, but he didn’t hit after coming off the injured list in July. Four years of control, a lot of injuries, a team that needs pitching. The Twins held onto Byron Buxton all those years even though he never stayed on the field, and he's yet to shake the injury bug. Does that scare them into moving Lewis?
2B Matt McLain, Reds: McLain blew out his shoulder diving for a ball in Spring Training and missed 2024 with cartilage/labrum surgery (he played 13 rehab games in the Arizona Fall League). When healthy in 2023, McLain slashed .290/.357/.507 (127 wRC+) and was a +3.7 WAR player. The Reds have some infield depth and selling high on Gil to buy low on McLain and his five years of control would be a hell of a thing. I’d absolutely add more to Gil to get McLain. That kid can play (assuming he bounces back well from the shoulder injury).
UTIL Matt Vierling, Tigers: For all intents and purposes, Vierling is an outfielder who can also play third base, which is where the Yankees would use him in 2025. Last season he put up a perfectly cromulent .257/.312/.423 (108 wRC+) line with 16 homers and good contact rates/swing decisions. Even after signing Alex Cobb, the Tigers could use another starter, particularly one with long-term control. Four years of Gil for three years of Vierling would be underwhelming, though it might hit the trade value sweet spot.
There are several other teams that could have interest in Gil, but don’t have the bat the Yankees need. The Astros, for example. They reportedly wanted Gil in a Kyle Tucker trade, but what infielder are they sending the Yankees? The Angels, Blue Jays, Guardians, Nationals, and Padres fit here too. We rarely see Montero for Pineda type trades because it’s so difficult to match up on value. Prospects and young big leaguers are like children. Everyone loves their own more than everyone else’s.
A different Steve asks: ANTHONY VOLPE Baseball reference has the 2 most similar players through age 23 both named Alex Gonzalez (Marlins/Rays). The rest of the list are light hitting defense first SS. Is there any reason to believe Volpe will be anything more than a glove first light hitting SS?
B-Ref’s Similarity Scores are offense only and calculated using a cookbook points system. They’re unkind to Volpe. His most similar hitters through age 23 are the Alex Gonzali, then it’s a bunch of guys you may or may not have heard of (and Zach Neto):
Excluding Neto, the common thread is none of those guys ever really hit, though just about all of them had long big league careers. Give the Yankees a truth serum, and I’m certain they would tell you they expected more from Volpe two years into his career. Maybe they didn’t expect stardom, that’s a big ask, but when your prized prospect hits .243/.293/.364 (86 wRC+) as a sophomore and that was an improvement from his rookie year, yikes.
Volpe has shown power at some times and plate discipline at others, but rarely simultaneously. He did it in the postseason, which is encouraging, but I need to see it last to believe it. It seems like no one knows what kinda hitter Volpe should be. Should he be the pull-and-lift guy he was in the minors and as a rookie? Or more of an all-fields hitter like 2024? I feel like, until someone figures that out, Volpe will just spin his wheels.
Two years into his big league career, Volpe hasn’t given us much of a reason to believe he will be an above average hitter. What is his foundational offensive skill? It’s not power, it’s not bat-to-ball ability, it’s not plate discipline. He has such huge swings with his approach. There are times he’s locked in and others when he swings at everything. Every hitter has ups and downs, but Volpe’s are extreme.
The glove means Volpe won’t ever be completely useless. And he turns only 24 in April, right? It’s not like we’re sitting here waiting for a 27-28 year old player to break through. Excluding 2020, Dansby Swanson didn’t have a league average offensive season until 2021, at age 27 and in his fourth 162-game season. These things can take time. Given Gerrit Cole’s and Aaron Judge’s age though, the Yankees can’t afford to wait for Volpe to break out at age 27. It kinda has to happen soon, right?
(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)
Comments
Joshua Wilson
Rico Petrocelli and Roy Smalley were actually pretty good hitters. I’d definitely take either of those outcomes for Volpe at this point
Alex G
Seems like Cashman and Co. had no real plan to address the offense after Soto left outside of making a bunch of moves on the margins just to say they did something. As it stands, they are going to need Dominguez, Wells, and Volpe to ALL exceed expectations and take massive strides in their development, although I'm not sure how confident I can be in that happening considering the organization's poor track record of position player development.
Mark Davis
With the Bally Sports debacle, there are teams that are desperate to move payroll. Look at the Twins: lots of trade possibilities there, including Correra!
gary noorigian
I wouldn’t be too upset if Volpe put up Rico Petrocelli- like numbers .
DocBob
Why does everyone want to trade Gil? Sure, he may have peaked in 2024, but isn't it more likely that he might be a rotation mainstay for many years? Getting Ketel Marte would be great for 2025, but giving up our future (Gil, Dominguez and Lombard) for a 115+ 32-year old is foolish.
Michael Axisa
Hye-Seong, not Ha-Seong. I wonder if this means Lux is available?
Mike Farley
Kim to the Dodgers. Did not see that coming!
Dana Marascia
Just want to say I love the quick hit format!
Joseph F
If Arrenado was a free agent, what would he get? 1/15? And would he be interesting as an add?
The Original Drew
Luis Gil.
Brad Schlesinger
kyle tucker was already traded. what pitching depth do the yankess have that can acquire an impact bat, like 125 wRC+?Clark Schmidt ain’t gonna do it.
John
Mike - I think a big piece of the Gleyber expectations vs output is the defensive positioning. After that rookie year the expectation was getting that bat with above average SS defense. The move to 2B, the subpar defense after the move and the horrendous baserunning is not what everyone thought they were signing up along with a bat that peaked early
The Original Drew
I think they are waiting on the Sasaki signing to finish up before figuring out 3B. It’s unlikely they sign him but they met with him twice so if he’s onboard, they have more depth in the rotation to deal for an impact bat.
John G
They gotta improve the offense, the current lineup just isn't gonna get it done
