The New York Yankees have several options for the upcoming season as to what they can do to fulfill their key positions. Although no trades can be made yet because of the lockout, the Yankees can discuss who they may want and for what position. Here are a few potential players the Yankees may look at.
The Yankees have several options here. They can keep Luke Voit, but the Yankees are probably looking for an upgrade. Voit’s career BA is .267, which is okay, but could be better. It doesn’t help that he has been injured a lot, so getting a healthier option would be best.
Although Voit does have power, the Yankees may be looking at Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo has power too with 251 career homers and hitting .268 in his career. There are better options still though.
Two more options are Freddie Freeman and Matt Olson. Freddie Freeman’s career average is .295 with 776 walks, 941 RBIs, 271 HR, and 1,312 strike outs. His fielding is good too, but as a first baseman. His career fielding percentage is .995 while playing first base. It is .971 while playing third, but he only played 16 games in this position in his career.
Matt Olson’s numbers in the minors are not too shabby. His average is on the low side though at .249. However, he had 430 walks, 127 HR, 432 RBIs and an OPS of .841 in 670 games. He is a player to watch.
Image Courtesy of Mark LoMoglio | Tampa Tarpons from Brendan Kuty/NJ Advamce Media at nj.com
Growing up a Yankee fan, Volpe was drafted in 2019 by the Yankees in the first round. He started out with the Pulaski Yankees where he played 34 games as a rookie. He batted .215 with 38 strike outs, 23 walks, 11 RBIs and two HR.
From May 4, 2021 to July 11th, Volpe played with the Tampa Tarpons, a low-A minor league team. Here, he hit.302 with 43 strike outs, had 51 walks, 21 stolen bases, 49 RBIs and 12 HR. He then started playing for the Hudson Valley Renegades, where he hit .286 with 58 strike outs, 27 walks, 37 RBIs and 15 HR.
The Yankees are going to get a chance to look at Volpe at next week’s minor league mini camp. With the numbers Volpe had, there would be little chance to use him as a trading pawn. The Yankees need a shortstop and Volpe is it, but not yet. Volpe will most likely begin the season at Double-A Somerset as he prepares for spring training for the minors.
Volpe is the player to take over as shortstop for the Yankees, but that may be coming a later rather than sooner. The Yankees need someone now. There are a couple of things they can do.
First, they can get someone like Carlos Correa, which would be really expensive. The Yankees are looking into Correa as a possibility, so the price tag on him won’t immediately rule him out.
The Yankees can also use DJ LeMahieu. He can play any infield position and is a great player. His career average is .300 and his strike out percentage is at 16 percent. This is lower than Correa (23 percent), Olson (28.5 percent) and Voit (31 percent). LeMahieu doesn’t hit for power like the others, but he is a base-stealing threat. He has stolen 87 bases, while also walking 415 times. He was one of the best two-strike hitters in baseball with runners in scoring position.
If the old Yankees show up, they would do what they could to make sure they got the best player and pay top dollar for him. Is it going to happen where they get someone like Correa? Who knows? They may just play around with LeMahieu until Volpe enters the Majors.
It never hurts a team to add more pitching, so adding another pitcher would be very useful. They do have a good pitching rotation now though with players like Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery, Domingo German, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt. This is a pretty good set up for the Yankees.
As far as the outfield is concerned, the Yankees do need someone like Miguel Andujar. He has had his struggles recently, including injuries, but he can’t be counted out. With a shortened 2020 season and an injury-prone 2021 season, he has not had many plate appearances these past two years (227). He does have a .278 career average with a 17 percent strike out percentage.
Aaron Judge is another outfielder that should stay for a long time with the Yankees. His career average is .276. Having only been in the Major’s since 2016, Judge has a pretty good resume. He won the AL Rooke of the Year Award and also was the Home Run Derby winner the same year. He appeared in the 2017, 2018 and 2021 All-Star games, along with winning two Silver Slugger Awards.
The Yankees still have a lot of work to do to figure out the players they need to start winning again. Fans are getting agitated and are looking for the old Yankees, who used to win all the time. The fans got used to that and being the Yankees have not been winning, the fans are looking for answers. Hopefully, winning will return to the Yankees Organization DNA once again.
Featured Image Courtesy of Darrell Lincoln from totalprosports.com
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