The New York Yankees lost Juan Soto, but did a nice job recovering from that astronomical whiff. They signed Max Fried to an eight-year deal, completing what is arguably the best rotation in the American League in the process. They traded for Devin Williams and Fernando Cruz, loading up in the 'pen. They brought in Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt to fill vacancies left behind by the departures of Soto and Anthony Rizzo.
While the Yankees did their best to fill holes, they left one wide open at third base. It's anyone's best guess as to who will or even should begin the year at the hot corner for New York. The Yankees refused to sign Alex Bregman, refused to sign Ha-Seong Kim, and refused to make a trade, leaving them with three underwhelming internal options to play the position.
DJ LeMahieu always felt like the favorite to earn the starting role, considering he's the only one of the three who has had much success at the MLB level and the fact that he's making a whole lot of money this year. But early on in spring training, it's looking like Aaron Boone is doing whatever he can to give the others a shot to steal his spot.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the Discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.
Aaron Boone seems desperate to have anyone other than DJ LeMahieu win 3B job
Boone went out of his way to praise LeMahieu, who he says is fully healthy, but nothing about how he has handled the team in spring training suggests he truly believes what he said. LeMahieu has looked bad in batting practice, and the Yankees have given all of the third base reps thus far to his competition.
None of this is a surprise to Yankees fans. LeMahieu was once one of the best hitters in the game, but he has been a 95 OPS+ hitter in his last four seasons (five percent below league average) and slashed .204/.269/.259 with two home runs in 67 games in 2024. He was worth -1.6 bWAR, making him one of the worst players in the sport when he was on the field.
Oswald Peraza started New York's first and third games at third base, and Oswaldo Cabrera started New York's second and fourth games at the same position. Meanwhile, LeMahieu has not seen any Grapefruit League action yet.
Peraza has gone 1-for-4 with a walk and Cabrera has gone 0-for-4 as of this writing, so it's not as if they've put much pressure on LeMahieu production-wise. With that being said, though, it's notable that they've played while LeMahieu has sat in the dugout.
There's still plenty of time to go this spring, obviously, but for now, Peraza and Cabrera have a chance to get off to a good start and run with the third-base job. They've yet to do so thus far, but the longer LeMahieu is out of action, the greater the odds are that he won't begin the year as the unquestioned starter, which is something Yankees fans can get behind.