About the Off-Season: DH and Designated for Assignment Hitter

By: Tim Kabel

October 26, 2025

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As the 2025 postseason rolls on without the Yankees, I will continue taking stock. It is time to evaluate what went wrong this season and what needs to happen going into next season. I started by addressing the manager. I then considered players on the current roster who will be free agents or who have options. Now, I am looking at the Yankees position by position. Today I will turn to designated hitter.

In 2025, Giancarlo Stanton only played a total of 77 games. He started the season on the IL. Therefore, the DH slot was filled by other players. Ben Rice was given the most opportunities there. However, once Stanton returned from the IL, Rice either played first base or caught in order to get into the lineup. After Aaron Judge suffered his arm injury while throwing and returned from the IL, he was initially forced to get his at bats exclusively as a DH. That required Stanton to return to the outfield, after consulting a map and being wrapped in bubble wrap.

Once Judge returned to the outfield, Stanton once again became the primary designated hitter. Last year marked a reversal of fortunes of sorts for Stanton. Normally, he puts up relatively average numbers during the season, which usually involves a great deal of streakiness, but then Stanton becomes an unstoppable force in the playoffs. In 2025, in those 77 games, Stanton batted .273 with 24 home runs and 66 RBI. Those were amazing numbers, particularly the RBI total. However, in the playoffs, Stanton played a total of seven games, three against the Red Sox, and four against the Blue Jays. He did not hit a single home run in either series as compared to the 7 postseason home runs he hit in 2024. Against the Red Sox, Stanton batted.091 with one hit, a double. He had zero RBI Against the Blue Jays, he had four hits, including a double and drove in four runs. He batted .267. The batting average was fine, but the lack of power was a concern. The whole point of having Stanton in the lineup is for him to provide power, or at least the very real threat of power. This postseason, he did not do so.

Giancarlo Stanton has been with the Yankees since 2018. During those eight years, he has been the Yankees’ primary designated hitter. More accurately, he has primarily served as the Yankees’ designated hitter. Due to the significant amount of time he has missed in his career, other players have filled the designated hitter role more often than he has for stretches of time. Other than his first year as a Yankee, during which Stanton played 158 games, the next highest number of games he played was in 2021 and that was 139. In the three years between 2021 and last year, he played 110, 101, and 114 games. Stanton hit 59 home runs in his final year with the Marlins. In his first year with the Yankees, 2018, he hit the most home runs in his Yankees’ career, 38. Since 2021, his home run totals have dwindled, going from 35 in 2021 to 31, 24, 27, and 24 in his next four years. He has only driven in 100 runs in a season for the Yankees one time, in 2018.

Stanton is essentially limited to being the designated hitter. He did play the outfield while Judge was on the IL last year but, had to sit out some games due to soreness. Every time he ventures into the outfield, everyone on the team and in the organization holds their breath and crosses their fingers. That is not a good thing. I think the Yankees have received about as many quality years out of Stanton as they could reasonably expect to. I'm not saying he's washed up, but he could become so very quickly. He does have a no-trade clause in his contract, and he has also achieved the ten and five status meaning that he has played ten years in the Major Leagues and five years with his current team. That makes him difficult but not impossible to trade. I agree wholeheartedly with Paul Semendinger on this (and Stanton’s replacement as well). The Yankees should find another team that is willing to take Stanton for the remaining two years on his contract. If the Yankees have to pay some of his salary, they should do so. The Marlins will be paying a portion of it in 2026. If the Yankees have to attach a medium level prospect to get the deal done, they should do it. If Stanton balks it being traded, well then, the time has come for him to be designated for assignment. The Yankees have done this before and will probably do it again. The Yankees need to bring in a better option for designated hitter.

Kyle Schwarber will be a free agent this offseason. He is 3 years younger than Stanton and is a left-handed hitter. Last season, Schwarber hit 56 home runs and had 132 RBI. In the three previous seasons, he hit 46, 47, and 38 home runs. He drove in 94, 104, and 104 runs in those three years. Imagine what Schwarber could do playing half of his games in Yankee Stadium. Imagine Schwarber batting behind Aaron Judge in the lineup. The Yankees need to make this move. It would improve the team. It would lessen the sting of being knocked out of the playoffs yet again, particularly since it was done by the Blue Jays this year. It would send a message that the Yankees are serious. It could also be the ultimate way of Boone-Proofing the team to allow them to win the World Series.

Implementing all the suggestions that I have made in these articles; this would be my proposed lineup for 2026:

Dominguez-LF

Bichette- SS

Judge- RF

Schwarber- DH

Rice- 1B

Bregman- 3B

Chisholm- 2B

Wells- C

Jones- CF

You could play around with the bottom of that lineup if you chose to. I like the idea of having a very speedy runner batting 9th. Spencer Jones would fill the bill there. As far as the bench players, I would like to see the Yankees bring in someone like Harrison Bader to be a right-handed hitting outfielder. They could then find a right-handed batter who could play first base and possibly catch. Jose Caballero and Oswaldo Cabrera could provide infield and outfield depth as well. Cabrera has shown the ability to play first base.

I think if the Yankees make the moves that I suggested, and implement this lineup, they will be a very formidable team. They will also work more youth and athleticism into the lineup.