by EJ Fagan
March 25, 2024
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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.
Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.
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.A year ago, the Yankees left Spring Training short two outfielders. Harrison Bader missed all of April with an injury. They never had much of a plan for left field, initially relying on Oswaldo Cabrera and Aaron Hicks, and later Jake Bauers, Willie Calhoun and Giancarlo Stanton. The result was a league-worst -1.5 fWAR in left field and replacement-level production in center or right depending on where Aaron Judge was playing each day.
I think the Yankees are dangerously close to a repeat in 2024, but this time in the infield. DJ LeMahieu is still out with a bruised left foot, and now Anthony Rizzo has a tight lat.
Both players could still return for Opening Day, but we don’t have much of a read on how bad Rizzo’s injury is. I think there is some danger that the Yankees will be without both at the beginning of the season. With Oswald Peraza also injured, the Yankees are short on infield depth.
Without Rizzo and LeMahieu, who plays at the infield corners? Oswaldo Cabrera will play one position. Cabrera was so bad last year that he could improve a lot (he has a .594 OPS this Spring) and still perform below replacement-level. After Cabrera, you’re probably looking at Jose Rojas, Luis Torrens, Kevin Smith or Jahmai Jones? That’s a huge rogue’s gallery of below replacement-level AAAA players.
When will the Yankees learn their lesson? They have a bunch of old players. Old players miss time.
Every year, the Yankees end up surrendering at-bats by slotting in a godawful replacement player when one of their old players misses time. In 2022, it was Marwin Gonzalez, Aaron Hicks and Miguel Andujar. In 2021, it was Rougned Odor, Clint Frazier and Tyler Wade. They almost faced a similar situation in 2018 and 2019, but got unexpectedly strong production out of guys like Voit, Urshela, Tauchman and Cameron Maybin.
The Yankees need to enter the season with a real plan for what to do when their veteran players go down with an injury. This isn’t rocket science. Infielder are available. They don’t need to go out and find a 5th star infielder, but they do need to build out some kind of depth.
Hoping and praying that all four infielders stay healthy all season isn’t a plan. Hoping and praying that two infielders aren’t hurt at the same time isn’t a plan. Hoping and praying that 2019’s “Next Man Up” happens again isn’t a plan.
