Did Yankees Do Well in 2024-25 Off Season?

February 22, 2025 paperbacklou 2025, Analysis 0

Who’s on 2nd?

Who is on 1st. What is on 2nd.

I don’t know… 3rd BASE !!!

Prelude to Winter: Loss of World Series & Soto

Who IS on 2nd? And I don’t know who’s on 3rd. That’s been the last bit of the story to the Yankees’ winter of 2024-25 — which started with the horrid 5th inning of game 5 of the World Series and devastating loss — and then continued with the incomprehensible loss of Juan Soto to the Mets — even though the Yanks offered just about as much money as the $750 Million the Mets offered.

Yankees Plan B

The Yankees quickly rolled to Plan B:

1. Gleyber & All Goats of World Series Are Gone

The Yanks let the door hit Gleyber Torres on the way out — not showing any interest and allowing Detroit to sign him as a free agent. And they didn’t tender an offer to 35-year-old Anthony Rizzo either.

In fact all the Yankees who had made egregious errors in the World Series are gone:

  1. Gleyber Torres who had let that throw from the outfield in the 8th inning of game 1 bounce off the tip of his glove and then just stood there as the runner ran to 3rd;
  2. Nestor Cortes who gave up the Grand Slam to Freddie Freeman to end game 1; and
  3. Anthony Rizzo who didn’t run to 1st after fielding what should have been the final out of the 5th inning of game 5.
  4. All culprits are gone sans Aaron Judge who dropped the fly ball to start the 5th inning of game 5 (his first error of the year, and after making a tremendous catch the inning before), and Anthony Volpe. And you really can’t blame Volpe for that throw in the 5th to try and nab the runner at 3rd.

Also out the door (allowed to leave via Free Agency) are:

2. New Yankee Gold Glovers

The Yanks were careful to get bats that also helped the defense. Cody Bellinger won a Gold Glove in centerfield with the Dodgers in 2019, and Paul Goldschmidt has won 4 Gold Gloves at 1st base (in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2021).

3. Who’s On 2nd? I Don’t Know — 3rd Base!

And so with Gold Glover Goldschmidt at 1st, Gold Glover Bellinger in Center, Jasson Dominguez lined up for Left Field, and Judge (who should’ve won several Gold Gloves by now) returning to Right Field — Yankee fans have been waiting for the one final move: the answer to the question, who is on 2nd?

  • There were rumors the Yanks would trade for Chicago Cubs 2nd baseman Nico Hoerner, but they went by the wayside.
  • There were rumors the Yanks would sign free agent Alex Bregman for 3rd and move Jazz Chisholm to 2nd — but they went by the wayside as the Red Sox signed Bregman, who was one of the big cheaters of 2017.
  • There persist rumors the Yanks will trade for Gold Glove 3rd baseman Nolan Arenado, whom St Louis has on the block. But it hasn’t happened yet.

Jazz Chisholm: 2nd Baseman or 3rd Baseman?

On a Yes broadcast near the start of Spring Training, Jack Curry said the inside reports were that the Yanks were looking to play Jazz Chisholm at 2nd base — his ‘natural’ position — aka the one he played in Pittsburgh before they moved him to the outfield for some reason — presumably because they weren’t thrilled with his defense at 2nd.

Jazz’s defensive rankings as a 2nd baseman were slightly negative — but much better than Gleyber Torres, who refused to move from 2nd when the Yankees acquired Chisholm in July 2024. At the time Gleyber had the worst defensive ranking of the 30 starting 2nd basemen in MLB.

Chisholm has a GUN for an arm, and cat-like reflexes — which would seem to make him perfect for 3rd base, but he made a lot of goofs for the Yanks at 3rd last year — often darting in front of Anthony Volpe on easy grounders to shortstop that he then muffed. And there was his failure to pick the throw from Volpe in the 5th inning of Game 5 of the World Series.

With that in mind and after what Jack Curry said, Chisholm appears to be the Yankee 2nd baseman heading into 2025. His combined numbers last year with NY and Miami were 24-73-.256 (.325 OBP) — very Gleyber-esq. Gleyber slashed 15-63-.257 (.330 OBP) last year.

3rd Base = Cabrera, So Far

That leaves 3rd base for Oswaldo Cabrera — who was the Yankees’ 5th best hitter last year slashing an 8-36-.248 (.299 OBP) in 299 at bats. The 26-year-old Cabrera is slick and surehanded in the field wherever he plays, and is coming into his 4th year in the bigs — a time when the MLB game slows down for many hitters; he may be primed for a big year.

DJ LeMahieu will back up at age 36 coming off a 2-26-.204 (.269 OBP) in 201 at bats.

There is still the possibility that the Yanks trade for Arenado, who will be 34 this coming season. Arenado slashed 16-71-.272 (.325 OBP) in hitter-friendly St Louis last year, and has won 10 (ten) Gold Gloves at 3rd base. Some Yankee fans who have presumably watched a lot of Arenado have warned on X that trading for him would be another Josh Donaldson-esq move, in that Arenado’s hitting numbers have fallen off the last 2 years.

4. Adjusting the Starting Staff

Nestor Cortes and his amazing green Statue of Liberty glove are gone — we are going to miss Nestor and he will probably have a bang-up year with Milwaukee. Also gone is Cody Poteet — a good pitcher but trading him was necessary to get Bellinger.

The Yanks signed elite lefty Max Fried so here is the starting staff:

  1. Gerrit Cole (RH)
  2. Max Fried (LH)
  3. Carlos Rodon (LH)
  4. Luis Gil (RH) — American League Rookie of the Year in 2024.
  5. Clarke Schmidt (RH)
  6. Marcus Stroman (RH) — being ranked 6th and possibly out of the rotation is not sitting well with Stroman; he has announced in Spring Training that he will not go to the bullpen.

5. Adjusting the Bullpen

Devin Williams is considered one of the best relievers in baseball. Clay Holmes is gone. The new Yankee bullpen is:

  1. Devin Williams — Ace
  2. Luke Weaver — Ace Setup
  3. Jake Cousins
  4. Ian Hamilton
  5. Tim Hill (LH)
  6. Scott Effross
  7. Mark Leiter Jr
  8. Jonathan Loaisiga
  9. Will Warren
  10. Fernando Cruz
  11. Yerry De Los Santos
  12. Michael Arias
  13. Clayton Beeter
  14. JT Brubaker
  15. Tyler Matzek (LH)

* Note that we originally had Scott Effross listed as a lefty — he is a righty; thank you to Jorge20John for pointing this out. Jorge also mentioned Yanks signed lefty Tyler Matzek to minor league deal.

What’s the Lineup??

JomBoy did a video last week where he tried to name the Yankee lineup for 2025 and he couldn’t. The Yanks lost the #1 and #2 guys in their order in Gleyber — who was great the 2nd half of the season and in the playoffs — and Soto. They were the Yanks’ 2nd and 3rd best hitters behind Judge.

After Judge, Soto, Gleyber, and Jazz, the Yanks’ 5th best hitter last year was arguably Oswaldo Cabrera — who ended the season with better numbers than Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Anthony Rizzo, et al.

Bellanger Replaces Gleyber’s Bat

Although Bellinger is an outfielder and lefty bat, and seems to be Juan Soto’s replacement in that respect — Bellinger’s yearly numbers and career ups and downs are most like Gleyber Torres.

Goldschmidt Replaces Rizzo

Goldschmidt even at age 37 should give the Yanks more than Anthony Rizzo did at age 34 last year — Rizzo did not hit a homerun in the 2nd half of the season nor the playoffs.

Nobody Replaces Soto — But Martian, Wells, Volpe May Improve

Nobody replaces Soto and that is a huge loss — unless Jasson Dominguez has a bang-up Rookie of the Year caliber season. The loss of Soto’s bat could also be dampened by Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe continuing their upward progression.

Wells looked good last year and many consider him to be the 2nd best catcher in the AL now. He was a Rookie of the Year candidate until he had a cold September.

Volpe was red-hot early in the season, and looked like he may become a .285-to-.300 hitter. But he slumped off the last 4 months — still finishing with a .245 average which was nearly 40 pts higher than his .209 rookie season.

A projected lineup:

  1. Bellinger (Lefty Hitter)
  2. Judge
  3. Wells (Lefty Hitter)
  4. Stanton
  5. Goldschmidt
  6. Jazz Chisholm (Lefty Hitter)
  7. Jasson Dominguez (Switch Hitter)
  8. Volpe
  9. Cabrera

The Bench

Catcher

The Jose Trevino trade netted NY backup catcher Alex Jackson, who batted .122 in 129 at bats for Tampa last year. He’s 28 yrs old. He is considered a terrific defensive catcher.

But Jackson is not on the Yankees’ 40-man MLB roster at the start of Spring training — instead J.C. Escarra and Jesus Rodriguez.

  • J.C. Escarra has had a long journey in the minors, before having success last year at AAA Scranton, where he slashed .302/.403/.527 in 52 games — then won the Batting Title in the Dominican Winter League.
  • Jesus Rodriguez was drafted by the Yankees and has been coming up quickly thru their system — slashing 5-33-.332 (.412 OBP; .919 OPS) in 211 at bats A+ last year before a 5-14-.226 (.278 OBP) in AA.

Infield

The Yankee bench includes:

  • Ben Rice, who came up as a catcher, but has been learning 1st Base in NY.
  • Oswald Peraza
  • Jorbit Vivas — the infield prospect the Yanks got from the LA Dodgers for Trey Sweeney. Vivas was hit in the face with a batted ball in practice before the last Spring training game of 2024, suffering an orbital fracture that kept him out the first half of last season. He ended up slashing 9-45-.225 (.348 OBP) at AAA Scranton.
  • Braden Shewmake — a shortstop that the Yanks claimed off Waivers by the KC Royals. Played with the White Sox last year.
  • DJ LeMahieu

Outfield

Outfield reserves include:

  • Trent Grisham
  • Everson Pereira

Heading into 2025

As bitter as the World Series loss was — and then the loss of Juan Soto to the Mets — Yankee fans can look back on an American League pennant and World Series appearance. Mets fans can no longer tease Yankee fans that the Mets were the last NYC team in the World Series (in 2014).

The 2025 Yanks look strong, and there is hope that this Yankee core group is hungrier than ever to get back into the World Series and make amends.

Did the Yankees do well in the 2024-25 off season?

I think they did OK. It would be nice to bring in Arenado for 3rd Base — unless they are waiting to see if Cabrera takes another step up this year.

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*