It Was Fun While It Lasted: The Official 2024 New York Yankees Off-Season Thread
- Thread starter tremonthustler1
- Start date
g-ice
aka #DiamondNightmare
No way is that deal real right? Just hypothetical?
Yeah it's a trade idea.
I got confused and thought it was done.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but man...
If you were lucky enough to go to the old Yankee Stadium when Bob Sheppard was alive and you heard that voice...it gave you a certain feeling. I can't even describe it.
If you were lucky enough to go to the old Yankee Stadium when Bob Sheppard was alive and you heard that voice...it gave you a certain feeling. I can't even describe it.
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
I swear Yankee twitter has lost their goddamn minds saying they don’t want Luis Arraez with his 200 hits a year and .372 career OBP to be the leadoff hitter. Put Jazz, Volpe, and Dominguez as 3 of the 4 final hitters with him leading off and that’s terror for a pitcher to deal with and between him and Bellinger there’d almost always be someone on for Judge to drive home. If he’s available, he’s what the lineup needs unless Steven Kwan hit the market.
If he's available, hell yeah. Exactly what we need in the lineup, someone with real bat control, can get hits and on base. We don't need another HR/K/nothing hitter in the lineup. He seemed to have a pretty good year in the field at 2B as well. Plug him at 2B and leadoff, and keep Jazz at 3B, and we're cooking with fish grease.
Question becomes, what do have to give up to get him? He's a FA in 2026.
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
I doubt much. He’s not a great defender and isn’t fast with 1 year left on his deal.
holidayinn21
:SmugMoneyMike:
He can't field, run, draw walks, or have any power.
I'm all for more contact guys, but he provides literally nothing else if he's not hitting. No thanks.
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
He gets on base an average of 253 times per 162 games. Career .323 batting average with 3 all star games and 2 silver sluggers to go with 3 batting titles. You don’t need to walk much when you post a higher batting average than a good chunk of guys post for their OBP. Put Jazz, Volpe, and Dominguez as 3 of the 4 back of the order hitters and he would almost always have someone on who is a threat to steal 2nd for him to drive home too. A .365 batting average with men on base too. That’s all you need from the leadoff man. He’s got a higher career batting average and a higher career OBP with 9 more walks per 162 than Ichiro Suzuki did too, though Ichiro obviously stole bases. His career average is 12 points higher than Derek Jeter’s and his career OBP is only 5 points lower. That’s a pretty productive player to me.
Also right now it looks like him or a platoon of DJ and Cabrera, so that’s an easy call for me
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We barely even have any CONSISTENT contact guys on the roster. Look at the OBP & OPS % for everyone not named Judge, Soto (gone), Gleyber (gone), and Bellinger (just arrived). We have an ugly lineup. Plain and simple.
I'm not sure what the better and available 2B options on the trade market would be, nor the cost, but Arraez would solve at least one of our lineup problems. A real leadoff hitter that gets on base in front of Judge, Bellinger, Goldschmidt, and Stanton CONSISTENTLY. By no means an ideal solution due to his average fielding, but would be a more proven option than Cabrera or Peraza.
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
I’d be probably a bit happier with Steven Kwan leading off since he has a similar OBP with some power in his bat and he’s a gold glove winner with real speed, but I doubt Cleveland would trade him here while San Diego seems willing to trade Arraez. He gets on base a lot and that’s what matters most for a leadoff man. By comparison to him, here’s the full list of Yankees besides Judge to post even a .350 OBP for a full season since 2021:
Stanton in 2021 at .355 and Soto last year
That’s the whole list. Stanton at about .275 in 2021, Torres at whatever he hit in 2023, and Soto last year are also the only Yankees besides Judge to hit .270 or higher in a full season since 2021. We’ve barely seen any guys at all post a .270 average or a .350 OBP for the past 4 years now and those aren’t even that impressive numbers. I’d be happy with a trade for Correa to play 3rd and to lead off so Jazz could move back to 2nd base as well, but I don’t know how realistic that would be. Of course we want more power than Arraez has, but I’m not complaining about a guy who picks up that many hits. Good things happen when you put the ball in play and get on in front of the sluggers.
Defensive metrics like OAA have Arraez as nearly 3x worse at 2B than Gleyber was, which is hard to fathom but since he made his debut the only players in all of baseball who have been worse in the field are Schwarber and Polanco.
Plugging him at DH on a Judge team could make sense if Stanton weren't around, he's not a solution at 2B for any team that's serious. You can't have a season that was defined by terrible fielding & baserunning and then go in that direction.
Plugging him at DH on a Judge team could make sense if Stanton weren't around, he's not a solution at 2B for any team that's serious. You can't have a season that was defined by terrible fielding & baserunning and then go in that direction.
Apparently, neither was Gleyber (I completely understand), nor have Cabrera or Peraza shown anything to think they'd be better options either. Soto was also guilty of terrible fielding and base running. Let's not forget that part. His offensive contributions forced us to overlook that.
Again, not saying Arraez is ideal, but he does solve one major hole in our lineup, and it would benefit others in the lineup (Volpe, Dominguez, Judge, Bellinger). And if he's at least serviceable in the field, it'll work. Hell, bring Robinson Cano or Willie Randolph into camp to work with him in the field....
If not Arraez, what other available options do we realistically consider? I'm fairly sure that Kwan is not a realistic option for us. Would be nice tho. But why would Cleveland trade him, and to us of all teams?
Here's the ugly option that we really don't want, and I hope we won't do, Alex Bregman for 3B...... Solves our fielding and mid-lineup worries, but more than likely blows up the cap space for 2025 - 2027, and we still have no one trustworthy to lead off.
Jazz isn't a leadoff hitter. Volpe hasn't shown that he can handle the leadoff spot.
Another wasted year of Judge, and a lineup of HR/K or nothing outcome options on the way.... That's really worked well for us.