Catcher - Austin Wells is 25. Tied 12th in doubles, tied 18th in home runs. 6th in walks. Had 18 most at-bats. First full year. The hope is that his ability to hit for contact increases, and he gets more confident on both sides of the ball.
Trevino is fine as the back up catcher.
First Base - 100% a position they need to have a big change in. Yankees as a team at 1B was 25th in HR. T-20th in RBIs. 24th in BBs. 30th in OPS. Even if Rizzo was healthy, I don't see him making much of a change in those stats.
I guess Rizzo isn't bad as a backup and locker room guy. And Oswaldo added in for depth as he can play first.
Rizzo has $6mil buyout on his $17mil. Buy him out, and offer him an extra mil, maybe two to return.
Pete Alonso, Christian Walker, Paul Goldschmidt, Josh Bell are free agents.
Second Base - You could have Jazz play 2nd, but there are two problems. 1. You then need a third baseman, that the Yankees don't have and 2. Gleyber was pretty good in the playoffs.
Yankees rankings
6th in H
12th in 2B
T-10th in HR
T-9th in RBIs
T-3rd in BB
9th/7th/13th/10th in AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS
In 56 games as the leadoff Gleyber was .280/.350/.405 which would have been 2nd/3rd/6th in position ranks
Can Gleyber be frustrating at times, sure. But he's a home grown guy. And is at worst top 10 in his position as a hitter, and 28.
Give Gleyber a 4 year / $50mil contract. Would make him the 8th highest paid 2nd. If it got to 4yr/ $64mil, he's the 5th highest paid 2B behind Jeff McNeil
Shortstop - Volpe had a really rough year hitting. Improved some, but didn't take a significant next step. I felt going into the playoffs that if he were to have a dud that he'd start to feel his seat get a bit hot. But I think he had a good enough playoffs to quiet some noise.
21st/23rd/23rd in AVG/OBP/SLG. 24th in HR. 21st in RBIs. 19th in BBs. 9th in SOs.
Where Volpe did well was baserunning, he had 28 stolen bases. And defense.
If Volpe can work counts more, be more patient. I think he can make a little bit of a jump to be a 20HR/30SB guy hitting 260/330.
Third Base - Unless they go after Alex Bregman, which I doubt, which would move Jazz to 2B. I think Jazz is your 3B. For never playing there before, Jazz made some really good plays. Wouldn't really know he's never played there before August.
If Jazz is healthy he brings some dynamic nature to the lineup. He can swipe 40+ bags. Has some fight to his game. Will pop 20+ home runs.
He had a ****** playoffs, but I respect his fight.
Finally that leads to DJ LeMahieu. They must do whatever to get out of the last 2 years of his deal. It's 2 years $30mil left. Eat maybe $10-15mil of it. Attach some prospects. Get him out of here. He's not good, and doesn't add anything to the team.
If you go after a First Baseman. And have Rizzo & Oswaldo on the bench, you have no use for DJ. Especially when Jazz can play 2B if needed.
Also let Berti's $3.5mil go.
Infield - Wells / ??? / Gleyber / Volpe / Jazz
Bench - Trevino / Rizzo / Oswaldo Cabrera
40man includes Peraza
Recap: Use Rizzo's $6mil buyout. Re-sign him for $2-3mil. Drop Berti's $3.5mil. Try to get out of as much of DJ LeMahieu as possible, attach some prospects to him.
The answer at 1st Base. If they go FA, Christian Walker is probably the guy as Pete would be too expensive in trying to also retain Soto
If they go by trade, Vladdy Jr. may be available for trade. That's a guy you could get behind. He's already softened his I won't play for the Yankees take.
Outfield
I don't really like Judge in Center. But with Soto, not really much choice. Unless Judge or Soto agree to play LF. I would prefer Soto in LF as Judge grades out as a Gold Glove level player in RF.
No need to post the Judge & Soto stats.
14 year / $600mil. $42mil a year. Makes him a Yankee for life. He'll likely end up with 3000 Hits, 500 HRs. Unless he has a **** ton of injuries, which you can never predict, his game will still translate 12 years from now. He's a legendarily good hitter.
PAY THE MAN.
As for Center Field. I think you give Martian the go here. Adds another runner to the lineup with Volpe and Jazz.
Let Verdugo walk as I wouldn't be interested in playing him every day anyway. Decline Grisham's $5mil + arbitration.
DH - Stanton. Legendary great post season player. In the off season get his legs right. Have him see every specialist from here to Japan to work on getting some mobility in his legs. If he's available, he is fine. Get 120 or 130 games, almost guaranteed 30 HRs 80-90 RBIs. Had 27HRs 72RBIs in 114 games this year.
Ideal, perfect offseason lineup
1- Gleyber
2- Soto
3-Judge
4-Stanton
5- Jazz
6- Vladdy
7- Wells
8-Volpe
9- Martian
Trevino, Rizzo, Cabrera and one more guy needed.
(I'm all for cleaning out some of the farm. A lot of dead ends for guys, and Yankees need to be in a win now mode).
SP -
Cole is your Ace. Just get him healthy.
Rodon isn't bad, he improved in year 2 as a Yankee, but he's more hittable than we want him to be, gives up a HR per start. If he can get his HRs down from 31 to about 17 or 18, he's pretty close to what we signed him for. ERA would be a bit higher than his sub 3 seasons prior to joining the Yankees, but pretty even elsewhere. If we could move him back to the number 3 starter slot, I think we're cooking.
Gil, Schmidt and Stroman getting 80 starts between them works for me.
I'm not sure who they should go after pitching, but I do know that he has to be Rodon or better in caliber.
Bullpen
I think we should have two Ramiro Mendoza guys one from the left side and one from the right.
This is the role I'd put Nestor in. He has funky stuff. Likes to mix and match deliveries, arm angles, etc. If he pitches 120-130 innings in that role, you like what you're getting I think if he comes in for 2-3 innings, he will excel. And if there's a ton of injuries in the rotation, he moves up. In that 2-3 inning role, you can look at Nestor's stats. 1st time through the order, he only gives up a .375 SLG, 2nd time it jumps to .518. 3rd time it's back down to .371. Nestor has that I can fool them early, they figure me out, and then I have to recalculate everything and then settle down type stuff.
From the right side, Clay Holmes having the other half of the Mendoza role. Eat up the 5th & 6th or 6th & 7th. Or just be the 6th inning guy, who in a pinch can be your 7th or 8th inning guy. Would need to re-sign him. Don't see him getting more than $7mil. He got $5.2mil this past year.
Tim Hill is the lefty specialist. Would need to re-sign him, probably a couple to a few mil.
Kahnle is your 7th inning guy. Would need to re-sign Kahnle. I think he would stay in NY even at a mil or two ya year discount. Kahnle at 2year/$10-11mil
Need a fireballer in the 8th.
Weaver back as the closer.
(Other guys include Loaisiga who would be back for a couple mil. Leiter Jr. similar money.
Full roster
1 - Wells
2- Trevino
3- Vladdy
4 - Rizzo
5 - Gleyber
6 - Jazz
7 - Volpe
8 - Cabrera
9 - Soto
10 - Martian
11 - Judge
12 - Stanton
13 - Either a MIF or OF (Could also run only 12 position guys with 14 pitchers due to Oswaldo's versatility)
14 - Cole
15 - New # 2 Starter
16 - Rodon
17 - Gil
18 - Schmidt
19 - Stroman
20 - Nestor
21 - Clay Holmes
22 - Tim Hill
23 - Loiasiga or Leiter Jr (whoever isn't in will have plenty of MLB time either way)
24- Kahnle
25- Fireballer 8th inning guy
26 - Weaver
