Why Yankees don't need to add a first baseman this offseason

Listen, if the Yankees acquire Matt Olson via trade, or sign Freddie Freeman or Anthony Rizzo, you won’t hear me complain one bit.

There’s nothing sexier than a power-hitting first baseman from the left side in pinstripes.

Lou Gehrig, Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez, Jason Giambi, Mark Teixeira ... Greg Bird!

But getting a guy like that will have its consequences.

If the Yankees do acquire a first baseman – let’s just say via free agency, for argument’s sake – someone almost certainly has to be traded.

I know, I know. "Trade Gleyber Torres."

Sure, that means DJ LeMahieu is your everyday second baseman. But that would mean you are trading Torres at his lowest value.

I’m not saying don’t explore that opportunity, especially when you still need a No. 2 starter, center fielder, and shortstop. But don’t trade him just to trade him.

They could trade Gio Urshela, but that would mean they need a third baseman, too. Sure, that leaves Torres at second, his best – and at this point, only – position, but you’re putting LeMahieu at his worst.

If they trade for Olson, the Yankees are going to have to give up a lot of assets. And while they have been hurt with prospect-hugging (Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar, Rob Refsnyder, etc.), sometimes those prospects do pan out. 

And certainly, the Oakland Athletics will ask for perhaps two at minimum. Or they could ask for current, controllable players who help the Yanks in the now. This would be a whole lot easier if Torres could play shortstop, but alas ...

So this begs the question – do the Yankees even need to add a first baseman?

The Yanks do have Luke Voit. When he’s hot, his bat is up there with the elites.

But truth be told, it looks like Voit’s time is up. He was almost traded at the deadline last year, and then he was benched through no fault of his own.

In one 12-game stretch last year, Voit slashed .348/.400/.674. Nine of those games were played when Rizzo was out with COVID. Voit saw time as the DH in another two of those games as well, when Giancarlo Stanton was finally able to play the outfield.

But from Aug. 23 through the end of the season, Voit started in just 13 out of a possible 38 games. In the Yankees' final 12 games, Voit had just four plate appearances. New York valued an outfield of Joey Gallo, Brett Gardner, and Aaron Judge from left to right, with Rizzo at first and Stanton DH'ing – and rightfully so.

Voit's injuries are also just too much to deal with. He had four separate IL stints last year.

However, it seems that a lot of people have forgotten that LeMahieu is a very good first baseman. It’s his second-best position, and he’s better at it defensively than Voit.

The Yankees already have a second baseman in the failed shortstop Torres, who can’t play anywhere else. New York has the luxury in that LeMahieu can play elsewhere.

If they think Voit is the better option at first base, that’s fine. But what are they doing with Torres, LeMahieu, and Urshela, especially considering they still need a shortstop (none of those three are options).

If the Yankees simply moved LeMahieu over to first, they’d have by far their best defensive infield. Urshela is Gold Glove-caliber at third, and Torres is more than serviceable defensively at second. And then, insert shortstop (it better be Carlos Correa) here. I know we all want the top free agents everywhere, but not one Yankee fan would complain about this.

This was the defense in the 2019 postseason, while Didi Gregorius was the shortstop, and he was stellar with the glove. The only person who was deemed "out of position" was LeMahieu, and he had a DRS of 3 in just 262 regular season innings at first base.

At that pace, if LeMahieu had as many innings as Rhys Hoskins did that year (who also had a DRS of 3), he would have saved 16 runs defensively, which would have been way more than that year's leader in Olson (12), whom the Yankees seem to want badly.

This past season at first base, LeMahieu had a DRS of 0. But he only made one error in 321 innings, as opposed to six in 299 innings at third, where he had a -1 DRS. LeMahieu also had a DRS of -2 at second base this past season, for whatever that's worth. So, maybe a change to first will work out for him for the better.

I don't think DRS is the be all end all of telling us one's defensive skills, but it does hold some value.

Sure, you want the first baseman to be a power threat and signs point toward LeMahieu maybe not getting back to his 2019 and 2020 form. But even if LeMahieu is somewhere in the middle of what he was last year and what he was in the previous two, that’s a very good two-way player.

No one really knows what the Yankees are doing with their shortstop dilemma, but a likely scenario is having a stopgap for Anthony Volpe and/or Oswald Peraza, and then throwing the bag at a first baseman.

But if the Yanks solve their first base issue internally, they can throw that bag at Correa (full disclosure, if LeMahieu is the first baseman, and the Yanks don't make a big splash at short, that's a problem).

Or they can just go full 2009 and throw all the money at both positions. That is the ideal scenario, although extremely unlikely, so we'll let cooler heads prevail here.

Honestly, there isn’t really a wrong way for the Yankees to go about their "hole" at first base. But while we all foam at the mouth at the idea of Rizzo, Freeman, or Olson taking advantage of the short porch, one could argue their best option may lie internally.