Hey Coach, Who’s In Left?

The 2023 Yankees are going to be a very interesting team. They have arguably one of the best rotations in all baseball. They already had a great bullpen, and even added RP Tommy Kahnle to come back to the Bronx to solidify an already very strong bullpen. They Yankees re-signed GM Brian Cashman, and then he re-signed Anthony Rizzo very early on in the offseason. Then in early December, Aaron Judge re-signed with Yankees and became the 16th captain in franchise history. The first since Derek Jeter, leaving Arson Judge in San Francisco. The Yankees, as of right now seem to have almost every position locked up and ready to go for the 2023 MLB season. The main priority as of right now (January 2023), is the vacancy in LF. While a lot of names have been linked to that position like Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Cabrera, Bryan Reynolds, and even Max Kepler. The most recent inklings out there from closer names in baseball seem to think the Yankees are going to keep the LF vacancy as an in-house issue. I sure hope that’s not the case. Let’s talk about all the potential options rumored around so far this offseason.

For months now, I went into this offseason assuming that Aaron Hicks’ days as a Yankee were over. Shouldn’t they be? He played his way into a bench role. After finally getting a full season of Aaron Hicks in uniform instead of street clothes, he played terribly. The team went out and traded arguably their #3 pitcher at the time (Jordan Montgomery) for a CF (Harrison Bader) who was out until mid-September in the middle of a tight division race the Yankees were on the verge of letting slip away. Then even when Bader made his debut, they consistently reverted to a rookie in LF, (Oswaldo Cabrera) who had almost never played LF in his entire career in MILB.

Now, talks are coming out saying the Yankees seem to be sitting still with the hopes of giving Aaron Hicks yet again another opportunity. Haven’t we seen enough already? Wasn’t it clear his days as a NYY were over? In his 10-year career, he has a career 13.8 WAR. In 2022, he played a surprising 130 games and had a line of 8HR 40RBI with a BA/OBP/OPS of .216/.330/.642. It was his first time since 2018, where he played over 88 games. He has been in the league for 10 years and has 100 career HR’s. 27 of them coming in the 2018 season. His career playoff numbers are extremely similar with a .216/.325/.665. Once upon a time, he had an incredible arm for a CF (before the elbow injury) and made gold glove level plays. He also had a flair for the dramatic with incredible catches to end games and game changing HRs in the ALCS. There was a potential future for him, hence why the Yankees signed him to the 7-year $70M extension back in February 2019. Along with his fielding and his capability as an above-average switch-hitter. There was serious potential for a 28-year-old guy coming off a career high 137G .248BA 27HR 79RBI stat line. But as the years went by his arm got gradually worse. Helped by a shoulder injury, a back injury, recurring elbow injuries, a calf injury, a shin injury, a wrist injury, a hamstring injury, a leg injury, and a knee injury to end his 2022 season. His above-average defense and switch-hitting ability have come and gone compared to what they once were. Last season he hit .207 as an LHB compared to .234 as an RHB. In close games after the 7^th inning, he hit a whopping .121. He hit .167 with RISP and .139 when the games were tied. In 2022 High Leverage Situations he hit .172. In Medium Leverage Situations he hit .161. In Low Leverage Situations he hit .288 (all according to Baseball Reference). Even he himself made public comments back in mid-September last year saying, “If I do go to another team, I know I can help them win.” When a player is talking about his future potentially on another team, the writing should be on the wall. 

Trust me, I understand how easy it is to get worried and nervous about another quiet offseason from the New York Yankees. After trading for Joey Gallo in the 2021 MLB Trade Deadline, many fans felt that we finally had our LF of the future. When Gallo epically fell out of a playing role in New York. The Yankees acquired Andrew Benintendi from the Kansas City Royals. Benintendi struggled early on with the Yankees but picked it up toward late August and early September. Unfortunately, on September 2nd against the Tampa Bay Rays, he injured his hand. Breaking his hyoid bone for the 2^nd time in his career ending his 2022 season and short tenure with the New York Yankees. In the following offseason, Benintendi signed a 5Yr/$75M deal with the Chicago White Sox, the biggest deal in White Sox history. While it did make me feel indifferent about him leaving, I really wasn’t bummed out about his departure. It just felt clear almost since the beginning that the Yankees were never deep into conversations with Benintendi or any other Free Agent LF’s. When I saw how little the Yankees were trying to fill the position in the free agency market, I felt it was obvious that the Yankees were going all in on the trade market.

In early December, Pittsburgh Pirates OF Bryan Reynolds had publicly asked for a trade from the team and was looking to play elsewhere. When the news broke, the Yankees were immediately linked to Bryan. #YankeesTwitter has linked the Yankees and Reynolds together for years. He is an exceptional OF talent with great defense and remarkable switch-hitting power and contact. He can hit anywhere in the park and has a career stat line of .281/.361/.842. He plays with 110% every single game and has showed tremendous promise in his career along with over three more years of team control left in his contract. I’ve talked to different insiders in relations to the Pirates organization who feel it’s almost certain that Reynolds and Pirates are headed toward a split very soon. The Pirates even tried to offer a 6Yr/$75M extension to Reynolds this offseason, but he declined it. That was a ‘low-balling’ offer, to keep it polite. Unfortunately for Yankees fans, the Pittsburgh Pirates are asking for the farm in return for the 2021 All-Star. Certain legitimate MLB insiders have come out and said that the Pirates have asked for SS Anthony Volpe, OF Jasson Dominguez AND SS Oswald Peraza just to start the conversation and are leaning more toward a haul of pitching prospects. Listen, I’m a huge fan of Bryan and I would love nothing more than to see him in pinstripes for my favorite team. The Yankees are about two ‘big pieces in the lineup away’ from really becoming World Series contenders. With Yankees #1 overall prospect SS Anthony Volpe on the way. They really need one more big piece that could potentially put them over the hump. But the rumored trade haul the Pirates are asking for is beyond ridiculous. Bryan is a tremendous talent but that is a ‘Juan Soto type package’ and Bryan Reynolds is not Juan Soto. The Yankees weren’t even willing to give that package up for Juan Soto when he was made available at last seasons trade deadline. 

With the Pirates and Yankees seemingly far away from striking any sort of deal before the season starts. The question becomes, is there anybody else out there to play left field? I mentioned earlier the likes of OF Max Kepler from the Minnesota Twins. While Max was a star talent back in 2018-2019, he has certainly regressed since then and has found himself on the outside looking in in Minnesota. Do the Yankees really want to grab another outfielder from Minnesota whose last good season was in 2019 to replace a guy we took from Minnesota in 2016 whose last good season was in 2018. To continue to put it in perspective, the Minnesota Twins signed former Rangers, Yankees, Dodgers OF Joey Gallo to a 1YR / $10M deal to play and basically replace Kepler in the outfield for their 2023 season. Joey Gallo hit a combined .160 with 19HR and 47RBI in 126 games last year (.159 12HR 24RBI in 82G w/ NYY, .162 7HR 23RBI in 44G w/ LAD). He had 163 strikeouts in 410 plate appearances. That’s almost a 40% rate. He had 56 hits all season. Six less than Aaron Judge had HR’s. Yet, the Minnesota Twins are choosing Gallo over Kepler and somehow Yankees fans still want Max Kepler to come to the Bronx. Kepler has basically no role with Minnesota anymore with the acquisition of Gold Glove CF Michael A. Taylor to add with OF’s Byron Buxton, Joey Gallo, Trevor Larnach, and Alex Kiriloff. Assuming they move Nick Gordon out of the outfield back to second base. Kepler is almost certain to be moved out of Minnesota. There’s not many available options at LF for the New York Yankees.

The other in-house option the New York Yankees are thinking about is using switch-hitting SS turned UTIL man Oswaldo Cabrera out in left. He had an incredible emergence to the majors in 2022. He was a natural shortstop who had almost no playing time in the OF until he was called up in mid-August where he was practically playing full-time in LF/RF. He was the spark the struggling Yankees needed and was a huge impact right away.

The 23-year-old played in 44 games, had a batting line of .247/.312/.740 with 6HR and 19RBI. While those numbers don’t necessarily stand out, it was his energy that rubbed off on other players along with his ability to immediately play major league level baseball in clutch moments. He didn’t shy away from the big moment, he endured it. Along with his offense, what stood out even more was his defense. In just 278.2 innings in the outfield, Oswaldo had a nine DRS. An extremely low number of innings for that high of DRS. In total, Oswaldo had a 13 DRS in just 367 innings. He had quickly become a threat on the field and in the box. While he did have 44 games in his first year, only eight full games were played in LF. He played every position on the field besides centerfield and catcher. It was a very entertaining and thrilling experience last year. My issue is that I do not have full trust in Oswaldo to play 130+ games in LF and being a quality starter when he’s almost never played the position in his entire professional career. 

It’s also possible that there could be another player I haven’t mentioned sitting on Cashman’s list. One we could all be surprised about. Recently, UTIL player turned LF Jurickson Profar has been linked to the Yankees through various inside sources. Either way, one thing is for certain. The Yankees need to do something and do it soon. With most of arbitration settled, clubs’ payrolls and players contracts are becoming more of a lock with their respected clubs. The Yankees, in my opinion, need to scan the market for players outside the organization and look to sign or find a trade partner for a LF who’s going to help solidify the lineup and bring the Yankees that much closer to a 28^th World Series championship. The Yankees have some trade chips to use. They can start with clearing out some of the logjam in the middle infield.