By the end of the Yankees' disappointing 2023 season, there was one man who likely felt more comfortable in his roster spot than he had that spring. Gleyber Torres, who had struggled mightily in 2020 and 2021, had just put together his second consecutive solid season, featuring a career-high 158 games played, 3.8 fWAR, and a 123 wRC+ that was only two points shy of his mark during his breakout 2019 campaign.
Fast forward about nine months later, and Torres, who is set to become a free agent at the end of 2024, has fallen right back into the realm of uncertainty. His abysmal .223/.297/.344 slash line is the worst of his career in all three categories, and he seems to be completely lost at the plate, swinging early and often just to generate weak ground balls and popups rather than line drives to all fields.
Torres and fellow 2019 breakout star DJ LeMahieu have become the poster children of a barren Yankees infield that is in desperate need of an overhaul. As of July 9, Yankees second and third baseman rank 27th in baseball in wRC+ at just 80, beating out only the actively tanking White Sox and Marlins, and the still-kind-of-rebuilding Pirates. If the team wants to recapture the early-season success that helped propel them to the best record in the league, changes will need to be made.
Jonathan India, 2B, Reds
India is a great fit for the Yankees for a bunch of reasons. First and foremost, he plays second base and does it well, with his 2 Outs Above Average placing him within the 21 players in MLB this season to grade out above average at the position (Torres, for comparison, has 0 OAA; exactly average).
Secondly, he fits the bill of a leadoff hitter that the Yankees have desperately been searching for since the beginning of the season. Torres without his patient approach wasn't the solution, nor was Anthony Volpe, and the team probably wants Ben Rice hitting behind Juan Soto and Aaron Judge more in the long term considering his game power.
India is currently posting his best strikeout and walk rates of his young career at 20.3% and 12.2% respectively, both being multiple percentage points better than league average. He also sees more pitches per plate appearance than most hitters, with his 4.16 P/PA mark placing him 18th out of 137 qualifiers.
But aside from just having good discipline, India has the ability to do damage as well. His slugging percentage is a bit modest at just .403, but he combines contact quality and quantity well enough to be more than just a singles hitter. He hits a lot of line drives, with a whopping 33% of his batted balls versus lefties being liners, and makes a lot of solid contact up the middle and to the pull side, something the Yankees have lacked from right-handed hitters not named Aaron Judge.
Considering that he has two more years of control after this one, India will cost the Yankees more than just throw-away prospects. But with his arbitration years nearing and a crop of younger, cheaper infielders on the way, the Reds can probably be convinced to move him. It'll likely take at least an outfield prospect of the Spencer Jones/Everson Pereira caliber, as well as a couple higher-level pitching prospects to get this done, but it'll be well worth it for the Yanks.
Ryan McMahon, 3B, Rockies
At first glance, McMahon doesn't seem to be that great of a fit for what the Yankees are looking for. He hits left-handed (yeah, that's not a problem for this team anymore), he plays at Coors Field, and he's under a not-insignificant contract extension for much of the foreseeable future.
And while he wouldn't be an absolutely perfect fit, and his contract would likely take some convincing for Hal Steinbrenner and the front office to take on, he is a definite upgrade over the Yankees' current situation and could come at a reduced price.
McMahon, at age 29, is in the midst of his best season by far. So far, it is the only one where he's posted an above average wRC+ at 112, and he's doing it in a way that seems pretty sustainable. For one, his barrel rate has continued its ascent from just 7.3% in 2021 to an 86th percentile 12.7% this year, and he has managed to drop his K% four percentage points from 2023 while maintaining a similar 10.2% walk rate.
The biggest detractor to McMahon is not that he doesn't hit lefties, because for the first time in his career he has much better splits against lefites than he does against righties, but rather that the smallest regression or change to his approach could create more problems for the Yankees.
In spite of his climb in barrel rate, McMahon still hits a lot of balls on the ground, hoisting his GB% from 44.2% just last year to 49.2% in 2024. Selling out for ground balls is what has hurt Torres, LeMahieu, Volpe, and Alex Verdugo in their swoons this year, and McMahon could end up falling into the same hole.
Still, there is something to be said for the fact that McMahon is posting career-best marks in almost every batted ball metric, which then back up his boost in production. If the Yankees could find a way to offset some salary (hello, DJ LeMahieu) while taking on the remaining $40 million-ish of McMahon's extension, this is a move the front office should seriously consider pulling the trigger on.
Matt Chapman, 3B, Giants
In the 2019-2023 era of Yankees baseball where the lineup was inundated with right-handed power bats who would either swing and miss or send a ball out of the park, Matt Chapman would've been considered a terrible fit for the team.
But now, as the 2024 Yankees lineup has leaned into a detrimental sell-out-for-contact approach at the plate, a hard-swinging righty bat like Chapman could be the perfect addition to inject some pop into an offense that sorely needs it.
After a slow start to the season, Chapman has raised his wRC+ to a healthy 113; not near his offensive levels in the juiced ball era, but pretty much on par with his best seasons since then. But what's interesting about his 2024 offensive profile in particular is that he's managed to cut down on strikeouts (from 28.4% in 2023 to 23.8% this year) while still maintaining his power.
Chapman is swinging more both inside and outside of the strike zone, but is only whiffing at nearly 66% of the rate that he did last season. And while his 12 home runs through July 9 don't jump off the page, he would have more homers in about half the other parks in the league aside from his home stadium, and is still barreling baseballs at a well above average 12% rate.
The only Yankee hitters that have a barrel rate higher than Chapman's this year are Aaron Judge and Ben Rice, with Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton coming in just behind him at 11.9% and 11.7%, respectively. Chapman's hard-hitting, baseball-lifting approach would be just the change the Yankees need, with his elite level third base defense coming along for the ride as a bonus.
Considering Chapman's contract situation--he's essentially on a 1 year/$18 million deal with two player options for 2025 and 2026 and a vesting option for 2027--he shouldn't take too much to acquire assuming the Yankees take on the money. Like McMahon, Chapman provides an affordable option if the front office doesn't want to part with too many top prospects.
Isaac Paredes, 3B, Rays
There's no current indication that the Rays are looking to move Paredes, who has been their best player throughout a disappointing 2024 team campaign, but with the squad being well out of a playoff berth in a tough American League, they could be convinced to sell high.
Somewhat similar to Chapman, Paredes would provide the Yankees with a change of pace from an offensive approach standpoint. His bread and butter is pulled fly balls, hitting fly balls at an excellent 30.1% clip, and pulling a league-high 48.4% of those to left field. In contrast, the Yankees have struggled mightily with pulling their fly balls this season, ranking above only the White Sox and Marlins with an abysmal 22.4% pulled fly ball rate.
Part of the reason that Paredes is able to optimize his contact to this extent is because he makes incredible swing decisions as well. He keeps his strikeouts low and his walks relatively high, while making contact with an above average 88.8% of pitches in the strike zone. In short, Paredes would help the Yankees a lot by giving opposing pitchers a tough at bat, and hitting the types of balls that on average garner better results than what they've been getting.
The Yankees tend not to make major trades with the Rays, so considering both that and Paredes' three and a half years of service time remaining, it would take a lot to get this deal done. It is likely the least realistic out of these four options, but it has the opportunity to be the best decision out of all of them if the Yankees are willing to cough up what it takes to bring Paredes to the Bronx.
