Yankees Have Made Calls To Padres About Infield Depth

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Now that the we know Alex Rodriguez will be suspended for the entire 2014 season, the Yankees can get moving on any plans of adding a third baseman before the team meets for spring training in Tampa next month. We’ve been hearing a few names here and there, but nothing big.

Kelly Johnson figures to be the team’s opening day starter at the hot corner if they don’t add anyone else. But as Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com reported Monday night, the Yankees have made trade inquires with the San Diego Padres about their infield depth, naming Logan Forsythe, specifically.

Morosi notes that while the Yankees’ farm system isn’t strong enough to trade for a player like Chase Headley — no surprise there — they could possibly acquire a versatile utility player like Forsythe to be a right-handed compliment to Johnson at third base.

Johnson is only a career .250 hitter, and won’t give you much more than some home runs at the plate. He’s a left-handed hitter, and if the Yankees could add a right-handed bat to go alone with him, it could make a pretty decent platoon option at third base.

Forsythe has been with the Padres since he debuted in 2011, and is a career .241 hitter with a .310 on-base percentage in 228 big league games. His best Major League season was this past season when he hit .273 with a .343 OBP in 91 games.

As I mentioned, he’s a very versatile player that has seen time at second, third, shortstop and the outfield in his career, but has played most of his games at second base.

Morosi’s colleague, Ken Rosenthal, reported a couple days ago that the Yankees, after signing Scott Sizemore on a minor-league deal, are unlikely to add anymore players on a major league contract, eliminating Stephen Drew and Michael Young. The Yankees have been interested in re-signing Mark Reynolds, but they have only offered him a minor league contract, and he’s looking for a major league deal.

Because of the Sizemore signing, the Yankees will go into spring training with a large group of infielders that they will be looking at to possibly play third base. That list includes Johnson, Sizemore, Brian Roberts, Eduardo Nunez, Dean Anna and Corban Joseph.

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