Yankees: 6 infield trade targets for the offseason’s final month

4. David Freese, Pirates

The Great Pirate Sell-Off continues with David Freese, Pittsburgh’s third baseman. At 34 years of age, Freese is on the downswing of his career. Still, his veteran savvy would be welcome in a Yankees clubhouse brimming with, as Clyde Frazier might term them, precocious neophytes.

Freese is your basic league-average hitter. He batted .263/.368/.371 last season in 130 games for Pittsburgh with 10 home runs and 52 RBI. It’s odd that his on-base and slugging percentages were nearly identical — Freese’s 26 extra-base hits were the lowest of his eight-year career.

However, Freese had down years power-wise in 2013 and 2014 before recapturing his thunder by slugging .420 in 2015. If he did it once, it stands to reason he might be able to do it again.

Freese has always been a third baseman. But he has started 37 games at first and could do so again in a pinch. Even at the major league level, first base is so much easier than any big league third baseman worth his salt can provide at least adequate defense across the diamond. We saw Chase Headley do it last year.

At $4.25M, Freese’s contract is quite reasonable. He’s got a $6M team option with a $500k buyout for 2019 — also quite feasible. Given his age, Freese can probably be had for salary relief and a mid-level prospect.

If you’re the Yankees, why not take a flier on Freese? His presence would allow the team to be patient with Andujar and his experience, and track record gives him a leg up on Tyler Austin in the battle for a right-handed bench bat, once the kids are ready.

If he sucks, they can just release him. But the chances are that Freese deepens the team’s options without sucking down too much money or an unnecessary roster spot.