Yankees sign infielder D.J. LeMahieu to a two-year, $24 million deal

Today the Yankees signed another All-Star infielder, but his name isn’t Manny Machado. The team made the surprising move to sign veteran second basemen D.J. LeMaheiu to a two year, $24 million deal, pending a physical.

Unless the Yankees plan on trading someone from what’s now a very crowded infield we can pretty much assume that we won’t see Machado in pinstripes in 2019. The Yanks talks with Machado had reportedly cooled off in recent weeks as the team never really seemed interested in offering him the $300 million-plus contract he was looking for.

With Machado now off the table, there’s still a lot of questions that need answers regarding the infield and where LeMaheiu fits in. The Yankees already have a budding star in Gleyber Torres at second base and earlier this month they signed another former Rockie in Troy Tulowitzki to play shortstop until Didi Gregorius returns from injury.

Even though the Yankees plan on moving LeMaheiu all around the infield as Jack Curry of the YES Network tweeted out I get the feeling that he’s going to spend most of his time next season at second base. He might be versatile enough to play some first and third, but he’s going to help this team the most at second because. He’s an elite defender at the position winning three gold gloves throughout his career and he’s led all second basemen with 29 defensive runs saved since 2016.

He’s only played 41 career games at third base, the position where Miguel Andujar resides and four games at first base. Given that the Yankees are paying him a $12 million salary over the next two seasons you figure he’s going to play just about every day. That likely means Tulo will be the odd man out when it comes to getting consistent playing time.

Both Andujar and Torres need to be in the lineup every day because of their offense so there’s no need to play Tulo every day. He’s being paid the league minimum by the Yanks and he’s only played in 66 games over the past two seasons so the odds of him being able to stay healthy are already pretty slim.

Now with two-time All-Star LeMaheiu in the fold, the Yanks can start Tulo at short a couple times a week but on most days they should roll with Gleyber at short and D.J. at second. On some days they can also start Andujar at DH, move Stanton to left and feature a starting infield of Tulo at short, LeMaheiu at third and Torres at second. They can even flip flop those two at third and second depending on who the coaching staff feels more comfortable with defensively at third.

There’s going to be a lot of shuffling around in the infield but offensively LeMaheiu should fit in nicely at the bottom of the Yankees lineup. He doesn’t strike out a lot and his ability to hit the ball to the opposite field could lead to him hitting for more power at Yankee Stadium.

One knock on LeMaheiu many will argue is that most of his offensive accomplishments, including his batting title in 2016 are a product of playing half his games at Coors Field. Here’s a look at his career splits:

Home: .330 BA, .448 SLG, .835 OPS, 21 HR, 201 RBI

Away: .264 BA, .362 SLG, .673 OPS, 28 HR, 148 RBI

There’s a pretty big difference in his production at home compared to away, but the Yankees must see something in him that tells them he has the potential to do more away from Colorado. His 15 home runs last season were a career high in only 128 games and 11 of them came away from Coors. In this new age, where a hitter’s launch angle is more important than ever the 30-year-old LeMaheiu could be a guy who’s HR total will continue to rise in the coming years.

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He’s also a guy who puts the ball in play at a very high rate, only averaging 84 K’s over the last three seasons. Even though he’s another right-handed bat in a lineup filled with them LeMaheiu’s bat to ball skills should help the Yankees become a more balanced offense that doesn’t always rely on hitting the ball over the fence.

There’s a lot to digest with today’s news but the main takeaway other than how this impacts Machado is that LeMaheiu is really going to help the Yankees defensively. The infield defense without Didi looked shaky heading into this season, but now with the addition of LeMaheiu, it shouldn’t be as big of an issue, regardless of where they plan to play him.

Offensively he’ll have to make some adjustments to find success away from Coors field, but he’s trending upward from a power standpoint. With his opposite field approach, he should be able to put up some solid numbers playing half his games at Yankee Stadium and produce timely hits from the bottom of the order.

This is a move I didn’t see coming at all but it’s one that is going to help this team in a multitude of ways during the absence of Didi. Where LeMaheiu fits into the mix once Didi comes back is a question for later on in the season but for now, he makes an already great Yankees team even better.