4 budget free agents Yankees need to sign in 2021

The Yankees should sign these budget free agents, even if they plan to splurge in 2020. No harm in saving a little money!

Whether you agree with the Yankees’ apparent desire to operate on a shoestring budget or not, there are necessary reinforcements to be made before 2020.

Even if DJ LeMahieu and Masahiro Tanaka are re-signed and a good portion of the rest of the available money is pocketed by the Steinbrenners, we can’t sit back and act as if the 2020 roster was otherwise flawless. The Yankees exited the postseason because they needed bullpen help, offensive consistency and depth, and reliable contact hitting.

Luckily, there are winning players available at the margins this offseason.  Like there always are.

Sometimes, it seems the Yankees make a big-budget acquisition like Gerrit Cole, then take to the trade market for unforeseen upgrades instead of shelling out a little more money to make sure someone like Jordy Mercer doesn’t play big innings in ’21. These four budget free agents would fit on the roster, and it’d be so, so easy to secure them! So simple!

4. Joakim Soria

The Yankees should bolster their bullpen with the always-good Joakim Soria.

By far the Yankees loss we shrugged off the most heavily in 2020 was Tommy Kahnle.

Fans believed in the team’s fearsome bullpen and their proliferation of weapons, but when it came down to it, a slightly off season from Chad Green was enough to throw the whole rickety bridge into chaos. Zack Britton was nails, Aroldis Chapman was Aroldis Chapman, and there was nobody outside of those three who you wanted to see in any situation, big or small.

The Yankees don’t need to sign All-Star closers out the ying-yang to fill out their ‘pen, but they do need more trustworthy arms who can be deployed in day-to-day situations.

Enter Joakim Soria, who is nothing but good every single year, and is entering his age-37 season. An All-Star with the Royals back in 2008 and 2010 as a stud closer, Soria is coming off a 2.82 mark in the middle of the A’s bullpen. Typically, the worst Soria will provide is a 4.00-ERA regular season as a middle-innings option, but his usual baseline is much more impressive. Essentially, he’s a far less volatile Adam Ottavino.

Why wouldn’t the Yankees fire off a low-cost contract to Soria, after he’s thrived with many of their AL rivals?

2. Asdrubal Cabrera

Asdrubal Cabrera would be a massive upgrade for the Yankees over, say, Jordy Mercer (sorry, Jordy).

The Yankees believe their infield is overstuffed entering 2021? That’s cute.

That was theoretically the case in 2020, too, with Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela, Luke Voit, Mike Ford and DJ LeMahieu taking the bulk of the playing time. Of course, we saw far too much Thairo Estrada, Tyler Wade and Jordy Mercer, and not by choice.

The Yankees’ bench cannot include all light-hitting true backup options in 2021. The bench has to be part of the roster construction, not simply a stash for some 40-man players the organization somewhat believes in.

All Asdrubal Cabrera does is win and contribute, for what it’s worth, working his way into Washington’s playoff rotation before their 2019 World Series run and hitting .323 down the stretch. Cabrera is a .260-ish hitter with moderate pop, and at age 34, he’s perfectly suited for one-year deals on contenders for several more seasons.

If the Yankees can’t figure out a way to budget for a player like Cabrera, then it’s time to take the keys away from this ownership group. These are the players contention is usually based upon.

1. Austin Romine

If Gary Sanchez is traded, the Yankees should pursue Austin Romine. Yup.

This move is conditional, of course, but if Kyle Higashioka ends up the only catcher on the Yankees roster at some point in the next few months, someone should call Romine instead of splurging on James McCann.

Romine unfortunately backslid as the season dragged on in 2020, unable to replicate his .281 average from the ’19 season, but still hit .306 with runners in scoring position, 12 points above his career .294 average in such situations. That’s very good. That’s exactly what this team was missing from this position in 2020. No further questions.

Were the Yankees correct to choose Gary Sanchez over Romine after 2019? Of course they were! One was a multi-time All-Star, one was a career backup. But now, we have Sanchez’s souring relationship with the team to take into account, as well as 60 more games of strange data, during which we watched him legitimately lose his job in the postseason.

It wouldn’t take a detective to grow suspicious that El Gary’s time in the Bronx is ending. Therefore, with Game 1 assignments already belonging to Kyle Higashioka for the foreseeable future, the team might be in need of a platoon backstop without an ego.

Romine, on a cheapie, would fit quite well. After all, we’ve already seen it! He departed prior to this season to be a starter, but would he return if he could somewhat approximate that role?

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