Yankees: 3 moves NYY can make while waiting for DJ LeMahieu

The Yankees are waiting for DJ LeMahieu to make any moves, but they don’t have to.

The New York Yankees have made it quite clear that they only intend to go as far as DJ LeMahieu does this offseason.

And until their All-Star second baseman decides on his next destination, or chooses to maintain the status quo, the rest of Brian Cashman’s assets are basically frozen.

But although retaining LeMahieu should be the No. 1 priority, that doesn’t mean the Yankees have to halt their operations entirely.

Sure, it takes them out of the middle infield market. But that’s not really a space they should be wading into anyway; Didi Gregorius and Marcus Semien should probably plan to make $15 million annually somewhere else.

Accepting that LeMahieu’s deal will end up being between $20-25 million annually, though, the Yankees have about $10 million more they can comfortably spend regardless of where that extension eventually settles before passing any sort of luxury tax threshold. And so we think they should do that.

In order to make sure they don’t miss out on necessary upgrades elsewhere, the Yankees should pile on these cheap deals before LeMahieu (hopefully) arrives back at the facility for a mid-winter unveiling.

3. Trevor Rosenthal

The Yankees should come to a swift agreement with Trevor Rosenthal.

Trevor Rosenthal is already spending the month of December tweeting hypotheticals about showing up clean-shaven to Zoom meetings with the Yankees organization.

Why not go the extra mile and offer him a contract already?

Rosenthal was Yankees property once upon a time back in Summer 2019 when his mechanics had betrayed him to the point he’d become minor-league fodder. In 0.1 of an inning at Triple-A with the Yanks that year, he posted an unfortunate 108.00 ERA, which honestly can be attributed to bad luck (kidding) before ultimately landing in Kansas City to open up 2020.

There, he became one of the game’s great comeback stories — damned if the Royals don’t know exactly how to run a bullpen.

Rosenthal, in KC and San Diego post-deadline last year, posted remarkable numbers, whiffing 38 men in 23.2 innings pitched, walking just eight men one season after walking 26 in 15.1 big league innings, and sporting a sparkling 0.91 ERA down the stretch in SD’s playoff race. If not for Daniel Bard’s out of nowhere return to elite-level relieving, Rosenthal might’ve been the comeback story of 2020.

MLB Trade Rumors projected him to receive a two-year, $14 million early in the offseason, but that projection could very well be reduced to a singular year of commitment at this point. Even if it becomes a multi-year pact, this would be well in range of something the Yankees could afford, LeMahieu or no LeMahieu.

2. Cesar Hernandez

The Yankees would be getting an upgrade on Thairo Estrada/Tyler Wade here.

At Cesar Hernandez’s apparent price, what’s not to like?

Earlier editions of our 2020-21 offseason plan shied away from including Hernandez, simply because we thought the Sabermetric darling would’ve priced himself out of “fourth infielder” range with his excellent 2020 in Cleveland.

According to MLBTR again, though, he’s very much in range, theoretically commanding only $6 million on a one-year deal.

Any Yankees fan knows after watching the 2020 team play — as if it weren’t already painfully obvious in previous years — that the so-called backup infielder on the roster will end up a near-starter. How many games did you watch this year that didn’t involve Thairo Estrada, Tyler Wade, Jordy Mercer, or all three?

Hernandez followed up seven (seven!) successful, yet unheralded years in Philadelphia with a campaign in Cleveland last year worth 1.8 WAR in the shortened season, and leaves The Land with a Gold Glove for his mantle. This is a .290 hitter who would easily attain 450 plate appearances in a given season with the current Yankees infield construction, and wouldn’t demand a more prominent role among the Torreses and the Urshelas and, we hope, the LeMahieus.

This is simply a doable upgrade the Yanks should be racing to make, with our without having secured the signature of their missing piece.