Yankees: 3 players you should be prepared to lose this winter

1. Luke Voit

If it were up to us, Luke Voit — a controllable bat, and one of the best-hitting first basemen in the game! — would stay. He’d stay for a while. So would Anthony Rizzo.

There’s really no debate here, as far as we’re concerned. Voit gets injured. So does Giancarlo Stanton. Often. You really think there won’t be an opportunity to manage both of their workloads, while also extending everyone’s favorite Italian slick fielder at first?

However…and again, we’re not guaranteeing anything…you can read the writing on the wall here. While we don’t think anyone’s going to be preoccupied with Voit’s recent “divisive comments” (grow up, WFAN), which seemed more like an enthusiastic endorsement of his own skills than a shot at anyone else, it still seems difficult to envision both on the team moving forward after we saw just how hard the Yankees tried to shop their incumbent first baseman at the deadline.

Follow what Jack Curry leaks. He’s rarely wrong.

Therefore, the best outcome for the Yankees’ braintrust would be Voit regaining his footing down the stretch so they could parlay him elsewhere for more pieces while signing Rizzo to a three-year, $18 million AAV deal to hold down first base full time. As we saw on Wednesday when he scooped Andrew Velazquez, there are some things he can do that Voit simply can’t.

In our ideal offseason, both men stay. Based on the deadline chatter and recent developments, we don’t think the Yankees feel the same way long-term. Be prepared for the band to be broken up in one way or another this winter.

Yankees: 3 biggest mistakes NYY made this offseason

How much time do you have for this one? The New York Yankees made some mistakes this offseason that altered their season in 2021.