5 Yankees infield trade options who've been total duds this season

As the trade deadline nears, the Yankees' needs have come into clearer focus. The starting rotation doesn't look as dire as it did entering the season amid a wave of injuries and question marks. The need in the infield, however, has only grown in the wake of Oswaldo Cabrera's gruesome injury.

Even if you believe in DJ LeMahieu having a resurgence, more is needed. The club simply can't count on his injury-ravaged, soon-to-be 37-year-old body holding up and being productive. Apart from him, former top prospect Oswald Peraza has done nothing to prove he deserves a role, and Pablo Reyes still exists.

Whether the Yankees target a second baseman, a third baseman, or a utility type depends on who's available, the asking price, and where they ultimately determine the best fit is for the selfless Jazz Chisholm Jr., who is willing to move around the diamond to put the team in the best position to win.

However, many infielders who were rumored to land on the trade block at the deadline have laid an egg this season, and barring a furious uptick in performance over the next few weeks, should be crossed off the Yankees' wish list.

If the Yankees want versatility, they should cross the Angels Luis Rengifo off their trade deadline list

Dating back to last year's trade deadline, Los Angeles Angels infielder Luis Rengifo was the apple of many contenders' eyes. Those trade rumors persisted throughout the offseason, though the Angels ultimately stood pat with the 28-year-old, who's set to hit free agency after the season.

On the surface, the name of Rengifo's game is versatility. A switch-hitter who has logged 30 games at the hot corner and 26 games at second base this season, Rengifo also has experience playing shortstop and in the outfield throughout his career.

The problem is that he doesn't play any of these positions particularly well. Offensively, in addition to switch hitting, he appears to have a versatile skillset, popping 17 homers in 127 games in 2022 and 16 homers in 126 games in 2023, before raising the bar on the contact front to hit an even .300 in 2024 before a wrist injury ended his season after just 78 games.

The first thing that should jump out is the games played total. Rengifo has been no stranger to missing time throughout his career with a variety of ailments. However, despite the injury risks and poor defensive performance, it would appear that he's a solid bat.

That couldn't be further from the truth. Rengifo is batting just .211/.244/.263 with one home run on the season. The putrid offensive performance, combined with his defensive ineptitude, has made his performance worth -1.1 fWAR on the season.

What has really happened here is that the peripherals have finally caught up with Rengifo. After years of outperforming his contact rates and batted ball data, the Venezuelan native's luck has finally run out, making him an awful buy-low target for the Yankees.

Unfortunately for him, not only has his poor performance likely cost him a ticket out of Anaheim, but laying an egg in a contract year has cost him a lot of money in future earnings. He's been a true dud for sure.

Ke'Bryan Hayes likely won't be following in his father's footsteps by joining the Yankees

On August 30, 1996, the Pittsburgh Pirates shipped Charlie Hayes to the Yankees, marking the elder Hayes' second stint in pinstripes. Charlie may not have lit the world on fire, but he gave the Yanks some much-needed depth at the hot corner en route to winning the first World Series of the last great Yankee dynasty.

His son, Ke'Bryan Hayes, likely won't get that same opportunity this season due to his poor performance at the plate.

Despite his pedigree as one of the top third base prospects in all of baseball, Hayes has never truly figured it out at the dish. His career-best season came in 2023 when he slashed .271/.309/.453 with 15 dingers, looking poised for a breakout.

Since then, he has cratered, batting just .233/.283/.290 in 2024 while battling injuries. This season, he's hit just one homer with a .222/.283/.274 line while getting through the season thus far without being bitten by the injury bug.

Hayes found himself at the center of trade rumors over the offseason when it was reported that he requested a trade. Though the rumored request has seemingly been disproven and debunked, it led to speculation that he could be a viable target for the Yankees.

He can certainly flash the leather at the hot corner and play Gold Glove-caliber defense, which does bring some value. It also wouldn't be surprising to see his offensive performance rise after moving on from the pitiful Pirates.

However, Hayes hasn't helped himself, and a second straight season of him completely falling flat in the batter's box means he's a gamble not worth taking. Pittsburgh locked him up with an eight-year, $70 million extension early, which will keep him under contract through 2029, making gambling on a rebound at the plate that much riskier.

The defensive performance would fit well with the Yankees' mission to become more athletic and improve in the field after some embarrassing escapades in the field during the 2024 World Series, but the bat falls way too short for Hayes to be truly worth considering.

The Rockies' Ryan McMahon's power outage should make the Yankees steer clear

With a ridiculous 12-50 record as of June 5, the Colorado Rockies will be selling anything and everything that isn't bolted to the floor come the trade deadline, as long as owner Dick Monfort properly assesses reality. One of the pieces viewed as potentially the most attractive was infielder Ryan McMahon.

McMahon's primarily a third baseman these days, but he also has some experience at second, which would've increased his allure. With 20 or more homers in five of the last six seasons (the one exception being nine dingers in the COVID-shortened 2020 season), the 30-year-old entered the season looking like one of the top infield power bats that was expected to hit the market.

Of course, hitting 20 long balls in a season in Colorado is one thing, but doing it consistently outside of the mile-high altitude is another, which looms as a serious question for the longest-tenured Rockies player. McMahon has hit just 48 of his 130 career home runs on the road, and owns a career .658 OPS outside of Denver versus an .819 mark inside the hitters' paradise.

Through 60 games, McMahon has put together his worst season since 2019, batting just .201/.314/.340 while striking out 29.4% of the time, potentially ruining his chances to move on from the worst team in the league.

Like Hayes, McMahon can really pick it at the hot corner, but given his struggles in 2025 and road performance, it's truly a "buyer beware" situation with the veteran.

Yoan Moncada is another Angel for the Yankees to avoid

A decade ago, the Boston Red Sox sniped then-19-year-old Yoan Moncada from the Yankees to land the top prospect in all of baseball. Since then, Moncada's career has been an odyssey of unrealized potential.

The Red Sox would send Moncada to Chicago, where his socks became white, in exchange for Chris Sale. There in the Windy City, Moncada would eventually flash his immense potential, though it took some time to get there.

In his first full season in 2018, Moncada led the league in strikeouts with 217 while posting a modest .235/.315/.400 line. However, in 2019, as a 24-year-old, he appeared to break out, slugging 25 homers while hitting .315/.367/.548, looking to be the star that was promised.

Instead, Moncada struggled during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, and though he rebounded somewhat with a 120 wRC+ in 2021, his prodigious power disappeared, as he slugged just .412 with 14 home runs.

From 2022 onward, Moncada's career has been one of injury and inconsistency. He posted a 76 wRC+ in 2022, and then became more of just an average bat with a mark of 98 in 2023 while being limited to just 92 games.

The low point came in 2024, when a hip injury limited him to just 12 contests all season and forced him to sign a one-year, $5 million pact with the aimless Angels.

So far in 2025, we've seen a bit of everything from Moncada. A spring training thumb injury threatened the start of his season, but while Moncada played through it, he quickly succumbed to the malady and landed on the IL after just eight games, missing a month.

Now, less than a month later, he's landing on the IL again after suffering a knee injury during the Yankees' trip out to Anaheim. He's played in just 30 of the Angels' 61 games this season, and while the latest injury isn't expected to keep him out long-term, the "games missed" meter keeps rising.

And that's been the problem for Moncada, who has otherwise been good this year, batting .237/.336/.505 with six homers. Whether it's the thumb, the knee, or something else, he keeps getting bumps and bruises that hold him out.

If the Yankees want to stop relying on the not-so-terrific trio of DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza, and Pablo Reyes, they need to bring in someone who can be trusted to be in the lineup every day. That's exactly where the switch-hitting Moncada falls flat.

The Phillies' Alec Bohm hasn't proven he's the upgrade the Yankees yearn for

The Philadelphia Phillies are in the thick of the NL East race, as many expected, meaning they're not likely to be deadline sellers. However, one player who was subjected to continuous offseason trade rumors was third baseman Alec Bohm.

The 2024 NL All-Star was thought of as a player the Phillies could move to better balance their roster in order to make a deep playoff run. That idea might still be on the table, but the Yankees shouldn't be buying it.

Bohm, 28, had been coming into his own offensively over the past two seasons, posting a 106 wRC+ in 2023 and a 115 wRC+ in 2024. Meanwhile, he improved his previously statue-like defense at third, improving from -9 defensive runs saved in 2023 to a much more acceptable 0 in 2024.

However, so far in 2025, Bohm has regressed on both fronts. He's still hitting for a a good average, coming in at .274, but his plummeting walk rate of 4.1% has his on-base percentage falling to a pedestrian .310. His power has dropped off as well, with just five homers and a 65-point dip in slugging percentage, dropping from .448 in 2024 to just .383 this season. The total package has been good for a wRC+ of 93.

While his bat has fallen off, so have his defensive improvements. With -3 defensive runs saved at the hot corner in 2025, Bohm hasn't quite reached the depths he was at in 2023, but it's a clear step back from the improvement he showed in 2024.

To be clear, Bohm is still likely an upgrade over what the Yankees have, but where he falls short is the magnitude of that improvement versus the cost of acquisition. The Phillies have Bohm under team control through next season, and therefore, they would need to be overwhelmed by an offer to move him now. That's the same reason he stayed put over the offseason, and now with a step back in performance, he'd be even more of a dud acquisition relative to the price.