Yankees insiders' Luis Garcia Jr. trade take is everything that’s wrong with NYY’s roster

When the New York Yankees acquired Luis García Jr. at the 2026 MLB trade deadline, most fans were excited. After all, the Yankees were desperate for offense, having watched their lineup become decimated by injuries to Aaron Judge and others, and García can mash.

While García wasn't a raging success over 43 regular-season games and five playoff games for the Yankees, he certainly wasn't a disappointment, either. The 26-year-old, New York City-born slugger hit .264/.302/.434 with seven homers in the regular season, and added a homer in the playoffs.

Despite that production, and despite the Yankees looking to keep their offense potent enough heading into a new campaign, García's future with the club is in doubt. Or, is it?

There have been rumors that the Yankees want to try García at second base in 2027, a position he didn't perform well at with his previous club, the Washington Nationals. And given other logjams on the Yankees' poorly constructed roster, there are some who feel that the Yankees should trade García this winter. MLB insiders Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman are among those advocates.

MLB insiders believe the Yankees would be smart to trade Luis García Jr.

Sherman argued that García and Ben Rice as the right side of the Yankees' infield wouldn't be nearly athletic or rangy enough. Heyman went even further and declared that García never fit the Yankees at all.

The sad thing for the Yankees is that both Sherman and Heyman are correct here. García Jr. isn't a second baseman, and the Yankees would be wise to trade him this offseason. Otherwise, they're looking at a first base/DH logjam in 2027, and you don't want to be taking any playing time away from Ben Rice (or DH reps away from a recovering/aging Judge. The idea of Anthony Volpe playing second base for the Yankees in 2027 is also appealing, by the way, considering he's a much better defender at that position (even with limited experience) than García is.

The first base/DH logjam becomes even more problematic if you believe Sherman's hunch that the Yankees are going to retain Giancarlo Stanton heading into 2027 (even though they shouldn't).

And therein lies part of the issue: New York prioritizes aging or unproductive players as well as imperfect fits while also never constructing a team based around defensive positioning and/or chemistry. They went out and got García at the deadline's last minute because he was the best bat available, taking no heed of what his poor positional fit might mean for 2027 and beyond.

An entirely separate but related issue stems from the above, in that once the Yankees realize they have logjams and an imbalanced roster, they get to work shoving round pegs into square holes. Rather than live with the logjams they've created, they dive into weird workarounds. They convince themselves that they can play Ryan McMahon at shortstop (bad idea), or that García can miraculously become a serviceable second baseman despite evidence to the contrary.

The Yankees basically assemble talent without worrying about fit at all, which is just bad team-building. With this García situation, it would even be more logical for the Yankees to come out and admit he's a first baseman, and that they're going to do their best to manage the logjam (first off, by ditching Stanton). All in all, none of these scenarios paint the picture of an organized front office.

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