Yankees third base option you totally forgot about just destroyed a Triple-A home run

Jeimer Candelario, who the New York Yankees imported on a whim ahead of the trade deadline, has been remarkably bad after coming over from the Cincinnati Reds. But damn, he can still obliterate a baseball.

There was a moment when Candelario felt like a viable midseason addition for the Yanks. Unfortunately, that moment was 2023, when he racked up 3.1 bWAR and a 126 OPS+ with the Washington Nationals before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs, finishing the year with above-average offensive numbers in a pennant race. That offseason, the Reds signed him to a three-year deal, and he survived on the roster for almost half of it, looking either a step slow or injured at nearly every turn.

With the Reds eating his salary this summer to get him out of Ohio, the Yankees pounced, stashing him at Triple-A while they waited to see what bounty awaited them at the trade deadline. Ultimately, they landed a polar opposite solution in Ryan McMahon, a professional hitter (whose bat has been lagging) and a slick fielder.

Candelario? He's languished at Scranton, hitting .196 with a .644 OPS in his first 41 games. That's an improvement from his 2025 MLB OPS+ of literally 12, but it's not an improvement on much else!

But this week? Oh, this week. He bucked expectations and returned to mashing for one fleeting moment, sending a towering home run onto a back concourse. Rumor has it the ball traveled 534 feet? That rumor sounds wrong. But, rest assured, the ball went far.

Yankees' Jeimer Candelario drills massive home run at Triple-A (but he's still bad)

To answer your follow-up questions: No, this doesn't make Candelario attractive enough to merit call-up consideration in September, even in the case of an injury. But watch that ball go!

At the end of the season, Candelario will still be just 32 years old, somehow. There might be more left in the tank. There might be a reason for the Yankees to examine his return. That reason might be the video above, and nothing more.

It's safe to say the Yankees weren't committed to him in any way when they brought him in, though, given how quickly they pivoted to a glove-first addition who's controlled for several years in McMahon. This moment — and this article? — might be his pinstriped peak. And he did it in the Scranton blues. Bummer.