00:00It's a drive by Derry Dyson. Charles Chisholm goes deep.
00:09Back with part three of our continuing series where we're going position by position for the Yankees
00:15and asking and discussing and maybe giving some thoughts on what they should do at each of those positions this
00:22offseason.
00:23We've already done catcher and first base.
00:26I hope you've been watching them or reading them in a hard copy of the post or at nypost.com,
00:33the sports page under my byline.
00:36Today we're up to second base.
00:38I think we have to deal first with the Jazz Chisholm of it all.
00:42He is going to be a free agent this offseason as soon as the World Series ends.
00:48The players who could be free agents are free agents.
00:52The Chisholm experience for two and a half years is he's an incredibly talented player.
00:58He could do the spectacular, but he also could fiddle with his running glove and get picked off.
01:04He could wander around on defense and not play technically well.
01:09There was some Stephon Marbury to his game.
01:12You could look at the box score and you'd see 22 points and 11 assists and be like, but did
01:19it help a team win today?
01:21And I think you could ask those questions about Jazz.
01:25Was he part of the kind of an overall psyche that I think undermines the Yankees at this time of
01:32year where they do not play technically well and it bites them and they get eliminated?
01:37I think for a variety of reasons, including that, but not to be ignored that we're probably going to be
01:42dealing with tougher financial rules coming up, moving forward in a new collective bargaining agreement up to and maybe including
01:51a salary cap.
01:53I don't think the Yankees are going to put the $23.15 million qualifying offer on Jazz.
02:00Jazz has the compensation if he turns it down as a draft pick off after the fourth round.
02:05I don't think they're going to risk that he would take it, that he feels that his market won't be
02:10great because maybe the word is out on the kind of overall player he is.
02:14He still is 29.
02:16If somebody saw the talent and gave him a big contract, I wouldn't be surprised.
02:20He's talented.
02:21He's bright.
02:22I think he's a good guy.
02:24I think that there's things in the cracks that make him a somewhat problematic player.
02:29I think the Yankees are going to move on and not risk the possibility that, like Trent Grisham last year,
02:35he takes the qualifying offer.
02:37So that leads to the question of what do they do?
02:41Right now, if I think the season began, Anthony Volpe would be their second baseman.
02:46And if I were guessing, I think Anthony Volpe is going to be their second baseman.
02:51Why do I think that?
02:53I think that they did two things last year that were important in the tough love department and that they
02:59hadn't done previously.
03:01Number one, they moved them off a shortstop.
03:04This was one of those places where I thought the Yankees lived in a level of unreality where they would
03:09keep telling us the player was well above average shortstop.
03:14In Aaron Boone's estimation one time, he's elite.
03:18That was the word he used.
03:20To me, a guy who has his arm, which is not a shortstop's arm, and is on the ground sliding
03:25around on his knees, etc., to kind of protect the ball from getting by him.
03:30That's not a major league shortstop.
03:33That was number one.
03:34They took him off the position.
03:35The second thing is they sent him down to the minor leagues.
03:38They told him the scholarship portion of the program is over, and that was some tough love there.
03:45And I thought he came back a better player.
03:47Now, we have seen spurts of Anthony Volpe being a very, very, very good player for weeks at a time.
03:54The problem is when he goes bad, he goes really horrendously bad for significant periods of time.
04:00I call them offensive death spirals.
04:01Among players who've had 2,000 at-bats that is a Yankee, he has an 83 OPS+.
04:08It's the seventh worst in the history of the franchise for that many plate appearances.
04:12Now, I will say, I made a list of this.
04:14Players who were worse than him in that category include Bucky Dent, Bobby Richardson, Jerry Coleman, and Frank Cresetti.
04:22Those were all championship, and in many cases, multiple championship infielders for the Yankees.
04:27So, I know that a player could do that and be part of a whole if they're doing other things
04:34well.
04:35And I will point out that over time, Anthony Volpe has had a season where he had 21 homers.
04:41He's had a season with 29 steals.
04:44He's had a season with 55 extra base hits.
04:47He just had a season where he walked a career best 10.2% of the time.
04:52He just had a season where he drew, believe it or not, he was the best on the team at
04:56this.
04:57Drove in nine of the 10 runners with less than two outs from third base.
05:00To me, what everyone has to get out of their mind, starting with Anthony Volpe, the organization, the fan base,
05:06everyone is,
05:06hey, there goes a first-round draft choice.
05:09There goes the kid who grew up in New Jersey, a Jeter fan.
05:12There goes a guy who is literally a top 10 in all of baseball prospect.
05:16I think that player is never showing up.
05:18The question is, can a player like Caleb Durbin show up?
05:22You know, I use Durbin, not a very big, imposing, physical guy like Volpe,
05:27but he produces a lot in a lot of areas.
05:31A little power, a little speed, defense, and his head is in the game every day.
05:36It's gritty.
05:37I would believe in that player more if Anthony Volpe was outside New York.
05:42I do think that playing here where he wanted to work so badly and the fan base is already on
05:49him
05:49puts a level of pressure on him where I wonder if it will succeed.
05:53If he were playing second base, for example, next to Bobby Witt Jr. or Kevin McGonigal in Detroit,
06:01I think I could see that working much better.
06:04But again, I think this is the way the Yankees are going to go,
06:07in part because they have not given up on Volpe, and again, they're going to have to watch every dollar
06:13if we're heading towards a more strict payroll situation.
06:18So what does that mean?
06:20The two sexy second basemen who will be on the free agent market are Brandon Lau,
06:25who's a lefty power hitter, and Luis Rize, who's a lefty contact hitter.
06:29I think that the Yankees, I think a lot of teams don't really believe in the underlying defensive stuff
06:36improvement on a rise this year.
06:38They think it was better, but they still don't think he was a great second baseman.
06:42He's going to have to get a multiple-year contract, a lot of money.
06:46Lau is a power hitter.
06:47You could argue he just had his best season after getting traded from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh.
06:51But he's had some chronic back stuff.
06:53Again, a multi-year contract that a good amount of money.
06:56I think if the Yankees were going to trade for C.J. Abrams to play second base,
07:00they would have done that at the deadline when they were dealing with the Nationals
07:04instead of getting Luis Garcia Jr. from the Nationals.
07:07So I don't think it's him.
07:09If I were thinking about players, if it wasn't Volpe, I'll throw out some thoughts.
07:14Again, I know how our aggregator friends work.
07:17I am just suggesting things.
07:19I'm not saying I heard anything.
07:20The one I will say is I know the Yankees over the years have greatly liked
07:24the Miami switch hitter Xavier Edwards, who kind of would fit in right at second base
07:29and lead off.
07:30And I think that would be a great help.
07:32But he would cost a significant amount.
07:35And I assume part of that amount would be Volpe being part of that whatever package
07:40they would send to Miami for Edwards.
07:43But I like the switch hitter with speed who, you know, limits strikeouts, etc.
07:49But we'll see.
07:51I'm going to throw out a name that I think is interesting, Sam Adonacci, who played left
07:56field this year, not very well.
07:58He's really a second baseman.
07:59But the White Sox have chased Midroth.
08:02But the White Sox are now also after making the playoffs this year in a cycle of trying
08:07to win.
08:07They desperately need starting pitching now.
08:11Is Adonacci for Elmer Rodriguez, something like that in that world, a possibility?
08:16I think you make a call.
08:18I think a player the Yankees have liked in the past, Michael Massey of the Royals, another
08:24left-hand hitter if he's going to work in complement, maybe with someone like Volpe.
08:28Because like Volpe, Massey could play pretty much, plays some outfield, plays across the
08:32infield a little bit, hits righty pitching.
08:35The Royals desperately need right-hand hitting outfield to help.
08:39They needed it this year.
08:40They still need it.
08:41Jason Dominguez, Elio Ramos, those kind of players.
08:43Does that get you towards Michael Massey?
08:47I do think part of the plan for 2027, if Luis Garcia Jr. is not traded, is they're going
08:54to tell him, please work on conditioning, agility.
08:58He was a second baseman for his whole career until last year when he went to first base.
09:03Did that liberate him to have his big offensive season and you don't want to mess with it?
09:07Maybe, but the Yankees structurally would work better if Garcia is on the roster and Stanton
09:12is on the roster and Ben Rice is on the roster and Aaron Judge is on the roster.
09:16As everyone's on the roster who kind of ended the year and is healthy and active, it would
09:21help if Garcia can go play second base for 20, 30, 40 games just to give the ability against
09:28particularly a tough righty for everyone to get in the lineup in some way.
09:34And Jose Caballero remains here and a valuable chess piece to move around the board, including
09:42at second base.
09:43But if I were suspecting where the Yankees are thinking of going, I think this is Anthony
09:49Volpe's job to lose and that maybe they'll look for that left-handed compliment, but I
09:54don't think they're looking to replace him.
