New York Yankees Manager Believes in Veteran Infielder to Bounce Back

The New York Yankees welcomed pitchers and catchers for the first day of Spring Training.

Coming into the season, the Yankees have done a very nice job of addressing a lot of their flaws from last year.

Despite losing their superstar outfielder in free agency, New York has added talent and depth to the starting rotation, bullpen, and the batting order. However, with the season just over a month away, there is still one looming question for the Yankees.

Currently, third base is an area that is the clear and obvious flaw of the team. With Jazz Chisholm likely to slide back to his natural position of second base in 2025, New York has some options to consider at the hot corner. Unfortunately, those options don’t look great on paper.

With third base being a hot topic, manager Aaron Boone was of course asked about what the plan will be.

The competition for the starting job is going to be an open one with the current internal options being DJ LeMahieu. Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas. However, Boone did have some interesting comments about his former All-Star veteran, who might be the early favorite for the starting spot if healthy.

"I'm not going to put anything past a healthy DJ LeMahieu,'' Boone said to Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com.

A healthy LeMahieu would be a welcome sight for New York, but that just doesn’t seem realistic with him being 36 years old now. By all accounts he is doing well this winter with both his foot and hip doing well.

However, for the Yankees, even if the 36-year-old is healthy to start the year, it seems very unlikely that he would be able to play anywhere near a full season.

When healthy, LeMahieu was one of the best contact hitters in the league, as shown by his lifetime .289 batting average. However, over the last four seasons his batting average has been heading in the wrong direction, and he slashed just .204/.269/.259 in 67 games in 2024.

After the veteran infielder the other options aren’t great for the Yankees. Cabrera would probably be the next best option, but he hasn’t been overly impressive when given opportunities in the Majors.

If no one new is brought in, third base feels like a position that New York will be trying to piece together daily. For a team that is going to be a contender in the American League, making an upgrade either before the season or during the campaign seems inevitable at this point.

Even though Boone might not put anything past a healthy Lemahieu, the key word in that sentence is healthy.

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