New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman said during the Winter Meetings that the team would be focusing on importing the best possible players during this offseason. Cashman made it clear that they would look at importing the best talent regardless of their clear organizational fit and then put the pieces together as they go along.
Today, Jeff Passan of ESPN broke the news that the Yanks acquired former NL MVP Cody Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs. NYY acquired Bellinger and $5 million in exchange for Cody Poteet. If you ask me, it’s an absolute steal for New York and now they have a former MVP who can play a couple of different positions for them.
Bellinger is an ideal fit for NYY because he gives you great defense at first and he can give you great defense in the outfield. We also know that the Yanks are talking to several free agent first basemen like Christian Walker and Pete Alonso. There is also mutual interest with switch hitting outfielder Anthony Santander. That said, it’s possible that the Yankees could look at bringing in Santander and look at switching his position.
Would the Yankees move Santander?
If the Yankees were to sign Anthony Santander after acquiring Bellinger, their offensive potential would be incredibly high. Bellinger’s defensive flexibility does give them a couple of different options with Santander. Let’s be clear, Santander is not a good defensive outfielder. Not good at all.
Given his defensive limitations, if the Yanks were to bring him in, you’d have to think that Aaron Judge would either stay in center field or they’d potentially look at moving Judge to left while giving Jasson Dominguez the keys to center. Right field is the easiest to defend in Yankee Stadium and if Santander was to play in the outfield, you’d think they’d have to put him there.
That said, there’s another option that I’m sure the Yankees are looking into. Anthony Santander does have experience playing first base. The sample size is very small at only 72 innings at the major league level, but he’s been there enough to know what he’s doing. If the Yanks feel like he can be a decent defender at first, I think they’d actually put Bellinger in the outfield instead of first base.
A defensive outfield of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Jasson Dominguez is very strong. While Santander certainly doesn’t project to be an amazing defensive first baseman, he can’t be worse than he is in the outfield. If NYY surrounds him with elite defenders in the infield, it could assist in masking his defensive shortcomings. I’m not saying that it’s a great option, but I keep going back to Brian Cashman’s comments about importing the best possible players and then figuring out the rest.