It is no secret that despite the return of Aaron Judge and Harrison Bader, the New York Yankees‘ offense remains far from the most productive unit in MLB. They are still missing Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, while Aaron Hicks, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Oswaldo Cabrera have underperformed.
Recently, the league’s official site posted an article suggesting one ‘quick fix’ for each MLB team. Beat writers for each club provided potential solutions for every organization, assuming the fixes were feasible and relatively easy.
Bryan Hoch, the Yankees beat writer for MLB.com, had an idea: call up Kole Calhoun. He explained:
“The Yankees sure could use an outfielder swinging a hot bat, and it would be a bonus if he played Gold Glove-caliber defense. Sounds too good to be true? They’ve actually got one stashed in Triple-A: Kole Calhoun, who has hit .500 (11-for-22) with three homers, nine RBIs, and four stolen bases through six games.”
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The Yankees could give Kole Calhoun a chance:
Indeed, Calhoun has done nothing but excel since the Yankees picked him up for Scranton. He boasts a .500/.577/1.045 line with a 297 wRC+ with the RailRiders, and while his performance in 2022 (67 wRC+) and 2021 (80 wRC+) was not impressive, he appears to be in better physical shape now.
His recent achievements, although based on a small sample size, could present another viable short-term option for the Yankees if they need him.
Hoch said it himself: “You could argue that the Yanks have seen a large enough sample from their current left field crop (especially Aaron Hicks) to determine that they’re not going to be the answer. They thought Franchy Cordero would be this year’s Matt Carpenter — maybe Calhoun becomes that guy,” he stated.
Wouldn’t it be exciting for the Yankees to discover a ‘new Carpenter’ in Calhoun?