One of the biggest disappointments from this season has been DJ LeMahieu, who went from the Yankees’ rock in the corner infield to a detriment. Last season, he was a league-average bat who played excellent defense at both 1B and 3B where the team was extremely weak on the depth chart. While it’s nothing flashy, that kind of production can help a team toward the bottom of the lineup, and the Yankees were hoping they could get something similar in 2024 with a more stacked offense in terms of depth and firepower.
Boy would the Yankees take a 100 wRC+ at 1B right now, but things have gone incredibly south for the veteran infielder in his age-36 season. With his wRC+ sitting at 51 and Aaron Boone seemingly finding ways to get him into the lineup, the Yankees need to make the difficult but necessary decision to remove him from the roster.
DJ LeMahieu and the Yankees’ Issue With the Sunk-Cost Fallacy
It’s puzzling to see the Yankees pretend that they have no precedent of cutting veterans with roughly $20-$30 million remaining on multi-year deals. Last season we saw Aaron Hicks, who had a -1 DRS and 47 wRC+, get cut before he even reached 100 PAs with the Yankees, and yet DJ LeMahieu remains on the roster with -5 DRS and a 51 wRC+? Granted, I think LeMahieu is a better defender at 3B than he is at 1B, and that weighs down his total DRS value, but the team doesn’t need a third baseman with how Jazz Chisholm has played.
They also have Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti, both of whom are better hitters while providing excellent defensive value at the hot corner. If we’re being honest, the occasional Cabrera start at first base is more than fine for this team considering he’s looked passable there in his spot starts and the team trusted him to get a full game there as recently as this past weekend. When the Yankees construct their 26-man roster, you could argue that Duke Ellis’ speed and baserunning skills make him a more appealing candidate because pinch-runners are valuable in close playoff games.
What perplexes me further is that data seems to be used not to make a rational decision on whether the Yankees should employ DJ LeMahieu or not, but rather as a way to fuel this confirmation bias that he’s a valuable player.
Against the Guardians the Yankees made a head-scratching decision not to pinch-hit for DJ LeMahieu in a tied game with runners on first and second. Nick Sandlin, a right-handed pitcher, proceeded to get the slow infielder to roll into another double play, ending the rally in a game the Yankees would lose in extra innings. Had they won that extremely winnable contest, they’d be 0.5 games up in the division with a full-game lead in the loss column. That one decision arguably cost them that game, as they could have brought in Oswaldo Cabrera to take that at-bat and potentially hit a single.
What Aaron Boone may have argued is that since Sandlin is better against righties than lefties, he’d be putting Oswaldo Cabrera at a disadvantage, as it’s the same reason why he left LeMahieu in against Kyle Finnegan last week. He’d opt to pinch-hit with Cabrera the night after, but against Andrew Heaney, there was a situation where the Yankees would face a lefty who struggles more against lefties. A .318 wOBA against LHB versus a .298 wOBA against RHB is a notable difference, and yet Aaron Boone opted to use DJ LeMahieu instead of Oswaldo Cabrera, who is far more competent.
This reeks of decision-making rooted in the idea that DJ LeMahieu is an unquestioned member of this team, which reflects poorly on the Yankees as an organization. Whether it’s Hal Steinbrenner refusing to cut ties with a player he’s paying money to or Brian Cashman not wanting to disrupt the clubhouse, the decision-makers on this team need to question what they’re doing with the veteran infielder. Leaving something unquestioned can have dangerous consequences in any environment, but it’s easier to quantify in the baseball world than in our day-to-day lives.
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When presented with a difficult decision in 2016 regarding the fate of a declining Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees decided to cut him and essentially press him into retirement. It’s important to note that A-Rod did sue the team and didn’t necessarily do much to mend his relationship with long-time GM Brian Cashman, things that have kept him out of Monument Park. That being said, he was still the best player on the 2009 Yankees, the last team to hang a World Series banner in this franchise’s history.
It’s been over a decade since then; DJ LeMahieu has never provided what Rodriguez did from a player value or winning standpoint. Rodriguez was a large tax hit on their 2016 and 2017 payroll, but his 56 wRC+ made him an easy candidate to release to get more youth involved. LeMahieu has a 51 wRC+, and despite never coming close to what A-Rod has accomplished, he remains on this team and there seems to be no second thought regarding that decision. It’s weird, and I don’t see a reason to justify it considering they’ve operated completely differently with other players.
This has to be preferential treatment. A weird attachment that goes beyond data-based decision-making, something that has haunted this team in 2024. If they’re worried about morale or the impression it would leave on the dugout, then why did they let it leak that they were shopping Nestor Cortes on the market? How about trading Jordan Montgomery, a beloved member of that team, in 2022? Did Gleyber Torres not have to deal with the trade rumors and blunt refusal to extend him beyond 2024?
Alex Verdugo hasn’t had to deal with an ounce of losing his job, and yet even Isiah Kiner-Falefa would see his starting reps diminish come postseason time in 2022 when he was benched during the ALDS and ALCS. Josh Donaldson was kicked to the curb on a 60-day IL stint despite telling people he felt fine before being promptly released by the organization. Similar to DJ LeMahieu, he seems to be the benefactor of some sort of unspoken favoritism, although I like that he’s here as a defensive option in LF; just not as an everyday starter.
This leads me to believe that the Yankees simply don’t want to disrupt the clubhouse. The guys who are liked and have cache remain and are pandered to, something that makes me question why they’re given the roles they are. They’re accepting input from Aaron Judge on player acquisitions and data usage, two things that he just does not have enough experience with to make calls on. It was revealed that he wanted the Yankees to utilize RBIs more than they had before as a stat.
It’s just not the kind of advice that helps the Yankees compete with the Orioles or Astros, it’s the kind that leads to having Alex Verdugo as your primary left fielder. Even if at the expense of upsetting some key members of that clubhouse, the Yankees need to cut DJ LeMahieu from their roster. They cannot be afraid to ruffle feathers, it’s how you end up losing baseball games and letting a season slip from your hands.