The New York Yankees and general manager Brian Cashman are taking things significantly slower than in recent years. Signing new players and being involved in potential trades will have to wait, and while things could develop later on in the off-season, the market is slowly developing as the hot stove months wear on.
One rumor that circulated several weeks ago with a potential trade involving Luke Voit. Voit has seen his value compound after two successful seasons with the Yankees.
How valuable is Voit to the Yankees?
In 2020, he battled through foot injuries but still managed to play and 50 games. Voit finished with a .277 batting average with 22 homers and 52 RBIs. He was phenomenal offensively, all but carrying a Yankees team that was severely damaged by injuries.
Trading him wouldn’t show much loyalty to improving players, and considering he will earn just $5.8 million for his services, the Yanks are better off keeping him around.
Of course, the Yankees are distracted by the DJ LeMahieu negotiations, and Voit is one player who has voiced their optimism that a deal will be finalized in the near future.
The earlier rumors indicated that if Luke was traded, the Yankees would move DJ to first base and Gleyber Torres back to second. Cashman alleviated any concerns that he would make these moves.
“First and foremost, LeMahieu without a doubt does provides value because he can play other positions. He can play third, he can play second, he can play first. We also can put him at short if we needed to because of the shifting and all that stuff just as a stopgap, but that’s just flexibility for a manager to use in season for the purposes obviously of dealing with injuries or somebody is thrown out of a game and he has to reconfigure. So that’s the value he brings.
“But his best position second base without a doubt, and our intent would be to sign into play second base. I am not pursuing any plan of trying to trade Luke Voit to sign LeMahieu to play first and do something different. That that’s not part of my plan.
“My plan is, if we sign him, he’s playing a second base. Clearly the first base position, the offensive profile, is different. And so, I think that we’d be short circuiting the true value of DJ LeMahieu to play first, to be quite honest. I think his true value is at second, which takes advantage of defense, the offensive profile he brings for that position, and so that’s our interest. He’s someone that shores up the middle infield, which is obviously a challenge, without a doubt, and he brings out offense that goes with it, which is unique and special for that position above his peers.â€