Brenden Donovan offensively is a perfect leadoff hitter option that we need. High OBP, doesn’t strike out much and while he is better against RHP much more than LHP he isn’t a liability against lefties.
We need a true leadoff hitter. Trent would fit much better in the bottom of the order.
Could Brenden Donovan play short stop? He played 6 games there last year. I worry about defense there, but w/McMahon at 3B and Jazz at 2B defensive alignments can help him thoroughly.
I have tried to pigeonhole him in LF (trade Dominguez), 3B (trade McMahon in a bad contract for bad contract trade) and 2B (move Jazz to CF or trade Jazz), but is the simple solution just to cross your fingers for a year at SS? He has so much flexibility that he could also once Volpe is back play as needed at 3B (against tough lefties) or as needed in the OF and at 2B.
With Cabrera, Donovan , Martin and Caballero our bench can pretty much play anywhere. I embrace the idea of having as many UTL guys as possible.
So with that in mind please see another offseason plan below:
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/new-york-yankees/tax
Cut Leiter today (EDIT-Done) to bring luxury tax payroll down to $280.5M. Say we have a payroll of $330M before trade deadline. Which would be $13M more than what we finished with this past year (5% increase).
We have not gotten any true indication from the FO that payroll will be cut this year. It has increased by $5-15M year over year for the last 3 years. It is a silly argument in my eyes. Once Stanton, McMahon & Lemahieu are off the books we can remain competitive while being under $300M. Not now.
Also none of these deals I am proposing (save Imai who will likely opt out-it would be encouraged) will be long term deals so we will have financial flexibility for the future. No Tucker or Belli, but our offense becomes much deeper and more well rounded.
Trade 1- Add $11.5M
To STL-LH OF Spencer Jones, SH IF Roderick Arias, RH SP Ben Hess, RH SP Jersen Alajandro, LH SP Henry Lalane(All are minor leaguers with 6 yrs of control)
To NYY- LH UTL Brenden Donovan (2 years of control) , LH RP Jojo Romero (last year of control-needed second lefty in BP alongside Hill)
Trade 2- Add $6M
To MIN-LH C J.C. Escarra, RH SP Will Warren (both w/5 yrs of control) LH SP Kyle Carr (AAA w/6 yrs of control)
To NYY- RH C Ryan Jeffers (last year of control), RH SP David Festa (4 yrs of control-is a lesser version of Warren quality wise, but can provide the needed innings at least beginning of the year), RH UTL Austin Martin (4 yrs of control).
Jeffers hit .313 vs. LHP in 2025 (.270 in career). Platooning with Wells would be very helpful as Wells was overused last year.
Martin can play LF, CF and 2B. Another versatile piece. We would have the most versatile team we will have had in a very long time. He hit .282 last year (.346 against LHP). In this scenario I have him platooning w/Dominguez in LF.
Twins get a controllable C (Jeffers is leaving next year) and a SP upgrade especially if they trade Ryan and Lopez. Martin finally put it together last year, but they have a bevy of OFs and IFs who kind of block him.
FA:
RH SP Tatsuya Imai to a 8 yr/$172M contract ($21.5M AAV) . Opt outs after years 3 & 5. More years to lower AAV.
RH RP Phil Maton to a 1 yr/$6.5M contract with a $10M 2027 team option ($1M buyout).
RH SP/RP Michael Soroka to a 1 yr/$3.5M contract (serves as long man throughout year)
We keep Dominguez under this plan as a lot of people have been calling for.
Once healthy-SH UTL Cabrera in AAA he has options. Deepest team we would have in years.
Lineup vs. RHP (Bench-RH C Jeffers, RH UTL Caballero, RH SS Volpe, RH UTL Martin)
LH SS Donovan/RH RF Judge/ LH 1B Rice/ LH 2B Chisholm/RH DH Stanton/LH CF Grisham/LH C Wells/ SH LF Dominguez/LH 3B McMahon
Lineup vs. LHP (Bench-LH Wells, RH UTL Caballero, SH OF Dominguez, LH 3B McMahon)
RH LF Martin/RH RF Judge/LH 1B Rice/RH DH Stanton/RH C Jeffers/LH 2B Chisholm/RH SS Volpe/LH CF Grisham/LH 3B Donovan
When Stanton eventually gets injured you put Jasson in RF, Judge at DH, Donovan at LF and Caballero or Volpe at SS.
Pitching depth is really good as well.
10 SPs.
To start year-
LH Fried/RH Imai/RH Schlittler/RH Gil/RH Festa
Yarborough in BP as 6th starter
In AAA-
Beck as 7th starter
Rodriguez as 8th starter
Hampton as 9th starter
In AA-
Lagrange as 10th starter
To end year once healthy-
RH Cole/LH Fried/RH Imai/RH Schlittler/LH Rodon
Gil in BP as 6th starter
Yarborough in BP as 7th starter
Festa in AAA (has options) as depth as 8th starter
Lagrange, Rodriguez, Hampton, Beck as 9-12 options.
Bullpen throughout year-
LH- Romero, Hill
RH-Bednar, Doval, Cruz, Maton, Soroka, Bird
In AAA-LH Headrick, RH De Los Santos
10 comments
I rather have Kwan at leadoff and he would fit the team better too on the defensive end
An outfield of Kwan-Belli-Judge would be nuts
For a guy hitting directly in front of Judge, you want them to be able to get on base. How they do that is mostly irrelevant. The difference between Donovan and Grisham in OBP is negligible, and neither run well anymore. I really don’t trust his defense at shortstop either, since he’s -2 career DRS and +2 career OAA at 2nd base. I really don’t like the fit for him here. If he were a free agent, it’d be one thing, but he’s gonna cost an arm and a leg in a trade.
Insane trade for Donovan. Hard pass.
I don’t understand the obsession with finding a lead off hitter. The old lead off hitter is a thing of the past. The smart thing to do is to just bat the best hitter on your team leadoff. The blue jays and the dodgers had the right idea of this and that’s part of the reason they were the two teams in the World Series.
Imagine you were a mariners fan for a second. How pissed off would you have been seeing Julio chase three sliders out of the zone with Raleigh on deck in a one run game? When you have a hitter as good as Judge you do whatever you can to get him more at bats. Who cares if he hits some solo home runs in the first inning. He only had 30 rbis in the 1st last year. Imagine how many more runs he could score starting the game on first almost half the time with no outs.
Yes a leadoff hitter would be great, but a leadoff hitter isn’t the solution to all the issues the team has, especially another lefty. Donovan doesn’t have a clear fit defensively with the team, he’s going to cost a ton to acquire, and so many teams can offer up a piece far more impressive and helpful than we could. I mean the Royals can offer Noah Cameron and that hits a huge immediate need for St. Louis.
I get the overall objective of the post, but the reality is I don’t think Donovan is a seamless fit. There’d have to be more done to work him into the lineup.
God no
So the plan is to hand SS over to a guy with 14 career games at the position and a .651 career OPS vs lefties? And we need to trade the farm to do it? Cool plan
I think it’s more likely they trade Chisholm if they go after Donovan.
Donovan is better in the leadoff spot than Kwan would be but nowhere near what Grisham did last year. Much lower walk rate, lower OPS, lower wRC+, fewer runs scored and of course much lower HR total. He’s not worth a trade over starting Caballero who could improve to a 3 WAR player with a lo of work on plate discipline and an off-season throwing program to improve his arm.
I’m coming around on the free agents signings. I think Tatsusya Imai is the closest fit for YS of jus about any FA out there and probably the most affordable too. If the Dodger or Jays get him a trade for Joe Ryan is the backup plan.
Phil Maton is a good signing, thumbs up to that.
No way should Will Warren be traded, especially not for a single year of Jeffers, that’s outrageous. Glad you’re seeing some sense on JD, he’s a keeper for sure.
I don’t hate this, tho it’s highly unlikely the team does this many moves. Also Roderick Arias has zero value. And I’d move Gil over Warren probably.