Less Than One Month Before Reporting Date

by James Vlietstra

January 19, 2025

*** 

Yankees’ pitchers and catchers report to George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Florida on February 11, 2025. Most of the heavy lifting has already been completed this offseason.

The big news was the departure of free agent outfielder Juan Soto to the crosstown Mets. In response, the Yankees signed free agent starter Max Fried to bolster their starting rotation, traded for closer Devin Williams to solidify their bullpen, and brought in Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger, respectively via free agency and a trade, to give the lineup some added punch. 

This is the lineup I’d like to see, followed by some commentary about each player:

1)        Jazz Chisholm Jr, 2B, bats left

2)        Jasson Dominguez, LF, switch

3)        Aaron Judge, RF, right

4)        Cody Bellinger, CF, Left

5)        Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, right

6)        Giancarlo Stanton, DH, right 

7)        Austin Wells, C, left

8)        Oswaldo Cabrera, 3B, switch 

9)        Anthony Volpe, SS, right

Outside of Judge, last year, Jazz Chisholm had the highest OBP of anyone on this team. This is the first full season for him as a Yankees. He has an offensive skill set similar to Curtis Granderson and Alfonso Soriano. A 35/35 season is possible for him at the top of the lineup. 

The Yankees must put Jasson Dominguez in a position to succeed. That would be in front of Judge, seeing fastball after fastball. Give him until Memorial Day before reevaluating. My guess is he will put up a slash line of .260/.360/.460 and be well on his way towards a Rookie Of The Year award. 

Aaron Judge is still in the prime of his career. Since his ROY season in 2017, he’s produced 52.5 WAR in 966 games. That’s one every 18 games and 9.0/162. That’s “Inner-Circle Hall of Fame” numbers. I see another run at a Triple Crown, perhaps a 1.100 OPS, .320/.440/.660, 10+ WAR historic season. 

Cody Bellinger is a lefty with a swing taylor made for Yankees Stadium. The former ROY is only 29. Maybe he won’t produce a 8.6 WAR like he did in his MVP season of 2019, but his career average is 4.0 per 162. That seems very attainable. 

Paul Goldschmidt signed a one year, $12.5 Million contract. He’s only two years removed from winning the 2022 NL MVP award. For his career he’s averaged 5.3 WAR/162. The aging star could easily see a resurgence. 

Giancarlo Stanton, another former NL MVP, has averaged 116 games and over 29 home runs hit over the past four seasons. Perhaps not what the Yankees were hoping when they got him, but he is definitely a force when in the lineup, especially in the playoffs where he has a career OPS of .994.

With the recent departures of Jose Trevino, Carlos Narvaez, and Agustin Ramirez, Austin Wells is the future and present catcher for the Yankees. His beautiful left handed swing will be targeting the short porch in right field for a very long time. As he gets more comfortable, I’d love to see his OPS+ improve to 110-120. If it does, he can become a perennial all star. 

As currently constructed, third base is a borderline black hole. Oswaldo Cabrera is a good backup for both the infield and outfield positions. However, he hasn’t proven to be an everyday player. 

Anthony Volpe has a career.288 OBP and 83 OPS+ but has somehow produced 6.7 WAR , 52 SBs, and a platinum glove in his two seasons. All this and he won’t turn 24 until the end of April. If he can boost his OBP to .320 and OPS+ to a meager 100, he’ll definitely be a 5+ WAR player. 

The heart of the order of Judge, Bellinger and Goldschmidt could potentially be better than last year’s trio of Soto, Judge, and Rizzo. The overall team defense is quite a bit improved over last year’s. And that doesn’t include a deal for a premier defender which I view as inevitable, which I will mention in a few moments. 

I do question the current bench. Alex Jackson has 340 career plate appearances and a WAR of -1.4. Trent Grisham has 2 gold gloves but he’s a #4 outfielder making $5M a year. DJ LeMahieu is 36 and coming off his worst year, having a WAR of -1.6 last season. He has four gold gloves and two batting titles but that was a long time ago. He has two more years totaling $30M left on his contract with a no trade clause due to his 10/5 rights. However, we all knew that his 6/$90M contract should have been 4/$85M when he signed it. He just did the Yankees a favor by lowering the AAV. I’d be surprised if he ended the year on the active 28-man roster.  

Everson Pereira, Ben Rice, and Oswald Peraza could easily be productive bench players, albeit without much experience 

Last year, the Yankees had six starters make at least 16 starts each. Going into spring training, their top six include five first round picks and the reigning ROY winner. That’s Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, and Luis Gil. In my opinion, they have the best starting rotation in the American League. 

Devin Williams, another former ROY winner, was recently voted by the MLB Network as the best reliever. I believe he will be almost automatic as the closer during the regular season. In the playoffs, maybe it’ll be Luke Weaver’s time to shine. 

The estimated payroll for 2025 is around $290M or roughly $20M less than last year’s. Stroman is making $18.5M this season and has an option for $18M for 2026 that vests if he pitches 140+ innings.

Rumor has it that the St Louis Cardinals are looking to trade defensive wizard Nolan Arenado. He’s won ten gold gloves at third base and has averaged 5.5 WAR per 162 games played throughout his career. He is only 33 years old but has three years and $74M remaining on his contract ($10M of which the Rockies will pay).

Brian Cashman has done a superb job this offseason making moves in the wake of Juan Soto leaving. I trust he will also win this game of high stakes chicken and is able to convince St. Louis to eat as much of Arenado's contract as possible while also taking on the Stroman deal. It makes sense to have stellar infield defense if you are bringing in ground ball pitchers. 

I also expect Cashman to be very aggressive as the trade deadline approaches this summer.

Just a few of his minor leaguers that will be Rule 5 eligible this fall are: Brock Selvidge, Spencer Jones, Chase Hampton, Angel Benitez, Henry LaLane, Eric Reyzelman , and Rafael Flores   He can’t keep them all so he must upgrade where possible.  

I see the Yankees winning the American League East with between 95-98 regular season victories. I believe they will steamroll the playoffs for their second straight AL pennant. I would love to say I expect them to win the World Series, but it depends on who they face. If it’s the Dodgers, once again they will fail and will have to wait until 2026. If it is anyone else, they bring home to the Bronx their first championship in 16 years.