A matter that’s been flying under the radar in the Yankees offseason is the need for a first baseman. The team has positional flexibility at second base, third base, and the outfield positions – the Yankees flat out do not have a viable option to pencil in at first base if the season started tomorrow, regardless of how the Juan Soto situation pans out.
Carlos Santana Jr. is available. He’s had a great career and has been largely undervalued for a long time. That said, he’s 38 and has been barely above league average with the bat for four or five seasons now.
Pete Alonso is out there, and The Polar Bear is a very easy player to like. But despite being only 29 years old, he’s a one trick pony, and when right-handed power is your one trick, Yankees Universe is going to tire of you quickly. At this point, age is the only thing Alonso has on Giancarlo Stanton.
That leaves two viable options:
Sign Christian Walker.
Trade for Lamonte Wade Jr.
Lamonte Wade Jr. is the type of player who may be undervalued by a team run by a former player. (San Francisco parted ways with one of the smartest people in baseball and gave the job to a former Giant who took foul balls off the head for a decade and a half, in case you missed it.) Wade has played primarily first base over the past two seasons but has also seen reps in the corner outfield spots, giving his team some positional flexibility. He’s a left-handed pull hitter who hits the ball hard, which the smart folks over at Baseball Savant have told us would lead to a few more dingers in YS III than in San Francisco.
Fun fact: 207 players had more than 400 PA in 2024, and Aaron Judge and Juan Soto were the only two with higher walk rates than Wade Jr. He’s arbitration eligible this season and a free agent in 2026 – it won’t take too much to acquire him.
Christian Walker is 33, which typically makes people wince when discussing free agents. But as a first baseman, I’m not sure that’s a concern, and there is plenty of upside with him. He’s been remarkably consistent and very good over the past three seasons, the difference between him and Alonso offensively is negligible, and Walker’s defense would be a massive upgrade over what Yankee fans have seen in recent years.
The smart folks over at FanGraphs have him expecting a contract with a total value of $50 million, which would make him an absolute steal.
Paging Mr. Cashman…Mr. Cashman, there are two viable opportunities to improve your team above.
Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments, or yell at me on the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook and BlueSky.
Recommended reading: “The Yankee Way”. I wasn’t a fan of it, but it’s selling a lot of damn copies, so you might like it more than me. Let me know if you check it out.
Want to support MBP? If you’re an Amazon shopper, use any of the product links on this page to take you there. If you make a purchase – any purchase, not necessarily the product you clicked on – Amazon might make a tiny donation to MBP. Or…
Buy me a coffee?
If you like the blog and would like to see more of it, feel free to buy me a coffee. I prefer the bougee stuff, but I’ll take a Wawa if you’re buying. (Shrug.) It may not seem like much, but every little bit goes a long way toward keeping the blog rolling – thanks in advance!
$1.98
mybaseballpage.com 