12:10pm: Joel Sherman of The New York Post adds that Difo will have the right to opt out of the deal on July 1.
11:40am: The Yankees and infielder Wilmer Difo are in agreement on a contract, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. It’s split deal that will pay him a salary of $1.2MM if he’s in the majors.
Difo, 31 in April, has appeared in each of the past eight MLB seasons, not offering much at the plate but proving to be quite versatile. Through 1306 plate appearances in his career, he has a batting line of .250/.311/.353 for a wRC+ of 74, indicating he’s been 26% below league average in that time.
That’s not terribly exciting offense, but his best attributes are in other parts of his game. Difo is a switch-hitter and has played every position on the diamond except for first base and catcher. His glovework on the infield is also generally graded as average or better, giving him plenty of avenues for helping out a club. He had to settle on a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks for 2022, eventually getting selected to the big league club but only appearing in three games.
The Yankee infield has some uncertainty in it right now. On paper, a potential alignment would feature Anthony Rizzo at first, Gleyber Torres at second, Josh Donaldson at third and youngster Oswald Peraza at shortstop. DJ LeMahieu could be a factor at various positions but he finished the season injured and his health is uncertain right now. There’s also young utility player Oswaldo Cabrera in the mix, though he might be on the outfield depth chart until the club makes upgrades there. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is also on the roster, seemingly having been bumped into a utility role by Peraza. That’s a lot of options but Torres, Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson have all been mentioned in trade rumors. Peraza and Cabrera each had solid debuts in 2022 but still don’t have much experience.
By adding Difo, the club has given themselves a glove-first veteran depth option on hand to be deployed as needed. He has less than five years of MLB service time, meaning he could be retained for 2024 via arbitration if he works his way into the team’s plans.
Desperation time
He’s almost as productive as Josh Van Meter
But worse than Brubaker
Or John Vander Wal……
Or or or…..
John Van Benschoten
the green goblin!
Who? Clearly this has to be a minor league depth piece only.
He offers decent defense and some speed. Always valuable to have a player like him around.
1.2 million for difo?????
Quite a bargain for a former Oscars nominee.
He waa awesome in Platoon!!
Only need Billy Crystal back to produce “*62”.
Starring Tom Cruise as Arson Judge…………
And Channing Tatum as Giancarlo Stanton
And … the Yankees meet the Mets’ Correa gambit, and raise the pot with Wilmer Difo!
Be still, my heart.
Works for depth – especially if Torres is traded
I don’t think they’re replacing Torres with Difo. He’s more like Marwin G. competing for a bench role in ST and a defensive replacement in the event of an injury at best.
YBC,
Not sure I agree. Strictly organizational depth. We have a ton of infielders. I think by the end of 2023 Volpe will be the 2nd baseman and Oswald Peraza will be the SS. Cabrera and I KF will be the utility players. DJ and/or Donaldson will be in the picture for third . Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if Donaldson is long gone before the end of the season especially if DJ is healthy. If both Peraza and Volpe aren’t in the starting IF by the end season then we have made a major error in our evaluation process.
I certainly hope you’re right that we never see Difo in the lineup. I think Cash is going to start Volpe in AAA regardless of how he does in ST.
Agree on Volpe, but called up in mid season.
And that would be a surprise, why? It would be par for the course.
Agreed, total depth peice, Yanks are trying to trade a 3 WAR player in Torres, DJ is great at second, but coming off injury. Volpe will be ready sometime this season, and Cabrera is also a second base option, but might start in leftfield. Difo fits in behind all of them.
Correct YBC – def not a Torres replacement. I just meant depth for defense if DJLM needs rest and in the event they wait a year to bring Volpe up to 2nd. Cabrera would be the first choice – Difo could be a late inking defense guy.
Very true. But why do they need him and paying him 1 million bucks to boot, when they already have a Cabrera. Who is a lot less expensive.
They aren’t. It’s a 2-way contract.
We are now ready for the Astros. We will strike fear into their hearts.
Take that, Mets!
Now Whip it! Whip it good!
At least he will have the most interesting batting helmet in the big leagues.
On what? The meaning of life? Politics? Whether or not pineapple may be om pizza?
In agreement pending the metaphysical
lol
this just in: correa passes his physical with flying colors but fails the metaphysical when he cannot prove that he exists
Exactly! Correa walks into the Mets FO and is like, “Hey, guys, it’s me, your boy, Carlos. I’m here to prove I exist so I can pass the metaphysical.”
To which they naturally respond, “Wh…..awww shoot, man. Hey everybody, look, Andrew Tate is here pretending to be Carlos Correa…”
Ha ha. Well played. But can any of us prove it. Certainly not Aaron Boone or Cashman.
Clip, as we predicted, Cashman’s dumpster diving continues. I guess he thinks he’ll find a few bats under some rocks as well.
Dasit, you have won the internet today.
Bunch ah brokee’s in here. What color is your Bugat-hee?
If this deal works out, he might become Wilmer DiFriend.
LOL!
That joke is to die fo’.
haha good one Von!
Thanks for the chuckle von.
Any time you get a chuckle out of something from Von, it’s called a VonChuckle.
Idk if I’ve ever seen so many split contracts
Depth always good
Next DFA once Correa’s medical fails and the Yankees offer him 11 years 280 million
I must admit I take some pleasure from reading Yankees fans crying ownership is being cheap because Cohen has decided to spend like a drunken sailor on leave.
Nobody’s complaining they’re cheap. They are obviously not. They’re complaining about spending the money in ways they don’t address their obvious weaknesses.
We called him Fes in high school.
It’s a move made before the big move. Tatis is coming to the Yankees. And they need to make room for him at 3rd base
Why would you want a guy with a 340M contract that’s an albatross when you consider that his past performances were boosted by PED usage?
Dunno Arod Bonds Sosa.. they had nice careers. Rather get him now. Than pay Machado next year and watch him decline
Bel Biv Devoe?
That girl is poison
Never trust a big butt and smile
Difo baby…..Difo baby
Miss the days of Braves and Nats fans arguing over who would make the HOF…. Difo or Jose Peraza. Turns out they were the same player
Would it be wise for the Yanks to trade for Trevor Bauer in exchange for either Hicks and or Donalson then release Bauer, pay whatever to do so and rid themselves of one problem while saving some contract obligation.
You’re assuming the Dodgers want either player and they probably don’t as both salaries will put them over the tax line.
And both players are useless. Why would anybody want them.
Why not just release either of those players. Why make a trade
Why do you think. Cashman Steinbrenner not going to eat a combined $60 million, if they release both of them. Or half of that if they just released one. They would want to get something back for them. Good luck with that.
Useless is exaggerating a bit.
Difo was a decent pinch-hitter/Sunday starter for the Pirates in 2021. Wish they had kept him rather than go after Josh VanMeter though.
As a Yankee fan, I wish they had, too.
Van Meter was the cheaper option mlb1225
Marwin Gonzalez 2.0. This guy should never see a day on the big club. If he’s minor league filler, fine. But they could’ve thrown a dart at a list of players they already have down there and hit a better one than Difo.
Bauer will be released. No way he pitches for dodgers or Yankees. Too much bad pr. Maybe he goes to Philly or Atl. My gut is he never pitches again.
Baseball players have never been foreignacators.
Shh, not supposed to talk about him.
Amazing how Bauer is looked at like a pariah. When the Police Agency in this case Pasadena PD cleared him of any wrong doing. His suspension was reduced. All because some woman was looking for a big pay day.
Ok, let’s not pretend he’s a victim now cmon.
Dog-So it’s okay to drag someone name thru the mud and false accusations because he makes alot of money. Which is the reason Jane Doe did it.
It is when he assaults a female, yes.
That’s where the Pasadena PD with 100% of knowledge and evidence and you with 0% disagree.
Really good lawyers can accomplish much.
But good point, the police never screw up investigations!
The last piece of the World Series puzzle!!!!!!
Are we not men?? We are Difo!!!
Always liked Difo, the kid has moxie. Plays hard, quality bench piece IMO.
They signed the green goblin! Look out!
Well this off-season accomplished one thing, instead of being swept by the Astros, we might win one game.
I don’t know about that. Offense is actually worse.
Are we sure it’s not William Dafoe??
Or Willem Dafoe.
Is that his real name?
The more I look, the less sense this signing seems to make. The metrics make Difo a sub-par fielder since 2020 and he can’t hit. Where’s the upside?
Nice! In 11 ABs, he has 2 hits and 1 RBI. I think that should help the Yankees win against the Astros.
Parts of eight seasons in MLB, but the photo shows him in what appears to be a Serpientes uniform.
Cue Queen “We are the champions” song…. What an embarrassing off-season!
hi huh in u, 55th too
Click bait?? I’ll bite. Explain “embarrassing offseason”
strong anagramatic name
film weirdo
mo wildfire
midlife row
Loved Robinson Crusoe. But has Difo written anything else lately?
He is better than Josh Donaldson.
No, he’s not. And that’s not high praise.
Who isn’t.
JD is a Richard.
Depth that’s hopefully not needed.
Another terrible hitter. Why not just call up someone from the minor league system? I know why, Cash feels that bringing in a veteran player is preferable even though he’s useless. What’s worse, with the Giants getting Conforto, they’ll try to win again in 2023 which means Joc Pederson isn’t going anywhere, which means Cash has failed to improve the offense for a consecutive offseason. Kudos.
Agreed. And jays got varsho also,another potential upgrade to our offense that has been
Discussed. I know we have signed judge which is great, and upgraded our pitching pump, even though it was not a weakness, but our hitting is actually now worse than last year. How does that stack up against the Astros. Because Aaron Judge carried a team last year, and he’s not going to have a year like he did last year, so the hitting is automatically worse.
Mets haven’t made a major move in 48 hours. Very disappointing!
Hang on. Steve is going to buy the Giants.
I have a bad feeling that we’re going to see a poorly constructed infield again.
If they’re going to trade Gleyber, the assumption is that DJ will be the starting second baseman — provided he’s healthy — unless Volpe wins the position out of camp, which seems unlikely. Then who’s the starting third baseman? Donaldson again.
Cashman seems to have a terror of giving starting jobs to prospects when there’s a sub-par veteran to whom he can give the job, so I’m not confident that the starting shortstop will be Peraza and not IKF.
If that’s the setup — an infield of Rizzo, LeMahieu, Donaldson and IKF — that’ll suck.
If they keep Gleyber, they’ll get at least above-average offense and average defense at second base. But if they keep DJ in a utility role and keep Donaldson at third, they’re betting on the unlikely prospect of Donaldson regaining bat speed at age 37.
Once again, Cashman has painted himself into a corner with two expensive question marks in the infield, DJ and Donaldson. Everything would have to go right for both of them to be above-average productive players — but when has everything gone right for an entire season?
Not sure if you’ve watched any of the interviews with Boone & Cashman around the Judge/Rodon press conferences, but Boone flat-out said Donaldson will be the 3Bman and he fully expects Donaldson’s offense to bounce back this year.
Normally that type of statement about personnel on the team isn’t concerning, but after what we went through with Torres at SS, then IKF at SS (and they still can’t admit IKF is anything less than great), I fully anticipate hitting an iceberg with this ship.
As we have done in other offseasons up to this point, we fix two things and break three more. But, “crapshoot” & “championship caliber” and “every team’s fan deserves a chance (Hal’s newest comment)”
I said before that I didn’t think the Yankees would get Daulton Varsho because the cost would be too high. The Blue Jays reportedly just got him for two players: Lourdes Gurriel and catcher prospect Gabriel Moreno. Moreno is the #3 prospect by Baseball America and Fangraphs reckoning, and Gurriel is very good. This looks like a fair deal for both teams. The Jays gave up a lot but dealt from surplus, and Varsho has the makings of a star outfielder.
But, hey — we’ve got Aaron Hicks! In your face, Toronto!
Great in Platoon….kind of “meh” in the Spiderman movies.
Y’all laughing but he can hit. Yankees will add some pop and good to go. Believe me you won’t be disappointed.
Sir, the man owns a career 75 OPS+ and has only two seasons out of eight with an OPS above 700. He’s hit 19 HR in 492 games.
If we’re not disappointed, it’s likely to be because (a) he never got promoted to the majors or (b) we never expected him to be good.
Hahaha. I’ll bet the the Astros are scared.
I wonder Darwin Barney is on the ole “Yankee”dart board?
I live in Arizona, I’ve never heard of this guy.