Yankees Considering Paul DeJong

As the Yankees search for infield help after losing second baseman Gleyber Torres in free agency last month, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that Paul DeJong is among the names the club is currently considering.

DeJong, 31, has spent the vast majority of his career with the Cardinals to this point. After being selected in the fourth-round of the 2015 draft by St. Louis, he rose through the ranks of the minor leagues quickly and made his debut during the 2017 season. The first few years of his career went quite well, as he hit a solid .251/.318/.467 (108 wRC+) in his first three years with the club while working his way into the Cardinals lineup as their everyday shortstop. He enjoyed a particularly strong season in 2019, when he slugged 30 home runs and put up fantastic numbers on defense en route to an All-Star appearance.

Things started to take a turn for the worse starting with the shortened 2020 season, however, and his offense took a major step back until he ultimately lost his starting job with the Cardinals. Eventually, he was traded midway through the 2023 season having slashed just .207/.285/.368 (80 wRC+) over his final four years with the club. He bounced around the Blue Jays and Giants down the stretch and hit just .129/.128/.183 over the season’s final two months before reaching free agency, where he eventually signed with the White Sox.

While 2024 was a season to forget on the south side of Chicago, that had nothing to do with DeJong’s performance. Taking over for Tim Anderson as the club’s starting shortstop in the first half, DeJong enjoyed the best season he’s had since his aforementioned 2019 All-Star campaign. That strong performance earned him a trade to the Royals, and he shifted to third base in deference to Bobby Witt Jr. down the stretch as the Royals made their first playoff appearance since winning the World Series in 2015. Overall, he slashed a decent .227/.276/.427 (95 wRC+) in 482 plate appearances that brought his offensive contributions within spitting distance of league average. That combined with strong glovework at both shortstop and third base made DeJong a 1.7 fWAR player in 2024, or a roughly average regular.

A player whose best season in half a decade saw him become more or less average is sure to come with warts, and DeJong is no exception. His .276 on-base percentage last year was the eighth-lowest figure among all hitters with at least 450 trips to the plate last year, and his 32.4% strikeout rate was third-highest among that same group. DeJong’s excessive whiffs and difficulty getting on-base are somewhat made up for by his considerable pop; he clubbed 24 homers last year, good for eighth among shortstops and ninth among third baseman despite him not getting enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. With his combination of power and defense, DeJong seems like a good bet to earn at least semi-regular playing time in 2025.

Whether that playing time will ultimately come with the Yankees is unclear. DeJong is unlikely to cost much even after a solid enough platform season, and that’s sure to be appreciated by a Yankees club that seems to be stretched thin financially as things stand. Heyman suggests that offloading some of right-hander Marcus Stroman’s salary could allow the Yankees to spend a bit more in their search for infield help, though even if they’re successful in their efforts to shop the veteran hurler it stands to reason they’ll remain out on top-of-the-market options like Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado.

While the Yankees apparently don’t have much desire to pay a premium in free agency or trade to add infield help, there’s a clear need for another option at either second or third base. Jazz Chisholm Jr. can be a solid regular at either position and appears to be ticketed for the keystone as things stand, but that would leave third base to some combination of DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswald Peraza. LeMahieu turns 37 in July and is coming off a 2024 season where he was among the worst hitters in baseball (52 wRC+), while Peraza has just 74 games of experience at the big league level. That leaves Cabrera as the club’s best option at present, but his .247/.296/.365 (88 wRC+) leaves much to be desired as an everyday player despite his value on the bench.