Yankees dumping DJ LeMahieu shows Brian Cashman is ready to fix problems
Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu reacts after striking out during a game against the Athletics at Yankee Stadium on June 28. Credit: Ed Murray
Kudos to Brian Cashman for finally copping to the part of the job that’s always the toughest for any self-respecting general manager, never mind the guy pulling the strings for the Yankees.
Correcting their mistakes.
Not that we’re going to spend much time in this space debating the merits of giving DJ LeMahieu a six-year, $90 million contact paying him through his age 38 season. Based on his ever-expanding medical chart, and rapidly-degrading performance, the broken-down Machine turned out to be a long-term miscalculation by Cashman.
The Yankees’ decision to DFA LeMahieu before Wednesday night’s 9-6 victory over the Mariners confirmed that he had become unplayable in the Bronx — and Cashman still remains on the hook for his remaining $21.7 million, which runs through next season. That’s a sizable chunk of cash to swallow.
But here’s the upside: LeMahieu isn’t cluttering their roster anymore, something that previously had forced manager Aaron Boone into suboptimal lineups, and the Yankees are well past the point of sweating sunk costs. Jazz Chisholm, rightly named the permanent second baseman when LeMahieu was demoted Tuesday, homered twice in Wednesday’s win.
In fact, by dumping LeMahieu, this should mean Cashman & Co. have officially arrived at the serious troubleshooting segment of the schedule, where it’s time for honest self-examination and problem-solving. That’s typical once the calendar flips to July, and with three weeks left before the July 31 trade deadline, the Yankees have plenty of runway to make additional changes.
On Wednesday, shortly after announcing the LeMahieu move, Cashman sounded like he recognizes that his roster has issues — and is prepared to upgrade it.
“Hopefully I can fix what ails us,” Cashman said. “Because there’s some areas on this team that need fixing.”
At least the GM can admit the obvious. Just last week, with the Yankees chest-deep in a six-game losing streak that knocked them out of first place, Boone was telling his players during a post-loss pep talk in Toronto they were the “best team in the league.”
We understand that’s Boone’s shtick — favorite uncle rather than angry dad — but the Yankees weren’t even the top club in the AL East by then, and they’ve been looking up at the Tigers for a while now.
Ditching LeMahieu, however, is the kind of thing that gets a clubhouse’s attention. He’s a former two-time batting champ with four Gold Gloves, as well as being one of the longest-tenured Yankees (since 2019). But as Cashman said, with his team looking more “beatable” lately — something that stung even more when the Mets won last weekend’s Subway Series — they have to start acting like a World Series contender again.
The process actually began Tuesday, when Boone shifted Chisholm back to his best position — second base — installed Oswald Peraza at third and informed LeMahieu that he would be a bench player going forward. According to the manager, LeMahieu didn’t take the demotion very well, and the next day he was gone. Ultimately, LeMahieu’s stature and salary weren’t enough to save him.
“Those things complicate things more,” Boone said. “But sometimes you have to make hard decisions.”
From a purely baseball perspective, removing LeMahieu from that equation wasn’t all that difficult. He’d become a defensive liability for a team under fire for its shoddy glovework since falling short last October, and his popgun bat (.674 OPS) wasn’t doing anywhere near enough for the Yankees to justify sabotaging themselves at two positions on a nightly basis.
The question now: how far are the Yankees prepared to go with their World Series or Bust mentality? At the moment, Cashman doesn’t sound willing to put the struggling Anthony Volpe on his agenda of “hard decisions,” even if the third-year shortstop deserves closer scrutiny on the GM’s troubleshooting list. Next to LeMahieu, Volpe is one of the team’s weaker links, as his performance ranks among the very bottom of players at the position.
Heading into Wednesday night, Volpe’s 1.0 WAR (according to FanGraphs) was 20th among the 23 shortstops with a minimum of 250 plate appearances this season. He was 22nd in batting average (.217), 19th in OPS (.686) and sixth-worst in strikeout rate (24.6%). Volpe is fortunate the Yankees’ don’t have any suitable in-house replacements, as the highly-touted George Lombard Jr. probably won’t be ready to compete for the spot until next spring. Still, Cashman expressed “belief and optimism” in Volpe.
“There’s a lot of season left to be played,” Cashman said. “So I’m not counting him out. I know he’s going to be part of the solution rather than the problem.”
LeMahieu used to be in that category, too. Until he wasn’t. And the GM needs to be in the solution-finding business this month as the clock ticks down to the deadline. Maybe 6-6 flame-thrower Cam Schlittler, the Yankees’ No. 1 pitching prospect, can provide a boost on the rotation front after winning his Wednesday debut (5 1⁄3, three runs, seven Ks).
Regardless, Cashman seems to realize the urgency. Seeing the Yankees’ June nose-dive had to be a moment of reckoning for the GM, and LeMahieu became the first casualty of that. He shouldn’t be the last one either as the Yankees take the necessary steps to facilitate another deep October run.
“We’re going to go to town,” Cashman said. “We’re going to do everything we possibly can to improve ourselves.”
So far, he’s true to his word. But let’s see what’s next.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
