DJ LeMahieu’s career is in so many ways one of great contrasts. A bolt-out-of-the-blue signing ahead of the 2019 season, he went from being a former NL batting champion in the game’s friendliest park for contact to one that is far more served to home runs in the AL. The initial free agent deal is one of the more lopsided in Yankee history in terms of value, but a front office determined to avoid CBT penalties lead to one of the messier contract extensions in that same period. Even perhaps his greatest
moment as a Yankee — an incredible, ninth-inning ALCS home run — was undercut, erased by one of the most painful playoff defeats in an era that features many of those.
Happy birthday, man of opposites!
David John LeMahieu
Born: July 13, 1988 (Visalia, CA)
Yankees Tenure: 2019-25
Already a solid MLB player by the time the Yankees got ahold of him, DJ had already taken home three Gold Gloves, won the batting crown in 2016 hitting .348, and made two All Star teams. A second round pick by the Cubs out of LSU in 2009, he got a cup of coffee in Chicago just two seasons later, before being dealt to the Rockies that offseason. He quickly established himself as a defensive-first player with a barely-league average bat, except for that ‘16 season.
There’s nothing quite like slugging, and getting that mark up to .495 that season was a huge part of one of DJ’s two five-win seasons. LeMahieu was never a true home run hitter, getting a couple here and there, but his true skill was hard-hit line drives to right field. At Coors, with a huge outfield and defenders playing further back than just about anywhere else in the sport those balls tend to drop in for singles. Still, I think it was a slight stroke of genius for Brian Cashman to notice that those hard-hit line drives to right field, once you move to Yankee Stadium or some of the other, smaller ballparks in the AL East, are either going to bounce off the outfield wall for a double, or just stretch over for four bags.
With Giancarlo Stanton in the fold joining Aaron Judge the season before, the club had about as much pure power as a team could ask for. What they really needed was a true leadoff hitter, someone to be on base when Judge and Stanton were taking their daddy hacks. Inked for two years and $24 million (lol), DJ settled in as a utility infielder before eventually shoving veteran Brett Gardner out of the top slot in the lineup by May. In a season defined by the Next Man Up attitude, LeMahieu — French for The Machine, famously — appeared in 145 games, set career highs in hits, home runs, doubles, RBI, runs scored, wRC+, and a 5.7 fWAR good enough to finish the year fourth in MVP voting. That he did it for $12 million AAV underscores what an incredible bargain that season was.
The Rockies had made the playoffs twice in DJ’s tenure in Denver, and he had stunk in both runs. In that 2019 campaign though, albeit in only nine games, the now-entrenched second baseman hit .325/.386/.625, a Judgian triple slash, with three home runs including of course the biggest one of the run:
That game should have ended with a Yankee extra-inning miracle, immediately in the annals of the great New York playoff wins. Instead, a small man gave up a home run to a smaller man, and the Yankees were bounced.
Along came COVID-19, and the delayed start to the 2020 season, and perhaps LeMahieu’s apotheosis. I’m normally one to toss all 2020 stats, but I won’t do it when a second baseman slashes .364/.421/.590, a 1.011 OPS! Yes, it was 50 games. No, I don’t care. The Yankees had the best hitter in the American League and it wasn’t Aaron Judge. Somehow LeMahieu finished third in MVP voting, and I’m still grumpy about it. If nothing else, he was the first player to win a batting title in both leagues.
However, that great contract was now up, the Yankees had to retain a guy that good, and Cashman’s fetish for stretching contracts out to lower AAV, which was already getting the team in trouble with one Aaron Hicks, would pop up again. The Yankees and LeMahieu agreed on a six-year deal that should have been a four-year deal, for $90 million. Unfortunately, bat speed almost immediately began to sap, as over the next three seasons LeMahieu would see more fastballs than any other hitter in the game. Pairing this new vulnerability with a spate of injuries hastened his decline, and he managed just 112 games and a -0.2 fWAR in his final two seasons with the Yankees. They eventually designated him for assignment and released him from the roster in July of last year. He has not played in MLB since, most recently managing a summer wood-bat collegiate league team in his native Michigan, the Royal Oak Leprechauns.
DJ LeMahieu was a shooting star that burned out after two all-time seasons in pinstripes. In an earlier era he would not have had career earnings over $100 million, and he was worth every penny for that ALCS homer alone. Enjoy the day, DJ.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
