The Athletic | Chris Kirschner: The Yankees are reportedly unlikely to give Jazz Chisholm Jr. a qualifying offer, and it seems like the second baseman’s time in the Bronx is just about over. That leaves the question: what do the Yankees do at second base? Captain Aaron Judge seems to have his preferred choice, telling reporters after the Yankees’ ALDS exit, “If we were gonna go win the World Series, we needed Anthony Volpe on the team.” Volpe did look comfortable at second after losing his shortstop
job to George Lombard Jr., but Volpe’s work with the bat still leaves plenty to be desired. Luis García Jr. is an interesting option; he’s played second before (albeit with terrible defensive metrics), and looked so skilled defensively at first this year that he could convince you his agility and arm strength would play elsewhere on the diamond.
New York Daily News | Peter Sblendorio: There haven’t been many ex-Yankees kicking around postseason, but one former Bomber has figured prominently in Jake Bauers. Bauers played for the club in 2023 and got off to a hot start, hitting a home run in his first game and posting a .899 OPS over his first ten games with the Yankees.
Bauers couldn’t keep it going that year (neither could the Yankees) and New York ended up trading him in the offseason to the Brewers in exchange for minor league outfielder Jace Avina, who is now the Yankees’ No. 24 rated prospect by MLB Pipeline. On the other end, Bauers has blossomed with the Brewers, running an .874 OPS this season and taking home deserved 2026 NLCS MVP honors.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Hoch delivers his offseason preview for the Yankees, running down some of the big questions. Among them is the aforementioned second base situation, as well as the matter of what to do with Giancarlo Stanton, Austin Wells’ future with the Yankees, and David Bednar’s fate. Unlike Chisholm, Bednar appears likely to receive a qualifying offer, which is slated to come in at about $23 million for the 2027 season.
The Athletic | Tim Britton: The upcoming MLB free agent class is among the worst in recent memory, and The Athletic looked at the last decade of free agent classes with the benefit of hindsight to get a sense of where this group may fall. The lowest-ranked class ends up as 2017, when the top hitters to sign were Yoenis Cespedes, Dexter Fowler, and Ian Desmond, while the top pitchers were Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen, and Rich Hill. The saving grace for the current crop of free agents is a fairly deep group of pitching targets, headlined by Tarik Skubal but backed up by Michael King, Sonny Gray, Kevin Gausman, and Freddy Peralta. That’s somewhat unfortunate news for the Yankees, who nary need an arm but have an offense that could use reinforcements.
