Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
The idiot that said, “Harper is coming” asks: According to reports, the SF Giants are listening to offers on Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, as the Giants stink in large part because two of those three players have not lived up the back of their
baseball cards. Should the Yankees be interested in any of the three?
The idea of trading for Rafael Devers has been floated a few times this year, especially when Ryan McMahon was looking downright dreadful at the start of the year. Since April though, McMahon has trudged his way back towards respectable at the plate, and his defense remains strong at the hot corner — I’m not saying he’s made himself untouchable, but he’s at least meeting the bar for staying on the roster if a better option isn’t available. Devers, at least since going over to San Francisco, hasn’t looked close to the hitter he once was and would be highly debatable as an upgrade. On top of his offense dipping significantly, Devers has been playing at first base since Chapman is the more gifted fielder; I wouldn’t love Devers’ defense even coming off of his Red Sox days, but add on top of that the fact that he hasn’t even played the position in a few years and I’d be significantly pessimistic about his ability to field third base going forward. The argument for Devers is that he’s been elite when playing in Yankee Stadium and that making it his home field for 81 games could more than rejuvenate his bat, but that’s a risky gamble to make when he’s under contract for nearly $29 million a year until 2033 — one I personally wouldn’t make.
That leaves Chapman and Adames as options, both of whom are also locked down under hefty contracts — Chapman inked a six-year, $151 million deal ahead of the 2025 season, and Adames got a seven-year pact for $182 million in the same offseason. Chapman’s the more productive of the two this season, posting a 1.5 fWAR as both an above-average bat and glove, while Adames was solid last year but has struggled this season currently sitting at a -0.2 fWAR. I could see making a move for Chapman as a net positive, but it would require either sending McMahon over to the Giants in the deal or finding a separate suitor for him, as his contract still runs into next season and there wouldn’t be enough room to keep a pure third baseman on the bench. Adames falls into the same high-risk category as Devers for me, and the production simply needs to be more tangible this season to warrant making that move as opposed to banking on past success.
Dan M. asks: Can you give a breakdown of the Yankees’ success in getting the runner home from third with less than two outs and how they compare with the rest of the league?
The league overall (including the Yankees’ results) have hit to a .853 OPS with a runner on third and less than two outs, with 607 sacrifice flies in 4,412 plate appearances and 2780 RBI — to put that another way, about 7.3 percent of all batters with a runner at third and less than two outs manages to lift a sacrifice fly and when a team finds themselves with a runner at third with less than two gone, they should expect to score a run a little more than half the time.
The Yankees specifically have been more successful at doing damage instead of going for the small ball approach, hitting for a .975 OPS in these scenarios and cashing in 85 RBI with 21 of them coming on a sacrifice fly in 133 plate appearances. That’s a slightly lower rate of getting a fly ball deep enough to score, as they only get the sac fly in 6.3 percent of these PAs, but they manage to get a run in nearly exactly as often as the league does. The difference is, their success coming from hits (they’re batting .359 compared to the league average .319) sets them up with more baserunners to further fuel the rally.
Warren L. asks: How about bringing back one of our old friends — Gary Sánchez or Kyle Higashioka — to be the right-handed hitting catcher? Either could probably be a reasonable trade.
Much as I would love to see a reunion between the Yankees and Gary Sánchez after the downturn his career in pinstripes took, I don’t think the Brewers are going to give him up anytime soon. Sánchez spent the 2024 season with Milwaukee and looked the part of a backup going through his last few seasons in the majors, and his 2025 form with Baltimore only seemed to confirm this. Having gone back to Milwaukee this season though, he’s found his stride posting career-best walk and strikeout rates and a 136 wRC+ that would best everything except his magical 2016 debut on a rate basis. Sánchez is still very much a backup at this point, but he’s contributing to a team that’s once again pacing the NL Central and looking to avenge their NLCS sweep from last season.
As for Higashioka, he could more feasibly be on the trading block. Texas is sitting in third place in the AL West, still within spitting distance of both the division lead and the last Wild Card slot, but the same could be said for so many teams in the mix this year. Some of them are going to conclude that they’re better off selling than buying into a fool’s gold race, and if Texas decides that they’d rather be the former then Higashioka would be a good candidate to flip for prospects. He’s been league average with the bat, which would be an immediate improvement over what the Yankees have gotten behind the plate lately, and even though his defense has regressed since leaving perhaps a reunion with Tanner Swanson could reignite his formerly elite framing.
