The Yankees signed a free agent infielder to a multi-year contract this past offseason. It was not the free agent infielder most expected or hoped, however. Rather than spend big on Manny Machado, the Yankees instead scooped up longtime Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu. He received a two-year contract worth $24M total.
“He’s always shown the ability to play all four infield positions,” said special assistant Jim Hendry, who drafted LeMahieu when he was with the Cubs, to Dan Martin a few weeks ago. “And we have a lot of guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but that comes with strikeouts.