When the New York Yankees re-signed Jonathan Loaisiga, it was met with mixed reviews. For one, the right-hander, when healthy, is electric, so welcoming him back to the bullpen isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Also, he was reportedly swayed to stay in the Bronx over signing with the pesky Mets, who continue to swipe Yankees free agents.
On the other hand? He’s always injured and he’s coming off a second elbow surgery. The Yankees have been insistent about getting onerous/excessive salaries off the books, so when it was revealed Loaisiga was getting paid $5 million in 2025 (after the Yankees traded Jose Trevino and his $3 million salary to Cincinnati), it was a head-scratcher. Loaisiga has pitched in just 20 games over the past two years and 70 over the past three. He’s been limited by injuries in all of his big-league seasons with the exception of one.
Even worse? Over the last few days, as fans have speculated about the infield situation that needs closure, the Yankees appear to be moving further away (or holding their ground) with big-name targets such as Nolan Arenado and Alex Bregman. That’s fine … but the second DJ LeMahieu’s name was mentioned, that was a problem.
According to Jon Heyman, who has been right on the money this offseason with a number of his reports, it’s “possible hope LeMahieu regains health to fill third base.”
Could that be a nonsensical leverage play over the remaining, superior options? Sure. Could it also be the reality, since this is exactly how the Yankees think when it comes to oft-injured players they are forced to pay because of bad contracts? Yes, absolutely.
Yankees relying on DJ LeMahieu for anything in 2025 would be a disaster
For as much as fans were clamoring for the Yankees to re-sign LeMahieu after the 2020 season following two MVP-caliber campaigns, the six-year, $90 million contract he was given turned out to be a massive mistake. And it wasn’t necessarily anybody’s fault.
LeMahieu has been ravaged by injuries for four straight seasons now. After accumulating 8.6 WAR across 2019 and 2020 (195 games), the veteran has been worth just 4.8 over his last 478. All of 2022-2024 were shortened due to injuries, and his 2021 campaign featured 150 games of mediocre play as he was battling that hernia injury before being ruled out for the postseason and undergoing surgery (it didn’t matter because the Yankees lost the one-game AL Wild Card to the Red Sox).
The highlight of LeMahieu’s last four years was winning a Utility Gold Glove award in 2022, which … is nice, but not worth the $15 million per year he’s been collecting, and will continue to collect through 2026. While there’s still technically a role for LeMahieu on this team, it is not of the starting variety. He cannot realistically see 100+ games if this team wants to actually win a World Series in 2025.
Since that hernia surgery, LeMahieu has dealt with wrist, toe, quad, calf, foot, face and hip injuries. It’s become an actual circus, as this past season he caught a practice ground ball in the face from bench coach Brad Ausmus because he wasn’t ready during the pregame warmups.
We’ll say it once more: the Yankees do not need All-Stars and former MVPs at every position. But they absolutely can’t trot out options that prove time and time again to be ineffective. LeMahieu serving as one of the last guys on the bench as a utility infielder and veteran presence is great use for him in 2025, and one the Yankees can afford to spend money on. If he’s the starting third baseman? Might as well mail in 2025 before it even begins.
