It is no secret that the New York Yankees know that they have a gaping hole on the left side of their infield at third base.
The rest of the infield is set, with Anthony Volpe at short, Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second and the newly acquired veteran Paul Goldschmidt at first.
The Yankees have been linked in trade talks with the St. Louis Cardinals about the possibility of reuniting Goldschmidt with his former Redbird teammate Nolan Arenado, but what if general manager and senior vice president Brian Cashman either misses out on the 10-time Gold Glove Award winner or decides on a different plan of action?
If the Cardinals aren’t the best trading partner for the Yankees, maybe a different National League Central division team in the Cincinnati Reds could be.
Nick Deeds of MLB Trade Rumors points out that the Reds have a surplus of starting quality infielders, which could even leave Matt McLain taking reps in the outfield to try to fill a void there.
The Reds have Elly De La Cruz locked in at short, and they acquired Gavin Lux from the Los Angeles Dodgers, likely to play second base. That leaves Jeimer Candelario at third base, with first base open for either Christian Encarnacion-Strand or Spencer Steer.
Assuming that two of McLain, Encarnacion-Strand and Steer will be left out of the starting infield picture and that another will either be in the outfield or filling in at designated hitter, the Reds could move on from the third to either fill a different need or add to their stable of prospects.
There is reason to believe that Cincinnati’s braintrust would be willing to do this, as they already dealt from their infield surplus to add pitching in sending Jonathan India to the Kansas City Royals for Brady Singer.
There is also evidence that the Yankees and Reds are logical trading partners. The two teams have already made one trade this winter, when New York added Fernando Cruz to add to the bullpen.
Steer in particular would be a highly interesting target for the Yankees, as he has experience playing at third base, has hit at least 20 home runs in consecutive seasons and at 27 years of age, is a much younger target than Arenado and could benefit the club far beyond just this season.
If the Yankees were to deal from their prospect pool to add a player like Steer, they would be creating a new core of players to support outfielder Aaron Judge that would include not only the 27-year-old Steer but also the 27-year-old Chisholm.
For Cashman, this would be the exact sort of acquisition that would allow him to boost the team’s World Series chances this season while also setting them up for continued success as Judge and ace Gerrit Cole continue to age.
