Long gone are the days of Alex Rodriguez providing MVP-caliber numbers as the New York Yankees’ primary third baseman.
Since A-Rod last played in 2016, the Bronx Bombers haven’t had a player suit up as their starter at the hot corner while collecting 30 home runs, 100 RBI or making an All-Star team.
With superstar outfielder Aaron Judge, again, carrying the load for the Yankees offense, New York may need additional lineup help if they want to make another run at the AL pennant. Manager Aaron Boone’s club is perhaps most obviously lacking production at third base, where, as Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller noted, there’s been a “revolving door” of options, including Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes this spring.
“This is hardly an unexpected development, of course. The Yankees traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr. to address their third base situation last season—even though he previously had never played third in the majors—but they moved him back to second base after losing Gleyber Torres to free agency and never did anything to address the resulting hole at the hot corner,” Miller wrote. “Kind of seems like the plan here was to throw things at the wall for a few months, see if anything sticks and make a trade if nothing does.”
With that in mind, the Bleacher Report scribe offered three names as potential upgrades at third base, starting with St. Louis Cardinals eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado.
“This may well be an ‘Arenado or bust’ situation, which is a bit what it felt like all winter, even though the Yankees were never one of the teams rumored to be seriously pursuing the Cardinals third baseman,” Miller wrote.
A 10-time Gold Glove Award winner, Arenado was connected to the Boston Red Sox for much of the offseason, before the Yankees’ biggest rival ended up signing two-time All-Star Alex Bregman.
AL East Rival Less Than 2 Years Removed From Batting Title
Miller also mentioned Tampa Bay Rays veteran Yandy Diaz as a possible fit. The 33-year-old has played nine of his 11 games this year as the team’s designated hitter and took first base for all 112 of his contests on defense in 2024 but also has 290 career appearances at third.
“If not Arenado, Díaz is probably the next-best combination of ‘can play third base’ and ‘should be available,’ but we’ll see if he’s available to the Yankees. The AL East rivals have only ever made three trades, and none of those were deadline deals,” Miller wrote.
Diaz is off to a slow 8-for-46 start this spring but had a solid .281/.341/.414 slash line across 563 at-bats last season. Diaz had his best year in 2023, posting career highs in runs scored (95), hits (173), doubles (35), home runs (22), RBI (78), batting average (.330), slugging percentage (.522) and OPS (.932).
He made his lone All-Star team that season and won his only Silver Slugger Award, as well as the AL batting title and finished sixth in the junior circuit’s MVP voting.
Former All-Star Slugger Seeking 6th Season With at Least 30 Home Runs
The final option listed in the article is just a career .248 hitter and finished the 2021 campaign below the Mendoza line.
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez does one thing well with the bat, however, and he does it better than many other players.
Whether with the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners or Diamondbacks, the 33-year-old Suarez has always been a consistent source of power. Suarez has 281 career regular season home runs in 1,484 games (5,277 at-bats) and finished five different seasons with at least 30 long balls.
The 2018 All-Star hit a career high 49 home runs in 2019 and posted 30 dingers and 101 RBI in 2023 during his first season in the desert. Suarez has been his typical all or nothing self through the early part of the 2025 campaign, going just 7-for-45 with 15 strikeouts, but also hitting five home runs, which is tied for the NL lead.
