{"id":53378,"date":"2025-06-04T07:29:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T07:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=53378"},"modified":"2025-06-04T07:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T07:29:41","slug":"espn-expert-predicts-yankees-trade-for-24-million-8-year-veteran-to-plug-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=53378","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Expert Predicts Yankees Trade For $24 Million 8-Year Veteran to \u2018Plug Hole\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"has-video wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Aaron-Boone-Brandon-Lowe-Trade-Yankees.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Aaron-Boone-Brandon-Lowe-Trade-Yankees.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Aaron-Boone-Brandon-Lowe-Trade-Yankees.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Aaron-Boone-Brandon-Lowe-Trade-Yankees.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Aaron Boone\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"841\" data-dom-ready-time=\"1521\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The New York Yankees may seem like they have very few pressing needs at this point in the season. Despite a brief hiccup losing the\u00a0first two games of a three game\u00a0World Series rematch against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Bronx Bombers have won 10 of their last 13 games to take a solid grip on first place in the American League East.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, even the Yankees have some notable deficiencies that they will need to address to sustain their success deep into the season. And one of those deficiencies is in the middle infield. The Yankees have\u00a0scrambled to fill the second base slot\u00a0and for that matter the third base position since they let longtime second-bagger Gleyber Torres walk in free agency over the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Now Torres is manning second for the team\u00a0with the best record in baseball, the Detroit Tigers, while the Yankees continue to shuffle second basemen in and out. Five different Yankees have manned the bag this season,\u00a0with D.J. LeMahieu there on Tuesday in the opening game of a series against the Cleveland Guardians at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n<h2>ESPN Insider Sees Yankees Dealing for Rays Veteran<\/h2>\n<p>The game was LeMahieu\u2019s 16th at second base this year. The team leader in appearances at the position with 30,\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr., got the start at third.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, ESPN\u2019s top MLB insider and expert\u00a0Jeff Passan predicted a trade for the Yankees that would solve the second base problem, or as Passan put it in his review of potential upcoming trades, to \u201cplug the infield hole that has caused such consternation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Passan\u2019s Yankees trade idea would\u00a0bring veteran Tampa Bay Rays second baseman\u00a0Brandon Lowe to the Bronx.<\/p>\n<p>The eight-year veteran is playing out the possible final year of his contract with the Rays, who exercised their club option to retain Lowe\u00a0for a price of $10.5 million, the highest salary the 30-year-old has made in his eight-year career. The club also has an option for 2026 at a price tag of $11.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFilling their hole at second base \u2014 with few options available \u2014 made the most sense. Intradivision trades are never easy to execute, but the possibility of Lowe and a relief arm makes sense,\u201d Passan wrote. \u201cRegardless of what the Yankees do at the deadline, they\u2019ve given themselves a nice cushion in the AL East and were the class of the division through Memorial Day. Lowe\u2019s career numbers at Yankee Stadium are admittedly abysmal, but his left-handed stroke and the short porch in right field feel like a match made in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Lowe in For Big Free Agent Contract<\/h2>\n<p>In\u00a0159 career plate appearances\u00a0at Yankee Stadium, Lowe is hitting only .175 with a forgettable .655 OPS. Those numbers are well below Lowe\u2019s career batting average of .245 and .804 OPS.<\/p>\n<p>According to the sports business site\u00a0<em>Spotrac<\/em>, if Lowe were to hit the open market \u2014 as he would if the Rays, or the Yankees if they make Passan\u2019s predicted trade, do not exercise the 2026 option \u2014 he would be\u00a0looking at a four-year, $75 million contract.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays\u00a0are always cash-strapped, however, and would be unlikely to re-sign Lowe at a prove anywhere in that territory. It would be in Tampa Bay\u2019s interest to move Lowe out if they can get an attractive prospect package in return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getty The New York Yankees may seem like they have very few pressing needs at this point in the season. Despite a brief hiccup losing the\u00a0first two&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ESPN Expert Predicts Yankees Trade For $24 Million 8-Year Veteran to \u2018Plug Hole\u2019 - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=53378\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ESPN Expert Predicts Yankees Trade For $24 Million 8-Year Veteran to \u2018Plug Hole\u2019 - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getty The New York Yankees may seem like they have very few pressing needs at this point in the season. 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