In case some of you forgot, I used to be a BIG DJ LeMahieu advocate.
When the Yankees insisted on starting Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop to start 2019, I implored them to use the former batting champion as more than a backup infielder. Some injuries to other players and a Tulowitzki release later, LeMahieu was the everyday super-utility man and turned in a career season. He hit .327 and set personal bests with 26 home runs and 102 RBI.
A second batting title in the shortened 2020 season later, and LeMahieu earned himself a six-year, $90 million contract in free agency.
And then, as happens all too often with some big Yankees contracts as of late, they just. Don’t. Work. Out.
In DJ LeMahieu’s case, the problem was simple. It became crystal clear that he, among several other players in 2019, benefitted from juiced baseballs. Once that suddenly-enhanced power and line drive ability diminished, so did his production. Age and injuries caught up too. Starting midway through 2022, LeMahieu suffered the first of several foot injuries that seriously hampered his mechanics both at the plate and in the field.
It all culminated on Wednesday when, hours before the Yankees took the field against the Mariners, DJ LeMahieu was officially designated for assignment.
Was this a surprise? I suppose the only answer is…kind of? If only because the Yankees haven’t been shy about dumping bad contracts in recent years. Outfielder Aaron Hicks was released midway through a $70 million contract in 2023 after he too, like his teammate, was exposed as a juiced baseball merchant. Josh Donaldson was too late that same season after injuries, ineffectiveness, and drama. Even as an expiring contract, it was more egg on general manager Brian Cashman’s face.
New York had no choice but to do the same with LeMahieu, who’s owed $22 million through the remainder of this season and the next. Even amidst the, as Cashman and manager Aaron Boone put them, “hard conversations,” there was no other option. LeMahieu was horribly limited at second base, his natural position. Worse yet, usual second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s shoulder started barking from the move to third. This started the moment Chisholm came back from an oblique strain and lasted 29 games.
Chisholm posted a -3 defensive runs saved (DRS) and outs above average (OAA) with a -2 fielding run value (FRV).
LeMahieu can’t play third anymore and is too expensive to just be a bench player. Thus, the Yankees cut bait.
So, now that the nightmare is finally over, let’s ask the question. Where does DJ LeMahieu rank among Cashman’s worst free agency decisions?
The answer may surprise you but: Not very high at all.
First, let’s be real. DJ LeMahieu’s hitting stats had a large boost in the first half of his career. Between juiced baseballs and seven years with the Rockies in Coors Field, it’s no wonder he was a .305 lifetime hitter through 2020 with two batting titles.
There’s the rub. As Pete Alonso famously pointed out, MLB is notorious for, in his words, “manipulating” the baseball from season to season. They deaden it if it’s a hitter-heavy free agent class, and vice versa. Thus, we can only assume that if MLB knows the ball is being tinkered with, so do all of the owners and front offices.
That said, what if Brian Cashman inked DJ LeMahieu to that six-year, $90 million contract at the end of the 2020 season because…dare we say it…he thought juiced balls were sticking around for good? It’s certainly not his fault for making the deal and then MLB doing a 180 and deadening the balls. If baseball teams operated based on little tiny minutiae they think the Commissioner’s Office *might* do? Nothing gets done.
So, given all that, where does that leave DJ LeMahieu among Yankees comparisons, legacies, etc.? Well, believe it or not, the answer is more simple and recent than we realize:
Mark Teixeira.
Think about it. Tex was a switch-hitting Gold Glove first baseman who could hit for average along with his devastating power from both sides. His inking an eight-year, $180 million deal in 2009 made perfect sense and immediately paid off. He hit .292 and led the AL with 39 homers and 122 RBI en route to the Yankees winning the World Series, and Teixeira also finished second in MVP voting.
Over the rest of the contract, though? Teixeira only hit .239 despite slugging 167 more home runs with a clean 500 RBI. Injuries and aging played a role, sure, but most of all? Teixeira ditched his natural hitting ability to sell out for power, trying to hit everything over the shift.
In a weird way, he and LeMahieu are like bizarro versions of each other. Tex shifted focus to one part of his hitting game, while DJ tried to expand his beyond his actual capabilities. It’s as though he himself refuses to believe the juiced baseballs were a factor.
One way or another, one can’t help but feel a little bit sad at how this turned out. It’s too easy to forget that Yankees fans once worshipped DJ LeMahieu. People wanted him re-signed in free agency just as badly as they wanted Juan Soto last season.
Sadly, he declined hard and fast, and we can now confirm Harvey Dent was right in The Dark Knight.
One either dies a hero, or lives long enough to see themselves become the villain.
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