A year ago today, Yankees’ fans were certain that the team wouldn’t just roll into 2025 with a platoon of the oft-injured and highly ineffective DJ LeMahieu alongside Oswaldo Cabrera.
That certainty quickly turned into unfathomable confusion, as their Plan B didn’t somehow include addressing a position with a massive vacancy as Jazz Chisholm had slid over to 2B to replace Gleyber Torres.
It’s what spurred the trade for Ryan McMahon at the 2025 trade deadline, and with him came Amed Rosario just days later to be a right-handed compliment.
Fast-forward to today, and while the third base room for the Yankees isn’t locked down with a superstar, the team has an effective and solid platoon room with both players returning for the 2026 campaign.
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Why the Yankees Should Feel Good About Their Third Base Group
The Yankees’ rotation door of fourth and fifth infielders going into the 2025 season ended up performing at a below-replacement level rate, causing real issues for the team when the likes of Paul Goldschmidt slowed down in June.
DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jorbit Vivas, and Oswald Peraza combined to accumulate a -0.5 WAR and 63 wRC+ in 500 plate appearances for the Yankees this past season.
Ryan McMahon isn’t a star, he’s a league-average position player who underwhelms with the bat and shines with the glove, but in a platoon role there’s a good bit of untapped potential here.
His results against RHP in 2025 were fairly average, but his expected numbers (even when adjusting for Coors Field) are above-average, and the organization believes they could squeeze more value out of him.
Playing closer to his underlying metrics should make him at least a league-average hitter against righties who is hitting in the bottom third of the order most likely.
The elite-level defense he provides at third base means he could be an above-average starter at the position, and when platooned with Amed Rosario at the hot corner, the Yankees might be able to get a 100-105 wRC+ out of third base.
Rosario crushed lefties to the tune of a 125 wRC+ and .819 OPS with solid underlying numbers, and there were real improvements he made under-the-hood that went under the radar.
Improvements in his quality of contact where also paired with an increase in quantity of contact from 2024 to 2025, as Amed Rosario experienced a career-high in both xwOBA and Average Exit Velocity.
He’s still a brutal defensive player but his ability to hammer left-handed pitching should allow him to produce roughly 0.5 WAR as a short-side platoon player.
I think the improved per rate stats will help balance out the decrease in volume, as McMahon will go from a firmly below-average hitter to roughly league-average while playing that usually brilliant defense.
You could get between 2.0-2.5 WAR out of the position in 2026 at $18.5 million, whereas last season the Yankees got 1.4 WAR and a 90 wRC+ from the position.
Jazz Chisholm made up all but 0.1 of the WAR output the Yankees got at third base due to his offensive outburst while playing there, so your ‘fourth infielder’ was often a replacement-level or below-replacement-level player pre-deadline.
While it’s not flashy, I expect the Yankees to have a solid third base room with the ability to switch things up based on the matchup, a far cry from where the team was at entering 2026.