New York Yankees: Revisiting the DJ LeMahieu deal after first season

The New York Yankees may have had the best addition of the last off-season, so let’s look back at how DJ Lemahieu did in 2019.

The New York Yankees signed DJ LeMahieu to a 2-year, $24 million deal last off-season without knowing exactly where he was going to play. In fact, he was not even in the starting lineup on Opening Day.

But he would soon find a spot after the Yankees were riddled with injuries for pretty much the whole season.

He ended his first regular season for the Bronx Bombers with a .327 average with over 100 RBI and placed second in the American League in average and third in hits in addition to winning the Silver Slugger for second base.

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I think those stats are pretty good for a guy that was on the bench for Opening Day.

With all due respect to Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien, LeMahieu should have been the third finalist for the MVP behind Mike Trout and Alex Bregman.

If you are really making a vote by the most valuable player to his team, then LeMahieu embodies that perfectly.

Semien played 162 games and he was great defensively but they still had guys in the infield like Matt Chapman and Matt Olson who both won Gold Gloves this season.

But on the other hand, the Yankees were without Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird for pretty much the entire season and DJ LeMahieu had to step in and play 35 games at first and 51 at third. Oh, and by the way, Didi Gregorius was out with Tommy John‘s surgery so Gleyber Torres had to move to short but that was no problem because DJ just slid right into second base for nearly 75 games.

As you can see, LeMahieu was probably the best signing last off-season in terms of getting the most ‘bang for your buck’, and I know that Brian Cashman is getting some heat for not getting starting pitching at the deadline but he should be praised for that.

LeMahieu figures to be another big piece in a successful Yankees 2020 season, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t try to sign him to a new deal at some point because he is just that valuable.