NEW YORK — It was not long ago that the baseball world cast an eye of confused suspicion on the Yankees.
That was before the 32-13 start that’s caused the haters to clam up. But an offseason without any superstar acquisitions felt peculiar, especially as the Yankees could have, theoretically, taken their pick of any of the available shortstops at the right price.
Instead, the increasingly frugal front office used the trade market to find their shortstop, with general manager Brian Cashman confirming that the team never even made an offer to Carlos Correa. It has more than paid off so far, as the Yankees have ridden the combination of improved infield defense and altered approaches at the plate to become a much more complete team than the talented but limited one they had in 2021.
We’ll never know how Correa, Corey Seager, Trevor Story or Marcus Semien would have began their 2022 seasons had they signed with the Yankees. But through roughly 45 games with their new teams, a few have underperformed in a way that will only make Cashman and his henchmen feel smarter about themselves.
Carlos Correa
The former Astro sent shockwaves through the league when he ended up with the Twins, inking the biggest free-agent deal in Minnesota history. While Correa’s contract includes an option for him to leave after the season for an even bigger check, the Twins would take a playoff push with Correa over a year of watching the postseason from home.
Like many hitters swinging a newly deflated bat, the dead ball is likely part of the reason why Correa’s slugging percentage has taken a dip. In his first 32 games with the Twinkies (he missed some time after getting hit by a pitch on his hand), Correa is slugging an even .400. That’s not what anyone has come to expect from the burly shortstop, whose career slugging percentage is 77 points higher than that.
But Correa is still hitting .280 and reaching base at a .348 clip. While he only has two home runs, he also has a 123 wRC+, meaning he’s been 23% more productive than the average hitter. The advanced defensive numbers aren’t in love with the season he’s put together yet, but those have a way of normalizing over a full 162-game schedule.
Most importantly, the Twins are winning. Entering Friday with a 4.5-game cushion in the American League Central, the Twins have to be feeling good about the big risk they took this winter on the megastar that could very well be a one-year rental.
Corey Seager
This is where the early season weirdness of defensive metrics starts to show up. By FanGraphs’ all-encompassing Defensive Runs Above Average, there are only three AL shortstops better than Seager, whose corner infield-type build has drawn comments about him moving away from shortstop for years. The defense hasn’t been a glaring issue so far, but Seager’s on-base percentage has.
He’s had some trouble finding holes in the infield or safe patches of grass in the outfield — Seager’s .242 batting average on balls in play is both well below his career clip and bound for some positive regression — but the 28-year-old also hasn’t been walking. With every ball either going right at a fielder or whizzing past Seager for a swinging strike, he’s sitting on a .298 on-base percentage.
The Rangers can only patiently wait (and in some ways, know) that things will turn around, but at present, their $325 million shortstop has left some things to be desired.
Trevor Story
The final two players on the list have both moved to the right side of the diamond since switching teams. Story, the new second baseman in Boston, began his Red Sox career in a .194 slump. But in a recent four-game sweep against the Mariners, everything finally fell into place.
Story drove in an incomprehensible 13 runs in that series and punched five home runs. Baseball players talk all the time about how a few swings can be a magic wand that fixes the rest of their season. If that was the case for Story during his mutilation of the Mariners, the Yankees might feel a bit of remorse for passing on Story — at least on the offensive side of the ball — as their biggest adversary got him for a reasonable $140 million.
Marcus Semien
Every team feels pretty chuffed about passing on Semien right now.
By wRC+, the Rangers’ second banana to Seager has been the worst qualified hitter in Major League Baseball. A 41 wRC+, .181/.236/.241 slash line and 32 strikeouts to 12 walks have made Semien a tough pill to swallow for Texas. One year after exploding for 45 home runs, Semien has a grand total of zero thus far.
His ground balls are up, his line drives are down, and the Rangers are getting less production from him than Isiah Kiner-Falefa — the offensively challenged shortstop that Texas traded to transform their infield — has given the Yankees.
Woof.
