Yankees’ Biggest Position Battles as Spring Training Nears

Left field and shortstop are two positions to keep an eye on in Tampa this spring.

With February here and spring training right around the corner, the Yankees still have some question marks despite spending more than any other team this offseason.

New York’s pitchers and catchers report Feb. 16, while the team’s position players arrive on Feb. 20. From there, a few key battles will begin.

Let’s look at those impending competitions, the candidates, and the frontrunners to win each job with camp rapidly approaching.

Left Field

Barring a significant acquisition, Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Cabrera are the favorites for this job. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman even recently stated that he suspects Hicks “will be the guy that emerges,” but what else is he going to say after missing out on other left fielders and failing to trade the incumbent? Hicks is coming off a disastrous 2022 season and has a long injury history, but he is fully recovered after hurting his knee in the postseason.

Hicks and Cabrera could form a platoon of sorts, with the versatile latter filling in all over the diamond when the former is in left. Cashman and Aaron Boone have also mentioned Estevan Florial as an option in left field, though he’s never done much with the limited big league opportunities he’s had.

Other possibilities include minor league signings Willie Calhoun and Rafael Ortega, who have both had some major league success offensively.

Shortstop

Shortstop will be a three-way camp battle between Isiah Kiner-Falefa and prospects Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe. Kiner-Falefa has experience on his side, but he’s hardly the expected choice after a rocky first season in the Bronx that included a playoff benching.

Volpe is New York’s No. 1 prospect and the fifth best in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, but he will need a monster spring training to win this job, as he’s only played 22 games at Triple-A. Boone expects him to get “a lot of reps” in camp.

Peraza had a similarly short stint in the majors at the end of last season, but he made the most of minimal playing time. While he only appeared in 18 MLB games, Peraza’s .306/.404/.429 slash line, defense and the strong impression he made on Boone may have been enough to make him the leader of the pack entering spring training.

Fifth Starter

There are some other options on New York’s 40-man roster, but Domingo Germán and Clarke Schmidt are clearly the preferred choices to fill in for the injured Frankie Montas. Boone made the pecking order even clearer when he recently said Germán will “obviously” get a chance before bringing up Schmidt.

While the fifth slot shouldn’t impact the Yankees too much early in the season – Montas is expected to miss about a month – Germán or Schmidt will likely factor into the rotation. While both pitchers have been relievers, Germán has far more starting experience at the big league level. He owns a 4.52 ERA over 70 career starts, while Schmidt has a 4.95 ERA mark over five starts.

Germán also pitched well in the rotation last season. Fourteen of his 15 appearances were starts, and he registered a 3.61 ERA over 72.1 innings.

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