Inside The Pinstripes

Yankees Projected to Solve Second Base Vacancy With Veteran Infielder

The New York Yankees could acquire this consistent veteran second baseman to their 2025 roster.

Grant Young

Sep 22, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres first baseman Donovan Solano (39) celebrates after hitting a double against the Chicago White Sox during the eighth inning at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images
Sep 22, 2024; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres first baseman Donovan Solano (39) celebrates after hitting a double against the Chicago White Sox during the eighth inning at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images / Orlando Ramirez-Imagn Images
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One of the few remaining question marks for the New York Yankees' roster is what they're going to do with second base.

The options are clear: Sign (or trade for) a new second baseman to replace Gleyber Torres, who signed with the Detroit Tigers last month, search internally within the organization for someone to take over second base, or move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second (which is his natural position) and find someone to assume his spot at third.

All of these options are compelling for different reasons and could be viable routes the Yankees decide to take when rounding out their roster. If New York decides to sign someone to play second base, they have plenty of available options via free agency. And Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter seems to think that former Padres infielder Donovan Solano is their best bet, which he conveyed in a January 6 article.

"Oswaldo Cabrera, Oswald Peraza and DJ LeMahieu are all options to step into the starting lineup following the departure of Gleyber Torres in free agency, but signing someone like Donovan Solano or Jose Iglesias to man second base would be a relatively inexpensive way to put the finishing touches on the starting lineup," Reuter wrote after projecting Solano to be playing second base and hitting eighth in the Yankees' starting lineup for Opening Day 2025.

Solano (who played nine games for the Yankees back in 2016) hit .286 with a .760 OPS for San Diego in 2024. New York could certainly do worse than him in addressing their current infield vacancy.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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