Is Teruaki Sato the Yankees' future third baseman? | Pinstripe Post

We're up to part five of our series, breaking down the Yankees position by position, where they are right now, what some of the stuff they could do in the offseason as they look towards 2027. The first four parts, catcher, first base, second base, shortstop. We've done videos, and they're also at nypost.com or buy a hard copy of the paper. You'll see these versions. We're up to third base here in part five. And third base was as big a problem as the Yankees had last season. Their slash line last year was .215/.271/.358. It was bad. But here's the deal. If Ryan McMahon fielded in 2026 the way he did in the two months in 2025 after the Yankees acquired him, it's a more tolerable situation. Think about what the Rays do at shortstop with Taylor Walls. who's a feeble offensive player but is an elite, elite defender. And so at that position, they live with it. Joey Ortiz, same thing, third base with the Brewers, who just won the National League Championship with a bad, bad offensive third baseman, but a brilliant defender. You could live with it a little, but McMahon's defense went down. The really bad moment of all of it was the error to open the first inning of Game 2, which to me kind of set a tone for the bad defense that would come, especially the rest of that inning. If he makes the play, who knows how it goes. It was routine play. He didn't make it. You know, the flip side of him was the Yankees re-signed Ahmad Rosario, who historically had hit lefty pitching, and they were going to live with a little less defense with Rosario, who's not a very good defender at third base, but for the first time in his career, he didn't hit lefty pitching. So those two guys together with a little Jose Calvallaro, say, mixed in, it just wasn't good enough in 2026. I think that means the Yankees are going to try to find a way to move on from Ryan McMahon. He's owed $16 million for next season. They've eaten that amount of money over the last three years, whether it's Aaron Hicks or DJ LeMahieu, both of whom are off the books now. I think before they get to the point where they eat this contract with one year at 16 left can they park Ryan McMahon someplace by taking back a contract that is not wanted by another team by lowering McMahon to five six million dollars seeing if the team needs a third baseman and thinks McMahon still has the defensive chops and enough offense to do it for five six million or do they include him with another player or two who are more attractive to perhaps go after something uh you know one of the ones I kind of and I I always am hesitant to do this because I know my aggregator friends go crazy I have not heard this I just used it as an example of if I were the Yankees I would make a call to the Giants for example Harrison Bader is due 10 million dollars uh next year I'd have to find out his foot's healthy he hurt it on a scooter accident And in late July, the Giants stopped payment to him, feeling that violated his contract. Would the Giants want to, say, get out of the legal fight with Bader, just trade him to the Yankees, take on McMahon? Matt Chapman just had core surgery. I think he's going to be OK for next year, but it gives them a backup plan there. You know, just those kind of things to think about how you might be able to move McMahon's money. I don't think it will be Caballero. I think the Yankees really prefer Caballero as a chess piece. They move around the board as they use as a pinch runner late in the game. And I think that that's kind of going to be it. You know, Anthony Volpe mixed in a little third base. I don't think it's going to be him. I think he's much more likely to stick at second base. I think they've got to go find the third baseman. And look, the big name out there this offseason is going to be Teruaki Sato. He's a left-hand hitter. he just won the Central League Triple Crown uh this year and so uh you know to me he's going to be the big name out there lefty hitter triple crown free agent uh let's deal with the Japanese market first uh because i think it's an interesting moment uh will Japanese players come over this offseason remember you're looking at almost a certain lockout on November 30th midnight December 1st uh which and then probably when the sport comes back when there's a new collective bargaining agreement last time there was like a three-week spring training acclimating yourself is a big deal to everyone i would think it would be a really big deal to a Japanese player uh and also do they do we miss paychecks next year where players don't get paid that say the sport doesn't come back to June 1st you don't get paid for two months does a Japanese player want to risk not getting paid on his contract i talked to a lot of executives and a lot of agents who deal with this market a lot they expect the play the big players like Sato who want to come here will come here for two reasons uh number one they're going to sign multi-year contracts so it's not just about 2027 pay wise and even a shortened uh MLB season uh is the pay will probably be greater if players are not paid as much in the Nippon Professional Baseball, the Japanese league, as they're paid here. So even a shortened season would probably mean more pay here if indeed we miss games next year. So a player like Sato is supposed to come. What do the scouts think about Sato? You know, he started playing a little more right field apparently late in the season with his team in Japan. They went for a younger player. He's really compared a lot to Munetaka Murakami, who was the last player in the Central League to win the Triple Crown. He did it in 2022. Left-hand power hitter who everyone thought the power would translate here, but there was real concerns about swing and miss and can he stay at third base. And indeed, Murakami didn't stay at third base here. The White Sox put him at first base. He struck out the second highest percentage in the major leagues among qualifiers, hitting the low 200. But he hit 35 homers, and I think a lot of teams, if they think that this is the profile, are going to go after Sato because they're going to feel like, oh, no pun intended, we swung and missed on Murakami, so we're going to try to make it right on Sato. So I think he'll get a multi-year deal. I think he'll get it for more than Murakami. But most people I talk to do not think he's going to stick at third base. The Mets are in on him. The Phillies, who are going to lose Alec Boehm, let's talk about him in a second, they really want to get back. I keep hearing they want to badly get back in the Japanese market. Mike, they live with Sato at third base in a way where other teams won't. I think the fact that he is not a definite third baseman in the major leagues makes him a tougher sign for the Yankees. I kind of feel the same way about Alec Boehm, who can hit and definitely hit lefty pitching this year, uh but he's not a good defender uh you want to talk about pipe dreams, does Bo Bichette opt out I still think he opts in, do the Mets try to trade him if he opts in, it's a lot of money uh the Yankees talked an awful lot and not an awful lot, that's an overstatement, the Yankees checked in on Corey Seager last offseason at the beginning of the offseason um you know the the Rangers want to get out of money, it ended up being Marcus Semien, they were more comfortable getting out of that, trading him to the Mets for Nimmo Could they revisit that and talk about Seager playing third base? It's five years and $155 million He's injured a lot. He just had another elbow surgery. I think between not knowing what the financial rules are going to be and the injury history, the Yankees are not going to add $30 million a year Just again, a gut feeling there you know if they don't want to go full defense at this position the one player I would say they should look a lot at Isaac Paredes of the Astros Paredes is owed about 13.3 million dollars for next year, there's an option the Astros are going to pick up that option The Astros are in a mismatched place, their two most expensive players for next year Altuve and Correa. Between injury and age are in a decline phase. The Astros just missed the playoffs this year, which they're not used to Paredes and Pena are free agents after '27 Alvarez and Hunter Brown are free agents after 2028. They don't have a strong farm system They don't have a good group of young players, they're dying for lots and lots of pitching that they don't have and they have this mismatched situation where it's uh you know uh they have Christian Walker at first, they have Jordan Alvarez DHing they have Correa at third base uh Paredes is too good not to play uh but everyone is dying for right hand hitting in this market he has just the one year left the Astros did talk to teams about him last offseason and didn't get their market. Could they get their market this offseason? Paredes is not a great third baseman. He's better than Boehm. He's better than the reputation of Sato, and he's a right-hand hitter who can really hit, doesn't strike out a lot. I know some people will point out he's a big pull hitter and he's helped by the Crawford Boxes in Houston. I just think he's a good hitter. I think there'll be a marketplace for him, and I think the you know, it's a player the Yankees should be checking in on to try to solve third base this offseason.