It’s beginning to look more and more like the New York Yankees won’t be signing All-Star infielder Manny Machado.
Instead, the Yankees on Friday came to terms with free agent infielder D.J. LeMahieu on a two-year, $24 million contract, according to multiple reports.
In addition to LeMahieu, the Yankees already signed his former Colorado Rockies teammate and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to add to an increasingly crowded infield. That’s making it legitimately worthwhile to question whether New York will sign Machado, who has garnered interest from the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox.
While the White Sox seemingly are pulling out all the stops to potentially surround Machado with friends and family, the Phillies are also apparently trying to curry favor by hiring Machado’s mentor as their infield coach. Meanwhile, the Yankees — who reportedly never offered Machado a contract — apparently are on to their contingency plan.
As for LeMahieu, the 30-year-old spent eight seasons in Colorado. The highlight of his career thus far was the batting title he won in 2016, hitting .348 for the Rockies. There’s legitimate skepticism about what he can do away from hitter-friendly Coors Field, though. LeMahieu has a .330 career average at Coors, nearly 70 points better than his average on the road, and his .835 home OPS is miles ahead of the .673 number he put up away from Coors.
