Would an Oswald(o) Platoon at Third Be Okay?

Probably fine, but with risk.

The Yankees luxury tax payroll currently stands at $303 million. They still have a handful of small moves to make such as a lefty relief pitcher like Tim Hill or, reportedly, Andrew Chafin, and maybe a bench player. Even if they trade away most of Marcus Stroman’s salary, they won’t have a lot to play with. While an Alex Bregman or Nolan Arenado would be fun, it might not be in the budget. Indeed, Jack Curry threw some cold water on the Arenado rumors last week.

Let’s assume that they are done for a moment. The Yankees will enter Spring Training with a platoon of Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza at third base.* Would they be repeating their problems in the 2023 season, when they were two or three starting players away from a full roster?

*I choose to ignore DJ LeMahieu’s existence for the time being.

I don’t think so. I think that an Oswald(o) platoon would be fine. But it would also be a little risky.

Let’s start with Cabrera. He’s about to enter his fourth season with the club. I think that we have a pretty good idea of who he is at this point. He’s a solid to above average defender at 3rd and 2nd base, and good enough at short and first to fill in there.

His platoon splits in 2024 were huge. He hit .190/.229/.469 against left-handed pitching and a respectable .268/.320/.409 against right-handed pitching. He didn’t have similar splits previously, so we’ll see if they hold up over time. If they do, Cabrera is very playable as the fat side of a platoon. If not, then he’s purely a bench player whose value in spelling a lot of positions.

Peraza is a lot harder to predict. It wasn’t that long ago that we had a real debate about whether he was better than Volpe. He’s had a weird two seasons since. At times, he looks like a solid all around hitter who could hit 15 or more home runs. At other times, such as his 191 plate appearances in the majors in 2023, he looks like this:

Peraza followed the same pattern in 2024, but entirely in the minors. He missed all of April and most of May with an injury, then struggled to get going once he got back on the field. He hit .210/.325/.252 through the Triple-A All Star Break. Lots of people wrote him off at that point, including me.

Then, Peraza made an adjustment to his swing and came out of the break blazing. He hit .275/.352/.523 with a 19% strikeout rate through the end of the year, which is pretty similar to his 2023 Triple-A stats. He now has 226 games under his belt at Triple-A with a .776 OPS. He’s still just 25 years old, has lots of welcome speed, and has little left to learn in the minors.

He also has pretty strong platoon splits. Most of his success in the second half came against left-handed pitching, although he improved against righties as well. Normally, it’s hard to justify a right-handed platoon bat on a major league bench. But given that Peraza and Cabrera would effectively be the utility bench player, they can justify his spot.

I think that Peraza is a classic post-hype prospect. The skills that made him exciting as a 22 year-old are still there: he’s an elite defender, has lots of speed, and his bat has the potential to cross the Kiner-Falefa line. He has a lot to offer a major league roster, and frankly I’m still a little surprised that the Yankees didn’t try him out in September to help fill out a roster vulnerable to left-handed pitching. He deserves a shot.

The Yankees could start the season with both players on the roster as a platoon. It’s very plausible that they could combine for a .700 OPS with pretty good defense at third base. Maybe even Peraza takes another step forward and becomes a solid regular against both sides. If things don’t work out, they could seek out a third baseman at the trade deadline.

A .700 OPS would have ranked the Yankees as 15th best in baseball at third base and 10th best at second base last year. Combine that with better than average defense and you could easily see the Oswald(o) platoon netting out to 2-ish WAR. Could they do better with a more expensive option? Absolutely. But pretty much every contending team carries at least one position where they just get by. It isn’t the end of the world. I don’t think that we would view it as incomplete the way we saw left field as incomplete in 2023.

On the other hand, the Oswald(o) option carries some risk. Cabrera’s left-handed platoon advantage could be a mirage. Peraza could be a Quad-A hitter. We might look up in June and see that our third base position is hitting .190. We’d be talking about the Yankees repeating the same mistakes of the 2022-2023 rosters.

For that reason, I think that the Yankees will view the Oswald(o) platoon as a backup plan. It may not be the end of the world, but it shouldn’t be Plan A. If the Yankees trade most of Marcus Stroman’s salary, they will have some money left in the budget. They might not be able to afford an Arenado, Bregman or Suarez, but I bet they could find the room for an Alec Bohm or Ryan McMahon.

One of those guys might not be all that much better than the platoon, but they would be much safer. I feel nervous about betting the farm on two guys who haven’t really done it. After experiencing Yankee Black Holes every season, I’d sure be much more comfortable with a safe 2 WAR, but the Oswald(o) option is probably fine.

There’s also a little bit of upside. If Good Peraza shows up, we have another league minimum player on the roster, which allows Cashman to go out and sign a big free agent. If they have to pay more for the position, it might be tough to fit in an enormous Kyle Tucker or Vlad Jr. contract. That upside might be enough to give the players a little bit of run.