Matt Olson, Brandon Belt, Cody Bellinger? The Yankees’ increasingly risky options to replace Luke Voit

There are nary absolutes. A squad tin triumph with each antithetic types and emphases. This is not 1 size fits all.

But arsenic a wide rule, successful my clip astir the Yankees, they person seemed to beryllium constructed champion erstwhile a lefty hitter and beardown defender plays archetypal base: Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez, John Olerud, Mark Teixeira and Anthony Rizzo. Olerud and Rizzo did not play determination astir arsenic overmuch arsenic the others, coincidentally appearing successful 47 games each astatine archetypal basal for the Yankees.

First basal is traditionally 1 of the easiest places to find a lefty hitter, and the Yankees person to beryllium committed to much lineup diverseness than the past fewer years. I besides judge first-base defence is underappreciated. An mistake saver determination helps the psyche and bottommost enactment of a full infield.

It is wherefore the Yankees person to abstracted from Luke Voit, a subordinate with a righty bat, well-below-average defence and a large assemblage that breaks often. He was a good under-the-radar acquisition — though it should beryllium noted that Giovanny Gallegos, who was traded on with Chasen Shreve to get Voit successful July 2018, has go a consistently above-average reliever for the Cardinals with a 2.74 ERA and 11.1 strikeouts per 9 innings successful 157 appearances. But going immoderate further erstwhile Voit accentuates galore of the Yankees’ problems would beryllium a mistake.