DJ LeMahieu turned out to be a diamond in the rough for the New York Yankees, so now they need to lock him up for years to come.
When the Yankees signed DJ LeMahieu in the offseason to a 2-year, $24mil contract, I don’t think anyone predicted he would have such a great first season with the Yankees. He has been the Yankee’s MVP this season and will be in the consideration for AL MVP. It is clear that DJ has many great years ahead of him. The Yankees need to extend him and ensure that he is a Yankee for the rest of his career. But to explain as to why we need to do this, here is a deep look as to why the Yankees need to extend LeMahieu.
It is easy to just look at DJ’s stats and see that he is a great player. In his first season with Yankees, D.J slashed .327/.375/.518 and set career highs in home runs (26) and RBIs (102). He has easily been the best signing of the entire offseason for any team. But there is more to this that really helps make it more clear that the Yankees need to extend this beast.
In 2018, the Yankees were not the greatest hitting with RISP, having a team average of .253 in those situations. That was good for 12th in the entire league. But this year since DJ has joined the team, the average has jumped up to .294 and that leads the league.
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As for DJ’s personal RISP stats this year, he is hitting .389 and has 73 of those 102 RBI’s coming from hitting with RISP. He is the guy that the Yankees were missing last year, the missing piece that helps them really become a well-rounded team with power and now consistent RISP hitting. LeMahieu is what the Yankees have always needed the past couple of years and they need to extend him.
What could it look like?
In my opinion, the Yankees should offer DJ an extension of 3 years adding to the one year he has left for next year. He is been one of the best hitters in baseball and they should offer him around a 3 year, $54 mil contract. That rounds out to about $18 mil a year and it is worth it for a player like LeMahieu.