DJ LeMahieu. Love the guy. Truly. If there were a Hall of Fame for quiet consistency and machine-like contact hitting, he’d be a first-ballot inductee—and I’d be the one carving the plaque. But here’s the honest truth: with the Yankees offense actually holding its own for once, do we really need DJ? Better yes, will we get him back at 100%?
That being said... have you noticed the Yankees aren’t exactly blowing the doors off the league like they were earlier this season? I’ve said it before—pitching wins ballgames. But unless Max Fried is planning on cloning himself and moonlighting as the entire rotation, we’re going to need the rest of the rotation to click. So maybe we will need DJ after all. This could go either way. Tune in next week for another episode of “As the Lineup Turns.”
Anyway, DJ completed his fourth minor league rehab game on Sunday and looked like, well, DJ. He went 6-for-10 on the week. He also played solid defense—calf cooperating and all—which is good news since third base is still more of a question mark than a Jeopardy board.
He’s expected to start taking reps at third again this coming week, which signals the Yankees are ready to put him back in the infield blender. You’ll recall he signed a six-year, $90 million deal back in 2021—a move that made sense then and still kind of does if the guy can stay on the field.
DJ's had some rough luck lately, no doubt. He’s still one of my favorites—cool, calm, quietly clutch. I really do hope he finds his old form. But I’ll be honest: it feels like a lot of time has passed. Father Time doesn’t take rehab days.
We’ll see. Either he comes back and gives this team the steady bat and glove they’ve been missing… or we realize the offense was humming just fine without him and pitching was always the real issue. Either way, here's hoping DJ finds his groove—because when he's right, the Yankees feel a lot more right too.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting on Bleeding Yankee Blue.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.