The Yankees know Jazz Chisholm Jr. won’t be back in 2027, which puts second base squarely on the front burner for the front office. The free-agent alternatives don’t exactly make the answer easy. Brandon Lowe would come at a hefty price after a 35-homer season, and Luis Arraez brings plenty of contact but not much else, while a Gleyber Torres reunion does not seem especially likely.
That pushes New York toward the trade market, and Joel Sherman reported that the club has “greatly liked” Miami Marlins second baseman Xavier Edwards for a long time. On paper, the fit looks tidy enough: Edwards is 27, bats from both sides, runs well, and remains under team control through the 2029 season. For a Yankees lineup that looked starved for contact in the ALDS, he seems like the sort of bat that could help.
But the numbers suggest a more complicated player than the surface level view. Edwards hit .280/.360/.371 overall in 2026, which fits the profile of a contact-first infielder.
Yet his season split was dramatic. From Opening Day through May 31, he produced a .314/.398/.480 line with six home runs over 255 plate appearances.
From June 1 through the end of the year, he dropped to .254/.331/.288 and didn’t homer once across 340 plate appearances.
He does a lot of the little things well. Edwards doesn’t chase much, doesn’t whiff much, and walks at a healthy clip.
The problem is how little damage he does when he actually makes contact. In 2026, he ranked in the eighth percentile in hard-hit rate and posted an exit velocity of 86.8 miles per hour, which landed him in the 13th percentile.
His expected numbers reflected that lack of impact, with a .258 expected batting average and a .356 expected slugging percentage. Even with an 11.4% walk rate, that profile doesn’t promise a ton of extra-base thump.
There are more warning signs, too. Edwards has tended to fade late in the season, with a career .653 OPS in August and a .671 OPS in September.
For a Yankees team that usually has to keep pushing deep into the year, that matters. His split against pitchers also raises a flag: he has a career .762 OPS against righties, but that falls more than 100 points to .650 against lefties.
The glove hasn’t been perfectly steady, either. Edwards began his career as a shortstop before switching positions with Otto Lopez because of defensive concerns. He was excellent in 2025, finishing with 12 defensive runs saved and nine outs above average, but in 2026 he came back to earth with -2 in both DRS and OAA.
Miami also has no real urgency to move him. Edwards will go through arbitration for the first time in 2027, which means he’ll still be relatively affordable, and he doesn’t reach free agency until 2030. That gives the Marlins leverage, and they’d have every reason to ask for a significant return.
The Yankees need more contact, no question. But with a farm system that isn’t loaded and with most of their best prospects still down in the lower levels, they can’t afford to overpay for a player who looks more like a singles hitter with some on-base skills than a true difference-maker. If New York trades for a second baseman, it needs to be for someone cheaper or someone more impactful than Xavier Edwards.
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Anthony Volpes First Offseason Update After That Yankees Heartbreak
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Away from that heartbreak, Volpes latest glimpse into the winter was a much lighter one. A social media post showed him with his girlfriend taking part in an infrared Pilates workout, a reminder that the offseason for players often mixes recovery, routine and a chance to step away from the noise of a lost season before the next one starts to build. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Could Soon Face Another Coaching Decision Fans Should Watch
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Swanson has become a significant behind-the-scenes piece for the Yankees, with his work on the catching side drawing notice for helping develop players such as Austin Wells. He has not shown any eagerness to leave New York, but with Seattle looking around for staff additions, this is the sort of coaching-market wrinkle Yankees fans will want to monitor closely. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Already Face A Ryan Weathers Decision They Never Expected
The Yankees are already sorting through the fallout of an early postseason exit, and Ryan Weathers has unexpectedly become part of that conversation. Acquired in January, the left-hander gave them 25 starts in 2026 and finished with a 5-8 record and a 3.60 ERA, enough to keep him in the mix as the club weighs how to rework a pitching staff that needs both stability and flexibility.
What makes Weathers interesting now is the role the Yankees might ask of him next. He has been viewed as a possible bullpen fit or even a trade piece, a reminder that New York is juggling rotation depth against the need to rebuild the relief corps, all while factoring in injury risk and the free-agent departures looming over the staff. The decision on Weathers may say as much about the Yankees pitching blueprint as it does about the pitcher himself. [Read more 🡒]