The Yankees are staring at a familiar offseason question with a different name attached to it: how much should they pay to keep second base settled?
Jazz Chisholm Jr. gave them power, speed and plenty of volatility in a walk year. He swiped 41 bases, a career high, but he also struck out in 29.5% of his plate appearances and watched his offense slip from where it had been the year before.
In 137 games, he hit .231 with a .312 on-base percentage and a .399 slugging percentage, finishing with 19 home runs. His OPS dropped from .813 in 2025 to .711, even though FanGraphs still credited him with 3.5 WAR thanks in part to 13 Outs Above Average at second base.
Now he’s set to hit free agency the day after the World Series ends, and the Yankees appear unlikely to hand him the qualifying offer. That offer sits at $23.15 million this winter, and The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty reported it is “highly unlikely” New York will make it. The club has already lived through a cautionary version of that move: Trent Grisham accepted their $22.05 million qualifying offer last winter, then delivered a down, injury-shortened season in center field.
There’s also the market itself to consider. An executive surveyed by MLB.com pegged Chisholm at three to four years and around $20 million per season.
That’s a long way from the earlier report that he was seeking eight to 10 years at $35 million annually. Chisholm, for his part, made it clear after the Yankees were swept by Tampa Bay in the ALDS that he’d like to stay.
“I do hope to be back,” Chisholm said.
The timing lands in an offseason that started with Aaron Judge pushing the front office to go all-in after yet another early October exit. And while the Yankees do have internal names, none of them has created real certainty at second base.
Anthony Volpe played the position in 2026. Luis García Jr. has spent most of his career there.
Neither has claimed the job.
That’s why a trade path is drawing real attention, and why Atlanta has entered the picture. Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies has surfaced as a fit for New York.
Albies, who turns 30 in January, played all 162 games in 2026 and put together a season that was split sharply between strong and shaky. He hit .237 with 22 home runs, 27 doubles and 73 RBIs, and earned his fourth All-Star nod after a .267 first half with 14 homers. The second half was much less kind, leaving him with a .293 on-base percentage, a .392 slugging percentage and a .685 OPS.
Still, the power has been consistent. He has reached at least 22 home runs in five seasons. Atlanta won the NL East, beat Philadelphia in the wild-card round and then fell to the Dodgers in the NLDS.
The big selling point is the contract. Atlanta has a $7 million club option for 2027, the final year of his deal, and he would become a free agent after next season. That gives the Braves a decision to make: keep a veteran second baseman for one more year, or cash in that expiring control for help elsewhere.
A trade also fits the way clubs think when a player is heading toward the end of team control. Albies’ strong first half and his steadier bat against left-handers give him value, while his salary gives Atlanta leverage if the Braves decide they want pitching or younger talent instead of simply banking on another year of production.
On the Yankees’ side, the fit is easy to see on paper. Compared with Chisholm’s 2026 line, Albies was the less productive hitter overall, but he offers a cheaper path. His $7 million option comes in about $13 million below the market projection for Chisholm, and it doesn’t require a long-term commitment.
The contact profile is part of the appeal too. Albies struck out in 15.4% of his plate appearances in 2026, about half of Chisholm’s 29.5% rate.
Against lefties, Albies also stands out. Chisholm owns a career 82 wRC+ versus left-handed pitching, while the switch-hitting Albies hit .290 with a .776 OPS against them in 2026.
Over his career, he has hit .320 with an .871 OPS in 1,363 plate appearances against lefties, based on his season-by-season splits.
Durability matters here as well. Albies played 25 more games than Chisholm in 2026.
One proposal circulating this week would send right-hander Luis Gil and outfield prospect Jace Avina to Atlanta for Albies. Gil, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year, opened 2026 in the minors and barely pitched in the majors.
He logged a 4.61 ERA with 17 strikeouts and 18 walks in 27 1/3 big-league innings. The Yankees moved him to the bullpen, optioned him Sept. 25 and recalled him after the season, and they are now looking to move him in a trade.
Avina, 23, came over from Milwaukee in November 2023 in the Jake Bauers deal and hit 21 home runs at Double-A Somerset in 2026.
Atlanta, meanwhile, still has to decide whether to hold Albies for one more year at $7 million or turn that final stretch of control into a larger return. There is at least some public resistance to the idea of moving him. Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said of Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr., “They’re really good players, and we expect to have them going forward.”
For the Yankees, though, the math is clear: Chisholm brings more speed and a bigger 2026 OPS, Albies brings cost control, contact and a potential trade route that is actually within reach. The decision on second base is coming fast, and the options are already narrowing.
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