Let’s get something out of the way right off the bat. The Yanks’ initial free agent contract for DJ LeMahieu will go down as one of the smartest moves they have ever made. We’ve sung its praises before! Pilfering the second baseman from the Rockies on a two-year, $24 million contract in October 2018, New York could not have imagined the bang they’d receive for their buck. It just wasn’t as notable at the time of its signing as the one we’re discussing today.
Anyway, back to the bargain for a moment. Over the next two seasons (the latter shortened by COVID-19), DJLM hit a combined .336/.386/.536, good for a 146 OPS+. He led the Junior Circuit in batting average, on-base percentage, and on-base plus slugging percentage in 2020, and compiled 7.1 bWAR per 162 games. If you subscribe to the theory that 1 WAR is worth about $10 million, 2019-20 DJ provided $62 million in surplus value, a number that would have certainly been even higher had the 2020 season not been capped at 60 games.
Oh, and DJ provided one of the biggest playoff moments in recent Yankee history in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS, smashing a clutch, game-tying, two-run home run in Houston with two outs to go against Roberto Osuna. He saved the season … for a whole 15 minutes or so. It was all for naught, of course, “thanks” to Aroldis Chapman.
But still. What an absolute steal that first contract was. When the Yankees 2020 season ended, ignominiously, at the hands of the Rays (oh hey, thanks again Chappy), so did DJ’s first contract with the Yanks. What would the Yankees do?
DJ LeMahieu
Signing Date: January 27, 2021
Contract: 6 years, $90 million
In the least surprising turn of events imaginable, the Yankees tendered LeMahieu the qualifying offer and he rejected it. Coming off that COVID-shortened campaign when he hit .364 to pace the Junior Circuit and finished third for the AL MVP (which he may have deserved with a league-leading 3.0 rWAR), it would have been stunning had DJ accepted the QO. It would have been equally unimaginable for the Yankees to let DJLM walk, as he was versatile with the ability to man second, third, and first, and he was arguably as central to the entire offensive operation as Aaron Judge.
So, off to free agency he went. And, like entirely too many free agent sagas in MLB, this one dragged on much too long. Thanksgiving, the Winter Meetings, Christmas, and the turn of the calendar all came and went with LeMahieu unsigned.
By mid-December, the Yankees and their star were roughly $25 million apart in negotiations, according to reports. Everyone and their dog knew DJ was their number one priority, but with the gap, news leaked that LeMahieu was ready to engage with other clubs. Meanwhile, our own Peter Brody wrote a cogent analysis of why the Yankees could (should?) pass on LeMahieu, given their self-imposed financial constraints.
Obviously, his flirtations came to nothing. In late January, the hot stove really heated up where DJ was concerned. Ominously, reports emerged that the Yankees’ priorities were perhaps askew. Jim Bowden reported (accurately) in the days prior to LeMahieu’s signing that the front office was concerned with the luxury tax implications of signing DJ.
“According to a source the #Yankees deal with LeMahieu will be for more than 4 years……now question is it 5 or 6 years… According to a source the #Yankees preferred more years and less AAV in LeMahieu deal for luxury tax issues. Deal will be for more than 4 years.”
LeMahieu was about to enter his age-32 season. A six-year pact would lock the Yankees in financially through his age-37 campaign. And lest readers wonder if this is all hindsight being 2020, it has long been a truism that second basemen have rough aging curves. Nate Silver touched on this as far back as 2005 in Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs revisited the topic in the context of the Yankees’ efforts in early 2013 to extend Robinson Canó before that superstar Yankees second baseman hit free agency. Anecdotally, it feels like one of those adages I’ve known my entire adult life.
Alas, Bowden was right. Instead of a four-year deal with a higher AAV, the Yanks opted for frugality and extended the total cost over six years. A fully functional Death Star, indeed.
The deal was agreed upon in mid-January but not until January 27th did it become official. New York had to keep DJ and they did, while minimizing the annual hit to their payroll. And as Lindsey Adler pointed out in the pages of The Athletic, DJ got a long-term deal likely to take him through to the end of his career. For his part, DJ was happy to be back in pinstripes.
The thought exercise here is fascinating. This article, and Yankee fandom’s historical memory of DJLM, likely looks very different if the Yanks had inked him to a shorter-term, higher AAV deal. Imagine a four-year pact. When injury and underperformance caused LeMahieu to crater in 2024, New York could have parted ways with him at any point, with no money remaining on the books past that season.
Instead, DJ was back last season because the Yankees were too reluctant to admit that they were getting nothing for their $30 million across the final two years of the deal. And while he was considerably better than in ’24, that’s not saying much. New York parted ways with him last July, but because of the decision to pursue a longer-term deal that lowered LeMahieu’s AAV, they’re still on the hook paying him in 2026.*
*He hasn’t retired, but no team has signed him in seven months and it feels distinctly possible that his long-term deal will have indeed taken him to the end of his career. So at least he has that, I suppose.
It boggles the mind that the Yankees, who boast resources and revenues few other teams can match, insist on pinching pennies at the weirdest possible times. The fatal miscalculation they made while garnering any luxury tax savings enabled by this deal was that there was an opportunity cost in the desire to keep running LeMahieu out there when he had long since been a productive ballplayer, just to try to get something. Superior present options could have been pursued, or at the very least, they could have stopped playing Jazz Chisholm Jr. out of position at third just to accommodate the hobbled LeMahieu, no longer physically able to man the hot corner.
Back on the field, it wasn’t all doom and gloom at the start of the new contract. LeMahieu did come back to Earth in 2021, but even a nearly 100-point regression in his batting average left him a league-average hitter who played a solid second base and provided veteran leadership. Part of it could even be blamed on a sports hernia that he was playing through down the stretch, which got to be so painful that LeMahieu was unable to appear in the 2021 AL Wild Card Game loss to the Red Sox.
LeMahieu’s 2022 season was even better. He had a 110 OPS+ and by bWAR, it was the third-best season of his career (ignoring the giant COVID-shaped elephant in the room that was 2020). He appropriately won the first-ever AL Gold Glove for a utilityman as well.
But it all went to hell in the middle of August, when LeMahieu broke a sesamoid bone in his right big toe — a mouthful of an injury that only got worse when he also suffered ligament damage in his second toe. Unable to generate any drive and with a brief IL stint not helping matters, he again missed the postseason. As it turned out, he would never appear in a playoff game on this contract.
In 2023, LeMahieu was fine, even showing signs of resurgence in the second half with an .809 OPS. But there were signs that it was a bit luck-driven, and in 2024, that train came completely off the tracks. I know we’re harping on it, but Aaron Boone and the Yankees stubbornly kept running him out there, and even ran it back in 2025 before finally admitting defeat and releasing him last summer.
The second DJ LeMahieu deal never even came close to the lofty returns of its predecessor. But, to a certain extent, that is the Yankees’ own fault. Letting DJ walk after his sensational 2019-20 was likely never an option and would have drawn the ire of the vast majority of their fans.
But choosing to extend the tenure of his contract over six years rather than a shorter term was an unmitigated disaster that has soured fans’ opinions of the front office and their memories of LeMahieu, who deserved a better fate given his initial smashing success.
References
Blum, Ronald. “After 4 straight injury-marred seasons, DJ LeMahieu hopes to regain former form as batting champion.” Associates Press. February 18, 2025.
Brody, Peter. “The case against re-signing DJ LeMahieu.” Pinstripe Alley. December 18, 2020.
Cameron, Dave. “Robinson Cano and Second Base Aging Curves.” FanGraphs. March 1, 2013.
DJ LeMahieu. Baseball-Reference.
DJ LeMahieu. FanGraphs.
Harding, Thomas. “Fan favorite LeMahieu signs with Yankees.” MLB. January 11, 2019.
Hoch, Bryan. “LeMahieu placed on injured list.” MLB. October 3, 2021.
Hoch, Bryan. “Yanks finalize LeMahieu’s 6-year deal.” MLB. January 27, 2021.
Kirschner, Chris. “Yankees release DJ LeMahieu, still owe him $15 million in 2026.” The Athletic. July 9, 2025.
Rosenstein, Mike. “MLB rumors: Yankees-DJ LeMahieu contract terms take shape | Deal won’t crack $100 million.” NJ.com. January 15, 2021.
Silver, Nate. “Lies, Damned Lies: A New Look at Aging.” Baseball Prospectus. September 22, 2005.
“Yankees, DJ LeMahieu in agreement on 6-year deal: Source.” The Athletic. January 15, 2021.
“Yankees, DJ LeMahieu more than $25 million apart in negotiations: Sources.” The Athletic. December 14, 2020.
See more of the “50 Most Notable Yankees Free Agent Signings in 50 Years” series here.