The Yankees have shown past interest in Nationals center fielder Jacob Young, writes Joel Sherman of The New York Post. It’s unclear whether the two sides engaged in formal talks or if it was just due diligence on the Yankees’ part, though the Nationals were known to be exploring a trade of Young back in January.
The 27-year-old Young just completed his fourth big league season. Since debuting for the Nats in 2023, he’s taken 1,477 trips to the plate and batted .248/.312/.339 with an 82 wRC+. Young doesn’t hit for power, having just 15 home runs and a .091 isolated slugging percentage in his career. Instead, he’s a speed and defense guy. Young has stolen 79 bases in 104 opportunities, good for a 76% success rate that’s right around league average.
He’s also accrued +22 Defensive Runs Saved and a staggering +49 Outs Above Average as a center fielder. The latter ranks second among center fielders with at least 1,000 innings since the start of 2023. The only player ahead of Young is the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong, who’s been worth +60 OAA.
This year showed a more well-rounded version of Young, albeit one who is still a below average hitter. In 471 plate appearances, he hit .252/.318/.390 with a 7.0% walk rate and a 16.6% strikeout rate. Young’s 95 wRC+ put him five points below league average production, but that’s still the best mark of his career. Statcast also credited him with 96th-percentile range as a center fielder, while DRS (-3) wasn’t as kind as in prior seasons, but still considered him passable.
Young is eligible for arbitration for the first time in 2027. He can be controlled for two more seasons beyond that and shouldn’t cost that much. The Nats wouldn’t get the same return as they would in a hypothetical CJ Abrams or James Wood trade, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they continue fielding calls on Young. The free agent class is pretty underwhelming in center field, with the best options being rebound candidates like TJ Friedl, Trent Grisham, and Daulton Varsho, or short-side platoon options like Tyrone Taylor and Lane Thomas.
Young would be cheaper than all five of those players and controllable through the 2029 season. He also put up a 115 wRC+ against lefties this year, so he holds value as a platoon option and defensive specialist. The Yankees could show interest in Young again, but they don’t strictly need him at the moment, as they have Cody Bellinger, Spencer Jones, and Aaron Judge lined up from left to right next year. Heliot Ramos and Jasson Dominguez are on hand as a lefty masher and the main depth option, respectively. New York gave Grisham a qualifying offer last year, but they’re more likely to let him walk this time around.
Ramos was a replacement-level hitter for the Yankees after coming over at the trade deadline and only appeared once in their five-game postseason run. Dominguez hit well at Triple-A but not in the Majors, and neither he nor Ramos are good defenders. It would take a trade of at least one of them to open up a spot for Young, though at the very least, he’d provide some insurance defensively if Jones needs more time to develop in that regard.
A number of clubs could use a center fielder this winter, including the Astros, Rangers, Reds, Orioles, and Blue Jays. It would be in the Nationals’ interest to gauge interest from those clubs, regardless of whether they actually intend to trade Young. The team finished at 77-85 (.475) in 2026 and will probably use 2027 as another evaluation year. Selling high on Young after his career-best offensive showing could bring back a small amount of talent for the next Nationals contender.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Le, Imagn Images
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