Yankees Potential Free Agent Target: Anthony Santander
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The Orioles switch-hitting outfielder would fit fairly well in right field if Juan Soto vacated it.
As it currently stands, the Yankees are in desperate need of outfield help, with only four full-time outfielders — Aaron Judge, Trent Grisham, Jasson Domínguez, and Everson Pereira — currently on the 40-man roster. Even if you add Jazz Chisholm Jr., currently slotted in as the third baseman, and Oswaldo Cabera, who made just six appearances in the outfield last year, to the conversation, that's still paper-thin depth for a team that went to the World Series this past season.
Of course, as we've said all along, the simple solution is to sign Juan Soto. But as we said when profiling Teoscar Hernández last week, Soto is the obvious solution to a lot of teams' ills. And so, we continue what we started last week and profile the options the Yankees have if they need to turn to Plan B.
Yankees fans are familiar with Anthony Santander, one of the few players that not only outlasted the Baltimore Orioles' tanking years, but emerged on the opposite side as a key contributor to the first two truly successful teams of their new competitive era. The switch-hitting outfielder out of Venezuela was originally signed by Cleveland as an international free agent, before being selected by the O's in the 2016 Rule 5 Draft. Although he did not make the team out of Spring Training, he made his major league debut that August. He spent the next two years on the bench, slowly gaining more and more playing time, before breaking out and seizing the starting right field job during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, thanks to a 130 wRC+ that allowed him to put up 1.3 fWAR in just 37 games.
While a down year in 2021 (92 wRC+, -0.2 fWAR) made it easy to wonder whether Santander would go down, just like former Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier, as a COVID-season wonder, it would prove to be an aberration. Over the last three seasons, he has posted a .244/.317/.478 slash line, good for a 125 OPS+. Although his batting average dropped to .235 this past season — his worst since his sophomore campaign — his 44 home runs and 25 doubles meant that he was able to out-slug his low average and low walk rate.
If Soto were to walk in free agency, Santander would fit decently well as a replacement. As a switch hitter, he has traditionally hit lefties and righties equally well (career .786 OPS vs lefties, .772 against righties); this is something the Yankees have struggled with in recent years, as righties gave them trouble in 2023 (87 wRC+), while lefties gave them trouble in 2024 (107 wRC+, but this value is held up by Judge and Soto hitting well against everybody — they had a 120 wRC+ against righties). Even if he never replicates his 2024 performance — which is no sure thing, since he's entering into his age-30 season and is still theoretically in his prime — his 2022-2023 performance would certainly play in Yankee Stadium.
Defensively, Santander was a bit of a disaster this past season. Out of players who spent at least 500 innings in right fielder, his -7 Defensive Runs Saved ranked better only than Nick Castellanos and Lane Thomas. Outs Above Average was slightly higher on his performance, puting him in the bottom half of the middle third at -2 (17th out of 27th). Neither pegged him as a Gold Glove finalist. The thing is, though, he's been better in the past, putting up 6 DRS and 0 OAA in 1487 innings across 2022 and 2023. While nobody should expect elite performance out there, he should be able to hold down the fort in front of the short porch.
Of course, at the end of the day, a strong bat, plus less-than-stellar defense explains Juan Soto, except Juan Soto does everything better. So, just go get Juan Soto. But if that doesn't fall through, well, Santander isn't the worst backup plan.
