NEW YORK — When Rawlings names its Gold Glove winners Sunday night, the New York Yankees will have a horse in the American League utility race. Jose Caballero is one of three finalists after a season spent bouncing across the diamond.
He started for the Yankees at shortstop, third base and second base. He covered all three outfield spots. He stole 34 bases in 136 games.
For a Yankees team that just watched its season end in an AL Division Series sweep by the Tampa Bay Rays, that kind of flexibility is not a luxury. It is shaping up as a winter priority.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is headed toward free agency after a 41-steal season at second base, and the Yankees are reportedly unlikely to make him a qualifying offer. Luis Garcia Jr., acquired from Washington at the trade deadline, could move back to the middle infield. Manager Aaron Boone has said a position change for the left-handed hitter could be in play.
That leaves the Yankees with a bench and infield picture still in motion.
Versatility was a quiet strength for the Yankees in 2026. Caballero filled holes all over the diamond as injuries hit the Yankees roster, from the middle infield to the corners of the outfield. Losing Chisholm would take away the Yankees’ regular second baseman and 41 stolen bases.
Defense was part of how that October unraveled. The Yankees committed four errors in a Game 2 loss at Tropicana Field that pushed them to the brink of elimination against Tampa Bay.
One idea now circulating would add a second utility weapon rather than replace the first. The man in question is the same player Caballero is competing against for that Gold Glove.
And a year ago, before a brutal 2026 at the plate, he was an All-Star.
A Silver Slugger one year, a slump the next
SNY’s Phillip Martinez this week listed Detroit Tigers utility man Zach McKinstry among potential Yankees trade targets for the offseason. It is a proposed fit from an analyst, not a report of talks between the clubs.
McKinstry, 31, was an injury replacement on the AL All-Star team in July 2025. He finished that year with career highs across the board: a .259/.333/.438 slash line, a .771 OPS and 12 home runs. He also won the AL Silver Slugger as a utility player.
The 2026 season went the other way. In 423 plate appearances, the left-handed hitter batted .199/.288/.294 with four homers and a .582 OPS.
His hard-hit rate fell to 22.5 percent. Part of the slide has been tied to a suspected oblique tear in April.
The glove never slumped. Statcast credited McKinstry with 12 fielding runs and eight outs above average. He was worth 15 defensive runs saved overall, 13 of them in right field, where he threw out nine runners.
He moved to the outfield regularly only after Kerry Carpenter’s late-July injury. He still made 49 starts in right, 28 at second, 19 at short and four at third.
McKinstry was also worth three to four baserunning runs above average in each season from 2023 through 2025 and twice led the Tigers in steals.
What the case for McKinstry rests on
Martinez acknowledged McKinstry lacks the offensive ceiling of Isaac Paredes, another name on his list. He framed the appeal around the spots McKinstry can cover for Boone.
“But it’s hard to overlook his ability to play multiple positions and is just one year removed from being an All-Star and a Silver Slugger,” Martinez wrote.
The bat is the obvious concern. Martinez left the question open.
“Could McKinstry bounce back and be a good platoon option?” Martinez wrote.
He also suggested the price for the Yankees would not be steep, naming an outfielder whose future in the Bronx has been debated all year.
“It may not take much to get him from the Tigers, especially if the Yankees can dangle Jasson Dominguez, a young outfield prospect,” Martinez wrote.
Two Gold Glove finalists, one bench
Caballero finished with a .655 OPS in 2026, roughly 70 points higher than McKinstry. The Yankees utility star ran far more but was caught 11 times.
McKinstry’s edge is in the details. His on-base percentage sat 89 points above his batting average, compared with 59 for Caballero, a sign his plate discipline held even as hits dried up. He has averaged 3.98 pitches per plate appearance for his career.
His .233 batting average on balls in play, 41 points under his .274 career mark, suggests some bad luck baked into the decline. His .310 expected slugging percentage, though, shows the contact quality also dropped.
Then there is handedness. Caballero hits right-handed. McKinstry, like Garcia and Ben Rice, hits left-handed. Martinez flagged that overlap as the main downside, especially at third base and possibly second.
Defensively, the pair would help the Yankees protect the infield and outfield at once without burning a second roster spot on a pure backup.
The Tigers may be ready to listen. McKinstry has one season of club control left before free agency, and MLB Trade Rumors projects about $5 million for his final arbitration year.
Detroit also has a wave of young players pushing for time, including Kevin McGonigle, Hao-Yu Lee, Colt Keith and Max Clark. Paying $5 million for a reserve whose bat slipped below a .600 OPS is a real debate there.
This gives the Yankees a low-cost option, who can help uplift their much maligned defense.
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