Photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire

Part of a series of articles previewing the defensive performance of all 30 MLB teams by asking the question … are they good? To see the full series, click here.

2024 Defensive Runs Saved Rank: 12th

Team Strengths

Anthony Volpe has been a very good defensive shortstop in his first two seasons in the majors, with a Gold Glove Award already to his credit. 

Most Defensive Runs Saved – Shortstops, Last 2 Seasons

Austin Wells had a very good defensive season in 2024, particularly at pitch framing. He’ll be shouldering much of the coaching load with Jose Trevino having been traded to the Reds.  

Aaron Judge moves back to his best position right field. He could be a big strength if healthy, which is a big if. He’s not the same fielder he was in his prime days, 2018 and 2019, when he had 18 and 21 runs saved, respectively, to lead the majors.

Oswaldo Cabrera could see a lot of time at third base this season and that was the best place for him defensively last year. He totaled 7 Runs Saved in about a half-season there. 

Jazz Chisholm returns to his best defensive spot, second base. He’s totaled 6 Runs Saved there in the equivalent of about a season’s worth of games for his career.

Team Weaknesses

The Yankees are currently aligned such that they could play someone average or better at every spot in the field. The only spot that might be an issue is left field with Jasson Dominguez. In 58 games of minor league sample the last two seasons, Dominguez had -4 Runs Saved there.

Other things to know

Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger are wild cards here. Goldschmidt has a longstanding history as a good defensive first baseman. But he’s 37 now and looked to be in decline last year. Bellinger is only 30. He looked like he was going to be a very good defensive center fielder early in his career (he won a Fielding Bible Award in right field too) but performed as an average one in Runs Saved in his time with the Cubs.

Are The Yankees A Good Defensive Team?

Yes. They could be a very good one. That’s not to say what happened in a couple of innings in the World Series couldn’t repeat itself in isolated circumstances, but the Yankees should be well equipped to prevent that.