ESPN insider Buster Olney has a fix for the New York Yankees’ cratering offense, and he wants Brian Cashman on the phone about it immediately.
The Yankees have lost 10 of their last 12 games averaging just 2.67 runs per game in that span, a stretch that has erased what was once a 3 1/2-game division cushion and dropped them four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.
Olney’s answer â go get San Francisco Giants infielder Luis Arraez, a rental who could plug the exact hole New York’s slump has laid bare.
Luis Arraez: a Contact-Hitting Lineup Fix
GettyLuis Arraez #1 of the San Francisco Giants is the “perfect guy to add right in this moment” for the Yankees, says Buster Olney.
New York currently ranks 25th in the majors in team batting average, sitting at .235 with the fifth-highest number of strikeouts in baseball. Meanwhile, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton remain on the injured list.
Arraez is doing the opposite. Through 86 games with San Francisco, he’s batting .327 with 112 hits, 45 runs, 34 RBI and seven stolen bases, with a .364 on-base percentage and an .826 OPS. He’s struck out just 15 times against 21 walks.
Those numbers are consistent with his career performance. Arraez is a three-time batting champion, three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner carrying a .318 average and .363 on-base percentage across parts of eight seasons with the Twins, Marlins, Padres and Giants.
“They have to find a way to build a bridge to that time when Judge and Stanton and [Max] Fried and [Carlos] Rodon come back, which is why I think today that Brian Cashman, the Yankees general manager, should get on the phone with the San Francisco Giants and basically not let Buster Posey off the phone until he makes a deal for Luis Arraez,” Olney said on the Tuesday “ESPN Baseball Tonight” podcast.
Judge has been out since May 31 with a stress fracture in his right first rib and isn’t guaranteed to be ready at the four-week re-evaluation mark. Stanton’s calf strain has stalled at treadmill work with no firm timetable, while starting pitchers Fried and Rodon are both working back from elbow issues of their own.
How Arráez Landed With the Giants
The Giants signed Arráez as a free agent in the offseason, finalizing a one-year, $12 million deal in early February after he hit the open market following his release from San Diego on Nov. 2, 2025, according to MLB Trade Rumors’ report on the signing. Arraez reportedly picked San Francisco over multi-year offers elsewhere specifically because the Giants committed to playing him at second base, his preferred position.
That contract makes him a pure rental, since Arraez becomes a free agent again after this season. It’s why the last-place Giants (37-52) are widely expected to field offers before the August 3 deadline.
One proposal, published by Giants site Around the Foghorn, sends Yankees pitching prospect Henry Lalane and shortstop Kaeden Kent to San Francisco. Lalane ranks as the Yankees’ No. 14 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and Kent is No. 13, and also the son of former Giants second baseman Jeff Kent.
Some scenarios floated the idea that the trade could require moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. off second base, since Olney’s plan is built around Arraez taking that spot outright.
“It’s been a terrible week for us, there’s no way of sugar-coating it,” manager Aaron Boone said after one recent defeat, in his postgame press conference. Whether Cashman responds to the skid by actually phoning up Posey, the Giants president of baseball operations, as Olney suggests, remains to be seen.
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