According to Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball, the New York Yankees have been recognized as a suitable landing spot for right-handed slugger Edwin Encarnacion.
In the report, the Boston Red Sox are listed as favorites while the Yankees and Texas Rangers have now been linked to the 33-year old All-Star.
Encarnacion, who finished in the top-15 in the American League MVP voting in three of the past four seasons, has hit 193 home runs and has maintained a .272/.367/.544 slash line with an OPS of .912 since 2012.
In 2016, he finished tied with David Ortiz for the most RBI (127).
He also finished third with 42 home runs, tenth in OPS (.886), sixth in isolated power (.266) but did strike out 138 times, the most of his 12-year career. More impressively, though, no hitter in baseball has more home runs than Encarnacion does (210) since 2011.
In his postseason career (20 games) the Dominican-born superstar has hit four home runs while slashing .280/.372/.480 with 14 RBI.
Encarnacion has utterly and unquestionably established himself one of the game’s greatest hitters who would surely tr@nsform New York’s offense into one of the most prominent in the game.
Plus, while adding to the pitching staff seems to be the main focus, the offense was anemic in 2016. They finished 22nd in runs scored, 19th in home runs, 24th in OPS, 20th in overall batting average, and second-to-last in batting average with runners in scoring position.
Without a doubt, Encarnacion would have an enormous influence on bringing those rankings within the top-10, at least. But is he a fit? That’s when things get complicated.