Yankees acquire infielder Hanser Alberto from the Rangers

The first trade of the Yankees’ 2018-2019 offseason is in the books. On Friday afternoon, the team announced that they acquired infielder Hanser Alberto from the Rangers. New York picked him up off waivers and added him to the 40-man roster.

Alberto, 26, is a career .192/.210/.231 hitter in parts of three major league seasons. He hit .185/.241/.259 (29 wRC+) across 30 plate appearances in 2018. While that is underwhelming, the infielder had a solid run at Triple-A. There, Alberto slashed .330/.346/.452 with seven home runs. That’s good for a decent 106 wRC+.

On the other side of the ball, Alberto has experience at all four infield positions. He has spent the most time at second base, but he can reasonably play anywhere across the diamond. That’s a useful skillset to have.

This, of course, is a depth move. The Yankees probably aren’t counting on him to develop into a replacement for Didi Gregorius while the shortstop is on the disabled list. The team likes what it sees, however, at least enough to add him to the 40-man roster. At that point the big leagues is just a phone call away. After all, Jace Peterson manned an infield spot for the Yankees in 2018.