Making a team of great one-season Yankees wonders

Besides it just being Opening Day, Thursday also was a very notable event in Yankee-land. That day marked Juan Soto’s first game with the Yankees after the marquee trade that brought him over from the Padres this past offseason.

While having Soto in a Yankee uniform is obviously extremely exciting, it does have to be noted that he is a free agent after this season, and there is a non-zero possibility that this is his only year with the team. Considering his age and status as one of the best hitters in the league, the Yankees should do pretty much everything they can to ensure that he’s here past this season. Still, you can’t completely discount him ending up somewhere else next season.

That got me thinking about the best ever Yankees who only actually ever played a single, solitary season for the team. While hopefully Soto won’t end up having to be an addition to this list, the possibility of it led me to try and figure out who would be in the lineup of best ever single-season Yankees.

Pitcher: Bartolo Colon

Colon had not pitched in the major leagues since July 2009 when an iffy Yankees’ rotation led to the team taking a gamble on him in 2011. An 107 ERA+ in 164.1 innings later, and it turned out that this surprising season was the beginning of a career renaissance for Colon.

Catcher: Ken Sears

Jesús Montero hitting .328/.406/.590 in the brief time the Yankees called up him up in 2011 got him in consideration, but he only played 3 of his 18 games at catcher. His defense rated not great in those three games, and his WAR figure probably would’ve been dragged down further had he caught more.

Instead, we’ll go with Sears, who was about a league-average hitter in 1943, his lone year with the Yankees, while also providing good defense across 60 games to help the Yankees win a championship that year.

First Base: Jack Clark

Photo by Owen Shaw/Getty Images

The longtime Giant and Cardinal was primarily signed by the Yankees to be a DH in 1988, but he played some first as well. His bat produced quite well as he put up a 130 OPS+ in over 600 plate appearances, helping the Yankees to a winning record. However, it was a dip from the production that netted him a third-place finish for NL MVP in ‘87, and he was always a bit of an awkward fit on the roster with that certain Don Mattingly guy around. All that, plus apparent disagreements with manager Lou Pinella, led to him requesting and receiving a trade after ‘88.

Second Base: Martín Prado

After the Brian Roberts/Kelly Johnson experiment didn’t go great in 2014, the Yankees acquired Prado at the Trade Deadline in an effort to sneak into the playoffs. That didn’t work out, but it was hardly the fault of Prado, who posted a 145 OPS+ in 37 games. They understandably tried to turn that run into a promising pitcher in Nathan Eovaldi, but that didn’t quite work out either.

Shortstop: Otis Johnson

Had I done this over the offseason, Anthony Volpe would’ve qualified at that time, but he has now played in a second season with the Yankees. Instead, let’s dig back into the history books and go with Johnson in 1911. You would think a 102 OPS+ at shortstop would get him another look, but Johnson never played in New York or anywhere else after that year. That’s likely due to him striking out a lot for the era, and not being a great fielder, at shortstop or anywhere else.

Third Base: Aaron Boone

You know why.

Left Field: Raúl Ibañez

Again, you know why.

Center Field: Cameron Maybin

While he got most of his time in right, Maybin also played some center field in 2019, so we’re going to put him there so we can fit in some others. As part of the incredible run of production the Yankees got from the “next man up” call-ups that year, Maybin slugged a career-high 11 homers and put up a 127 OPS+ in 82 games with the Yankees that year. He became enough of a well-liked figure to later get an all-too-brief broadcasting gig on the YES Network after he retired from playing.

Right Field: Bobby Bonds

Although the deal that acquired the father of a certain former Major Leaguer is often remembered for sending away the beloved Bobby Murcer, in terms of on the field production, it worked out just fine. Bonds put up an excellent 151 OPS+ and 5.1 rWAR as he posted a 30/30 season in 1975. As impressive as that year way, the Yankees opted to flip him to the Angels after just one year. That deal worked out pretty well too, as they added Mickey Rivers and Ed Figueroa in exchange, both of whom helped the Yankees got over the World Series hump in the next couple years.

Designated Hitter: Matt Carpenter

Here’s how well Carpenter hit during his run with the 2022 Yankees: his career Yankee OPS+, 216, is higher than Babe Ruth’s: 209. The only other players of whom that’s true have 10 or fewer plate appearances.