Yankees Third Basemen Through the Decades
The Yankees have had some real questions at third base over the years. Unlike shortstop or first base, where they tend to lock in a guy for a while, third base has been a revolving door situation for most of the team's existence. The early years had guys like Everett Scott, then some experimentation. Babe Ruth actually played there for a few games before moving to left field permanently. Not the kind of organizational stability you want at any position. Joe DiMaggio's era wasn't really about third base anyway. The Yankees had players like Bobby Brown and Tony Kubek, solid defenders who didn't always hit well enough to hold the job. Kubek played from 1947 to 1958 and was more of a utility player than an everyday star. The team won seven World Series during that stretch, and third base was never the headline position. Then came Graig Nettles. He was the prototype Yankees third baseman — 15 years with the team from 1970 to 1983, with a brief trade to Cleveland and Milwaukee before returning for parts of 1989 and 1990. Nettles was a three-time AL Gold Glove winner and led the AL in home runs twice. He drove in 100+ runs four separate seasons. That was the gold standard, and every Yankee third baseman after him got compared to him unfairly.
Scott Brosius filled that void during the late 90s. He wasn't Nettles, obviously, but he won ALCS MVP in 1998 and hit .300 with 31 home runs in 1999. The 2000s brought Alex Rodriguez over from Seattle, which was a seismic shift. AROD played third base from 2001 to 2007 before jumping to shortstop when Derek Jeter was hurt, then back to third after the move to short became permanent. AROD was an absolute force at the position — three AL MVP awards, 54 home runs in 2002, 52 in 2007. But his time in pinstripes got complicated by the PED allegations that surfaced later. After AROD left for Florida, the Yankees basically had nothing at third base for years. Kevin Youkilis signed as a free agent in 2013, Chase Headley followed in 2014 and was actually decent for a couple of seasons before injuries took over. Daniel Murphy signed briefly in 2018. The cycle repeated itself with Gleyber Torres sliding over from second base in 2022, which felt like another solution that didn't quite fit. He can play there but isn't a natural, and his production at the position has been average at best. Anthony Volpe has spent time at third base too, mainly as a defensive replacement or when roster construction forced it. He's a shortstop by trade. The current situation involves Oswaldo Cabrera and other utility-type players filling in, which is exactly the kind of situation the Yankees have been stuck in since the Headley experiment ended.
I remember digging into old Yankees box scores from the Nettles era while researching something else entirely, and what struck me was how consistent he was year to year. He played 155 games in 1977, 157 in 1978, 156 in 1980. That kind of availability at a position where guys your age start breaking down by 32 was unusual. Modern third basemen rarely play more than 140 games anymore because teams protect their arms. The Yankees didn't have that luxury back then, and Nettles just kept showing up. One thing nobody talks about much: the Yankees' third base situation got a lot worse after 2007 because of how the front office prioritized spending. They poured money into AROD at short, then later into Jeter, then into first base with Justin Turner and others. Third base got squeezed. When you look at the payroll allocation, the Yankees consistently underinvested at the hot corner compared to other positions, which is why you see this pattern of mid-tier free agents coming in and out every few years. Stats for reference — Yankees third basemen with the highest WAR in franchise history: Graig Nettles at 55.6 WAR, Alex Rodriguez at 43.4 WAR, Bobby Abreu at 23.1 WAR in his single season there, Scott Brosius at 18.7 WAR. That gap between Nettles/AROD and everyone else is massive. It shows how rare it is for the Yankees to actually get an elite third baseman, and why every new guy gets scrutinized so heavily.
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Looking ahead, the Yankees have Jasson Dominguez and other prospects in the system, but none of them project as everyday third basemen right now. The organization might need to take a different approach entirely — either trade for a proven name or accept that third base will continue being a rotational question rather than a settled position. It's been that way for most of the franchise's history, and there's no reason to think it will change soon.
