Mariners Rumors: Former trade acquisition drawing free agency interest from Yankees

Not every team has been as passive as the Seattle Mariners this offseason. After barely losing out on re-signing Juan Soto, the New York Yankees have been doing as much as they can to supplement the roster without him.

Now that they've gotten pitching and outfield help, they've turned their focus towards the infield. More specifically, they're hoping to fill the void left by Gleyber Torres at second base and have set their sights on a surprising target.

It was recently reported that the Bronx Bombers have been taking a closer look at acquiring Jorge Polanco, who became a free agent after the Mariners declined the team option on his contract. The idea is that he and Jazz Chisholm, who recently signed a $5.85 million contract to avoid arbitration, would split time between second and third base. The choice to target infielders coming off of down years seems consistent with their most recent free agent signing, but is there more to this move in particular?

Few Mariners fans need a reminder of how disappointing Polanco's on-field performance was in 2024, but we'll give you the numbers anyway. Polanco posted a 93 OPS+ and -1 Defensive Run Saved over 118 games, cumulatively worth 1.3 rWAR. He added only slightly more value than Randy Arozarena and Justin Turner, both of whom weren't added to the roster until the trade deadline. So do the Yankees know something that the Mariners don't about Polanco?

After the All-Star Break, he was actually starting to turn things around. He had an outstanding July, posting a .783 OPS over 89 plate appearances, and it seems that the time off he took in June helped him get back on track. Throughout his 11 full seasons, he has only been offensively below-average thrice. In 2021, he had a career-best 125 OPS+ with 33 home runs — outstanding numbers for a second baseman — so there's a chance he could return to his career averages. If his player option was for less than $12 million or the Mariners had more liberal spending policies, they may have even chosen to run it back with him in 2025.

Now that he's a free agent, the Yankees have more flexibility with how they want to pay and play him. Given his most recent numbers, there's still some uncertainty to navigate. For Polanco, he has sufficient service time to sign a lengthier free agent contract, but even if he found a team willing to give him one, the value would likely be lower than he's hoping for since it would be disproportionately dragged down by his 2024. This gives both parties incentives to commit to a shorter contract.

It wouldn't be the first time this offseason someone made the jump from Seattle to New York, but there's more of an emotional stake with this potential acquisition. If Polanco returns to his peak, it would be a tough pill for the Mariners to swallow to see yet another player find success directly after leaving.

After all, it already happened with newly crowned World Series champion Teoscar Hernández. In the meantime, the front office needs to stay focused on filling in their own infield gaps before they run out of options.