Yankees prospect Oswald Peraza: Should New York promote SS from AAA?

The New York Yankees enter a pivotal stretch of games in the 2022 MLB season. The Yankees still have a nice cushion on the AL East crown ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. New York will see plenty of those two teams in the stretch of games in August and September. The Yankees went into the MLB Trade Deadline needing to make some noise. They did exactly that by adding SP Frankie Montas, LF Andrew Benintendi and a few solid bullpen arms. But are all those additions enough to put the Bronx Bombers over the edge? Perhaps not.

Fans have been calling for the Yankees to bring up Oswald Peraza, who is the No. 2 ranked player in their system behind SS Anthony Volpe. The difference between those two is Peraza is in AAA and Volpe remains in AA. The Yankees have been using the combination of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Marwin Gonzalez at short for most of the season. Every now and then Gleyber Torres goes back to SS.

New York hasn't gotten anything from IKF and Gonzalez in the form of production at the plate. IKF gets on but hasn't homered this season. He also has 11 errors on the year, which is in the top-10 among shortstops. Gonzalez showed some promise early in the year as a UTIL man but that's really all he's good for at this point, the ability to play multiple positions. He isn't sniffing the OF once Harrison Bader is back. The infield is crowded as well. The Yankees could rotate Peraza and IKF at short and see if the youngsters bat translates.

Peraza is only 22 years old, so he's on the young side. This is the part you mention Derek Jeter. Peraza isn't the Jeter prospect (Volpe would be closer). Peraza does have some pop with 14 HRs and 16 doubles in Triple-A. That's certainly more potential offensive upside than IKF and Gonzalez. Peraza also has 25 stolen bases, an aspect of the game that is close to extinct for the Yankees. The Yankees lineup lacks speed but could get much better with Andrew Benintendi and Peraza in there.

The Yankees should at least give Peraza a shot in September when rosters expand. See if he can hack and if not, try not to get him too discouraged. Really getting a taste of the MLB at 22 is a very, very good sign. If he performs well enough, you just gave yourself another bat/element that will be tough for opponents to game plan for in the playoffs. That seems unlikely but its baseball, crazier things have happened.

  
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