Oswald Peraza will begin the season on the injured list

Oswald Peraza, who would have been the backup infielder on the Opening Day roster, will have to miss the beginning of the season due to an injury. He is valuable since he can reliably play shortstop, second base and third base.

He is more known for his defense than his offense. This is the case for many backups in the infield and outfield. It’s likely that they will decide to one of two players acquired in the offseason to fill his role or they have a few other options in the minors who have some MLB experience.

Aaron Boone announced on Friday that Peraza will be shut down for 6–8 weeks with a subscapularis strain in his right shoulder. A week before on March 1, Boone announced that Peraza “still had some pinching” in his throwing shoulder when he tried to throw across the infield. The Yankees thought the issue was minor at that time but his shoulder issue turned into a not minor issue that will keep him at least the first month and a half of the season since he would basically have to go through a spring training and a minor league assignment after recovering.

“I want to give everything I have for the team, but there’s certain things I can’t control,” Peraza said about his injury diagnosis. “I’m really devastated about this.”

Jeter Downs could be an infielder that the Yankees choose to fill Peraza’s role on the team.

On December 19, 2023, the Yankees claimed Downs off of waivers. One month later, he was designated for assignment to make room for Diego Castillo on the 40-man roster. Downs cleared waivers on January 24 and was sent outright to the Triple–A Scranton Railriders.

Downs was the №44 prospect in minor league baseball by Jonathan Mayo of MLB.Com pre 2020 and the №49 prospect in minor league baseball by Jonathan Mayo pre 2021. He also played in the 2021 Futures Game, which is for the best prospects in minor league baseball.

In 20 games in the majors in his career he has a low .182 average with a .260 on-base percentage, one homer, one double and five RBI. He played in six games with the Nationals last season and had a .400 average (2–5) with two steals and in 2022 he played in 14 games and had a .154 average (6–39) with a high amount of 21 strikeouts in his 41 plate appearances, one homer and four RBI.

He is known for his speed since he had 11 steals in 60 games in the minors in 2023, 18 steals in 81 games at Triple-A in 2022, 18 steals in 99 games at Triple-A in 2021 and 37 steals in 120 games at Single-A Dayton in 2018 in his first full minor league season.

So far in spring training Downs has played in eight games. He has a .214 average (3–14) with two doubles and three RBI in the eight games he has played in spring training in the Grapefruit League.

He has made a fantastic Derek Jeter like play where he went into the hole between shortstop and third base and made an impressive jump throw to first like Jeter often did. He was the Red Sox №5 prospect going into the 2022 season and when playing in MLB with the Red Sox in the 2022 season he made this impressive play at third base.

It’s a plus that Downs can play shortstop, second and third base like Peraza can. He was named for Jeter. Downs has always liked being named after Jeter and really looks up to him.

“I have always loved it,’’ Downs told Jonathan Mayo in 2018. “Jeter was one of my favorite players growing up, just the way he carried himself on and off the field. He was a good role model to look up to as a kid.”

Downs’s father played professional baseball in Colombia. Downs was born in 1998, which was during the Yankees 125-win World Series season. The 1998 season was Jeter’s third MLB season and he had already made an impact on so many people.

He was born in Colombia and moved to Miami in order for him and his brother to have better baseball opportunities. He attended high school in Miami Gardens and was the team’s shortstop.

Downs was drafted by the Reds in the first round (32nd overall selection) in 2017. He played in the minors with the Reds in 2017 and 2018 and then was traded to the Dodgers along with Homer Bailey and fellow minor leaguer Josiah Gray for Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood and Kyle Farmer.

In 2019, he played the majority of the season with the High-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and was selected to the mid-season California League all-star game and post-season league all-star team.

He was a minor leaguer involved in another blockbuster trade after the 2019 season since on February 10, 2020 the Dodgers traded Downs, Alex Verdugo and Connor Wong to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts, David Price and cash.

Verdugo and Downs were both in that trade that sent Betts to the Dodgers and they are now both on the Yankees. Verdugo is going to be the Opening Day left fielder and should be able to help improve the team’s OBP if he can play like he did in 2020 and 2021.

It has been a rare occasion that the historic rivals have made a trade with each other. In total, there have only been seven trades between the Red Sox and Yankees since the divisional era began in 1969. Also, 2023 was just the third calendar year in baseball history with multiple trades between the Red Sox and Yankees involving players on both sides, and it was the first since 1932.

Downs has not quite lived up to expectations after being a first round draft pick but he could be a valuable piece off of the bench on defense for the Yankees this season. Downs, who is 5-foot-11, 197-pound, could have a role that he did not expect to have when the Yankees signed him off of waivers since Peraza likely would have been on the Opening Day roster if healthy.

Downs had his first career MLB hit at Fenway Park against the Yankees. His only homer in his 20 MLB games came at Yankee Stadium off of Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.

Downs played most of the 2023 season at three minor league levels, batting .222 (40-for-180) in 60 games. He played 51 of those 60 games at Triple-A Rochester and had 11 steals in those 51 games.

Downs has two errors in his 20 MLB games with one coming at second base and one coming at third base. In Peraza’s 70 MLB games, he has four errors with three of those coming at third base.

In his 121 games at second base in the minors, Downs had 13 errors and a .975 fielding percentage. In his 379 games at shortstop in the minors, Downs had 72 errors with a .945 fielding percentage. His best position in the minors out of the two was at second base.

Other infield options besides Oswaldo Cabrera, who is very likely to be on the roster as a backup infielder and outfielder, are Kevin Smith, Josh VanMeter, Jahmai Jones and Jorbit Vivas. It’s a plus that Vivas is already on the 40-man roster.

Vivas is an intriguing option who the Yankees got back in the trade this offseason with the Dodgers for relief pitcher Victor Gonzalez. Vivas plays second base and third base and signed with the Dodgers as an international free agent in July 2017. On November 19, 2021, the Dodgers added Vivas to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

In 2022, in 128 games at High-A he had 10 homers, 19 doubles, seven triples, 66 RBI, a .269 average and a very good .374 OBP. In 2023, he played in 135 games with 109 of those coming at Double-A and 26 coming at Triple-A, and had 13 homers, 25 doubles, 63 RBI, 25 steals, a .269 average and a very good .381 OBP.

Vivas would likely have more of an offensive impact than Downs would but it is most important that the backup infielder be very reliable on defense.