There was a runner on first base and no outs in the fifth inning. New York Yankees third baseman Oswald Peraza stood at the plate and watched Colorado Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland’s 87.2 mph cutter hang middle-in and chest high. Peraza tore into it for a line-drive RBI double to left-center field, breaking a 1-1 tie in what became a 10-run frame for the Yankees.
“Give him a chance to play every single day, good things are going to happen,” right fielder Aaron Judge said via the YES Network about Peraza after the Yankees’ 13-1 beatdown of the Rockies on Saturday.
That might be true.
Except, so far, the Yankees haven’t wanted to play Peraza every single day, nor has he produced much in the chances he’s received.
Oswald Peraza puts the Yankees in the LEAD! 💥 pic.twitter.com/fvU6BVDo43
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 24, 2025
It’s been a slow slide for Peraza since he lost a battle for Opening Day starting shortstop with Anthony Volpe at the end of spring training in 2023. He’s gone from top prospect — even starting a game in the 2022 playoffs — to well-regarded talent to someone the organization clearly doesn’t expect big things from. And he hasn’t proved them wrong yet.
Peraza is hitting .167 with a .241 on-base percentage, two home runs and a .560 OPS in 32 games and 79 plate appearances. He had more than three times the number of strikeouts (20) compared with walks (6). He went 0-for-4 in the Yankees’ 5-4 win over the Rockies in Sunday’s series finale.
The lack of production has come at a time when third base was open for the taking. The club didn’t improve the position in the offseason after it shifted Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base and after DJ LeMahieu strained his calf toward the beginning of spring training. The Yankees have tried a mix of Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera, Pablo Reyes and Jorbit Vivas at the position, and they entered Sunday with a combined 61 wRC+ — the second worst in the game. Cabrera fractured his ankle May 12 and likely won’t play again this season.
Cabrera’s injury particularly struck Peraza. They were roommates in Double A and Triple A.
“He’s like my brother,” Peraza said.
Peraza was once a can’t-miss in the Yankees’ universe. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him the No. 3 prospect in the organization going into 2023, behind the top-ranked Volpe and Jasson Domínguez. Law had also ranked Peraza as the No. 76 prospect in the game that year.
Peraza’s defense has never been a question. Many viewed him as a better defender than Volpe going in 2023 — the season Volpe won a Gold Glove. But Peraza’s modest offensive success (.776 OPS) at Triple A hasn’t translated to the majors.
It’s not for lack of effort. Peraza is known as a hard worker on the field and off of it. The Venezuelan has also improved his English to where he’s comfortable doing some interviews in his second language.
“I’m getting a lot of experience,” he said earlier this month. “But if I’m not playing every day, I’m watching the game. A lot of my teammates are superstars, and I talk with my teammates every day.”
Hitting coach James Rowson said Peraza has been making improvements, particularly with his swing and his approach. Rowson said Peraza has done a better job swinging through the baseball.
“You’re in that position where you’re able to get behind the baseball and drive through it,” the hitting coach said. “You can see when the ball strikes the barrel, you can tell it’s square and there’s room for it to go. I think he’s getting to that point where he’s doing that more consistently.”
Rowson added that Peraza has better learned to game plan at the plate, too.
“For me,” Rowson said, “it’s not always whether or not he gets a hit. It’s whether or not he made the pitcher work. Whether the pitcher had to work for the out. Did he have to make a good pitch to get the out? … We’ve seen him be able to lay off poor pitches and also square up when guys make mistakes, and I continue to see that, and that’s just going to get better from where it’s at right now.”
Yet the results haven’t turned up for Peraza, whom the Yankees gave a $175,000 signing bonus in 2016.
Despite higher-end bat speed and power potential, he’s had trouble making contact. Entering Sunday, his 34.3 percent whiff rate was well above MLB average (25 percent). He also was having trouble with making contact with pitches in the strike zone (75.2 percent) compared with the average hitter (82.1 percent). And that’s despite seeing lots of pitches in the zone (54.4 percent) compared with everyone else (48.7 percent).
Plus, Pereza’s approach might need refinement. Baseball Prospectus’ SEAGER statistic measures hitters’ abilities to make good swing decisions. Peraza’s 2.4 SEAGER rating was the Yankees’ worst.
Peraza said he’s been feeling “more comfortable” with his swing and that he’s making “a lot of adjustments every day.”
Chisholm has been on the injured list since May 2 with a strained right oblique. He could start a rehab assignment this week. When he returns, either Chisholm or LeMahieu will likely slide to third base, cutting deeper into Peraza’s playing time.
“I want to play every day for the New York Yankees,” Peraza said. “I can’t control that. I practice every day. I want to play every day. For sure, I want to play here for a long time.”
That might not happen if Peraza doesn’t turn things around.
(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
