The New York Yankees fell just short in their pursuit of a former All-Star shortstop who was recently let go by the Atlanta Braves.

The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported that both the Yankees and New York Mets offered minor league deals to Orlando Arcia, who instead jumped at the opportunity for a role in the majors with the woebegone Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies, who lost a three-game series to the Yankees this past weekend, are currently off to the worst start in modern MLB history at 9-46. The club entered Wednesday with the third-lowest OPS in the league at .642 despite playing their home games at the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field, and the hope is that Arcia can help them turn things around while improving his own stats in a new environment.

The 30-year-old was an instrumental piece on back-to-back 100-win Braves teams in 2022 and 2023, slashing .258/.319/.419 across 767 plate appearances over that stretch while earning a trip to the Midsummer Classic in the latter of those two years.

Arcia, who also won a World Series with Atlanta in 2021, hasn’t lived up to his prior standard over the past two campaigns, however, batting .216/.269/.347 in 171 games since 2024.

Though he has some big league experience at second base, third base and the outfield, an overwhelming majority of Arcia’s playing time has come at shortstop.

Perhaps the Yankees viewed him as a potential bench upgrade somewhere down the line over Oswald Peraza, Jorbit Vivas and/or Pablo Reyes, though the infield is already set to become rather crowded once Jazz Chisholm Jr. returns from an oblique injury in the near future.

With third base remaining a major position of need for the club ahead of the July 31 trade deadline, however, the organization may have also been willing to mess with their alignment a bit and give Arcia a try before pursuing more substantial upgrades this summer.

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