The New York Yankees are already planning on overextending Aaron Judge defensively.

New York Yankees v Oakland Athletics / Thearon W. Henderson/GettyImages

The troubles that plagued the New York Yankees outfield defense in 2023 appear to have been mostly solved this offseason. New York made two trades to acquire outfielders, one for rival Red Sox player Alex Verdugo, and another for San Diego Padres star Juan Soto.

After years in recent past featured a turnstile at left field and center field once Brett Gardner was gone (Harrison Bader was a good thought but often injured) the team looks positioned to finally have an outfield consisting of three decent fielders in Verdugo, Soto, and Aaron Judge. Presumably, Giancarlo Stanton will fill in as a fourth as needed for normal off days, and Trent Grisham will play a factor as well.

How they deploy those three primary players is up for some discussion, with manager Aaron Boone recently adding some hints to the discussion.

Aaron Judge is going to be all over the place in 2024… Will that work?

On an episode of Foul Territory, Boone said that Judge will play in center field, “a lot,” this season, and will even see some left field. Judge has primarily played right field, venturing into center field to fill a team need last year, and has never played left field in the majors.

Boone said the ultimate plan is a bit of a game of moving parts, with the goal to get Judge more off days and designated hitting days in exchange for moving him to left. Simply, it makes it simpler that way to plug in Grisham at center (his natural spot) on days that the DH slot won’t be available for Judge.

There’s no question about whether Judge would be willing or able to play left field. He’s a true pro who would do whatever helps the team, and is a pure athlete that can certainly figure it out in either of the field spots. But it’s not natural for him, and you have to wonder about if it runs the risk of pulling a star player out of a groove.

The Yankees were supposed to have gotten the pieces needed to give it more solutions in the outfield, keeping players at their natural spots, not make it more difficult.

Certainly, maybe we look back and think this works out. But the last person you want to overextend is your star athlete.