The New York Yankees appear to be in primary pursuit of Eugenio Suarez as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. While the Yankees need a third baseman to improve their defense and provide extra home run power to join Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, they are likely to have quite a bit of company when it comes to pursuing the slugging third sacker. Even though senior vice president/general manager Brian Cashman has been successful in the past at pursuing trade deadline targets, there is no guarantee that he will be successful this time around.

The Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners are among the teams that also need a third baseman, and the New York Mets could get involved because they may want to prevent the Yankees — or any of the other teams getting their man.

So, if the Yankees are not successful in their pursuit of Suarez or if they decide that the price will be too high to make the deal worthwhile, they may want to turn their attention to third baseman Nolan Arenado of the St. Louis Cardinals. That suggestion was made by former major leaguer Erik Krantz. The former player had 11 season in the big leagues, including two with the Yankees

Arenado has long been considered one of the best defensive third basemen in baseball, and that his skill with the glove ranks with some of the best at his position in the history of the game. However, Arenado is not the offensive threat he was when he was in his prime with the Colorado Rockies.

Yankees would like to pursue Suarez

Suarez is having a huge season for the Diamondbacks. He is slashing .252/.325/.593 with 36 home runs and a National League-best 86 runs batted in. He hit a career high 49 home runs for the Cincinnati Reds in the 2019 season. The Diamondbacks are reportedly looking for a windfall if they trade Suarez by the deadline.

Arenado got off to a solid offensive start this season, but he is slashing .241/.299/.379 at this point in the season for the Cardinals with 10 home runs and 43 RBI. He hit 16 home runs and drove in 71 runs last year. Arenado’s production has fallen considerably over the last three seasons.

The Yankees could clearly use a solid third baseman. They have moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base and they have been using Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas as their primary third baseman since they parted company with D.J. LeMahieu.

While Suarez is far more productive than Arenado at this point, Arenado would appear to be a better alternative than Peraza or Vivas