Drury rehab over, but Andujar stays
If the Yankees didn’t share the best record in baseball with the Red Sox, hadn’t won 19-of-22 games and Miguel Andujar was drowning in oxygen at the plate, it’s possible Brandon Drury would be joining the Yankees in Washington on Tuesday night.
However, the Yankees are 28-12 entering a two-game series with the Nationals, tied with the Red Sox for the AL East lead as play began Monday, Andujar hasn’t been overmatched at the plate and isn’t hurting the Yankees at third base.
So the Yankees activated Drury from the 10-day disabled list Monday and optioned the third baseman to Triple-A Scranton / WilkesBarre.
“When we have a decision, we will put it out there,’’ general manager Brian Cashman said Monday morning when asked if the club had made a decision on what to do with Drury because his 20-day minor league rehab assignment formally ended Monday. Later in the day the club announced the move.
Drury, who hasn’t played in a big-league game since April 6 due to migraine headaches and blurry vision, had no problem with minor league pitching or playing third base.
“He has played well offensively and defensively,’’ Cash- man said of the 25-year-old, whom the Yankees acquired from the Diamondbacks at the beginning of spring training in a three-way trade that included the Rays.
In a combined 17 games between Double-A Trenton and SWB, Drury went 17-for-54 (.315) with two homers and seven RBIs. He batted .343 (12for-35) with a homer, five RBIs, a .452 on-base percentage and a .967 OPS in 11 games for SWB. In six games for Trenton, Drury hit .263 (5-for-19) with a homer, two RBIs, a .400 OBP and a .821 OPS.
As part of his rehab assignment, Drury played in both games of a doubleheader May 11 for SWB, which was a strong indication he was healthy.
Some point to Andujar not having produced an extra-base hit in his last 14 games (staring April 29) as a concern because he plays a corner position. However, Aaron Boone sees something good in that dip that included a .241 (13-for-54) average and a .495 OPS.
“I think the thing that I have been most pleased with is he obviously had that couple of weeks’ stretch where he was hitting extra-base hits all the time and impacting the ball. But I think what he has shown me here in the last week or two where he hasn’t been on fire at the plate is he is still giving competitive at-bats, still coming up with big hits for us. Even when he is not completely locked in I still feel he is a presence,’’ Boone said. “The defense continues to improve, he is working really hard and making all the plays. I think he is close offensively [to] kind of getting locked back in again where he impacts the ball.’’
Prior to the extra-base hit slump, Andujar had 16 extrabase hits (12 doubles, one triple, three homers and nine RBIs ) in a dozen games from April 13-28. During that stretch Andujar batted .429 (21-for-49) with a 1.338 OPS.
Andujar carries a six-game hitting streak (8-for-25; .320) into Tuesday night’s game.