Fielding ideas
Once promising Yankees infield now full of questions
The loss of Didi Gregorius for part — if not all — of 2019 is just the latest question to be raised about the Yankees’ infield.
Where once they seemed set not only at shortstop, but also at the other three positions, there are now potential holes to fill.
Instead of Greg Bird at first base for the foreseeable future, the Yankees can no longer count on the 25year-old to be an everyday player, let alone a fixture in the middle of the lineup.
During Friday’s year-end press conference at Yankee Stadium, Aaron Boone called 2018 “a little bit of a lost season for” Bird, who played in just 82 games, finished with an OPS of .672 and lost his job to Luke Voit.
Boone chalked some of Bird’s woes up to the March procedure in which he had a bone spur removed from his surgically-repaired right ankle. That ankle was the reason Bird was limited to 48 games in 2017 — a year after he sat out following offseason shoulder surgery.
Voit, an unheralded player when the Yankees acquired him — and international signing pool money — from St. Louis in exchange for lefty Chasen Shreve in July, looked like the 2015-version of Bird. Beginning Aug. 24, Voit slugged 14 homers in 32 games.
Still, Voit remains relatively unproven and had just one extra-base hit, a triple, in 21 postseason plate appearances.
“We’ll see how the offseason un- folds, but right now, he grabbed that job, no question about that,’’ Boone said of Voit.
But the manager wasn’t ready to rule out Bird.
“In some ways, he never got all the way back physically to, I think, where he’ll be next year,’’ Boone said. “I think there’s a realistic chance he comes into spring training next year, physically in a really good place with a chance of a normal offseason where he gets his body where he wants it. Hopefully the results from that will follow. He’ll have his opportunities. We’ve never lost sight of the fact that when he’s right, can really hit.”
Then there are the pleasant surprises of Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres.
The two rookies could both finish in the top three in voting for AL Rookie of the Year, along with the Angels’ two-way star, Shohei Ohtani.
Torres, after being called up in late April, took the AL East by storm and was the Yankees’ most productive hitter for periods during the first half. A hip injury, though, cost him three weeks in July and he wasn’t the same force at the plate.
Andujar’s issues are on defense. While he set a franchise record for a rookie with 47 doubles, the Yankees were so concerned about his glove with CC Sabathia on the mound that he didn’t get off the bench in the season-ending defeat in The Bronx. Boone, though, remains confident that if Andujar improves his footwork, he’ll be a reliable presence at third.
“This winter is important for him as far as that goes,’’ Boone said. “When I got here, there were all kinds of questions [about his defense]. He earned his at-bats with the way he swung the bat, but also by improving as much as he did defensively. Now it’s on all of us [to help him get better].’’
Then there’s Gregorius, who suffered a torn UCL during the ALDS. He figures to be sidelined after Tommy John surgery until at least June.
The Yankees could look for what Boone called a “stopgap” replacement at shortstop, but general manager Brian Cashman also made it clear Friday that he would investigate any possible targets, “whether it’s an everyday player or an insurance policy.”
Gregorius, though, was an integral part of the Yankees’ plans going into next year and despite their recent success and seemingly bright future, Cashman knows there’s no time to waste.
“Nobody knows how long a window stays open,’’ the GM said of the Yankees’ title aspirations. “No one cares about windows. They just care about championships.’’