Yankees should field better, pitching, hitting roughly same
NEW YORK — The Yankees should field better this season. Whether they’ve improved on the mound and at the plate remains to be seen.
New York’s key moves after its 12th straight unsuccessful season were to trade catcher Gary Sanchez and acquire shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa in a move that allows Gleyber Torres to play second base.
Sanchez led the AL in passed balls in three of the last five seasons, and pitchers threw 60 wild pitches with Sanchez behind the plate last year, a career high. Torres was moved to second base last Sept. 13 after making 18 errors, second-most among AL shortstops at the time of his move.
“We feel by doing this trade that we’ve upgraded defensively and offensively at third, defensively at shortstop, placed Gleyber at a position he’s best at — at second base — so on the infield side, we’ve upgraded three different ways,” general manager Brian Cashman said. “And improved the defense on the catching side, as well. It was with one transaction with one particular team that solved a lot of areas of focus that we had targeted.”
Kiner-Falefa was third among qualified AL shortstops
with 10 defensive runs saved last year, while Torres was at minus-10.
“He’s going to get that chance to be that everyday guy and run with it. Doesn’t lack confidence, he’s going to bring some athleticism to defense,” Cashman said.
Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, was acquired in the trade and takes over at third from Gio Urshela, who was dealt to the Twins along with Sanchez, Now 36, Donaldson had 26 homers and 72 RBIs last year, well off the 41 homers and 123 RBIs of his MVP season.
“The reality is, we have a lot of great people in that
room, a lot of great players in that room, and for all the ups and downs that we had last year, we still managed to get to the playoffs with all those guys,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We also feel like there’s guys in there, a handful of guys, that didn’t have their best year, and we certainly expect guys to come and in some cases hopefully continue to duplicate what they’ve done but hopefully we’re able to see some improvement with guys as well. There’s no excuses no matter what happens. We expect to be a great team. The expectations are high in that room and that won’t change.”