Bring me Justin Upton

The New York Yankees, and this is just my opinion, experiment of having two lead-off type hitters at the top of the order has failed miserably in their two-year experiment. Having two speedy guys to set the tone for the big boppers in the middle of the lineup is a great idea in theory, it turns solo home runs presumably into two-or-three run home runs but the game is not played in theory. The game is played in real life and when you have a Brett Gardner and a Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the lineup, both left-handed by the way (more on that later), you need to also be stealing runs and creating runs with your legs. The Yankees did not do that in 2014 nor did they do that in 2015 which leaves me wanting to leave the left-handed heavy lineup more balanced at the top and the team’s lineup more potent against left-handed starting pitching, and that’s where Justin Upton comes into play.

This one is going to be tricky but I run a blog called “The Greedy Pinstripes” for free while Joe Girardi gets paid, and paid well, to make the decisions on the field and get everyone the work that they need. The Yankees outfield is very left-handed heavy with Ellsbury and Gardner pure left-handed hitters with Carlos Beltran, albeit a switch hitter, with splits leaning heavily in his favor as a left-handed hitter opposed to him as a right-handed hitter. Adding Justin Upton into some sort of rotation (since both Ellsbury and Gardner can play center field and Upton can play both corner outfield positions) would not only be ideal for the team I think it would be ideal for Upton as well.

Upton struggled a bit in San Diego with the Padres and would laugh in the faces of anyone who tells him it’s tough to hit home runs inside Yankee Stadium as a right-handed bat. Upton was long thought to be a Yankee before being traded to the Atlanta Braves and then again to the Padres and Cashman usually tends to get his man, even if it’s a few years late and especially when it’s just for money. The only thing here is whether Hal is willing to open up his purse strings a little and Girardi can convince him that he’s going to get enough at bats between left field, right field and DH.