Friday, March 24, 2017

Replacing Didi Gregorius: Part One


The New York Yankees will be without their starting shortstop for at least the first month of the 2017 campaign after losing him to a sore shoulder while with Team Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic. Now before you think this is about to turn into another “The WBC is played too damn early in the season” rant, and trust me I feel another one of those coming but I’ll refrain for now, I’d rather spend my time and energy into discussing and plotting on how to replace Didi Gregorius. We will break this down into a two-part sessions and focus on potential trades in one post, this post, and later on we will discuss internal options. Enjoy them both.

The Cincinnati Reds have made basically anyone and everyone that isn’t tied down available and reportedly the New York Yankees have already shown preliminary interest in Zack Cozart. The Detroit Tigers are also in the midst of a rebuild and have at least began discussing deals for Jose Iglesias although the New York Yankees have not publicly shown any interest in pursuing a deal with the Tigers for their shortstop.

Both players make more money than the Yankees are presumably willing to take on for a month of the season. Cozart is a free agent following the 2017 season and is set to make $5.325 million this season which should be more money than any team is comfortable paying for essentially a bench player. Now the financial hit is a little less significant in the case of Iglesias, the Tigers shortstop is set to make $4.1 million in 2017, but is still in the area of discomfort when it comes to paying a glorified bench player.

Looking around the league the possible shortstops that could be acquired for a decent price include the Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Freddie Galvis and Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed with the usual dark horse thrown in there, as always. The bottom line is though that it’s just for a month and as I explain later on today the Yankees have plenty already on the roster to fill in for a month. There’s no need to make a panic move here ladies and gentleman. Period.

Get well soon Didi.


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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)