Late in the evening yesterday the New York Yankees acquired infielder/outfielder
Brandon Drury from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-team trade that included
the Tampa Bay Rays. When the dust settled the Yankees acquired Drury while giving
up prospects Nick Solak and Taylor Widener while the Diamondbacks got Steven
Souza Jr. The Rays, as always, received prospects back in the deal. Last night
I mentioned in my initials thoughts on the trade that Drury would be the
Yankees starting third baseman on Opening Day, but now that I have had a night
to sleep on it and really give it some thought and research I think I have changed
my mind just a bit. I think Drury will be the Yankees starting second baseman
on Opening Day 2018, and here’s why.
The New York Yankees have a tough pitching staff, but the
pitchers can only do so much. The team needs defense behind their starters for
any pitcher to be successful and looking at defensive metrics it just makes
sense for Drury to start at second base. Drury has 1,067 innings at second base
in his career with a .976 fielding percentage and above average stats in
Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), although Drury did
spend just 620 innings at second base during his minor league career. Despite
logging over 3,000 minor league innings at third base Drury has played just 311
Major League innings at the hot corner posting below average defensive metrics.
With the need for defense behind their pitchers and defensive metrics on their
side it only makes sense that New York would start Drury at second base where
he excels, and not third base where he would presumably do no better
defensively than Miguel Andujar.
Allowing Drury to man second base gives Miguel Andujar at
least two-to-three weeks to prove to the Yankees that he belongs in the Major
Leagues and has made strides defensively to stick at third base long term,
maybe a bit longer. If Andujar shows the Yankees that he needs a little more
time to work on his defense he can easily be sent back down to Triple-A
Scranton when Gleyber Torres is deemed ready, especially since Gleyber can play
either second base or third base for New York. If Andujar is excelling at the
position then he could easily stay there while Torres takes over second base,
essentially moving Drury to the bench as a super utility player and possibly
forcing Ronald Torreyes off the team and/or the 40-man roster.
The Yankees have tons of versatility and quite a few options
now that they have acquired Brandon Drury, a lot more realistic options than
they had just a day ago at this time, so there is no rush to make a decision or
make a decision based off the future. These decisions need to be made for the
now, and in the now it only makes sense for Drury to be your starting second
baseman on Opening Day and Miguel Andujar be your starting third baseman when
the 2018 season starts.
I guess Toe could be traded.
ReplyDeleteI like him as a utility player but if Torres and Andujar are ready then Drury who has more power would be better offensive option than Toe.
Let's go Yankees
Sounds like third base is preferred destination based on Brian Cashman's words. I am still hopeful that Gleyber Torres, despite his youth, takes 2nd and runs with it even if he has to spend a couple of weeks in Scranton. I think the kid is going to be a special player. I've known that Cashman has long desired Drury but I found it interesting that he's been trying to get Drury through three Arizona management regimes (the late Kevin Towers to Dave Stewart to Mike Hazen). I don't want to hold back Andujar but I really want to see what Drury can do. There's a reason that Cashman is so high on him and the guy is only 25. I don't necessarily like trying to compare Drury to Didi, but I don't think any of us thought that Didi would be an All-Star caliber shortstop when he first arrived. I think the best player will win the third base job, be it Drury or Andujar. It's a good problem to have.
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