Ben Francisco May Be Safe After All, For Now

I was thinking about what the Yankees are going to do when the plethora of players on the disabled list start getting healthy and return to the Bronx. Some are obvious as Chris Nelson is probably gone when Kevin Youkilis comes back, some are not so obvious like what we will do with the rotation when Michael Pineda comes back, and some are not as obvious as I once thought they were. Originally I thought that when Curtis Granderson came back we would see the end of Ben Francisco but on second thought that may not exactly be the case. The Yankees outfield is very left handed hitting heavy so it makes sense to keep Ben Francisco on the bench over left hander Brennan Boesch. The difference between Francisco and Boesch, besides the obvious sides of the plate that they both hit from, is that Brennan has a minor league option remaining that Francisco does not. This would make the Yankees more flexible with two right handed outfielder and three left handed outfielders and all of them can play multiple outfield positions, which always helps. As much as I hate to see Ben Francisco continue to stay on this team it makes too much sense to get rid of him for nothing when we can stash Brennan in the minors for the time being.