The New York Yankees have made it their mission to stockpile
their farm system with usable, and potentially tradeable, talent for a couple of
seasons now and the team will finally see the fruits of their labor as soon as
the 2017 season. While the Yankees are still the Yankees, and Brian Cashman’s
decision making is still as questionable as ever when you look at the Chris
Carter signing for example, the team is finally turning the corner in the
prospects department. New York has traded away Brian McCann to give the
everyday catching duties to Gary Sanchez and the team has also plugged in young
guys like Greg Bird at first base with the retirement of Mark Teixeira but
there are two names that are seemingly going to have to fight for their spots.
Those two men are right fielder Aaron Judge and infielder/outfielder Tyler
Austin.
Just six months ago both Judge and Austin made their MLB
debuts and just six months ago both players went back-to-back in their MLB
debuts hitting home runs in their first MLB at bats. Now both men find
themselves facing a numbers game at the MLB level that is not helped by the
fact that both players have minor league options remaining.
Judge fought an oblique strain at the end of last season that
ended his Yankees-trial just 27 games into it. Judge showed promise at the
plate in the power department but much like he had in the minor leagues the
right-hander struggled laying off breaking balls off the plate resulting in too
many strikeouts to be comfortable with. Well, I guess that’s not really a thing
anymore with sabermetrics where strikeouts count the same as hitting a 400 foot
fly out to dead center field inside Yankee Stadium but I can see where some
fans are concerned regardless. Especially when you consider the Yankees just
signed Chris Carter who strikes out 200+ times a season but I digress. New York
seems comfortable handing the reigns to the right field job to Aaron Hicks, a
switch hitter, on a daily basis which may be trouble for Judge. This will be a
spring training competition to watch although the Yankees organization is
saying all the right things with Judge which can only help.
Austin on the other hand seems like he may be the odd man
out. After the signings of Carter, a first baseman and DH only at this point in
his career, and Matt Holliday, a first baseman, DH and occasional outfielder if
needed, the Yankees may simply not have enough room to carry Austin as well.
Austin has spent time in the minor leagues playing first base, third base and
the outfield and would be the perfect fit for the Yankees bench but the problem
is the team can only bring 25 players, period. Austin may lose the numbers game
despite being the best man for the job.
Both players were not required to show up to Yankees camp
until Saturday yet both men showed up early to take batting practice off Adam
Warren and Luis Cessa this week. Both men are facing an uphill battle and both
men seem ready to fight for the job and that is what the Yankees need more than
anything at this point. They need that fire and that will to fight and these
two men have it. This is going to be one of the more interesting spring
trainings we’ve seen down at George M. Steinbrenner Field in a long, long time.
Stay tuned.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)