There are many things in this world I just don’t understand. Calculus. How to drive a stick shift. How to solve a Jumble. Why Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi have such faith in Stephen Drew.
Why does Drew still have a job? His current numbers are .177/.264/.345. Those are the lowest numbers of any second baseman in the American League. They are also lower than any other second baseman in the majors, with the exception of Chase Utley. But at least Utley 1) has the lowest BABIP in baseball this year, making him what FiveThirtyEight.com calls “the unluckiest man in baseball,” and 2) is a legendary player for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Drew, on the other hand, is best known for his career with the Boston Red Sox, a career that was in the toilet last year when Cashman traded for him. I imagine that Ben Cherington and the other folks in Boston’s front office are still snickering about getting the Yankees to pick up their garbage. Last year, Drew hit .176/.255/.328 for the Red Sox. His change of scenery with the Yankees did nothing to revitalize with him — he hit .150/.219/.271 for the Yankees.
I wrote in March that bringing back Drew never made any sense. Keeping him as a black hole in the lineup every day, just because Brian Cashman wants to save face after making the mistake to acquire him in the first place, makes even less sense.
When is this ridiculous experiment going to be over? The Stephen Drew Experience in Yankeeland has been half a season now, and it is still not above the Mendoza line. These numbers are no longer an “aberration,” as Cashman called them this spring. There is no longer the excuse that Drew started late, the way he did last year, or that he missed spring training. He had a full spring training with the Yankees this year — which was terrible, of course. He still stinks. Joe Girardi keeps putting him in the lineup, where he, along with Sir Didi Gregorius, are disasters at the bottom of the lineup.
Even though rookie Jose Pirela has been called up, he has gotten very little playing time. Granted, he hasn’t been setting the world on fire in his time as a Yankee so far this year, with a .238/.238/.286 slash line. But at least he has the potential to be better than Drew. The Yankees need all the help they can get with this lineup.
The only hope I have that Drew will be given his walking papers is when he starts to qualify for the potential $1.5 million in plate appearance bonuses (!) in addition to his 2015 $5 million salary (!) clogging up the payroll. Last year, when Yankee second baseman Brian Roberts got within two plate appearance of getting a bonus, he was unceremoniously given his walking papers. Unfortunately, Drew is still about 275 PAs away from the first bonus. So I am afraid we will be stuck with him for a while. Good grief.
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