Yankees Find Their Shortstop of the Future, But What Future Is It?

First things first, I intended to write about this yesterday when it happened but I was working all afternoon and last night was Friday night. Never fear though, because in the middle of meetings, all I was thinking about was Didi Gregorius, the new New York Yankee shortstop.

Let’s evaluate yesterday’s three team trade in two ways. First, let’s take it out of context and simply examine the player swap. Then, we’ll look at the various moves through the lenses of team needs and how players fit in their new homes.

As a straight trade, the Yankees did really well, Detroit didn’t do so hot, and Arizona sold low  but at least still got some value. The full trade sent Gregorius from Arizona to New York, pitcher Shane Greene from the Yankees to the Tigers, and pitcher Robbie Ray and minor league infielder Domingo Leyba from Mo-town to the Dbacks.

From Detroit’s point of view, they picked up a legitimate back end starter in exchange for a fringe starter and a minor league prospect with serious potential but a long way from realizing it. That’s not so bad, except that I don’t really like Shane Greene. As a Yankee fan I watched him all summer and I wasn’t blown away, even when he was pitching well. Greene is a sinker/slider guy but he doesn’t have the stuff to miss bats. I got the impression that he was pretty good the first few outings but could be figured out once he’d gone around the league once or twice. I would say he’s a league average starter at very, very best.

Arizona got Ray, who isn’t a very good starter but could be a good reliever, and Leyba, a switch hitting middle infielder in A-ball, for Gregorius, a light hitting shortstop who wasn’t starting. That sounds pretty good, as long as you forget that the Diamondbacks traded Trevor Bauer for Gregorius a  couple winters ago.

For the Yankees, they traded a middle of the road starter for a major league caliber shortstop who is under team control for 5 more seasons and is sure to remain dirt cheap. A no-brainer. Things get more interesting when you start contextualizing this move and projecting ahead a bit.

Honestly, my big takeaway from this trade is that the Yankees are officially like everyone else now. Other teams chew through shortstops looking for the right one, the Yankees don’t. Other teams have closer issues, the Yankees don’t. Other teams fill in holes with guys like Kelly Johnson, Zelous Wheeler, Chris Young, and Rich Hill, the Yankees don’t. Except now the Yankees do.

The biggest change I’ve seen in the Yankees of the Hal Steinbrenner era compared to the Yankees of the Boss, is that this new team seems to have lost its arrogance. The Yankees were always an All-Star team, or at least an All-Name team. Rooting for the Yankees was like rooting for a video game team, we had everyone else’s best player. Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, David Justice, Jason Giambi, even Alex Rodriguez, all became Yankees after making a name elsewhere. Money was no issue and the outside help was, as I’ve written in this space before, built around a homegrown core of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Bernie Williams, and Jorge Posada.

It’s true that the Yankees still follow that mold to some extent. Last winter they signed Jacoby Ellsbury, Brain McCann, and Carlos Beltran to play with CC Sabathia, and Mark Texeira. Even the addition of Brain Roberts was part of that ‘other people’s stars play here’ mindset. The problem now is that outside of Brett Gardner, there is no core.

That’s why we find ourselves in these new situations– like the one that will see Didi Gregorius, who couldn’t beat out Chris Owings in Arizona, platoon with Brendan Ryan, who’s hit under .200 in each of the last two seasons.

Objectively, that’s not such a bad situation. Both are stellar defensively and if this Yankee lineup really needs to rely on the shortstop position for offense, there are other major issues. But it seems like something some other team, out in the midwest somewhere, should be trying. And I know that makes me the prototypical entitled Yankee fan, but who cares?

More practically,  I like Gregorius. I look forward to those highlight reel defensive plays and a cheap, good, young shortstop who we know will be there for the foreseeable future is way better than the Stephen Drew, Ryan, some other old crappy shortstop revolving door that I feared we were heading towards for the next 5 seasons. Whether he lives up to expectations or not, Derek Jeter’s successor needs to be one person and not a handful.

Between Ryan and Gregorius, shortstop will be pretty well manned. The bigger concerns are at third base and in the starting rotation. Brian Cashman, who I believe has well overstayed his welcome, needs to act decisively to fill those holes. I did not like the recent news about the Yankees cooling on bringing Chase Headley back. The Yankees of old would have stockpiled assets like Headley, no matter the cost.

One quick note on Andrew Miller: I liked the Miller signing. Yes, $9 million a season for a lefty specialist is absolutely ludicrous, but we’re the Yankees damnit, we make the moves that make the executives of the Royals, A’s, and Rays squirm. The Yanks upgraded their bullpen at whatever the cost. Good. Now we need two good starting pitchers.

-Max Frankel