[ad_1]
Joe Torre was not in everyone’s good graces during spring training of 1996. He had just been hired by the Yankees without having appeared in a major league postseason game as a player or won one in three previous managerial stints. Plus, he was replacing a popular, successful skipper in Buck Showalter.
So in Torre’s first few months on the job, there was a lot of detective work trying to determine if there was more there than a pleasant guy with the right connections. I remember that March when the light went on for me. The Yankees had seven established starting pitchers in that camp — David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Scott Kamieniecki, Jimmy Key, Melido Perez, Andy Pettitte and Kenny Rogers — plus an out-of-options prospect named Mark Hutton whom they liked quite a bit.
Torre was asked nearly daily how he was going to turn eight into five — remember, this was before openers, or regularly used sixth starters became commonplace. Torre deflected, he asked for patience. One day we were alone and I inquired on the subject. He said if it got to April and he had to decide, he would.
“But you know I am never going to have to decide,” he said.
Wisdom. Torre provided a lot over his dozen years with the Yankees. Torre proved correct. The game decided for him. He hardly ever had five healthy starters — certainly never eight or nine. Rogers never adjusted to New York and his performance suffered, making him easy to remove when necessary, The Yankees actually traded for David Weathers in July in case they needed another starting option.
I keep Torre’s insightfulness in mind now. When the Yankees traded for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, they created depth and a math problem — namely 10 does not go into nine seamlessly. A starter will have to sit regularly from among Donaldson, Kiner-Falefa, DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres. Manager Aaron Boone read from the manager manual of cliches in which he said, “If we are in that situation, it is a good problem to have.”
Still, Boone admitted he will soon have to have conversations that will include that someone who expects to start the April 7 opener against the Red Sox will not.
Or … he’ll never have to have that conversation. He will never have to decide. The game will do it for him.
After all, LeMahieu is 33 and coming off hernia surgery. Donaldson is 36 and his availability the past several years has been heavily impacted by mainly lower-body injuries, especially to both calves. Rizzo is 32. Torres has to show he can return to impactful form after two down seasons. Kiner-Falefa must demonstrate he can handle a contender in New York. And since the designated hitter will also play into this, especially to keep Donaldson’s bat in the lineup, how healthy will Giancarlo Stanton stay and how much can he play the outfield?
“Obviously, I want to be in the lineup,” Donaldson said. “I don’t want to not be playing. I know there will be times where they will tell me to catch a blow, it will be good for me. But if you’ve been around the game for a long time, you start with a plan and then the season dictates how that plays out.”
Because of age or injury history, plus a 3 ¹/₂-week spring training because of labor issues, Boone probably will be conservative early on about starting any player day after day. Also, even without injuries, modern teams have shown a desire to manage workloads to preserve health and strength through the season. In addition, there is a constant quest to find favorable matchups.
Besides, just take first, second and third base — the three positions LeMahieu is going to play. The Yankees had 2,046 plate appearances last year among those positions. So four different players could have gotten 500-plus plate appearances spread around those three slots. Both LeMahieu and Torres said Boone is good at giving heads up a day or two in advance regarding what the lineups are going to be. Boone said he probably will look at several games at a time to see how he will line up.
The key to getting pretty much all the main guys to start eight or nine out of every 10 games will be if Stanton can, say, play three or four out of every 10 in the outfield and Torres can play even two out of 10 at short. That does mean, though, that Aaron Judge will have to play some center field and Torres will, well, have to play some short. The idea of acquiring Kiner-Falefa and Ben Rortvedt and trading Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela was to try to tighten the defense and stop playing guys out of position.
But the Yankees are still addicted to getting the best bats into the lineup. And Torres said, “It was just a bad year.” He refused to use playing short (poorly and with a lot of controversy around it) as to why his offense went south. Boone said Torres was just fine filling in early in the 2019 season for the injured Didi Gregorius and states even now that Torres “is capable of being an average major league shortstop [defensively] and we are a better team if he can do that every once in a while.” If it matters, Torres’ balance and pitch recognition in spring games stood out early.
Again, this all presupposes that guys are healthy enough that Boone actually must decide daily who not to play. It also could change if Oswald Peraza or Anthony Volpe is deemed ready to play short during this season. And Oswaldo Cabrera could push his way into the lineup sooner. Both the Yankees and scouts were impressed early in spring by the switch-hitting prospect — a natural righty who has developed more and more into an impact lefty. Cabrera has the ability to play all over the infield if the Yankees decide to bring him to the majors.
For now, though, Boone has more than enough veteran infielders. So many that he will have to make tough calls daily.
Or, as Torre once wisely told me, he will never have to decide.
[ad_2]