Yanks Opt For DiDi Not Offense

Mariekson Julius Gregorius’s first swing as a Arizona Diamondback in 2013 was a momentous occasion, he drove a Phil Hughes meatball into  the Yankee Stadium right field seats, and boom just like that  the former 8 game old Cincinnati Red turned D-Back prospect  was off and running.

What’s the big deal, it was Phil Hughes pitching in Yankee Stadium, yeah  I know, but the D-Backs and Gregorius were excited, and apparently Brian Cashman has had a man  crush on the athletic SS from Amsterdam, Netherlands for a while now.

Since  when? Well  ever since the Red Sox brought up Xander Bogaerts, Rangers showcased Jurickson Profar, the O’s Jonathan Schoop kills the Yanks, Andrelton Simmons is fast becoming a star SS in Atlanta, they’re all  a young crop of players from the Netherlands and vicinities close by.

Unfortunately  none of those guys were available, so the Bomber GM flipped a 15th round diamond in the rough,  RHP Shane Greene to  the Tigers, who in turn  sent  pitching prospect Robbie Ray  and a budding 18 year old switch hitting SS Domingo Leyba to  the D-Backs for  the Yanks new platoon SS Didi Gregorius

Greene was the Yanks 2nd biggest  surprise last season behind the emergence of Dellin Betances.  The  gangly right hander who plays defense about as well  as the NY Giants did last week, showed off a power slider and sinker that  wowed most of us who had never even heard of Shane Greene. OK so he had a few starts that  were off the charts good that may have skewed his final line, but finally the Yanks had themselves a young cost controlled starter under the age of 27 that  didn’t cost $175M to  acquire with some upside promise

I listen to  a ton of games on the radio  before watching the archives, and John Sterling would fawn all over himself RE: Greene’s stuff, “The Yanks have developed a terrific pitcher” that came out of Sterling and Waldman’s mouth more then just  a few times

Fast forward to  yesterday where Mike Francesa and Michael Kay, especially Francesa yawned their way past this deal. Francesa who  obviously was rudely interrupted on “Football Friday”  with this baseball nonsense said the Yanks got their new SS for next to nothing. Nice Mike, I guess when your reading the box scores and not really watching the kid pitch that’s the correct summation

Kay was at least complimentary of Greene’s potential  upside, but he did make sure the unwashed masses that watch his YES TV show were informed the Yanks had flipped at  best  a back of the rotation pitcher who  probably wasn’t even gonna make the starting 5 in 2015.

Really, and who  does Kay  think that  starting quintet was gonna be? Soup Bone Tanaka? Bum Knee Sabathia, Duct Tape Pineda? Thousand Dollar Car Phelps? Wet behind the Ears Mitchell? If we  lit enough candles and dropped a sizable amount of dough in the donation  box maybe the Reverend Whitley?

The SS market is as thin as the offensive market in baseball so I get the deal, the Tigers actually coughed up  two  top prospects for Greene, the D-Backs have depth  at SS so  they  were dealing from  strength, I’m not sure what  the Yanks were doing, but the alternatives were Stephen Drew who Scott Boras is still  trying to  sell  as an elite player, and a list  of SS on other teams that  would cost substantial money and prospects to  acquire, so  hence the Gregorius deal for Shane Greene was the cheapest and potentially had the most long term upside

To  go  along with a flashy glove and some descent range, Gregorius looks to be another potential rabbit on the base paths, that’s when and if he can  actually get on base. He shot out of the gate for the D-Backs in 2013 and hit .407 his 1st month, by the end of May he was down  to .318, by the end of September his line looked closer to what Cashman might hope is his average .252 /.332 /.373 / .704

That’s a God send compared to  what Cashman  got from SS in the last 2 seasons, so yes it’s  an upgrade. He missed the first  two months of the 2014 season and in 80 games last year  he put up a pedestrian .226 / .290 / .363 / .653 with 6 HR’s

Here’s the small print at  the bottom of the contract, against LHP he’s a gutter ball .137 / .228 / .196 / .424, so he’ll be platooned with Private Ryan until hopefully whoever the new Bomber  batting coach is can  fix this platoon split mess. He only stole 3 bases, in 3 attempts so  we have another Brett  the Face on our hands Re: that  aspect of his game

One decent split we saw was  2 outs with RISP .261 / .433 / .348  /.781

Here’s a quick snap shot of the Gregorius and the deal, yet another player the D-Backs gave up on (see McCarthy) and the hope for us  is Didi donning the Pinstripes brings out the best in him, if not you coughed up  a potential  decent RHP with  6 yr’s of team  control for a platoon split SS that  the Yanks have cheap-ish for 5 more yr’s.

The Bad news is Brendon Ryan is now your everyday  SS vs LHP, lucky for the Yanks that  beast doesn’t exist too  often in the AL East, off the top of my head Buehrle, Chen, and Moore, are the starters. Boston if they get Lester back, so Ryan might not see much action until  late in a game when an opposing manager brings in a LHP to shut down Gregorius and the automatic out turns from Didi  to Private Ryan

The loss of Greene despite the yawns throughout Yankee-ville are now NY needs 2 more starters, possibly 3 if Turkey Bone Tanaka can’t go at all. Judging by what  teams want for top of the rotation  starters in a trade, that type of deal ain’t happening for Cashman. And, even in the Free Agent market after Lester decides his fate next  week, the price for Scherzer, Shields, even the lower tier McCarthy, Liriano, and  Hammel will be expensive

We better hope “What Budget” are the buzz words in  the Bronx

Sources

the Blind Boys Of RAB

MLBTR

Daily News

NY Post