New York Yankees: Roster makeup frustrating Joe Girardi
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi may finally be fed up with having to include Alex Rodriguez in his lineup.
Joe Girardi was not happy following Thursday’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. The main focus of the night was on the inclusion of both Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez in the New York Yankees lineup, with Beltran playing right field and Rodriguez in the DH spot.
An article on ESPN.com explains the situation at hand for Girardi and his 23-24 Yankees:
Upon his return, Rodriguez went 0-4, dropping his average to .184 in 76 at-bats. Beltran has hit .322 with a 1.123 OPS in 59 at-bats as a DH this season, the majority of those at-bats coming with Rodriguez on the DL. Beltran was back in right and went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, which was bad enough for Girardi to watch, let alone be asked about it. Before a reporter could finish his question, Girardi cut him off. “I’m sure it had to do with him being in right field,” Girardi said before quickly adding how bad Beltran performed the night before. “He was 0-for-4 yesterday. Let’s not keep stirring this and stirring this and everything we over-evaluate. Carlos had a rough day. A lot of our right-handers had a rough day. Alex is going to DH. Carlos is going to DH some, too.”
Both Beltran and Rodriguez are nearing the ends of their respective, historic careers, but Beltran is clearly playing better right now.
Girardi may rather just bench Rodriguez to prevent the aging Beltran from having to play right field, but he may not have that choice as Rodriguez is receiving $21 million this season. The front office of the Yankees may not approve that much money being spent on a player sitting on the bench, even if he is hitting .188 in 22 games this season.
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Beltran is a far more reliable player, leading the team in home runs (11) and RBI (30), but Rodriguez’s name is the one that sells tickets. Girardi is in a situation where he must play politics as well as baseball, opting to put Rodriguez and Beltran in the lineup, even if it may be beneficial to DH Beltran and put a player like Aaron Hicks in right field.
Hicks would serve as a better defensive player than Beltran, while giving Beltran the chance to just focus on hitting, a right he has earned at this point in his illustrious career.
The situation looked a bit less grim Friday night as both Beltran and Rodriguez hit home runs, but this discussion will continue to come up throughout the season, especially if Rodriguez continues to struggle.
Next: Red Sox send Clay Buchholz to bullpen
The legendary slugger still has one year left on his contract, so it will be interesting to see if he remains a Yankee longer than Girardi based on how the season is going so far.