Yankees spring training report on Florial, Andujar, Torres and others

Taking the Bag by Force

Andujar’s abilities have been well-documented here and other places; this link will bring you up to speed.

He has, however, been even better than advertised. His slash of .421/.421/1.100 and OPS of 1.579 make that clear enough. Only Austin Romine has better numbers but he has only had three at-bats.

And whereas Florial has been putting on a speed show, the 65th-ranked Andujar has been displaying his prodigious power: Miguel has not only swatted four home runs in these first nine days of camp, including a ninth inning game winner, but also hit two doubles.

It was, however, his single in the eighth inning of Saturday’s game against the Red Sox that might have been his most impressive. Pitchers had been challenging Andujar with fastballs early on, allowing him to swing freely.

I cannot say he has overly reminded me of Vladimer Guerrero but there has been something reminiscent in his swings. He was hunting fastballs anywhere in the zone and using his full extension to maximize results.

Not on Saturday.

In the top of the eighth with two men on, Andujar looked every bit the patient hitter. Smoking the third pitch he saw down the left field line for a single and an RBI concluded a professional AB, showing patience and plate discipline.

And something more than promise.

More Than Just a Numbers Game

And Miguel, like Florial, has committed no errors.

If you just look at the numbers, it might seem as if Andujar is ready for the Bronx right now. But it is doubtful the Yankees feel the same way.

There is still a tentativeness to the way Andujar plays defense, especially on tricky hops and plays that force him to charge the ball. The latter is possibly because he has such a strong arm that he has to really think before making an unexpectedly shorter throw to second.

As much as the Yankees would love to see his threatening bat in the lineup before April, they will probably let him start in Scranton.

It’s a familiar plan: Let Miguel start in the minors—let the daily grind take over—and then bring him up with the MLB season in medias res. Once up, he would be almost immediately inserted in the lineup so that he just continues to play defense, only now at the major league level, instead of thinking about playing it at the major league level.

This seems like the best plan right now, although it is still very early in camp. The same could be said of Gleyber Torres.