The Yankees Aaron Judge is one of the best young players in the game. But more importantly for the Bronx Bombers, he is already back to playing Follow the Leader with Brett Gardner.
The New York Yankees Brett Gardner was already on first when the biggest man in baseball, Aaron Judge, strode to the plate. This was Saturday afternoon before a packed house in Tampa, in the bottom of the first against the Mets and Matt Harvey.
Judge proceeded to hit the second pitch he saw into left field for a single; that is encouraging enough this early in spring. But it is what happened next that bodes so well for the Yankees.
Gardner decided to force the issue with speed and aggression. He gambled that he could race to third before the long-rolling liner was retrieved and returned; turns out he was right. But why pose the question this early in Spring Training?
Gardy is neither fighting for a spot on this roster nor a starting role on this team. Those things were assured before camp started. And being on third put him in little better position to score than had he stayed on second.
Also, had he made the first out of the inning at third, he would have been rightly castigated for being overly aggressive. Those rebukes would be mild as this is early March, but still, they would be.