The New York Yankees outfield is a mess. Centerfielder Aaron Hicks is on the 60 day Injured List and may not return this year. Brett Gardner can only provide memories at this stage of his career. The Yankees need a centerfielder, and desperately.
Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. On Wednesday, the Yankees trotted out an outfield that…well…it had three outfielders.
Of all the outfield alignments in baseball history, Andújar/LF -- Judge/CF -- Frazier/RF is definitely one of them.
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) June 2, 2021
New York Yankees desperation in outfield continues
Of that group, only Clint Frazier is really in a spot that anyone would have expected just a year ago. Miguel Andujar is a converted third baseman, sent to the outfield because his glove is a disaster at the hot corner. Aaron Judge is a rightfielder, with all but one of his 414 career games in the outfield heading into Wednesday coming in right.
That one other game came in 2018, when Judge played in center. He had one chance in his eight innings, making the putout on the fly ball hit his way. Otherwise, Judge has not appeared in center since his three games during his time in Triple-A in 2016, and has all of 11 games of minor league experience at the position. The last time that he spent any significant time at the position was in 2012 in the Cape Cod League, when he spent 31 games in center.
But Judge has been a solid outfielder over his career. He led all American League outfielders with 20 runs saved in 2019, and easily deserved a Gold Glove award. For the Yankees, it makes sense to put their best defensive outfielder in center, even if he has not had much experience there.
This alignment can also have far reaching ramifications. Should Judge perform well in center, it would minimize the Yankees’ need to specifically trade for a starting centerfielder. They will still need outfield depth (where have you gone, Mike Tauchman?), especially a player who can handle center, but a starter at that spot may not be as important. But it all comes down to how Judge performs.
The New York Yankees had a very different outfield alignment on Wednesday, but desperate times call for desperate measures.