Want to manage the Yankees for a moment?
When Joe Girardi’s group resumes its 2016 season Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, left-hander Eric Surkamp will take the mound for Oakland. That means switch-hitter Aaron Hicks gets a start. That means one of the lefty swingers, Jacoby Ellsbury or Brett Gardner, gets a night off.
What’s your call?
You bench Ellsbury, naturally. He started each of the Yankees’ first 11 games, with Gardner sitting against the two southpaws (Houston’s Dallas Keuchel and Toronto’s J.A. Happ) who took on the Yankees in that stretch. Moreover, Gardner is hot. And Ellsbury decidedly is not.
OK, now want to try owning the Yankees for a moment?
You’re concerned about Ellsbury. After a promising maiden voyage with the team, he vanished last year following an injury and has kicked off this season with lackluster offense and head-scratching defense. He has upwards of $110 million on his contract through 2020.
What’s your call?
You, um … well, there’s no natural answer besides waiting and hoping Ellsbury improves. Yet there exists a big-picture solution to try to protect against such potential calamities, one the Yankees finally figured out a couple of years ago.
Hal Steinbrenner’s commitment to youth and payroll/roster flexibility might not pay off like he hopes. Nevertheless, the current Gardner/Ellsbury disparity, small-sampled and all, illustrates why it’s the preferred strategy.
Gardner, the homegrown Yankee who accepted a hometown discount of four years and $52 million in his walk year (2014) to stick around for the long term, owns a stellar .314/.442/.429 slash line three series into this season, putting to rest his terrible second half of 2015. In Sunday’s 4-3 victory over the Mariners, the most important win of the season, Gardner recorded the Yankees’ only hit (in 11 at-bats) with runners in scoring position, a third-inning double that scored Ellsbury from second base. Then in the fifth inning, he stroked a one-out single, advanced on a Carlos Beltran single and Mark Teixeira walk and hustled home with the game-winning run when Seattle’s Hisashi Iwakuma slipped a wild pitch underneath the glove of his catcher, Steve Clevenger.
“I’ve felt pretty good at the plate all year since spring training,” Gardner said late Sunday afternoon. “I think the biggest thing for me is continuing to stay consistent in my work and make sure I’m on time. A lot of times, when I get in trouble, I’m on [pitches] a little bit late. It’s felt like we’ve been getting pitched tough pretty recently, but for the most part, I’m doing a good job of staying balanced and swinging at my pitches and not theirs.”
“He’s played well,” Girardi said of Gardner. “Even when he wasn’t hitting, he was getting on base via the walk. I think he’s done a really good job offensively and defensively. He’s played the way he’s capable of playing.”
Ellsbury, who left the Red Sox for the Yankees’ seven-year, $153 million offer just a few months before Gardner re-upped, has a lousy .213/.260/.298 slash line, although he has at least stolen a team-high four bases. Just as disconcerting has been his defense. In Saturday’s game, Ellsbury let Seattle shortstop Ketel Marte score all the way from first base on Robinson Cano’s single, prompting losing pitcher CC Sabathia to say, “It’s the first time I’ve given up a single and someone scored from first. Like I’ve said earlier, there’s a first time for everything.”
And on Sunday, Ellsbury inexplicably dove for a Norichika Aoki line drive and missed badly, allowing Aoki to reach third base for a triple and eventually score the tying run.
“I tried to block it,” Ellsbury said. “If I take the route to the wall, it would have been a triple for him.”
Eh. Surely Ellsbury would’ve been better off staying upright and taking his chances, no?
Ellsbury remains an expensive enigma, another of the countless free-agent deals that seem headed for regret (see: Sandoval, Pablo and Red Sox, Boston). Gardner, on a team-friendly deal, has helped the Yankees stay afloat in the early going. Their .333 on-base percentage ranks fourth in the American League.
The Yankees viewed the revitalization of their leadoff and second hitters as critical. They’re 1-for-2 so far. What’s your call on which one ultimately will be the better Yankees investment?
Sorry. That one’s too easy.