What Yankees must weigh in temptation to trade Miguel Andujar
LAS VEGAS — Alex Cora detected sadness in Miguel Andujar’s body language. This was during Yankees batting practice before AL Division Series Game 4.
The Red Sox manager figured Andujar was downcast over not starting. CC Sabathia was going for the Yankees, which, with his cutter, promised lots of grounders to third by righty hitters. So Aaron Boone inserted the surer defense of Neil Walker, a choice made easier because the Red Sox were starting righty Rick Porcello at Yankee Stadium.
Cora opted for kindness ahead of Rivalry. Though his team was just about to have the opportunity to clinch a series against its most heated foe, Boston’s manager decided to give a pep talk to New York’s third baseman.
“I told him, ‘You’re a good player,’” Cora said. “He smiled. I said, ‘I am not joking. You are a good player.’”
In case you think this is gamesmanship offered by the Boston manager to build up the current third baseman as a way to dissuade the Yankees from signing Manny Machado, then know this: Cora told me the story during the ALCS. I confirmed recently with Cora that I had all the details in my notebook correct.
I had asked Cora and others whom they would take in what could turn out to be a long-running battle within this rivalry between young, talented but flawed third basemen: Andujar or Boston’s Rafael Devers. I was working ahead, and that would have been my pregame column if there had been a Game 5. There wasn’t.
I am resurrecting this because the Yankees had at least thought about using Andujar to pursue a big-time starter such as Corey Kluber or Noah Syndergaard. Plus, they have been mulling a run at Machado, who likely would play shortstop while Didi Gregorius heals after Tommy John surgery and then flip to third when Gregorius returns. That would necessitate a move across the diamond to first or out of town for Andujar.
And the whole process underscores what happens when a win-now team has young, talented players with overt defects. Do you keep working through those issues for the potential long-term payoff or reel in the surer-thing solution?
This is not just a Yankees question. The Cubs have had to ask it about the offensive decline of Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber. The Dodgers with Cody Bellinger. The Astros with Carlos Correa.
And the Red Sox had to do it with Devers, who was such a smash as a 20-year-old rookie in 2017 (remember that homer off Aroldis Chapman?) and struggled enough on both sides of the ball last year that he lost hold of a full-time job. But he delivered big postseason hits as Boston rolled to a title and now is thought of as the third baseman again.
Not every young player is Mike Trout. Progress is not linear. All organizations have to decide which of their talents are special enough to endure growing pains — a decision made tougher when the club is not in rebuild mode, but championship-or-bust.
“He’s a dude,” Cora said of Devers during the Division Series. “We forget he just turned 22. He is young and skipped a few steps in the minors because they needed him last year. He’s going to hit and hit for power. He can run a little. I look at him and what that kid in New York did. Those kids are going to be in the conversation for a long time.”
The kid, of course, is Andujar, who turns 24 in March. When I asked executives and scouts about Andujar vs. Devers, the majority favored Andujar because they felt Devers’ bigger body composition might force him off of third. It was Andujar, though, who was the majors’ worst defensive third baseman in 2018.
Brian Cashman has stressed patience. He noted Andujar was not even supposed to be the third baseman last year; Brandon Drury was. Cashman said Andujar has the body and work ethic and skills to improve — and the offense to make patience valuable. But like with Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez — talented youngsters who struggled with play and health last year — the Yankees are at a point in their win cycle in which they have to weigh what is best now vs. the long term. Whom do they trust and whom do they have to abandon to try to go for it now?
“I played with Adrian Beltre in his first full season [in 1999 with the Dodgers], and he made 30 errors (actually 29) and there were questions then and he went on to be one of the greatest defensive third basemen ever,” Cora said. “You have to believe in talent. [Andujar] has a way of slowing down the game. He was their guy in a lot of games. I think he should be the Rookie of the Year (Andujar finished second). He was the guy when [Aaron] Judge and Gleyber [Torres] were down. He really slowed the game down.”
Beltre announced his retirement last month after a probable Hall of Fame career. Andujar is far from the end and Cooperstown talk. But like Beltre in 1999, he is a talented kid after one year of promise and defect. How patient will the win-now Yankees be about that talent?
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