In explaining why he signed Raul Ibanez over a lefty-swinging DH group that included — among others — Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman emphasized Ibanez's familiarity and ability to play the field regularly.
The way Cashman figured, the 2012 Yankees would benefit from having at least that option. It seemed such a ludicrous statement at the time, particularly because Ibanez was such a limited fielder.
Yet, that ability to play the corner outfield on a below-average but not killer level was vital to last season's Yankees, because it gave manager Joe Girardi an outfield option with Brett Gardner missing most of the season due to an elbow injury. And it did not tie up the DH slot, which was critical with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez needing more days in the lineup, but off the field. Rodriguez (38 games) and Jeter (25) actually started more games at DH than Ibanez (23).
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
LIVING ON THE EDGE: If the Yankees' injured stars return and are productive, Travis Hafner's days of playing at Yankee Stadium may be behind him.
And assuming they can ever get back and stay healthy — definitely no sure thing — Jeter and A-Rod are going to need the DH respite more than ever (In fact, A-Rod came up with a tight quad yesterday in his Triple-A rehab).
Thus, Travis Hafner's inability to play the field is about to become a larger issue around the Yankees. In fact, there are scenarios in which Hafner simply will be released, unless he regains value by recovering his power stroke.
It is going to be difficult at their ages and coming off their injuries for Jeter and Rodriguez to play the field day after day. In addition, that age/injury combo is going to compromise the duo more than ever range-wise. The idea of having both on the left side of the infield day after day hardly is going to be get-happy news for the pitching staff.
So you could see the Yanks trying to alternate as much as possible — Jeter plays short, A-Rod DHs; A-Rod plays third, Jeter DHs. In the recent past, they would try to time DH days for either when the Yanks were facing lefties. And they still would do that as often as possible if Hafner were hitting well.
But after a renaissance month and a half to open the season, Hafner hit .174 with four homers in his final 37 games of the first half. In his first action after the All-Star break, Hafner was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts yesterday as the Yanks had a relative breakout of 12 hits and five runs in a 5-2 triumph over Boston. One scout who watched Hafner before the break said, "His body and swing have gone dead."
Play a 25-man construction game: If the injured players who are supposed to come back do by, say, the first or second week of August, the Yanks' eight positional regulars would be: Francisco Cervelli, Lyle Overbay, Robinson Cano, Jeter, Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson, Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki.
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