Brett Gardner’s Injury Makes New York Yankees’ Outfield Very Thin
July 26, 2009 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The Yankees’ lineup, outfield, and depth chart just took a major hit.
On early Sunday, it was announced that Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner was placed on the disabled list with a broken thumb.
Apparently he injured his thumb while sliding into second base early in Saturday’s game and played the rest of the game with the injury.
Gardner’s injury now leaves the Yankees outfield extremely thin.
Because now with Gardner’s injury to go along with Xavier Nady’s season ending elbow surgery, the Yankees are left with Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher as the starters and Eric Hinske as the backups.
You can’t even put Hideki Matsui out there because it’s so obvious his knees have taken a beating and sometimes can’t even play. The Yankees are lucky he can still play as a designated hitter.
So now the Yankees are missing perhaps their fastest player on the team in Gardner. Gardner originally won the center field job, lost it to Cabrera, but didn’t exactly get benched. Because he is such a weapon, he was rotated into the lineup regularly and used as a late pinch runner and defensive replacement.
Gardner leads the team with 20 steals in 25 tries and was hitting .275 with three home runs and 20 RBI, which are decent numbers for Gardner considering last season he was only hitting .228 and didn’t hit any home runs in 2008.
So now what do the Yankees do for their outfield.
They say Austin Jackson will not be called up so soon because it would hurt his development and would mostly sit on the bench.
They might tinker with bringing Ramiro Pena back up, who has been playing some outfield in AAA Scranton/Wilks-Barre. But, Pena was sent back down because the Yankees felt he needed to develop his swing more and become a more consistent hitter.
His defense was regarded as fabulous because his range and skills were very good, even if his time with the Yankees was very short.
With five days now remaining until the trading deadline, could another deal be possible for the Yankees. Instead of just starting pitching and maybe another reliever, could outfield help be added onto the Yankees wish list.
It might have to be, because if they want to hold off the Red Sox and Rays in the A.L. East, they need to consider their depth chart.
With an outfield of Damon, Cabrera and Swisher, the outfield is considered weak. Damon is not a great fielder anymore and he’s dropped a few balls in left field this year. Cabrera is a decent fielder, but there are better center fielders than him.
Swisher is more a backup outfielder/infielder, but because of Nady’s injury in early April, he won the right field job by default. Hinske is no longer an every-day player either and is more a platoon player. But because Hinske still has pop in his bat, he gives the Yankees a deeper bench.
But Gardner’s injury might have just taken away from that depth.
As if this next week needed to be more dramatic and crazed, Gardner’s injury might add more buzz and add more to the rumor mills.
You know if there is a rumored name out there, the Yankees are somehow tied to that name, even if they really aren’t in consideration. But because the Yankees are the Yankees, they get mentioned in practically every deal.
Now, if there’s another outfielder on the trading market, you can add the Yankees to that list now. Let the week of trading-possibility craze resume.
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