It’s funny how a team who almost prides itself on paying for other teams’ superstars have to turn to the scrap heap to fill out their roster. The Yankees have been doing that for the past few years on the heels of signing big free agents to expensive long-term contracts. However, it’s who the Yankees are picking off the scrap heap who are the unsung heroes of the team in recent memory.
Just a few years ago, a year removed from a World Series championship, the Yanks entered the 2011 season with a rotation in shambles … or so it seemed. That offseason the club took a flyer on both Bartolo Colon, who had been out of Major League Baseball since 2009 and didn’t have a productive season since 2005, and Freddy Garcia. Colon had a great first half going 6-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 12 starts (with three more appearances out of the ‘pen). He faded after the all-star break going 2-6 with a 4.96 ERA, which was expected since arm fatigue set in after not pitching for two seasons and coming off shoulder problems.
Meanwhile, Garcia went 12-8 on the season with a 3.62 ERA in nearly 147 innings pitched. That campaign netted Garcia a new contract for the 2012 season, but he wasn’t nearly as sharp as he was in the season prior.
Let us not forget Eric Chavez, who was all but forgotten after he couldn’t stay healthy for a number of years. The former middle-of-the-lineup hitter and Gold Glove third baseman for the Oakland A’s came over to the Yankees in 2011 and became the team’s best hitter off the bench. In his two seasons with the club he recorded a .274/.338/.445 slash line and hit 18 home runs, while driving in 63 runs. He was the team’s go-to guy when Alex Rodriguez was injured for parts of 2012, and he didn’t disappoint. He hit .281/.348/.496 with 16 home runs in 313 plate appearances during that year.
Fast forward to this season and the Yankees lineup is littered with scrap heap pick ups in prime spots. Travis Hafner, Brennan Boesch, Vernon Wells, and Kevin Youkilis are among those players. Many might not view Youkilis as “scrap heap” but he wasn’t exactly the most sought after free agent this past offseason, so let’s lump him in with the rest of them. Each of these players have been something special in the early going so far, but let’s not forget it’s still early and there’s a reason these guys were on the scrap heap in the first place. Hafner couldn’t stay healthy, Wells has declined sharply, Youkilis is gradually declining, and Boesch just couldn’t put it together in Detroit. But, let’s take a look what each has done in the first two weeks of the season.
Youkilis:
.333/.404/.571
2 home runs
7 RBI
166 wRC+ (100 is major league average)
Hafner:
.303/.410/.576
3 home runs
7 RBI
173 wRC+
Wells:
.324/.405/.649
3 home runs
6 RBI
187 wRC+
Boesch:
.313/.313/.625
1 home run
2 RBI
152 wRC+
Sensing a trend there? Now, again, two weeks into the season means little in the grand scheme of things. However, when two of the bigger bats in Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson are out until mid-to-late May, just keeping the team afloat is difficult enough. These four guys have more than just chipped in for the club, they’ve made the lineup pretty dangerous again. If these they can keep it up for another month and half, they’ll have had done their job much better than expected.
Saying that, it’ll be difficult to find playing time for a few of these guys once the starters return to the lineup. Boesch will most likely be the first causality since he still has a minor league option remaining. Youkilis will return to third base full time, while Wells and Hafner will likely platoon in the DH spot, with the former acting as the fourth outfielder. All speculation of course, as who knows where the Yankees will be in a month, but it appears as of now, they are in good hands … thankfully.
Let’s turn it over to you, who is your Yankees scrap heap hero?
Stats courtesy of Fangraphs
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @jkra0512
