As the Yanks head up I-95 to Boston this weekend, they’ll do so without their offensive centerpiece. While A-Rod isn’t with the team, he is making steady progress, and if I were a betting may, I’d take the under on the May 15th date the Yanks keep putting out there. Yesterday, A-Rod, according to the AP, ran the bases for the second straight day. He went from home to first four times and from first to second six times. He took 28 swings off curveballs and another 63 in BP. I say A-Rod returns in time to face Boston or Tampa in New York during the first week in May. The crowd should cheer lustily and loudly for him.
A-Rod takes to the basepaths
The Yankees used light-hitting Brett Gardner to pinch hit for Cody Ransom today in the 7th with one out and the bases loaded. That tells us all we need to know about the importance of A-Rod to the team, and to that end, there is good news out of Tampa. A-Rod took a big step forward in his rehab today as he started running the bases. A-Rod, according to Bryan Hoch, ran from 1st to 2nd ten times, twice with a trainer offering resistance. He also charged slow rollers for the first time. The Yanks continue to say that May 15th is their target return date, and I continue to believe A-Rod will be back sooner than that.
Matt Murton: Depth replenisher
Both Ben and Mike have discussed possible replacements for the injured Xavier Nady. Now it’s my turn to chime in.
Update: Of course, no more than 20 minutes after I wrote this and set it to post, we find out that Nady will not need surgery and will return this season. I still advocate everything in this article. Murton can provide minor league depth now and possibly slide into a starting or bench role next year.
The loss of Xavier Nady highlighted the Yanks’ depth. Rather than scrambling to find a replacement they were able to install Nick Swisher as the full-time right fielder. While some take the glass half empty path and note that the Yankees cannot sustain another injury, the rest of us recognize that the injury and seamless replacement is a testament to said depth. It’s not an ideal situation; no injury is. The depth has kept the Yanks afloat for now, though they could certainly restock in the coming weeks.
Nady’s injury is felt hardest on the bench. The presence of both Nady and Swisher meant that on any given day the Yankees would have a big bat on the bench to hit for the likes of Jose Molina, Cody Ransom, and Brett Gardner. Now, not so much. When the Yanks trot out their “A” lineup, featuring Hideki Matsui at DH, the bench consists of Melky Cabrera, Jose Molina, and Ramiro Pena. Chili Davis, Cecil Fielder, and Darryl Strawberry they are not. They could add Juan Miranda, who could give them some pop, but he’s largely unproven at the MLB level.
The answer could be sitting in the Colorado Rockies’ farm system. The A’s sent Matt Murton to the Rockies in the Matt Holliday trade for Corey Wimberly, and he is now languishing at AAA. That’s a shame, because he has a strong MLB track record and is absolutely tearing the cover off the ball at AAA this year (.409/.480/.636, though in the massively hitter-friendly PCL). Murton broke out in 2006, collecting 508 plate appearances for the Cubs and posting a .297/.365/.444 line. He followed that up in 2007 with a .281/.352/.438 line, though in only 261 plate appearances. By the time 2008 rolled around he had fallen out of favor, and collected just 42 PA with the Cubs before they sent him to the A’s, where he stepped to the plate just 31 times.
Murton and Nady are surprisingly similar players. Surprising because one has been sought-after (by the Mets, then by the Pirates, and finally by the Yankees) while the other has been cast out by three teams now. In fact, through their age-25 seasons Murton was demonstrably better — Murton’s age-26 season obviously skewed because he got no playing time. He’s only 27 this year and has just over two years of service time, so he’ll be under team control for the next three years, maybe more depending on how much time he spends in the minors this year.
(On the physical attribute side, Nady is listed as 6’0, 180, which I’m pretty sure is undershooting his weight, while Murton is 6’1 215. So they’re not far off there, either.)
Dave Cameron has some thoughts on Murton, wherein he cites Matt’s .345 career wOBA, an above-average mark (though we could have inferred that from the slash stats above). His best line, though, comes towards the end: “There’s no way that there are 750 better baseball players on the planet that Murton.” Count Melky Cabrera on that list. Cameron also notes that we should “[b]et on a smart organization reaping the rewards when they bring Murton back to the majors.” Let’s hope the Yanks are that smart organization. He brings to the table what Nady did, except he’s younger and under team control for longer. If the Yanks are looking for an outfielder to replace Nady, which they very well may not be, they could do a whole ton worse than Matt Murton.
Wanted: Outfield depth
When the Yankees and A’s finally get around to playing what is now a two-game set in the Bronx, the series will constitute something of an audition. Whether we like it or not, the Yankee brass will be watching Matt Holliday as he takes his first trip through the Junior Circuit.
Holliday, a career. .318/.385/.549, will be a free agent at the end of the year. He came to Oakland in a trade in November and is attempting to prove that he can hit outside the cozy confines of Coors Field. Yankee Stadium, wind and all, seems like the perfect place for it.
Outside of being an off-season catch for whichever team wants to pony up Boras Bucks for an outfielder turning 30 next January, Holliday may be a trade-deadline acquisition. If the A’s are out of the AL West race by then — and right now, there’s every indication they’ll be among the leaders in that division — Billy Beane could look to get some return for his Holliday investment.
Now this is all well and good, but what does it have to do with the Yankees? Well, two weeks into the season, and the Yanks’ once-vaunted outfield depth has all but disappeared. After we played will-they-or-won’t-they all winter with a trade of Xavier Nady or Nick Swisher, the Yanks lost Nady to some freak accident barely a week into the season.
On Monday evening, the Yanks revealed, well, not much of anything about Nady. The right fielder has gone for numerous tests and second, third and fourth opinions on his elbow. The team is holding out hope that he can rehab it and be back on the field this season. If he has to go under the knife, he won’t play again in 2009, and even if he doesn’t need surgery, his return could be months off.
“We’re ultimately trying to determine if there is an opportunity for a non-surgical rehab because it’s really one of two ways: that way or if you get him cut,” Brian Cashman said to reporters. “If you get him cut, it’s a scary proposition.”
The loss of Nady wouldn’t be unbearable if Hideki Matsui will up to speed, but Matsui isn’t. In fact, there’s no guarantee Matsui will ever be up to speed again. After getting his second knee surgery in as many years, Matsui is off to a slow start. While he’s getting on base at a great clip, he’s just 6 for 31 this season and looks positively anemic on the basepaths. He’s definitely done in the outfield, and last week, he had fluid drained from his surgically repaired knee.
The Yankees, rightfully so, are concerned about Matsui’s health. “The bottom line is that he’s had surgery on either knee the last two years, and you see how at times he’s struggling out there, so yeah it’s a concern,” Cashman said. “He came up with a big hit for us yesterday late in the game which was much needed for him and for us. But yeah, we’re going to have to keep our eye on him, there’s no doubt about that.”
Three weeks ago, the Yankees had too many outfield/DH types for their nine lineup spots. Now, they’re in a situation where Melky Cabrera is their fourth outfielder, and they are a Hideki Matsui injury away from needing a DH. You can never have too much depth.
A-Rod Update
How about some good news before we end this downer injury round-up? According to the AP — who apparently has one reporter assigned to simply watch A-Rod’s rehab workouts — Alex Rodriguez is progressing apace. He hit homers on 10 of his 75 swings today and fielded around 30 groundballs. He is doing some outfield running but hasn’t yet run the bases. When he can slide, he’ll be close to a return.
In a way, tonight’s rain-out was good for the Yankees. It’s just one fewer game they need to play with Cody Ransom at third, and when the game is made up later in the year, A-Rod should be in the lineup.
A-Rod’s workouts intensify
Via PeteAbe, Alex Rodriguez took a long batting practice session in Tampa and fielded grounders on the infield dirt for the first time since having surgery on his hip. A-Rod took 75 swings, hitting a bunch of homers as you’d expect, and he also increased the intensity of his running program. It looks like he might be able to play in a rehab game within seven to ten days, and hopefully be back with the big league club a week after that. That’s just pure speculation on my part though. I hear they force prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to watch a continuous loop of Cody Ransom at-bats when they don’t cooperate during an interrogation.
Filling X’s spot
We’re still waiting for the official diagnosis and treatment needed for Xavier Nady’s injured elbow, but everyone expects grim news that will sideline X for the remainder of the season. The Yanks called up Juan Miranda yesterday to replace Nady on the roster, but more than likely this is just a temporary solution. This morning MLBTR pointed us to a report indicating that two possible options are Jason Repko of the Dodgers and Austin Kearns of the Nationals. The problem is that both Repko and Kearns kinda stink.
Let’s just eliminate Kearns as an option right now. He’s hitting .167-.310-.375 this year after hitting .217-.311-.316 last year. He’s owed $8M this year with a $1M buyout on his $10M option for next year. Sure he sort of has a big name after being an elite prospect back in the day, but Kearns doesn’t offer the Yanks anything they don’t already have in John Rodriguez. So he hits righthanded, big deal. I’ll take a good lefty hitter over an inferior righty hitter any day of the week. Pass. Pass emphatically.
Repko, on the other hand, is only slightly less useless. In nearly 500 big league plate appearances he’s hit .229-.300-.375 but has a spiffy 8.9 UZR rating in the outfield (primarily in center). Melky Cabrera’s career line is .268-.329-.375 and his UZR is a combined -2.4 in the various outfield spots, but he’s four years younger than Repko. Where’s the upgrade? Really, the best replacement option would have been Delwyn Young, who the Dodgers traded to the Pirates the day before Nady got hurt. It’s just a case of unfortunate timing.
I understand that the Yankees have likely just lost an everyday outfielder for the rest of the season, but given their current roster construction, why does he have to be replaced with another outfielder? They’re already carrying four players on their roster capable of manning the big swath of grass past the infield, and all four of those guys can play center in a pinch. That’s normally what a team carries. They could use this opportunity to upgrade the black hole that is currently third base, perhaps by picking up Mark Grudzielanek. That, of course, assumes he would be willing to assume a utility infielder role once Alex Rodriguez comes back.
We do know one thing for sure, Brian Cashman won’t rush into finding a replacement for Nady outside of the organization. He’ll let the market come to him like he did with Bobby Abreu and … well … Xavier Nady.
Yanks, Nady still unsure of prognosis
Xavier Nady, the Yanks’ shelved right fielder, has been for an MRI and a CT scan. He knows he has some bone damage in his elbow, and he thinks he has some ligament damage there as well. However, the Yanks and Nady are just not sure about the extent of his injury, and they’re not sure what part of the elbow abnormalities are new and what remains as scar tissue. As Bryan Hoch reports today, Nady will soon be undergoing a second MRI in an effort to isolate the damage and attempt a diagnosis. There’s still a chance Nady could rehab the injury and return this year, but right now, I’m not expecting much from number 22.
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