Stephen Drew And His Reduced Role

Before the trade deadline, the Yankees acquired Stephen Drew for Kelly Johnson. Neither had done much for their respective clubs, and Drew would be an upgrade over Brian Roberts at second. Drew held out for a better contract this off-season until accepting a one year deal from the Red Sox.

With the Sox, he submarined Xander Bogaerts‘s confidence, and hit only .176. Since coming to the Yankees, he’s hit .167 with one homer and eight RBI. He’s lost his starting spot to Martin Prado, who was brought in to play right and replace Ichiro Suzuki. Suzuki has played better than Drew, and Drew now finds himself riding the pine.

Drew was mentioned as a Yankees target all off-season and even though the Yankees finally got him, he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire.  Drew was in a perfect position to possibly be the heir apparent to Derek Jeter at shortstop, but at this point, Drew will be hitting the open market again after this season when there will be all sorts of shortstops possibly available.

Drew has said he’s gotten more comfortable at the plate, and hopes his reduced playing time doesn’t effect it according to NJ.com

"“I can work on some things that I see, it gives me an opportunity to do that,” Drew said. “But there’s nothing like playing in a game, seeing that pitching every day.”"

Drew is right in the fact that playing everyday would help, however, he’s been given his opportunity and it hasn’t worked out. Now let’s see how he handles the reduced role moving forward.