Yankees Editorial: Second Base Is Still A Point Of Interest

We know Stephen Drew isn’t going anywhere. It is interesting that Rob Refsnyder still hasn’t been sent down to AAA yet. Jose Pirela is still in camp, though he’s on the 40-man roster and hasn’t recovered from his concussion yet. Both have hit well and much better than what Drew was giving them. The one thing they haven’t provided is defense according to GM Brian Cashman.

"I know there’s a lot of dialog wrapped around Refsnyder and Pirela,” Cashman said. “But I think also that those guys have shown they still have work to do on the defensive side still. It doesn’t mean if we have to go there we wouldn’t be comfortable doing so. I also think they’ve shown they have some development still to go, despite the bats. The bats are impressive, but you’ve seen the defensive stuff they’ve shown us in short sample sizes as well. So, like anything else, you’d love to pluck a guy from the minor leagues when they’re on a roll in all aspects of the game so they can kind of hit the ground running at the big-league level. So right now I’m pretty comfortable that Drew signing was the smart play for us on the front end.”"

Drew’s been better offensively lately and seen his average climb up to .244.  The fact that he’s actually doing better this spring, may be due to the fact that he’s actually had a Spring Training unlike last season.

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I don’t think Drew will be as bad as he was last season. I think the fact that he has a spring to get ready for the season, unlike the previous season, will do him some good. Even if he’s back on a one year deal.

To me, this may be a smaller scale Kris Bryant situation. If Drew doesn’t hit early and Refsnyder or Pirela does in AAA, the pressure will be on the Yankees to promote one of the kids and sit Drew. Though neither can hit like Bryant, it’s still a prospect that could be helpful to the Yankees season.

The easiest thing to make this issue go away is for all to hit, or all to struggle.

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