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Yankees Editorial: Chris Young Was A Small Move That Has Been Big

By Jason Evans

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One of Brian Cashman’s early moves this past off-season was going with Chris Young over Ichiro Suzuki as the Yankees fourth outfielder. As I said all off-season long, the fourth outfielder was going to play a lot for this team. I didn’t expect it to be because Carlos Beltran has been so bad this season (though he is coming around lately). If you thought Chris Young was going to have six homers so far I have to give you credit.

Young was across town with the Mets and quite frankly made Bartolo Colon look like Babe Ruth. Young was released back in August and Cashman and his analytics team went to work and saw the forest through the trees.

"They approached me after he was released,” Cashman said of Michael Fishman, the Yankees’ assistant general manager and director of quantitative analysis, and professional scouting manager Steve Martone. “They continued to make their case that they believed that he still had upside and he was better than his numbers showed. Under that circumstance, because it didn’t cost anything, I agreed to sign him for kind of the equivalent of an NBA 10-day contract tryout. And he’s performed as a high level ever since. We re-signed him as a free agent and he’s continued to perform.”"

It’s not like Chris Young was never good or anything. He was one of the top rookies in 2007 and was an All-Star in 2010. Young had an .876 OPS after coming up with the Yankees in September and it was good enough to keep him around for this season.

Young has played well and if he can continue it should be a big part of the team moving forward. Him in right with Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner is a highly skilled defensive outfield.

Sometimes it’s the little moves that pay bigger dividends than the big ones. Young’s signing is an example of that so far.

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