Yankees: Should The Team Take A Chance On Chris Carter
The Yankees purchased some insurance over the winter for a player who was coming back from a season-ending injury in 2016. For that investment, should they at least give a chance for the return to be realized?
Yankees General Manager, Brian Cashman, made a move over the winter that was much criticized when he signed Chris Carter to a one-year contract worth $3.,1 million. By Yankees standards, that’s not a lot of money and if the investment yields no return, so what in the long scheme of things.
The organization has never hidden the fact that the signing was just a matter of obtaining an insurance policy against Greg Bird‘s recovery from a shoulder injury that kept him out of the Yankees lineup for the entire season last year.
That, coupled with the fact that Bird appeared to struggle during his stint in the Arizona Fall League, led many to turn their thinking around with applause for Cashman having had the “foresight” to sign Carter.
For the Yankees, it’s the proverbial blank or get off the pot scenario
But then, as luck would have it if you are are Cashman, Greg Bird lit up the team’s spring season putting up numbers that ensured that he would be the Yankees first baseman, but for many seasons to come.
Which left, and continues to leave, Carter as an afterthought on the Yankees 25-man roster. He’s not playing first base, and he’s not the team’s designated hitter, Matt Holliday has that spot, leaving Carter available for pinch-hitting duty in the latter innings of a game as he did on Sunday.
The Yankees Dilemma
At first glance, Holliday deserves that spot, especially with his ability to protect Bird in the lineup behind him as well as to spur pitchers to pitch to Gary Sanchez in front of him.
But when you look deeper, can the organization continue to avoid the fact that Carter hit forty-one home runs for the Brewers last season, and shows no sign that he isn’t capable of doing so again for the Yankees?
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It’s an interesting question and, of course, I don’t have the answer. It’s only my job to ask the question. And it’s a question I don’t think the organization has fully answered and one that maybe they don’t want to have to answer, at least not now.
Matt Holliday is a classic major league hitter who wakes up in the morning with base hits spraying off his bat to all directions of the field.
And more importantly, perhaps, he’s developing into one of those go-to guys in the clubhouse that is so necessary for the formation of a winning team.
But having said that, what is the point of retaining Carter if he isn’t going to get a chance to play? And don’t tell me it’s three million dollars because I ain’t buying it. Fortunately, Holliday isn’t the type of player who’s going to squawk about reduced playing, at least not publicly. And that’s a plus.
For the Yankees, it’s the proverbial blank or get off the pot scenario. You bought this guy, and you kept him on your roster, all 212 strikeouts, and 41 home runs from him. For what?
At the very least, Carter is an Alex Rodriguez presence in the lineup that causes a pitcher to pause and think to himself that he can’t make a mistake on this guy because if he does, he’s going to be turning around only to watch where the ball lands.
I’m just saying; it’s something the Yankees should be thinking about.