Bomber Bites With Jumping Joe–Time To Give Brendan Ryan A Shot?

Someone is going to have to play shortstop for the Yankees for the Yankees next season and for the first time since 1995 it won’t be Derek Jeter.  Who it will be remains a source of constant debate among Yankee fans.  Many Yankee fans want the Bombers to trade for Troy Tulowitzki or Elvis Andrus.  Others wished for them to sign Hanley Ramirez, despite his defensive liabilities, before he signed with the Red Sox.  Still other believe that Stephen Drew is the best option despite his epically bad 2014 season.  Unfortunately for the Yankees, there just aren’t many options available to them.

The Yankees will not be making a big trade from Tulowitzki or Andrus or Jose Reyes or any other big time shortstop.  They are loathe to part with the number of prospects that would be required to make such a deal happen.  They also don’t want to take on those types of contracts anymore.  Further complicating any such deal is the fact neither the Rockies, Rangers nor Blue Jays really want to trade their All Star caliber shortstop because of the dearth of quality shortstops on the market right now.  The days of Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada and Omar Vizquel manning the position have been over for quite some time. 

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That leaves signing a possible free agent to fill Jeter’s cleats.  Sadly, the best free agent shortstop is probably Stephen Drew, despite his horror show at the plate last season.  Drew is still a good defender at shortstop and could bounce back at the plate next year given a full spring training.  Drew rejected a qualifying offer from the Red Sox and was unable to sign a contract until almost June.

Mandatory Credit: Chad R. MacDonald.

But the Yankees don’t need to sign a player who is good defender but has serious questions about whether they can hit a baseball.  They already have such a player under contract, Brendan Ryan.  Ryan is a terrific defensive shortstop who is an equally terrible hitter.  He could be a nearly automatic out in a lineup that struggled heavily last season and has not improved this off-season.  However, if he can just hit a little bit, maybe in the .230-.240 range, he could potentially make up for it in the field and do so for a fraction of the cost of signing Drew.

The bottom line is the fact that both Drew and Ryan were terrible hitter last season and likely to continue to be terrible hitters in 2015.  Perhaps Drew bounces back, perhaps he does not.  But while Drew is a good defender, Ryan is a world class defensive whiz.  It makes sense for the Yankees to start the season with Ryan at second and see if something opens up in the trade market during the season.

If not, the Yankees can go shopping again next fall for a long term replacements when Everth Cabrera, Ben Zobrist, and Ian Desmond are all scheduled to be free agents. Ryan just makes sense for a stopgap when the real solution at shortstop simply isn’t available for the Bombers.