Yankees Midseason Report Card: Infielders

Evan Halpine-Berger

Jul 2, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro (14) reacts after popping up to end the top of the eighth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Sep 23, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius (18) throws out Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Ben Revere (not pictured) in the fifth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

As the New York Yankees reach the midpoint of the 2016 season, Yanks Go Yard is taking a look at how each player on the roster has performed in the first half. Here are the midseason grades for the team’s infielders.

Any discussion of the 2016 Yankees infield has to begin at first base. The team has seen their first four options on their first base depth chart miss significant time with injuries. Greg Bird and Dustin Ackley will miss the entire season following surgery, starter Mark Teixeira has struggled to stay on the field because of persistent neck and knee issues, and Triple-A safety net Chris Parmelee went down with injury, after just a few games in pinstripes.

Even last resort Nick Swisher, who the team clearly was doing everything to avoid bringing to the big leagues, recently decided to walk away from baseball to spend time with his new child.

Between the injuries at first base and inconsistent play by other guys around the diamond, the Yankees infield has been in a constant state of flux this year. Some guys who looked like All-Stars in the early going are now black holes in the lineup, and vice versa. Let’s look at how each infielder has fared in the first half of 2016 one at a time.

Next: Terrible Tex

Jul 5, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (25) hits a sac fly during the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

First up, Yankees first baseman: Mark Teixeira

Mark Teixeira has been one of the worst hitters in baseball over the first three months of 2016, hitting a miserable .197/.278/.330 (62 wRC+) in 227 PAs. That’s a long way off from his MVP-caliber 2015 campaign, where he posted a .255/.357/.548 (148 wRC+) slash line, hit 31 home runs and carried the Yankees offense on his back for much of the season.

The absence of that big bat in the middle of the lineup is perhaps the biggest reason the Yankees have struggled to score runs thus far. As of Wednesday, the club ranks 25th in the majors with a .397 slugging percentage. Teixeira was supposed to be the Yankees’ cleanup hitter and premier power source this season, and that just hasn’t been the case.

So why exactly has Teixeira’s production fallen off a cliff this season? The answer, as it often is with Tex, is a likely injury. Teixeira has dealt with occasional knee problems that date all the way back to 2008 when he was with Atlanta but never has missed much time with them. That changed in May when Tex had to be shut down for several weeks with a cartilage tear in his knee.

Although he eventually returned to the field, the injury is not one that will heal on its own. It will continue to hamper him the remainder of the season until he can undergo the surgery to repair it. That hasn’t been Teixeira’s only injury either, as he’s missed several games with neck spasms this year.

It’s hard to imagine that a healthy Mark Teixeira would be performing this poorly based on what we saw from the Yankees first baseman last season. However, at 36 years old, it’s unlikely we’ll see a healthy Tex again in pinstripes, if ever since he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season.

Midseason Grade: F

Next: Starlin Stumbles

Second Baseman: Starlin Castro

The Yankees trade for Starlin Castro last winter was controversial at the time, and only looks worse now. The club sent swingman Adam Warren, who had a 3.29 ERA in 131 innings for the Bombers in 2015, to the Cubs for Castro, who had been one of the worst hitters in the National League for two of the previous three seasons.

Castro did have several above average seasons on his resume but hadn’t produced consistently in his young career. Sending one of the Yankees’ best pitchers to Chicago for a project was a definite risk, especially considering the team had an internal option at second base who many evaluators thought could out-hit Castro.

Rob Refsnyder hit .302/.348/.512 in 47 PAs when given the starting second base job in September of 2015. He came without Castro’s $40 million salary commitment and didn’t require the Yankees to surrender valuable pitching depth.

With Refsnyder out-hitting Castro this year (as expected), this trade looks like a clear loss for New York. Starlin Castro has batted .258/.296/.403 (84 wRC+) in his first 329 PAs of 2016. Even worse, he has struggled to adjust to life at the keystone, ranking as a below average defender by most metrics.

The overall package has resulted in a below replacement level player for the Yankees at -0.2 fWAR. The expensive Castro refuses to draw walks, hacks at pitches out of the zone and is prone to mental mistakes on the basepaths. Like it or not, he’s one of the players the Yankees have to build around since he’s under contract another three years.

Midseason Grade: D

Next: Sir Didi the Great

Shortstop: Didi Gregorius

Even with his slow start, Didi Gregorius has been one of the better shortstops in the American League in the first half of 2016, building off the strides he made at the plate down the stretch last season. He’s not quite in the same class as the Manny Machado’s and Carlos Correa’s of the world, but he’s just a few rungs below that at this point.

Didi has gotten progressively better with each month, with a wRC+ of 54 in April, 88 in May, and 140 in June. He got off to a slow start last season too but appears to be hitting his stride after a hot streak last month.

On the season, Gregorius is hitting .287/.315/.437 (98 wRC+) in his first 295 PAs, a marked improvement from last year’s .265/.318/.370 (89 wRC+) slash line, especially in the power department. With nine home runs in the first half of 2016, Gregorius has already matched his total number of longballs from last season.

The only knock against Didi in the early going is that his defense doesn’t rate as well as it did last year when he created 14.2 defensive runs above average by Fangraphs’ Def metric. This season, he’s actually rated as below average (-0.2 runs).

Whether this is due to small sample size or some other factor is hard to determine. On the surface, Gregorius still seems to possess all the tools to be an above-average defender, often making highlight reel plays with his impressive athleticism and cannon arm.

Midseason Grade: B+

Next: The Cold Corner

Third Baseman: Chase Headley

Chase Headley did not collect his first extra-base hit of the year until May 12. Just let that sink in. That really tells you everything you need to know about his start to 2016. If you need more, his batting line stood at an abysmal .178/.265/.178 (23 wRC+) in 102 plate appearances. That’s…not great.

In mid-May, there seemed like a legitimate possibility that Headley was on the verge of being benched or released. If he wasn’t owed $26 million after this season it may even have happened. Luckily, Headley began to turn his performance around just as the vultures began to circle. Since then, he’s hit .296/.366/.488 (127 wRC+) with seven home runs in 183 PAs.

Midseason Grade: C

Evan Halpine-Berger

Evan is a contributor at Call to the Pen, former site expert at Yanks Go Yard, a high school English teacher in Connecticut, and a friend to dogs everywhere.