Yankees Didi Gregorius Evolving into Something More

Not that current Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius will ever make fans forget the name Derek Jeter, but the 26-year-old Dutchman may finally be finding his niche.

I’ll admit, I was none-too-pleased at the arrival of young Didi Gregorius from the Arizona Diamondbacks as the heir apparent to Derek Jeter back in early 2015. Known primarily for his solid glove-work while in the minor leagues, Gregorius showed little pop as a rookie in 2013 when he batted .252 with seven home runs and 28 RBI in 103 games.

2014 would bring with it the much-dreaded sophomore slump, as Gregorius spent half of the campaign stuck in Triple-A Reno, only accumulating 80 games of MLB service time while batting a diluted .226.

Then came the three-team trade that sent once promising Yankees hurler Shane Greene to the Detroit Tigers, left-handed pitcher Robbie Ray from those same Tigers to the Diamondbacks, and ‘Prince Didi’ to New York.

Attempting to be the very first man to fill the enormous shoes of ‘The Captain’ is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. But Gregorius did an admirable job, batting a middle of the road .265 with nine homers and 65 RBI.

More surprising though were that the tales of his defensive prowess seemed to be inaccurate, as Gregorius finished the year with 13 errors and a .979 fielding percentage. While not terrible, he would often struggle on routine plays, while successfully completing more acrobatic ones, mainly due to his range and uber athleticism.

As for a quick comparison, Jeter, who most pundits claimed should have been moved to the outfield years before his retirement, due to a decreased lack of lateral movement, made only 11 errors in his 2014 swan-song.

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Fast forward to 2016: Gregorius has established himself as one of the few Yankees bright spots on offense. He leads the entire club with a .296 BA and 85 hits, while his 14 doubles and 39 RBI rank second, and 10 long balls are third most.

Massively impressive though is the fact that Gregorius is hitting left-handed pitching like never before, producing a .371 average and .863 OPS during this season’s 70 at-bats versus those aforementioned lefties.

The only flaw in an otherwise successful half-season is his ever-growing defensive deficiency. Now sure, Didi may get to more balls that most shortstops because of his agility and quickness, but committing 11 errors with a little less than half the season gone by is something that ought to be addressed.

With the lack of consistent output via the Yankees offense, this team can ill-afford to give up any additional at-bats to the opposition that may result in runs scored, and eventual losses.

Could it be that Gregorius is more of an offensive threat than that of a defensive wiz? Is this actually beneficial long term for the Yankees?

Regardless, it appears Joe Girardi is aware there is still plenty of time for Gregorius’ game to round into shape, telling the New York Post:

I still think he’ll grow a lot more. But he’s made a lot of progress in this year and a half. He’s worked really hard. We’re proud of what he’s done.

We as fans, though, hope for the very best from Gregorius right now, not only because he will be an integral part of the second half push, but with so many other promising talents struggling, ie. Nathan Eovaldi, Luis Severino and Aaron Hicks, the franchise is in dire need of young controllable assets that can produce at a high level ASAP.

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No pressure, Didi.