Previewing the Yankees Upcoming Spring Competition for Right Field

The Dark Horse: Mason Williams

While a shoulder injury has sidelined former top prospect Mason Williams for the majority of the last two seasons, he has been fairly impressive during his first two big league cups of coffee, and seems to be a contender for a bench role going into next season at the very least.

A starting job for Williams becomes much more likely if New York trades veteran left fielder Brett Gardner this offseason. If they don’t, it might not appealing to the club to play three speedy, lefty, defense-first guys in the same outfield. Ideally, at least one of your outfielders should be a potential source of pop.

Although Cashman named Tyler Austin and Rob Refsnyder as candidates for the job, I would guess that in reality they are actually not serious contenders, and would be behind Williams on the depth chart if it really came down to those three. Austin is pretty rough in the field no matter where you put him, and Refsnyder just doesn’t have the bat for a corner outfield spot.

Between the last two seasons, Williams has now hit .292/.320/.438 (102 OPS+) in 51 plate appearances. That’s not a big enough sample size to base major decisions on, but it’s encouraging. He also has a case for being the best defensive outfielder on the 40-man roster.

It would probably take an injury or two to make this choice feasible, but the Yankees have shown recently that when Williams is healthy, they will play him. There was a reason that he was so highly regarded a few years back. Yes, he’s lacking in the power department, but many other aspects of his game are electric.