Yankees Spring Training Report: A Look at the Veterans

Jacoby Ellsbury

No doubt that Jake is having a good spring. His average is at .310, and his OBP is .375. But what jumps off the stat sheet is his steals. Jacoby has three steals in 29 at-bats. That might not seem like much but, once I use my nerd math powers, those numbers get a lot more exciting. Those three spring training steals in 29 AB’s correlate roughly to 54 steals in 540 regular season AB’s. As context, Jake had 551 at-bats for the Yankees last year.

If Jacoby does that, not only will the Yankees have a great lead-off hitter but also Ellsbury will steal more bases than he did in any other year.

History, however, makes that seem very unlikely. Let’s face it; we have seen this show before. Jacoby has started other years hot, as well. But then he gets injured. It could be a big injury or a little one; it doesn’t matter. Jake is not the same player after he comes back from whatever injury he gets and it is almost impossible to believe his regular season will mirror his spring training.

But that is speculation. The reality is that Jacoby Ellsbury is doing everything he can to help the Yankees win. He looks every bit the superstar they are paying him to be. This is especially important as there is no real center field threat ready to take his job. Dustin Fowler still has work to do in Triple-A to show he’s ready and Blake Rutherford is not even in Yankees camp. I want the Yanks to win, so, here’s hoping he keeps it going.