Yankees: Their Top Five second basemen over the last half-century

You might find this one a surprise, but…….

Luis Sojo gets the nod for the number four position in the ranking of the Yankees all-time best second basemen in the last half-century.

Sojo never played more than 100 games in a season for the Yankees, and yet for those that recall, he was always in the middle of a win for his team, as depicted in the video above.

Championship teams are built as much with role players as they are with All-Stars who earn the big bucks. And it is notable that Sojo never made more than $800,00 in a season while playing for the Yankees.

But he does have three championship rings.

In four World Series appearances, all with the Yankees, he batted .400 with a .904 OPS, while fielding his position without a flaw.

Other than that, Sojo’s stats as a major leaguer would barely rate a second look. An overall .261 hitter, he played his last game at the age of 36. Fittingly, it was with the Yankees who picked him up off the scrap heap in 2003 following his release by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

After appearing in only three games, the Yankees also released him proving that some fairy tales do not end well.

But for those that recall, Luis Sojo was magic as a role player and second baseman for a team that won and won big during his tenure with the Yankees.

Back to the sixties for this one………….

Bobby Richardson hit a total of 34 home runs for the Yankees during his tenure as their second baseman from 1957-1966.

But during that time, his team won three World Championships, including back to back titles in 1961 and 1962 against the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants.

In 1960, a series that the Yankees lost in a final seventh game in which Bill Mazeroski pulled off a Bobby Thompson home run sending the Bombers home, while Richardson became the Most Valuable Player in a losing cause batting .367 with 12 runs batted in and an unimaginable 1.054 OPS.

A seven-time All-Star, Richardson would end his career with a pedestrian batting average of .266, hardly worthy of Hall of Fame consideration.

But to the Yankees, he was the glue along with Tony Kubek up the middle that created the chance for others like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to rise to their heights propelling the team to the World Series and beyond.

In later years following his retirement from baseball, Richardson would move on to pursue his faith as a minister of the gospel. Criticized by some for bringing religion to the forefront of baseball, he persevered.

At Mickey Mantle’s bedside during his last days, Richardson spoke with “The Mick” who was mournful for his behavior over the years and the two sealed a friendship that had its origins in the Yankees clubhouse many years before. Richardson also would also deliver the eulogy at Mantle’s funeral service.

Bobby Richardson is the personification of the major league second baseman who quietly does his job with none of the glitter and glam that makes him a name to remember in the Yankees annals. But any closer look reveals something much different.

Don’t cha know…………

The brooding face of Robinson Cano aptly fits his tenure with the Yankees. But before we go any further with this, let’s look at the numbers he produced.

In nine seasons with the Yankees from 2005-2013, Cano finished second in the balloting for Rookie of the Year in his inaugural season and was chosen as an All-Star five times.

He hit .300 or better five times in a Yankees uniform and scored 100 or runs in a season in four consecutive years. He also fielded his position flawlessly.

And yet, there was something about Robbie Cano that didn’t sit right with Yankees fans and, ultimately, the front office when they “let him go” to the Seattle Mariners not believing that he was worth the $240 million the Mariners signed him for.

History will decide the outcome of that contract, but in the immediacy of the decision the Yankees were faced with, the common belief among Yankees fans was that Cano played baseball with a nonchalance that irked nearly everyone.

Blessed with immeasurable talent, Cano could be seen in the field barely nipping a runner at first base with an underhand toss on a play that usually would have beaten the runner by three steps to the bag.

Witness here this video in which Cano did not run out of the box……

Nevertheless, baseball rewards numbers and even some of the nastiest characters like a Ty Cobb make it to the Hall of Fame. And even Cobb, in later years, had those fangs removed by some generous writing.

Cano had the numbers and deserved a ranking at or near the top of the Yankees best second baseman over the last fifty years.

The man in waiting……

Starlin Castro has all that it takes to eclipse all of the Yankees second baseman previously mentioned, hands down.

From 2011, when he posted 207 hits as a 21-year old shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, until today when his name appears more than once on the Top Ten leader board in the American League as the second baseman for the Yankees, this guy is special.

More from Yanks Go Yard

• Yankees top prospects butt heads after Giants’ gritty win over Commanders
• CC Sabathia defends Yankees’ massive Aaron Judge contract
• Scott Boras closed Yankees-Carlos Rodón deal from Fenway Park, put cherry on top
• Orioles are bailing out Yankees and AL East by botching free agency
• 4 blockbuster trade targets that could be Yankees next ‘big’ move

Still only 27, we still don’t know what Castro’s ceiling will be and if you go by the metric that says a ballplayers max years are from 28-32, the best of Castro is yet to come.

Already, Castro has collected 1,238 hits in a major league uniform, and he is well on his way to amassing 200 hits in a season in 2017.

Not to go unnoticed, he also has some pop in his bat and has joined his Yankees teammates in double-figure dinger category with twelve to go along with 45 runs batted in from a position where you usually don’t expect it.

Add to that the fact that he’s also played in 69 of the Yankees 70 games and you have a developing horse that will provide security and comfort at his position for years to come.

As with The Judge, the jury may well deliberate for a while before proclaiming him as anything other than what he is, which is a darn good second baseman in a league that has only a few.

The Yankees Twenty-Five Most Memorable Home Runs

In the Yankees storied history, twenty-five of their home runs stand out as moments in time never to be forgotten and always treasured by baseball fans.

But the upside on Castro remains huge and the Yankees would to well to do anything they need to to keep him in the Pinstripes for years to come.