Yankees universe has a foot fetish for Miguel Andujar

First to Third

In this alternate Yankees universe, Andujar shows some of the same improvement with his footwork. If he does that, cuts down his errors to the point where his offense outweighs his defense, then he becomes what he looks like: a top hitting prospect with both power and great bat speed.

His one day with the Yankees did nothing to dim that vision, as he went three-for-four and looked ready for his next promotion.

Now if that’s true, Andujar could be back in September. And third base will start contributing a lot more offense. But if Andujar can show himself as at least an adequate defender, either this year or in spring training, he will cause a chain reaction that will ripple throughout the baseball cosmos.

In that scenario, the Yankees want to keep Andujar, hopefully forever, and see how Torres does next year. As soon as he is ready to take over at second or short, the Yankees will be able to trade either Didi or Starlin; they would never trade the younger players with more years under control.

Trades are always best when done from a position of strength; the Yankees would have four highly talented players for three positions. And they would be able to trade a proven big time player, choosing between Didi and Starlin. Either one of them would bring back significantly more than an error-prone third baseman.

But it’s all up to Andujar’s feet.