Yankees: Brandon Drury is way more than a stopgap to Manny Machado

The arrival of Drury

Naturally, the arrival of Drury and his major league experience would lead you to believe he’ll get a leg up in camp over rookies Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar. With the understanding that Drury will see extended time at third base this spring, it allows the Yankees to begin the new season with their No.1 and No. 5 prospects back in Triple-A.

Now I’m sure this will send more than a few diehards over the edge, but let’s be honest, shall we?

Gleyber Torres only saw 23 games (81 at-bats) at Triple-A before season-ending surgery in 2017. Even if he is “a natural,” as reports would have you believe — and even if he were to have the type of spring Greg Bird did last calendar year, service time would put the kibosh on his arrival to the bigs until May.

I fully expect the 21-year-old to be a phenom, but why rush it. Let Torres knock the rust off for a month or two in Scranton. Let his play force the organization to promote him.

As for Andujar, by all accounts, his bat is big league ready. And yes, his glove looked much improved during the recent Arizona Fall League, but that’s a small sample size to go by.

Miguel Andujar has only seen 58 games (227 at-bats) at Triple-A. He’ll turn 23 on March 2 and has an extremely bright future. However, when coaches have him throwing across the diamond to first base with eyes closed, as reported by Brendan Kuty, I throw up a red flag.