Yankees Opening Day roster; can Miguel Andujar crack it?

Hype is quite a common and easily used word in sports, sometimes even overused. Yankees top prospect Miguel Andujar is proving early in Spring Training that he may justify all the hype surrounding his potent bat.

The profoundly stated narrative heading into the spring was that Miguel Andujar’s offensive capability was ready to compete at the big league level, but his lackluster defense could hold him back from starting the season with the Yankees in Toronto come March 29.

And, just two days after position players reported to camp, the Yanks acquired Brandon Drury from the Diamondbacks, slotting Andujar a step back in the depth charts at third base.

With that, it looked as if Scranton was the likely destination for Andujar — but not so fast.

Through seven games, the 23-year-old is slashing a very impressive .421/.421/1.158 with four homers and eight RBI, while holding down the fort at third base, completing 9-out-of-9 chances he’s had at the hot corner.

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Now, of course, Andujar can’t keep up this otherworldly play, but in the scenario he does, what happens?

As it sits right now, the likely alignment change would be sliding Drury over to second base. Drury, 25, is having a nice spring himself, slashing .286/.375/1.089 with a homer in 14 at-bats.

With Drury at second, that slots Andujar’s potent bat into the everyday lineup at third base, while top prospect Gleyber Torres would see more time in Triple-A to begin the 2018 campaign.

Despite it being a small sample size, Torres has struggled early in camp. The 21-year-old is 2-for-16 with just one RBI through seven games. If he doesn’t see his production increase significantly by the end of March, the odds he’ll be wearing Railriders’ pinstripes instead of Yankee pinstripes will be high come the start of the regular season.

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Torres’ teammate Miguel Andujar’s fate very well could be the opposite. In the rare case he maintains these absurd spring numbers, Andujar will find himself on the Opening Day roster one way or another.