Why the Yankees blocked Andujar and Torres from starting

The Yankees have seen an influx of young talent come up and contribute at the major league level, reinvigorating the fan base and making some wonder why they didn’t continue their youth movement by starting Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar on Opening Day.

At the beginning of Yankees camp, Torres and Andujar both seemed like frontrunners to win the starting positions at second and third base. Andujar grabbed control of his competition right off the rip by starting 8-for-19 (.421 batting average) with a stretch of four HRs in four games.

Torres came in with a pedigree of one of the top prospects in all of baseball who likely would’ve been called up at the end of last season had he not gotten hurt. Brian Cashman said he was comfortable starting the season with both rookies entrenched in the infield.

Until opportunity presented itself. When Cashman finally got the chance to pry away one of his long-time targets, Brandon Drury, he took it, sensing there was more pop left in the young veteran’s bat. After seeing Torres struggle in spring training, Cashman then took advantage of the limited free-agent market for Neil Walker and inked him to a bargain one-year deal.

No matter how Torres performed and what Cashman said publicly, the fact that the Yankees could gain another year on his contract by holding him in the minors for a couple weeks, and since he was also recovering from Tommy John surgery, it was logical for Torres to start the year at AAA.

Andujar was a slightly different story, given that he already started his service time clock last year and would have to be held down until the beginning of May for the Yanks to gain an additional year.

There was always little chance Cashman would fail to take advantage of this major loophole in the system for both players, and even if Andujar was just called up to fill in for injuries, I get the sense this was Cashman’s intention all along, especially for Torres.

When you’re the brain trust of the Yankees, you need to mask things publicly for two main reasons. You don’t want to lose any negotiating leverage with other teams or agents, and you don’t want to upset your fans. Cashman was simply playing the game.

Why shouldn’t both rookies have started on the Yankees? That mainly goes back to the service time argument, and the fact that the Yankees were able to land low-cost options in Walker and Drury that have similar projections to the youngsters.

Drury’s Steamer projections have him producing a .263/.314 slash line with 9 HRs and 36 RBIs in just 74 games. Andujar’s have him producing a .266/.297 slash line with 9 HRs and 34 RBIs in 69 games. Pretty similar, right? Plus, Drury has high upside as well, and he seems like he’s breaking out with a hot start to 2018.

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For Walker, his Steamer projections give him a 15 HR and 50 RBI campaign with a .267/.344 line in 87 games, much better than Torres’ projections of a .247/.314 line with 7 HRs and 31 RBIs in 76 games.

There’s no doubt that a top prospect like Torres has a higher upside than Walker, but the slim chance of him immediately living up to that upside wasn’t worth losing a year of his service time knowing the steady production they would get from Walker.

Trading for Drury and signing Walker was a smart move by Cashman from a pure baseball perspective as well, especially after the rash of early season injuries the Yankees have endured. When you have a championship roster like the Yankees do, it’s good business to minimize any potential risk that could come about. Now the Yankees have significant depth in the infield should any injuries occur, and it gives Aaron Boone more options to plug-in for injuries elsewhere in the lineup.

Imagine if either Torres or Andujar got hurt and they were the starter. Who would replace them in the lineup? That answer is likely Tyler Wade, Ronald Torreyes, and/or whoever Cashman could find off the scrap heap unless he decided to move some prospects for a short-term solution.

Drury would’ve been off the table unless the Yankees upped their offer in prospects because the Diamondbacks were dead set on acquiring Steven Souza from the Rays, who likely would’ve been dealt elsewhere if a deal with the Diamondbacks fell through. The Rays involvement led to the three-team deal and Cashman finally landed his man without giving up any of his top 10 prospects.

Holding down both Torres and Andujar would theoretically give them more time to develop in the minors before facing the wrath of the NY media. That extra year of control gained would setup both players to reach free agency after the 2024 season when Andujar will be 29 and Torres will be 27, about the prime of their careers.

This would set up both players to receive huge paydays if they turn into the type of players many believe they can be, but their contracts would be only larger if they hit the open market a year earlier. This would put the Yankees in more of a bind in the future, given their hesitation to pay large salaries for players who will be declining towards the end of their deals.

Considering the Yankees will have to pay the rest of their young guns like Judge, Sanchez, and Severino before either Andujar or Torres reaches free agency, they may have some tough decisions to make on who to extend.

This move with Andujar and Torres may create even more leverage for the Yankees to negotiate a pre-free agency extension, which often ends up as some of the best bargains in baseball, since the players may not want to wait even longer before they see their first major payday.

Next: Is Brandon Drury a star in the making?

There’s no doubt that the Yankees are set up extremely well for the future, but service time maneuvers like this will just extend this team’s championship window.