Yankees: Miguel Andujar taking control of third base job

It took him a couple weeks to get going but Yankees rookie Miguel Andujar has officially arrived and it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.

When top prospect Gleyber Torres enters Yankee Stadium later today to make his big league debut it won’t be to replace Andujar like many expected a week ago. Andujar was struggling, batting .133 in his first 28 at-bats, but since then he has taken off batting .450 over his last five games with five doubles and his first two major league home runs. He’s been the Yankees hottest hitter of late and he’s showing exactly why management always believed he would hit at the big league level.

On Saturday, Andujar blew the game open in the Yankees 9-1 win with a big bases-clearing double off Marcus Stroman that extended the lead to 7-1 and knocked the Jay’s ace out of the game. It was a sign of maturation from the 23-year-old after he worked a deep count against Stroman and took advantage of a hanging breaking ball that he drove and one-hopped off the left field wall.

During his first couple weeks with the team, Andujar seemed eager to impress and was over aggressive chasing a lot of pitches out of the strike zone. Lately, the game has slowed down for him and he’s feeling much more relaxed according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.

“There’s been a lot of communication between me and the hitting coaches. They told me I was a little too anxious, so I’m going out there a little more relaxed. That’s what I feel. I just feel more relaxed. That’s helping me a lot right now.”

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As I stated earlier the Yankees always knew that Andujar would hit so to see him break out like he has should come as no surprise to them. The only question was with his defense which is still a work in progress, but its something he’s really worked on and improved over the last year.

His defense at the hot corner will still be something closely monitored moving forward, but now that his bat has come around he won’t have to worry about a demotion back to Triple-A.

Gleyber Torres was working a lot at third base recently at Scranton, but now that he’s been called up my guess is that fellow rookie Tyler Wade will be the man sent back down and Torres will take over at second.

Coming into the season it looked like it would take a while before we saw both Andujar and Torres in the Yankees starting infield after they each failed to make the big league roster. However, with the injury to Brandon Drury, the struggles of Wade and Torres’ hot start at Triple-A, the Yankees have no choice but to go with the rookies for the time being.

Under the circumstances, it was an easy choice to make and one that should bring a lot of excitement to the fan base and the Yankee clubhouse. The team is hoping that when Torres arrives he can provide the same kind of spark Gary Sanchez did back in 2016 while Andujar continues to blossom into an everyday player at third base.

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Everybody around the organization has been waiting for this day to come dating all the way back to the beginning of spring training. Now that it’s here expectations will be high, but these are two special talents who have all the tools to help this Yankee team reach their full potential.

It came quicker than we all expected but the future is now for Andujar and Torres. This should be fun.