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Yankees: 3 reasons why Miguel Andujar, not Shohei Ohtani, should win AL ROY

By Carl Scott

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 31: Miguel Andujar #41 of the New York Yankees is congratulated by Luis Severino #40 after he hit a home run against the Detroit Tigers during the sixth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium on August 31, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 31: Miguel Andujar #41 of the New York Yankees is congratulated by Luis Severino #40 after he hit a home run against the Detroit Tigers during the sixth inning of a game at Yankee Stadium on August 31, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 28: Miguel Andujar #41 of the New York Yankees commits a fielding error during the third inning against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium on August 28, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 28: Miguel Andujar #41 of the New York Yankees commits a fielding error during the third inning against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium on August 28, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /

Andujar’s poor fielding performance hasn’t been as costly to the Yankees as you may think

Okay, we all know Miguel Andujar is not a gold glove fielder. But let me remind you, he’s 23 years old and he’s still a rookie. Most rookies go through struggles in the field, so this is nothing new. On the season, Andujar has an unacceptable 15 errors, so I understand the frustration.

On the bright side, the Yankees have a winning record of 7-6 when Andujar commits an error. Now let’s see how many of these games were crucially impacted by an Andujar error:

  • 4/10 L BOS 14-1: Miguel Andujar committed a two-out error in the sixth inning when his team was already down 7-1 against the Red Sox. One run would score on that play. Six more runs would score that inning. It was a blow out before the error occurred. NOT CRUCIAL
  • 7/6 L TOR 6-2: Andujar committed an error in a 5-1 game on a ground ball. No runs scored that inning, so no damage done by Andujar. NOT CRUCIAL 
  • 7/10 L BAL 6-5: Andujar committed a throwing error in a 2-0 game with two outs, but no runs went on to score. NOT CRUCIAL 
  • 8/5 L BOS 5-4: Andujar committed two errors in the game. The first one occurred in the fifth inning, but it led to no runs scoring. The second one happened in the bottom of the ninth when the Yankees were leading 4-3 with two outs. It was a short throw to Greg Bird (who should have caught the ball), and it led to the Red Sox tieing the game. The Red Sox would win the next inning. CRUCIAL 
  • 8/16 L TB 3-1: With no out, and the Yankees down 2-0, Andujar mad a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. Another run would later score. Because this game was within reach, I would consider this CRUCIAL
  • 9/3 L OAK 6-3: With the Yankees down 2-1 in the bottom of the first, Andujar mad a two-out error that led to another run-scoring. Since this occurred while the game was within reach and early on, I would consider it CRUCIAL.

While Andujar has committed 15 errors on the year, only three of them have occurred in a crucial situation that aided to a Yankees loss. Only one of them really cost them a game.

As for Shohei Ohtani, he doesn’t play the field. So he can’t contribute to registering outs in games where is also hitting. But he’s started an incredible (sarcasm intended) ten games, so that should negate the fact that he doesn’t play the field, right? Absolutely not!

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