Yankees: Andrew McCutchen should be the starting left-fielder in the playoffs

With just under three weeks to go in the regular season, the Yankees are still without their starting right fielder Aaron Judge. In his absence, recent acquisition Andrew McCutchen has taken over but it remains to be seen what his role will be once Judge returns.

Trading for the former NL MVP McCutchen was a smart late-season move by GM Brian Cashman and the Yankees because of the uncertainty surrounding Judge’s return. Judge is making progress but there’s still no set timetable on when we might see him back in the lineup and until that day comes McCutchen will continue to be the team’s starting right-fielder.

However, once Judge does come back that will leave four outfielders and only three starting spots in the lineup. That’s not even including Giancarlo Stanton who will continue to be the team’s primary DH down the stretch and in the postseason.

Aaron Hicks has had a breakout season in center field so his starting job should be safe, and Judge will once again be the everyday right fielder when he returns. That leaves McCutchen and Brett Gardner as the two options for skipper Aaron Boone to choose from to start in left field.

Boone could opt to platoon the two veterans depending on that night’s starting pitcher, but if it were up to me he should start McCutchen every game, no matter who is on the mound. At this point in the season the Yankees have to put their best players on the field and at this point in their careers, McCutchen is simply a better player than Gardner.

McCutchen has gotten off to a slow start in the11 games he’s played since coming to New York but his on-base percentage is very good at a .383 clip. He’s also hit two home runs, both of which have come in wins and his defense has been solid. On the flip side, Gardner is having another poor second half and in September he’s batting .226 with a .294 OBP and only 1 RBI.

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Gardner has been lifted from the leadoff spot in favor of McCutchen since his arrival and has slid down to ninth in the batting order. Both players are quality leadoff hitters because of their speed and ability to work deep counts but McCutchen brings more power to the table and walks much more.

While McCutchen is no longer the perennial MVP candidate he was during his time with the Pirates he’s still a very productive player and unfortunately, we can’t say the same about Gardner anymore. This could be his last season with the Yankees and as much as fans would love to see him finish strong it shouldn’t be in an everyday role in front of McCutchen.

McCutchen hasn’t played a lot of left field throughout his career but he’s more than capable of doing so and there wouldn’t be any dropoff to the outfield defense as a whole. I know Boone loves to have a mixture of righties and lefties in his lineup and go by the matchups but this is a situation where they shouldn’t matter.

The Yankees acquired McCutchen to step in for Judge until he returned but they also brought him in to give them another OF option in case Gardner’s struggles continued. Gardner is slugging a full 100 points lower than McCutchen is in the second half (.313) and he’s shown no signs of snapping out of this extended slump. We’ve seen this with Gardner before and in year’s past his second-half struggles have contributed to the Yankees lack of playoff success or not even making the playoffs at all.

I know it’s not an easy decision to tell the longest-tenured player on the roster to take a back seat for a newcomer but the Yankees have to look at the big picture here. If they want to advance deep into the playoffs McCutchen gives them the best chance to do so starting in left field and batting at the top of the lineup.