3 Yankees facing final chance to remain with team moving forward

Estevan Florial

Some might say Estevan Florial hasn't gotten a fair shake with the MLB roster. Again, those folks might be right. But life moves fast in New York. You either catch on or you don't ... unless you get paid over $10 million annually, and in that case you'll be sticking around forever.

But for players that don't carry a prohibitive cost and don't leave the team exposed to risk by letting them go, it's a different story. Florial was encouraging in his limited action in 2021, but his 2022 was really poor (.097 AVG, .297 OPS in 31 at-bats). He's already played 179 games at Triple-A. It's either perform at the MLB level or ... that's it.

In spring training last year, Florial failed to log a hit in nine at-bats. The year prior he impressed by hitting .300 with a .990 OPS in 20 at-bats. Not sure what happened (it could very well be the Yankees' fault from a developmental standpoint), but the clock is ticking on Florial either way.

The Yankees have Hicks, Cabrera, Rafael Ortega and Willie Calhoun also competing for the left field job (and general outfield reps). There's no place for Florial on the roster if he can't emerge in the top three of that group by the time spring training ends.