The New York Yankees, are currently well into their offseason, so let’s take a look at how their third basemen performed this past year.
With the departure of once little league superstar Todd Fraizer, the questions loomed on if the Yankees would get sign a new fresh face to take over at third or call up the hot prospect Miguel Andujar. Questions were answered as Andujar would start the year as the third basemen and never looked back.
Later on, in the year and with Andujar’s fielding showing some faults, the New York Yankees looked to fix that hole with an acquisition. With all that being said, did the Rookie light up the world and did the late season move work out?
Adeiny Hechavarria
Hechavarria primarily played Shortstop for the Yankees while Torreyes would fill in for Andujar if need be but with Miguel’s late fielding troubles the Yankees turned to Adeiny for some help in the field. Hechavarria was not brought on to the Yankees for his hitting skills, having his career batting average just above .250. The reason Hech was brought to this team was for his amazing fielding ability.
Hechavarria, as of this article, holds a .980 fielding percentage. In 3080 chances to make a play Adeiny Hechavarria only has 60 errors. A stat that makes him a special kind of player. Obviously, I glossed over his biggest weakness in his bat. If Hechavarria had a strong bat he’d be a franchise player for a low-end ball club easy but the bat is half the game and its something he lacks greatly. I don’t believe Adeiny Hechavarria will be a Yankee come years end but we can all appreciate his great jumping catch in the Wild Card game against the A’s
Grade: C-
Miguel Andújar
Let’s talk about the real Rookie of the Year for a moment. Miguel Andujar not only met the expectations of the Yankees fans but exceeded them in ways they only hoped of. At the young age of 23, Andujar hit 27 home runs and was 3 RBIs away from the coveted 100 RBI season. Of his 170 hits, 76 of them were extra base hits. In short, not only can the kid hit, he can hit extremely well.
As mentioned before, Miguel Andujar struggled slightly at third but exaggerations of him being the worst fielding third baseman around were ludicrous. I’ll be the first to say that I cringe when people talk about trading such a young piece of this World Series puzzle for another player. Let the kid grow alongside other young superstars in the Bronx. Winning now is great, but winning for a long time is much much greater.