(
)
You play detective. You try to figure out who Kevin Youkilis is these days, now that the Yankees have given him $12 million to be Alex Rodriguez’s replacement for half a season — maybe longer.
So you place calls to the two men who managed him last year, and by the time those conversations are done with Bobby Valentine and Robin Ventura, you are not sure if you even were talking about the same player. Such was the tale of two cities — and managers — that was Youkilis’ 2012 campaign:
High maintenance, low production and a rift with his manager that in many ways set Valentine on a trajectory toward being fired in Boston. Meanwhile, in three months in Chicago, Youkilis gave Ventura the impression that all that had changed were his Sox from Red to White.
“I thought he was great,” Ventura said. “He is a competitor. A lot of what you saw with the Red Sox is what you get. He comes ready to play every day. He has a grinder mentality. He never takes anything for granted or gives in on anything.”
Valentine dislikes the now-established story that he clashed with Youkilis from the outset. Instead, he insists, he inherited problems that spilled over from the Red Sox’s crash of 2011, namely that some players believed Youkilis was a leak on the story that implicated Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and John Lackey with drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse while games were being played. Youkilis, never the most popular player among his teammates anyway, felt further marginalized.
But it also was clear Valentine felt Youkilis’ skills had eroded and that rookie Will Middlebrooks was the better third base option. On April 15, Valentine told a TV station, “I don’t think [Youkilis is] as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason.” That set off a chain of recriminations toward the manager from within the clubhouse and detonated the Youkilis-Valentine relationship for good.
“All of his issues in Boston well preceded me,” Valentine said. “Look at the innocuous things I said. Those weren’t the issues. They were made to be. It wasn’t a good fit there and he got to go somewhere else. I don’t think it is more complicated than that.”
On June 24, Youkilis was traded from Boston to Chicago. He not only regained his stroke (Youkilis had a .692 OPS with the Red Sox, .771 with the White Sox), but also peace.
“He was great [in the clubhouse],” Ventura said. “The least of [the Yankees’] worries is [Youkilis] coming into a clubhouse. It is not an issue. He comes to play. He is a good team guy, too. He pulls for everyone. He just wants to win. He was simple for me — he just wanted to be in the lineup.”
So what could the Yankees expect? Valentine and Ventura agreed Youkilis will provide great effort and, though hardly agile, there should be competency at third base. Otherwise, Valentine said, “I only had him in spring and a few weeks of the season. He never really got on track in that time. It is hard for me to tell you what kind of production you are going to get out of him. But you are going to get a great effort. If he fits in [with the Yankees’ culture], he will be a real contributing member.”
Ventura said, “He still frustrates pitchers with long counts, fouling off tough pitches. And he thrived on that environment in Boston, so New York is not going to be an issue. He is going to be fine.”
➤ Youkilis would become the eighth member of the 2004 end-The-Curse Red Sox to eventually enlist with the Yankees, joining Mark Bellhorn, Johnny Damon, Alan Embree, Derek Lowe, Ramiro Mendoza, Doug Mientkiewicz and Mike Myers.
Here is another quirky one for you: Joe Torre left the Yankees after the 2007 season and managed the Dodgers in 2008. Five players from his first L.A. team played last year for the 2012 Yankees: Lowe, Andruw Jones, Hiroki Kuroda, Russell Martin and Cory Wade. Only one, Kuroda, is likely to play for the 2013 Yankees.
Winter spending doesn’t guarantee success in fall
Mets fans are worried that their club has yet to sign a single major league free agent this offseason. Yankees fans are concerned about the club’s penny-pinching, though they have spent $49 million on Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Kevin Youkilis, with Ichiro Suzuki still to come.
To all the frets we offer this name: Ryan Theriot.
The utility infielder would represent the most significant free-agent signed last offseason by the Giants, and that was for $1.25 million and not until Jan. 27.
Conversely, San Francisco lost Carlos Beltran, Jeff Keppinger and Cody Ross to free agency, and all three would go on to have excellent 2012 campaigns. The Giants did make one significant trade last offseason, dealing Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals for Melky Cabrera, who offered a good-news, bad-news element in San Francisco with an MVP-ish first half and failed drug test (for testosterone) that wiped him out for the last month and a half of the year and postseason.
Oh, that’s right, the postseason. Despite all of what the Giants didn’t do last offseason, they still went on win a championship for the second time in three years. Yet another reminder that winning the winter is not the same as, you know, actually winning.