In the midst of a winter of mainly Yankees inaction, particularly when it came to making a play for an outside player of stature, Brian Cashman insisted to me the healthy return of Brett Gardner would add significant impact.
I was incredulous. I had always thought of Gardner as a useful piece, but my comparison was often to a third-down back, a Darren Sproles type, someone who could be useful in a specific and complementary — but mainly not starting — role.
Cashman maintained I was wrong. In fact, he stressed not to get caught up in names. To that end, after the Indians had given Michael Bourn a four-year, $48 million pact and the Nationals had dealt one of their best prospects, Alex Meyer, to secure Denard Span, the Yankees general manager was emphatic Gardner was in their class, if not better.
Well, halfway through the season, Gardner is going to have to be considered for the All-Star team, which Bourn and Span pretty much have no shot of making.
“I always believed when Gardner played he was an impact player,” Cashman said.
To appreciate that, you had to see the whole player — not just what Gardner might hit, but how he fields and the asset he is on the bases. Gardner, when healthy, has always showed well in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), a stat that attempts to bring all the skills of the game into one number.
Gardner has a 2.8 WAR, which, in case you are not familiar with the stat, is very good. Span is 1.7, Bourn is 1.2. Going into yesterday’s games, it actually was the fourth-best mark in the majors among center fielders, behind only Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez (4.7) — yes, Mets fans, that Carlos Gomez — Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen (4.0) and the Angels’ Mike Trout (3.5).
Gardner’s WAR was tied with Boston’s Jacoby Ellsbury and better than Cincinnati’s Shin Soo-Choo (1.9) who, after Robinson Cano just might be the two most sought-after free agents this offseason. Cano, at 3.5, was the only Yankee with a higher WAR than Gardner. If you have watched the Yanks this year, you know Cano and Gardner are pretty much the only Yankees position players who have brought daily quality.
Gardner and David Robertson — two rare homegrown successes — are the Yanks’ main free agents after the 2014 campaign. You wonder if the team will break with its long-time policy of not negotiating early and try to get each to ink multi-year pacts this offseason. The Yankees might avoid it just because the luxury tax payroll is based on average annual value, and Gardner and Robertson would almost certainly have larger annual values than 2014 contracts, at a time when the Yankees are trying to get next year’s payroll under $189 million.
For now, though, Gardner has struck out more (72 times) and stolen less (11) than anticipated. But he has brought unexpected pop (seven homers, .453 slugging) to go along with Gold Glove-level defense. One of the Yankees’ hidden strengths this season is their outfield defense when Gardner, Vernon Wells and Ichiro Suzuki play.
And Gardner, no doubt, is outperforming Bourn and Span — his .799 OPS outdoing Bourn (.732) and Span (.682). Gardner is healthy and, yes, providing impact.
Look for Dodgers to Chase after Utley
Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported the Dodgers have interest in acquiring Philadelphia’s Chase Utley before this month’s trade deadline. The Phillies have yet to declare themselves sellers, and as they have shown by extending Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Jimmy Rollins, the organization has been determined to keep their homegrown stars for their careers.
But an NL executive offered something else interesting to me recently: “I know everyone has [Robinson] Cano going to the Dodgers as a free agent if the Yanks don’t get him signed up, but I would put it at 90 percent that Utley ends up there.”
The executive reasoned the Dodgers have to at some point soon sign Clayton Kershaw to a $200 million-plus contract and said the organization is a) not as flush with cash as the perception and b) has seen that loading on mismatched and uber-expensive stars is not necessarily the best way to roster build.
“Utley is from Southern California [Pasadena], went to UCLA and is the kind of gamer type that the Dodgers will definitely want to add,” the executive said. “If he gets out in free agency, the Dodgers will give him like a three-year, $45 million deal. Really, it just makes too much sense.”
Marlins’ sell-off could pay off
The wrong guys did the right thing.
The problem with the Marlins’ fire sale was it was orchestrated by an owner/president duo (Jeffrey Loria/David Samson) that had broken faith with the fans so often on everything from rosters to stadiums that it was hard to look at the latest sell-off as anything more than betrayal and further money grabbing.
But the Marlins now look better situated in not only finances, but perhaps talent for the future having unloaded Hanley Ramirez to the Dodgers (for Nate Eovaldi), and Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes (Adeiny Hechavarria, Henderson Alvarez, and well-regarded minor leaguers Jake Marsinick and Justin Nicolino) to the Blue Jays.
The imports have combined with Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna and Jose Fernandez to help the Marlins go into yesterday having won three straight, six of seven and eight of 10. Don’t look now, but Miami is now only five games behind the Mets and — much more vital — is a long-term threat to the Mets in the NL East because the Marlins’ rebuilding just might be going quicker and better, especially since they still have outfielder Christian Yelich and lefty Andrew Heaney nearing the majors.
“I think they have turned the corner,” said an executive whose team has played Miami recently. “There is some talent on the roster with more on the way.”
Now, again, this is not an ownership to trust. The fire sale is continuing with another right move, wrong guys’ move of starter Ricky Nolasco coming sometime this month. And who knows if the Marlins can ever convince Stanton to stay long-term or get South Florida to see them as hot, if not the Heat, and attend games.
But the idea of quickly injecting big salaries and stars to try to open a stadium in style last year was a dumb idea poorly executed. This has a chance of working as young talent comes together. As one AL personnel head said, ignore who made the deals and just realize, “they made good baseball trades.”