BALTIMORE — As the Yankees sunk, so did Curtis Granderson. Not just in batting average and impact, but in future earnings, specifically future earnings in pinstripes.
In the past few days two members of the Yankees’ traveling entourage asked me the same question, “How much money do you think Curtis is costing himself?” One went as far as to wonder if it was $100 million.
What, you don’t think there will be retribution of some sort delivered by the upper management if the Yankees actually blow a 10-game lead and fail to even make the playoffs? Hal Steinbrenner is a lot more levelheaded than his dad, but he is still a Steinbrenner.
Look, we already know Nick Swisher has eliminated any lingering chance of being retained by the Yankees by vanishing at crunch time yet again (he is hitless in his last 28 at-bats, 4-for-his-past-51).
Earlier this season, general manager Brian Cashman suggested eschewing organizational policy of waiting until a player reaches free agency and trying to extend Robinson Cano a year early. But the front office always sounds more tolerant of Cano’s body type and body language when he is crushing then when Cano is faltering in the clutch, as he has been in this Yankees hour of need.
Still, the overall plan was always to let Swisher go and keep the homegrown Cano. The bubble candidate was Granderson. For most of the last year, Yankees officials were insisting they could find a way to shoehorn Cano and Granderson — both free agents after 2013 — into their $189 million philosophy for 2014. But, lately, well, not so much.
For Granderson has been a symbol of this collapse, one feeble whiff after another. Even in the best of times, he is an athletic Ryan Howard, lots of homers, lots of strikeouts. But these have been the worst of times for him. The strikeouts rising (he is one shy of his own team record with three weeks left) and his positive influence on winning waning. Before yesterday, Granderson was hitting .187 with 63 strikeouts in 166 at-bats since July 19 — the date their plummet from double-digit supremacy began.
He did not start Saturday, but arguably the Yankees’ two most critical at-bats of the game still found him: Two on, two out both times, once with a chance to tie, another with a chance to provide the lead. He struck out and popped to the catcher.
Granderson didn’t start again yesterday, but ended up being the offensive star of the Yankees’ 13-3 triumph. He pinch-hit to lead off the sixth with Baltimore having closed 5-0 to 5-3 and homered on the first pitch from Jake Arrieta. In the seventh, after Raul Ibanez popped out with the bases loaded and one down, Granderson did not let the chance to open up the game dissipate. He lashed a two-run single off lefty Brian Matusz. He added a two-run double in the eighth as the Yanks produced their first laugher in nearly a month. Their previous 10 wins, dating to Aug. 12, had all been by three or fewer runs.
“I never write myself off,” Granderson said.
Confidence is nice. But production is essential. The Yankees’ righty bats of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Russell Martin are humming. But a team constructed on lefty might has lost much of that power due to Mark Teixeira’s injury (who knows how long he will miss with a re-aggravated calf?), Swisher’s disappearance, and Ibanez’s and Chavez’s exhaustion. Thus, the Yankees — more than ever — need their two main lefty bats. That would be Cano and Granderson to carry them.
“It would be great to get [Granderson] going because he is so important to our offense,” manager Joe Girardi said.
It is important personally for Granderson, as well. It is possible this cold streak has convinced the Yanks to avoid long-term marriage to a 32-in-March hitter with a long swing. But Granderson, who has a 2013 option for $15 million, has little to no shot of selling the Yanks he is a good multi-year gamble if he keeps tanking late in this season. Not when this organization defines itself by rings and parades.
“I’m not worried about that at all,” Granderson said. “Whether I am coming off a great year or a struggle, it is not my decision. It is theirs.”
It is the Yankees’ choice, but Granderson has a bat in his hand, big games in front of him and a chance still to make a case about his worth.