Perhaps a year from now, Yangervis Solarte will simply be an answer to a trivia question, the same way Ben Francisco is now.
Francisco was the Yankees DH on Opening Day in 2013, part of the team’s injury-riddled mess last season. And thanks in part to Eduardo Nunez’s shaky spring, Brendan Ryan’s back injury and Mark Teixeira’s strained right hamstring, the switch-hitting Solarte has become a regular part of the lineup.
Fortunately for the Yankees, Solarte continued to produce in Monday’s 4-2 win over Baltimore in the home opener. The 26-year-old walked and scored the Yankees’ first run and drove in another with a single in the fourth.
And he continues to play a solid third base next to Derek Jeter.
“Every day I try to learn something from him,” Solarte said through a translator.
On Monday, that included some footwork on defense and a lesson on the roll call from the bleachers.
Solarte said he didn’t realize the fans were chanting his name until Jeter pointed it out, despite Francisco Cervelli’s pregame instruction.
“I actually didn’t hear it,” Solarte said. “I was focused on the game. … Jeter told me and then I waved.”
As long as he hits like he has since joining the Yankees, the fans likely will forgive him.
The only thing that didn’t go his way Monday was his eighth-inning fly ball to the warning track in right that fell short of the fence.
Solarte hit it well, but it was no match for the fierce winds that swirled in the Stadium on Monday.
“I knew it wouldn’t go out,” Solarte said. “The wind blew it back.”
But the Yankees didn’t have home runs in mind when they kept Solarte around instead of Nunez, who was shipped to Minnesota on Monday in exchange for 20-year-old minor league lefty Miguel Sulbaran.
Instead, they’ll take the defense he showed in the sixth, when Solarte made a nice play to his left on a Nick Markakis grounder and then followed that up by reaching to his right to get a ball hit by Adam Jones. Kelly Johnson bailed him out with a scoop at first, but they were the kinds of plays Nunez had a difficult time making consistently.
Now, the only thing he has to work on is that roll call.
“Tomorrow, I’ll make sure I listen,” Solarte said.