A foregone conclusion has existed around the Yankees for a while now that they will sign Carl Crawford in the offseason. And, if not the Rays speedster, then Jayson Werth of the Phillies will be fitted for pinstripes.
Such is life with baseball’s biggest-spending team. You simply have to perceive a problem and then imagine that problem will be solved with the most expensive, alluring toys available.
Except one minor issue might have cropped up on the way to scoring Crawford or Werth in free agency: The Yankees might not have an outfield problem.
At this moment, Nick Swisher might be an All-Star, Brett Gardner is among the most pleasant surprises in baseball and Curtis Granderson is beginning to approximate the standout player the Yankees believed they were obtaining from Detroit in the offseason.
“We have one of the better outfields in the American League,” Swisher said. “Do we get credit for it? No.”
As if to accentuate the point last night, with Werth in the park, Gardner, Granderson and Swisher . . . well, showed their worth. They combined to drive in the first five runs against Roy Halladay, deflating the aura around the Yankees’ great nemesis and setting the tone for an 8-3 victory.
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Slaying the Halladay aura is not inconsequential. He came in at 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA against the Yankees from his Blue Jays days. Derek Jeter, not one to praise the opposition much, consistently has cited Halladay as the toughest pitcher the Yankees face. Hitting coach Kevin Long shook his head before last night’s game and simply said, “We can’t get rid of this guy.”
Halladay, however, was not that Roy Halladay. He left an inordinate amount of pitches up in the zone. Halladay retired the first four Yankees without the ball leaving the infield before Swisher lined a single to center with one out in the second. Jorge Posada walked. Gardner then split Shane Victorino and Werth in right-center for his fourth triple, which drove in the game’s first two runs.
Granderson led off the third with a home run and, with one out and Robinson Cano on second, Swisher belted his 11th homer to provide the Yankees a 5-0 lead, and the first matchup this year of last season’s World Series participants was tilted toward the defending champions.
In that World Series, Granderson was not yet a Yankee, Gardner was a backup who went 0-for-10 and Swisher concluded a miserable postseason by hitting .133. But the poor playoffs stirred Swisher to rethink his game, specifically because he adored being a Yankee so much and wanted to maximize his chances of staying. So he streamlined his body (dropping 10 pounds) and swing (chiseling away extraneous movement).
The thinner Swisher has joined Granderson and Gardner to give the Yankees their best defensive outfield in years. On offense, Swisher is at .301 with 11 homers and 42 RBIs, which so far in 2010 is better than Werth (.281, 10 and 39).
Gardner is capitalizing on an era in which athleticism — rather than over-inflated hulks — again is preferred, by proving he is an everyday player. He is hitting .322 with a .406 on-base percentage and 22 steals, numbers quite like Crawford’s (.296, .346 and 21 heading into last night) at a fraction of the cost.
Now Granderson is finally showing that left-handed power the Yanks craved after the loss of Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui. He has nine extra-base hits, including three homers, in 58 at-bats since coming off the disabled list on May 28.
The outfield trio has helped the Yankees win all four games that cleanup hitter Alex Rodriguez has missed with a hip flexor injury.
“I definitely do not think we are short in the outfield,” Long said.
There still is a lot of season left. There still is time for the current Yankees outfielders to fade or for lust to regenerate for Crawford or Werth (whose parents have a longstanding close relationship with Reggie Jackson).
For now, though, the foregone conclusion that the Yankees will add a big-time outfielder has to be put on hold. That is because — of all things — the Yankees suddenly have a big-time outfield.