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FORT MYERS, Fla. — With heavyweights like Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Robinson Cano nowhere near the box score, you could be charged with fraud for calling yesterday’s Yankees-Red Sox game at JetBlue Park a “preview” of the April 1 season opener at Yankee Stadium.
Yet with lefty Jon Lester on target to start for Boston on Opening Day, we might have seen two-thirds of the Yankees’ starting outfield here. More important, we probably saw the guy who, if everything goes according to plan, will start most of the Yankees’ games in left field.
Brett Gardner’s start in left field prompted a series of questions that led manager Joe Girardi to admit that, yeah, that whole Gardner-Curtis Granderson position flip is pretty much done. When Granderson returns from his right forearm injury — in early May, the Yankees hope — he’ll almost certainly resume his position in center field.
“That’s what we’ve talked about,” Girardi said. “I’m not 100 percent sure, but that’s what we’ve talked about.”
The outfield composition during Granderson’s absence remains in doubt, and that’s why youngster Melky Mesa started in center yesterday, moving Gardner over to left. This is one potential alignment against lefty pitching, with Ichiro Suzuki starting in right. Or Gardner could be in center, Ichiro could move over to left and either youngster Zolio Almonte or veteran Juan Rivera could patrol right. Veteran Matt Diaz also remains a candidate.
No matter how it shakes out, the Yankees aim to tread water until Granderson’s return — at which point they’ll field the defense they didn’t want to field. Understandably, since there’s a significant difference between Granderson having an entire Grapefruit League to work on a new position and him having a handful of minor league contests to try it.
“I don’t know how many games he would have in his rehab coming back,” Girardi said of Granderson, “and that’s a concern for me. So I want him to be comfortable wherever he’s at, because his bat’s real important to us.”
PHOTOS: YANKEES SPRING TRAINING
So much for capitalizing on Gardner’s superior glove in center field for the entire season, when the Yankees know their offense will be worse than previous campaigns.
Wherever Gardner sets in the outfield, the Yankees badly need him to be healthy, after he missed nearly all of 2012 with a right elbow injury. He knows this.
“Especially with Curtis out, we don’t have a lot of outfield depth,” Gardner said yesterday. “A guy like [Chris] Dickerson we had last year, he’s gone. You know, with Swish [Nick Swisher] being gone, Curtis is out until sometime in May. So it’s definitely important for me to stay healthy and take care of myself.
“I think that’s why [it was] a big deal, me last week sliding head-first into first base. I realize that, and I need to do a better job, especially during spring training, really continue to work on things and play hard, but at the same time, be careful and be smart about what I do. I’ll try to do that.”
Before last year, in which he played just 16 regular-season games and five in the postseason, Gardner played in 159 games in 2011 and 150 in 2010. He intends to prove that 2012 was the aberration, and that durability ranks as an asset for him.
“Last year was just a freak thing, really,” he said. “For the most part, knock on wood, I feel like I do a good job of taking care of myself. My main thing is my legs. I take care of my legs and really try and keep those in shape.
“Just try to go out every day and play hard and let the chips fall in place, reallyThat’s my goal this year. Stay healthy and play in every game.”
The Yankees, more vulnerable than they have been in a long time, would benefit greatly from putting Gardner out there every day. They’d benefit most from having Gardner in center field all of the time, yet that no longer looks feasible.
So consider yesterday a Rivalry “preview” in at least one regard. If the Yankees are going to outlast Boston again, they’ll have to do so with an imperfectly aligned outfield.