ARLINGTON, Texas — The 2013 Yankees have been all about letdowns, so much so that the idea of Alfonso Soriano parachuting into this mess possesses significant appeal.
This offense-deprived team lost again last night, 3-0 to the Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, putting up just three hits against starter and winner Yu Darvish and a trio of Texas relievers. The Yankees (52-47) have now lost two straight games and three of four games since the All-Star break, and they rank 12th in the American League in runs scored (387).
The Post’s George King is reporting the Yankees are close to reacquiring Soriano, 37, whom they traded to Texas for Alex Rodriguez in 2004. Another bad day for A-Rod yesterday means the Yankees might not get back their beleaguered third baseman this season, or perhaps ever again.
So picking up a guy who plays poor defense and brought a .289 on-base percentage into last night’s action doesn’t sound so awful, especially with the Cubs poised to pick up most of the tab and not asking for much in return.
Before their victory, the Rangers, who have dealt with arguably as many injuries as have the Yankees, acquired frontline starting pitcher Matt Garza from the Cubs. Before their loss, the Yankees learned the Brewers’ Ryan Braun agreed to a season-ending suspension from Major League Baseball for violating the game’s joint drug agreement. That bodes poorly for A-Rod and Francisco Cervelli, the Yankees’ two injured players who are targets in MLB’s Biogenesis investigation.
Setbacks have defined this bizarre Yankees season. While manager Joe Girardi used one of his stock lines yesterday — “I manage the guys who are in the room that day” — what this fails to acknowledge is the Yankees have welcomed back many guys into their clubhouse, only to see them quickly depart. Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis each have spent two stints on the disabled list, and A-Rod appeared poised to rejoin the team last night before suffering a left quadriceps injury.
“It’s definitely something I’ve never been a part of,” said Lyle Overbay, a veteran of 13 seasons and six teams, who picked up two of the Yankees’ three hits last night. “You get these guys back and they’ve never had that kind of history, it’s hard to swallow.
“This isn’t normal. To have it happen to multiple guys is really strange. We’re definitely sticking behind the eight ball for a while. Hopefully we can get out from underneath it and get things going.”
Consider that if you combined the plate appearances of Cervelli (61), Granderson (31), Jeter (4), Rodriguez (0), Teixeira (63) and Youkilis (118) into one imaginary player, that player would have 277 plate appearances — 30 short of the 307 he would need to qualify for the batting title 99 games into the Yankees’ season. This is of course not the way it was supposed to play out when the Yankees broke camp hoping to get Jeter and Granderson back in May, Teixeira in June and A-Rod perhaps in July.
Each time a player’s return has appeared imminent, or the player actually returned, Overbay and Brett Gardner admitted, a sense of anticipation arrived in the clubhouse. A-Rod provided the latest tease.
“We definitely were looking forward to it,” Gardner said. “He definitely is somebody, you feel like he can help out right off the bat and hit in the middle of the lineup, drive in some runs. It just didn’t work out. Hopefully his quad heals up over the next week or so and we have him back and we’ll go from there.”
The Braun development shows just how serious MLB is about cleaning up the game, and baseball folks feel that they have much more evidence on A-Rod than they did on Braun in this Biogenesis case.
A-Rod can string the case along by appealing, and that would really please the Yankees, who would love for his suspension to occur in 2014 to aid them in their quest to get their payroll under $189 million. The Yankees would like Cervelli back this season simply because he would be an upgrade over Chris Stewart, as admirably as Stewart has performed.
The arrival of Soriano would bring an energy burst into the clubhouse, and maybe he would respond to a competitive setting with a much-needed power burst. His 17 homers this year would place him second on the Yankees behind Robinson Cano.
Of course, given the Yankees’ luck this year, Soriano might just arrive and get injured. But it would be worth risking more heartache given the Cubs’ low asking price and the Yankees’ high need for right-handed power.