WHO WILL FILL IN FOR GRANDERSON?

With Curtis Granderson out for ten weeks with a broken forearm, some Yankees fans have started hitting the panic button. I feel like throwing our hands up and wailing about the injustice of injuries in February is a little premature. This is only Spring Training. I understand that Granderson’s injury brings to light a lot of the disappointment from the inactive off season. We let guys like Chris Dickerson and Raul Ibanez go and now we have a hurt outfielder.

 Alfonso Soriano and Johnny Damon have both said they would be open to coming back. I have seen a lot of Yankees fans jumping on both those ships as well. The thing is, we really don’t need either one of them. I get the nostalgia some fans might feel. The idea is we will bring them back and it will be like the good old days, but it’s not at all realistic. Neither Soriano nor Damon is a great fielder or hitter at this point in their careers. Soriano was a great base stealer, but he has 22 stolen bases in the past 4 seasons, so it’s probably safe to say those days are over too.

The Yankees might look into some veteran players on the cheap side that they could option down or place at DH. But I think they might look into younger talent in their own farm system. Guys like Melky Mesa, Adonis Garcia, Slade Heathcott, and Zoilo Almonte show serious promise and this could be their opportunity to shine. Granderson’s injury only has him missing one month of the regular season. While injuries are never a good thing, I would rather see them now than in June or August.

Any injury the team faces makes Yankee fans worry, and I get it. Really, I do. It is not the end of the world though. The baseball season is long and we haven’t even started yet. We will miss Granderson in April, and we want him to recover nicely and quickly. But we have other options. Our farm system is full of young, talented guys, who are more than willing to earn their pinstripes in the Bronx. This isn’t a new situation. Time and again the Yankees have shown their resilience when faced with injuries. We’ll miss Granderson but we will make due.

There are 162 games in a season. A few spring training games do not determine the outcome of the year. Like the great Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over, ‘til it’s over.”

--Erica Morales, BYB Writer
Twitter: @e_morales1804

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