New York Yankees: Didi Gregorius Deserves More Recognition

New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius is quietly and arguably having the best year of any Yankee in their starting lineup. At the age of 26, he’s on the precipice of just reaching his prime, which could present a problem (albeit a good one) down the road when Glyber Torres is ready.

Let’s go down the checklist and see how Didi Gregorius is doing this season for the New York Yankees. Durability? That goes in the plus column(124 games played out of the Yankees 130). Comparison to other major league shortstops? That goes in the plus column too (he’s currently ranked 6th among the 30 league shortstops). Batting average? Check that one too (his .288 average leads the Yankees regulars). How about runs produced? Yup, you guessed it. He leads the team with 118 runs scored and batted in.

The thing about Gregorius though is that you would hardly know any of this despite the fact that New York is the capital of the media world. In fact, I had to look long and hard in researching this piece to find anything written about and dedicated to Gregorius. I finally found one in the New York Daily News from July of this year.

In the story, his teammates speak glowingly about Gregorius saying things like, “He’s our most exciting player, He does everything all around for us. He showed up again today. He makes every play.” (CC Sabathia). And this from Alex Rodriguez, “Game-saver, He does one or two things almost nightly to show his skills. He’s a great athlete.”

Of himself, Gregorius says,” I’m not trying to do too much, Shorten up, try to put the ball in play and get on base.” Sounds like a good plan, huh? And it’s working.

Except that for all of this, Gregorius presents a problem for the Yankees. Well, he’s not necessarily the problem, Gleyber Torres is. And although it’s a nice problem for the Yankees to have, something is going to have to give in the infield in as few as two years.

Game-saver, He does one or two things almost nightly to show his skills. He’s a great athlete. (Alex Rodriguez)

Because assuming that Greg Bird is going to be the standard bearer at first base for years to come, that leaves Gregorius, Torres, and Starlin Castro (all of whom are presumably untouchable) and you want each of them playing every day) to man the three remaining infield positions. And that leaves open the question of who plays third base?

As always, the variables in a decision like this are many. For one, Castro has already been moved once in his career from short to second. So, do you say, “Okay, he did it once, he can do it again”, or do you leave him be? Then, there’s the question of who is actually the better shortstop when the time comes to promote Torres, Gregorius or Torres? And how soon do you begin to make preparations to solve this very welcome problem?

Perhaps, Torres is what you would call the most pliable of the three at this stage of his career and he can be moved to third now while he’s in the beginning stages of his career with the Yankees. By all accounts, he’s mature for his age. But still, it’s a variable and the Yankees need to be careful in their development of their potentially great star for the future.

Next: Who are the 5 greatest catchers in Yankees history?

In any event, Gregorius is making the conversation interesting with the year he is having for the Yankees. When he was acquired by the Yankees, there were all sorts of questions about his attributes as a shortstop, especially given the fact that he was being ordained to follow the iconic Derek Jeter.

Gregorius is answering all of those questions in 2016 for the Yankees.