New York Yankees: Infield showing potential to carry them for years to come

The New York Yankees are a team filled with All-Stars all over the diamond. However, it is their infield that has been particularly intriguing lately.

The New York Yankees hit the dog days of summer as one of the best teams in baseball. However, when compared to the Red Sox and the always over dramatized flaws in their lineup, it seems like they no longer are.

However, that is far from the case. It is unfair that the Yankees are the victims of the second largest division gap in baseball. It is only a little bit their fault the Red Sox are so far ahead of them.

The Yankees are still a really good team with stacked young players. A bulk of those young players, consisting of two rookies, resides in the infield.

More from New York Yankees

So, with that being pointed out, the Yankees infielders are showing the kind of potential that can carry this team for years to come. This is not even including guys like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Rookies like Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar are studs now, with only room to get better. Didi Gregorius might be the most underrated player in baseball and should have been an all-star by now.

Also, Greg Bird is a player who despite Aaron Boone’s odd mishandling of him, has all the potential in the world as well. His ceiling might be the lowest of the four players but he can still go on tears.

Having Didi at shortstop for the long-term must be such a good feeling for the Yankee faithful. Although he has to work on doing this more consistently, he is a very solid two-way player.

Didi has power, can come through when the team needs him and is an outstanding fielder. The shortstop position has a pretty rich history in the Bronx and Didi is doing his part to keep it that way.

Gleyber Torres, well he is an All-Star player. That pretty much speaks for itself. Even though he has been struggling lately, it is just him taking on his learning curve and recovering from having his hot-stretch taken from him due to injury.

Meanwhile, at the hot corner, the Yankees have Miguel Andujar. He is one of the best hitters not just on the Yankees, but in all of baseball. He almost gets exclusively extra-base hits and has power and alertness at the plate that is rare to see from anyone let alone a rookie.

“Miggy” only has one problem and its that his fielding is a little inconsistent, if not bad at times. However, if he wants it bad enough he can get much better at defense and be overall better with time.

We know what the Yankees have in Greg Bird at this point. His injury history is not ideal and his lack of ability to hit consistently is almost intriguing. However, he is just that player that a team just should not want to give up on.

He has the potential to be a great home run hitter. He is far from a liability in the field. Quite frankly, he is the Yankees’ best option at first right now.

But, if Bird proves himself he can be a great piece to the Yankees’ future World Series Titles.

What makes this concept interesting is not only that Didi, Andujar, and Torres are all having good years overall, it is that they are all young and under team control for a while.

Didi is the soonest to become a free agent in 2020, but it is likely he will be extended by the Yankees because he has earned himself a nice contract with the last few years he has had.

Overall, it is hard to look at the Yanks’ infield and not be impressed at what they are getting out there.

They have three players who have yet to reach their pick at SS, 2B, and 3B. Then at first, arguably the least important position in baseball these days, they have a player where it’s too soon to give up on but can be a force to be reckoned with eventually.

If first base is really the only position in the infield where there are even remote doubts about the long-term future, then the Yankees are built correctly.

Every championship needs to be solid everywhere with elite pitching. But, when I look at this Yankees infield, I see a really bright future and potential championships.

Next. Is it time to just embrace the Wild Card and move on?. dark

This is only just the beginning too.

Home/New York Yankees