New York Yankees: What happens when Miguel Andujar returns?

Despite a season-ending injury to Miguel Andujar, the New York Yankees have been rolling this season. One of the reasons the team has done so well is thanks to the play from fill-in third baseman, Gio Urshela.

The injury to Miguel Andujar this season may have been a blessing in disguise for the New York Yankees. Now in no way, shape or form am I saying Andujar suffering a season-ending injury was a good thing, but it did allow the breakout of Gio Urshela to take place.

Last season Andujar finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting and in May, Andujar suffered a shoulder injury that would shut him down for the entirety of 2019. Only 12 games into the season, the Yankees suffered a significant blow. With that, they were forced to throw in a guy not many had heard of, Gio Urshela. Urshela has so far been one of the best third basemen in the MLB, and there was an excellent chance that Urshela could have been the starting third baseman for the American League in next month’s All-Star Game.

What do the Yankees do once Andujar comes back next season?

On the one hand, they have a guy who batted .297 with 27 home runs and 97 RBIs in his rookie season, giving him second place in Rookie of the Year voting. But on the other hand, you have a guy who is 64 games has a .303 average with six home runs and 35 RBIs and was in contention to be the starting third baseman for the American League in the All-Star Game.

The problem is, when it comes time to make this decision, both would have been the primary third baseman on a team for only one season. Assuming Urshela keeps doing what he’s doing, the two would have very similar numbers in those seasons.

That being said, you only really have one season to go off of because they’ve only ever played at that level for one year. This means that the season they were fantastic, it could be a fluke. It might not be, and if they kept it up for an entire season, chances are it probably isn’t, but you never know. So with that, the Yankees will likely be forced to decide if they want to trade either of them away, likely for pitching, or do they hold onto both of them and give them each playing time.

One of the Yankees biggest problems is starting pitching, as it has been for years. If they don’t manage to trade for a pitcher at this year’s deadline, it will only be worse when next season rolls around as CC Sabathia will be hanging up his cleats when this season is all said and done.

That being said, the Yankees could likely turn either of these players into an excellent pitcher next season if that’s what they wanted to do. However, they probably wouldn’t move either of the third basemen until next season’s trade deadline because if Urshela keeps doing what he’s doing, it’ll be hard to decide who they want to go with.

This, in my opinion, would be the way to go because the Yankees could likely turn either of these players into an excellent pitcher. Urshela is an All-Star and potentially an All-Star starter in his first season as the everyday third baseman and Andujar finished as runner-up for the Rookie of the Year in his lone season in the MLB.

With that, the Yankees could get a guy to replace Sabathia while also keeping an everyday starter. This, however, is if the Yankees don’t trade for a pitcher such as Max Scherzer or Madison Bumgarner at this season’s deadline.

There is a decent chance the Yankees end up with a pitcher in exchange for a player such as Clint Frazier this season, but if not you should expect to see Urshela or Andujar traded for pitching next season.