Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

More on the Yankee third base vacancy
 
From everything I've heard, Yankees' third base prospect Drew Henson hasn't spoken to either Yankee brass or the public about any desire to play professional football in the NFL. In fact, his only public statements on the subject have been that he's committed to playing baseball - though his recent actions indicate that might not be the case any longer. As you probably know, Henson was drafted by the Houston Texans in the 6th round of last year's NFL Draft. Houston selected Henson realizing that his baseball career was not progressing as either he or the Yankees had envisioned, and hoping that he might want to try to resurrect his football career, having been a highly thought of quarterback at the University of Michigan. At this point, there are stories circulating that Henson is working out with college football players in an effort to either be signed and traded by the Texans (in which case he'd have some say over where he plays) or re-enter the NFL Draft in April, which he has a right to do if he remains unsigned. I don't know quite how much stock I put in this recent batch of reports (because there were similar reports not long ago that ultimately resulted in nothing happening), but if it's true, the Yankees stand to have the $12 million they owe Henson over the next three years taken off the books. Add that to the $5.75 million they stand to get back due to Aaron Boone's no longer-guaranteed contract that they will likely dump, and the Yankees are sitting on some decent cash that they were planning on spending in 2004. Realistically, cash probably isn't that much of an issue for Steinbrenner and the Yankees, but to go out and acquire someone now wouldn't require a significant payroll increase.

Of course, the Yankees currently boast a sizable void at third base, so filling it would probably be the most logical way to spend the money. However, there are no decent third basemen available on the free agent market (even Jose Hernandez has now been gobbled up), so the options are reduced to either trading for someone with a large salary that another team is unwilling to pay or signing someone who's still available but plays another position. It's been reported that Gary Sheffield is offering to play third base himself, and while he hasn't done so since 1993, it's something to consider. Sheffield would immediately become one of the best offensive third basemen in baseball and would represent a huge upgrade over the production the team expected to get from Boone this season (though the infield defense would undoubtedly take a significant hit, and it's already bad). The move would also shift the hole in the lineup from third base, which is a difficult position to fill, as the Yankees are discovering, to the outfield. While the defensive lineup of Bernie Williams in left, Kenny Lofton in center and Hideki Matsui in right would also probably be below average defensively, it could probably work. While Bernie would have to learn to play left and Matsui would have to learn to play right, we're a still month from spring training and they have time to do so.

At this point, you'd have completed what is admittedly probably the worst defensive alignment in the major leagues and maybe in quite awhile. A Sheffield-Derek Jeter-Alfonso Soriano-Jason Giambi-Jorge Posada infield would almost certainly give away quite a few runs, but preventing runs defensively hasn't been a huge part of the Yankee plan recently, and the offense would be tremendous. The outfield, while not quite as productive offensively, wouldn't be quite as bad defensively, and the eight fielders would comprising a pretty intimidating lineup. If the DH ends up being someone currently slated to come off the Yankee bench to fill out the lineup (like Tony Clark or Ruben Sierra), the defensive hit probably isn't worth it and it might be better to snag a good fielder and punt the offense from the ninth spot in the order. But the Yanks might have a whole bunch of money to spend, and it might be enough to entice someone like the still-unsigned Ivan Rodriguez to come to the Bronx.

I haven't heard anywhere that the Yankees or Rodriguez are even thinking about this as a possibility, so I can't imagine it'll happen. But Max Kellerman threw it out as a potential scenario (more of a dream than anything else, probably), and perhaps it's not that crazy. Pudge has been offered a 4 year/$40 million deal by the Tigers, which he has yet to accept - in fact, he's demanding more money. If the Yankees were to offer a contract in the same ballpark, I imagine he'd have to give it serious consideration. The team could construct a job sharing arrangement where Rodriguez and Posada would switch off catching and DHing (maybe even playing some first base, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself), keeping both of them fresh, and at least when Pudge catches, improving the infield defense, if only marginally. It certainly seems like a longshot, but the Yankee lineup would be substantially better, and I'm not sure how the team can come up with a better solution, particularly without further emptying a nearly bankrupt minor league system.
posted by VZW Watcher at 6:31 PM -