Can We Have 2 DH's?
The Yankees welcome back A-Rod tonight, but there are questions that linger over his return. Chief among them, can Alex play third everyday?
The Yankees have to hope he can, because they face a very serious logjam at DH in the coming weeks. Hideki Matsui's knee swelled running the bases and while the Yankees say he can play the field in June, it's hard to imagine he will be able to do so with any consistency. Xavier Nady is also expected back in the next few weeks and when he returns he won't be able to play the field immediately. Throw in Posada's hamstring injury, squatting with a bum hamstring is hard to do, and the Yankees may have four players who can really only DH.
This is a problem the Yankees are going to have for a long time. If they are smart, they will cut ties with Matsui after this season. His bat still looks good, but he is breaking down physically and the Yankees will need that DH spot. Posada is the logical candidate to move to DH next season, but unless the Yankees have a viable alternate at catcher, that won't happen. Throw in Jeter's range problems and he might be a DH candidate as well. And of course we have nine more years of A-Rod. At some point, he will have to become a DH. So, we can pretty much assume the DH spot is closed until 2018.
Back later after we hear about Molina.
Comments
Hey... I don't know if you've been making changes, but your pages aren't displaying correctly for me. The margins look all screwed up. I all worked fine yesterday. I don't know if it's something on my computer or if you've made a change... Just thought you might want to look at it.
Posted by: Ronni Mccullan | February 28, 2010 12:19 AM |