The New York Yankees are blessed with their corner outfield positions. If only the Yankees had the same kind of depth at center field. Lets take a look at their corner outfielders:
Largely Interchangeable Parts
Giancarlo Stanton, as I’ve written before, is a more than serviceable outfielder who was moved from right field to left. Should Aaron Judge go down for an extended period of time, which he could (look at his injury history), you can just as easily slide Stanton back over to his natural position if you need him to play that outfield.
Aaron Judge is more than capable of putting up MVP caliber seasons. He probably would’ve won the MVP in 2017, and there are those who are saying he should after the discovery of the Astros cheating scandal. If you were to stick Judge and Mike Trout in the outfield together… wow. Those are two fantastic outfielders who can RAKE! Judge is really the only outfielder who can’t be moved as he’s exclusively been a right fielder his major league career.
Mike Tauchman is the team’s obvious 4th outfielder. He’s played everywhere, with his most experience coming in the corner outfield positions. But, if his offensive capabilities during the season show what he’s capable of as an everyday player, he could become a central piece of the outfield for the next 5-10 years.
Tyler Wade, while predominantly an infielder, but does have experience as an outfielder. Should two of our corner outfielders go down (Stanton and Judge are pretty injury prone so it’s not out of the question), we can stick Wade in either corner outfield spot to help plug the leak until they come back. Because, our 5th option, isn’t exactly the best.
We could stick Clint Frazier out there as a worst case scenario, but you got to be very careful. His defense is just that bad. I mean… look at the fact that the guy was taken out for defense IN MAY last year. That’s how much confidence they have in Frazier as an outfielder.
The corner outfield isn’t nearly as dire as center field or shortstop, but the health of some injury prone players will play a big part in the 2020 New York Yankees.