The Yankees may be planning on signing Chase Headley as their third baseman:
The idea to re-sign Headley makes perfect sense in that it’s hard to know whether Rodriguez will be able to man the demanding position on a fulltime basis after a full year off on repaired hips in the year he will turn 40. However, a DH role would seem to represent something of a departure from manager Joe Girardi‘s public pronouncements that he expects A-Rod to be the team’s third baseman in 2015.
If Alex Rodriguez can still hit, why not play him at shortstop? Defense hasn’t mattered at short for the Yankees for over a decade. Having Headley at third would mean Alex could cover less ground and still make the plays. If the hip allows him to play defense, that alignment would likely give the Yankees the most offense.
The odds of Arod staying healthy with 2 bad hips at 40 yo after missing a year of baseball while playing SS are almost nil.
If they think his bat has some value, his best position is DH. Beltran should be fine to play RF with his repaired elbow which was minor surgery. If anyone else needs rest, let them rest on the bench. Having tired players or hurt players being at DH has led to the Yankees having one of the worst DH productivity over the last 4 years . Thats OK if you get above average offense performance from other positions, but not when your offense is below average
Anyways, this allows the Yankees to improve at 2 positions, DH and 3B.
There are decent options for SS on the FA market. They could bet on positive regression and sign Hardy or Drew. Even that Korean SS might be given a shot. Anyone would be an upgrade over Jeter who was as bad as any SS in baseball in 2014.
The only way Headley signs with the Yankees is if they give him assurance he will not be fighting for playing time with Arod. There are other teams interested, including maybe Boston. Yankees should just announce Arod will be their DH and if he does not like it he can retire or waive his NTC
Actually, he is far more likely to be able to play the next year healthy having had last year off.
Providing he has actually worked this year, he has had a full year for injury recovery, strengthening programme, and then power programme. If he has followed a proper programme, his hips should have better muscular strength and flexibility then at any point since the first injury, meaning he has far less chance of being injured. The normal baseball offseason doesn’t allow for a full recovery programme of that nature.
Whether he can maintain pitch recognition, swing mechanics, ‘want’ to play the game, etc. are totally different issues.
“Defense hasn’t mattered at short for the Yankees for over a decade”
Ouch! But true. Aside from catcher, the Yankees’ infield is a mess. Boat anchors at the corners, question marks up the middle.