NEW YORK — Flip the postgame spread? Rip his players behind closed doors in the clubhouse? Pull a lineup out of a hat?
Really, there’s not much that manager Aaron Boone can do himself to turn around the Yankees, who sank to fourth place in division with a 7-3 loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. They’re 5 1/2 games back of the first-place Rays.
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Boone can’t make DJ LeMahieu hit like DJ LeMahieu. He can’t play left field for Miguel Andujar. He can’t remind Gary Sanchez of the All-Star he used to be. Boone can’t go berserk in a postgame press conference, no matter how many fans want him to turn into Billy Martin. It would come off inauthentic, a death sentence for a manager who’s already got lame duck status.
So, instead, Boone continues the positivity streak.
“It’s important that we continue to grind this thing out,” he told reporters via Zoom. “We know there’s going to be lumps along the way, but we also know we have a club capable of digging our way out.”
But what if Boone were to make changes? What if instead of just sticking it out, general manager Brian Cashman decided enough was enough?
Here are three immediate moves to consider:
Let Estevan Florial take center field: At age 37, Brett Gardner is hitting .192 with a home run and four RBI. Signs are pointing to his run as a reliable big-leaguer possibly being over. Give consistent at-bats to Florial. Yes, Is he hitting at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre right now? No! He’s actually hitting .179 with 20 strikeouts in 56 at-bats. But Florial — their highly regarded 24-year-old prospect — could probably do that in the majors and not be too far off of what Gardner has provided while offering higher upside and excellent center field defense. Plus, it stops the Aaron Judge in center field experiment. Judge is the Yankees’ best player when healthy. He has to stay that way and it’s fair to wonder whether center field cameos will make worse the lower-body issues with which he’s been dealing.
Give first base to Chris Gittens: That is, until Luke Voit gets back. DJ LeMahieu is likely much more comfortable at second base than first base, and that comfortability could go a long way toward getting him right again at the plate. If Rougned Odor didn’t declare himself as a strikeout-or-homer option in Texas, he’s doing it in the Bronx, and Mike Ford had plenty of opportunities to regain his 2019 form. Give Gittens a chance to show that the improved eye he showed at Triple-A was for real and see if his hulk strength can revive this moribund lineup.
Get Miguel Andujar in the order as often as possible: Yes, he looked awful in left field when he missed on Marwin Gonzalez’s fly ball that hit the wall for a double Saturday. Yes, he’s not particularly good at third base or first base. But even at .238, he’s hitting better, and having more competitive at-bats, than a lot of the Yankees’ lineup, and you remember how he clubbed 47 doubles in 2018. The Yankees desperately need someone who can provide extra-base hits. Perhaps that will be Andujar’s calling.
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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3 immediate Yankees moves to stop free fall | Put Estevan Florial in CF, more - NJ.com
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