Cameron Maybin isn't making life easy on the Yankees' decision-makers.
With Giancarlo Stanton now off the injured list and Aaron Judge returning soon, Maybin's roster spot is in jeopardy. But he's making a strong case to hang around, as evidenced by his 3-for-4 performance with a home run in the Yankees' 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
"Cameron Maybin was always singled out as the guy that would have to move on when everybody got healthy, and now the guy has been one of their hottest hitters," WFAN's Gregg Giannotti said on Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" show.
"And people look at the bullpen and carrying 13 pitchers and see a guy like Luis Cessa who's out of options and say, why can't you just get rid of him, carry 12 pitchers and then end up having four bench players?" Gio added. "But I just don't think the Yankees are going to go that way. I think they're going to stick with Cessa and they're going to say goodbye to Maybin and Yankee fans are going to be upset, but no one expected him to be this good."
Maybin is now hitting .315 with five homers this season. In his last nine games, he's batting .441 and has homered in each of his last four games.
"He was supposed to be a stopgap, and the stopgap is turning out to be playing like he used to play when he was an All-Star," said Boomer Esiason, Giannotti's co-host. And maybe he's comfortable in his surroundings, maybe he's comfortable in the lineup, maybe it's just one of those moments where you're seeing the ball, and he is just absolutely tearing the cover off the ball."
To listen to the open from Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" show, in which Boomer calls DJ LeMahieu "one of the best free agent signings that I can really ever remember" and the guys discuss Stanton getting booed, click on the audio player above.
WFAN is the flagship station of the Yankees. Tune in to 660 AM or 101.9 FM this season to hear all the action.
