Luke Voit is on a rehab assignment at Triple-A, and when he’s ready to come back, he seems like he’s blocked by Anthony Rizzo – and when asked about that by Carton & Roberts during his weekly appearance Thursday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone wouldn’t count his chicken before it hatched.
“We’re just monitoring the situation, which is a tough one for him, and probably not necessarily fair to him, but that’s where we are right now,” Boone said. “I’m not committing to anything because the situation remains so fluid; you start laughing when you plan out a couple days and get hit with something else. We have a great hitter who’s physically ready to go, and know when something’s there, he can have an impact for us.”
One thing that could help get Voit back in the lineup? Giancarlo Stanton played the outfield twice in Miami and once against Baltimore, and could be more of an option out there going forward.
“I knew his work was good and (outfield instructor) Reggie (Willits) was encouraged leading up to him getting out there, and I thought he moved well and was at ease out there,” Boone said of Stanton’s play. “It made me feel comfortable that he’s an option out there. It’s something that could come into play a little bit more.”
The challenge, though, is that left field and center field at Yankee Stadium are much larger than many other parks, and with Joey Gallo “made for our left field” in Boone’s eyes, it makes alignment an issue.
“It’s challenging here because defense really matters. Do you want to go Gallo-Judge-Giancarlo across the board?” Boone noted. “Judge has done a good job in center and he likes being there, but you remove Gallo, who’s super athletic and made for our left field, and move him to a shorter field, and you move our great right fielder over out of position. On an everyday standpoint, I don’t know about that, but certainly more in play.”
Health is also a question there, for both Stanton and Judge.
“You’re putting G out there every day, so what does that mean from a standpoint of staying healthy – and the same with Judge, in a more physically demanding position,” Boone said. “We’ll continue to measure it and see if G becomes more and more of an option.”
Luckily, the Yankees do have an ace in the hole in Brett Gardner, who has played Gold Glove-caliber defense for his entire career in both left and center.
“He’s still an elite defender, and the last couple years, he’s had stretches offensively that have been really good,” Boone said. “He’s had some struggles, too, but this year, I think he’s played better than the numbers. He’s still getting on base, and I do feel like there’s still a potential run in there where he gets it running. His ability to do that, being left-handed at the bottom of the order, can have an impact.”
The Yankees also just added Jonathan Davis off waivers, which did have one down side: Boone had to be the one to tell Greg Allen he was going back to Triple-A.
“He was playing real well and helping us win a lot of games, so that send down was difficult,” Boone said. “It stinks, especially for Greg because he’s been great, but he took it like a pro. He’s a guy that’s come up here and contributed for us, and fit in with the team. Hopefully he’s back with us pretty soon.”
The move simply came down to roster mechanics, Boone said, as Allen came up as a COVID replacement, so being able to send him down now meant they didn’t have to expose him to waivers and possibly lose him.
“It’s important to have depth, especially in 2021, when we’re still in a pandemic and there’s no more waiver trade deadline,” Boone said. “We had the chance to grab Jonathan Davis and build depth to cover ourselves with another MLB-caliber outfielder, one that creates a platoon situation of sorts with Gardy, and not lose Allen because we don’t have to expose him to waivers. If we ever got into a situation in a couple weeks where we potentially had to send Greg Allen out, he’d have had to go through waivers.”
Depth is the name of the game, and Boone is hopeful he can put out an alignment every night that can continue to push the Yankees toward the postseason.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Follow WFAN's afternoon team on Twitter: @CartonRoberts, @EvanRobertsWFAN, @TommyLugauer, and @CMacWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
