Greg Allen’s road to Yankee Stadium included two trades within six months, being designated for assignment and re-signed to a non-roster deal, and spending a month at the Alternate Site and two at Triple-A before being selected to the 26-man roster in the wake of the Yankees’ COVID outbreak.
Not the best circumstances, but Allen is ready to show what he can do, in hopes of sticking around to help fill the voids of Miguel Andujar, Clint Frazier, and now Tim Locastro.
“It’s very exciting. Any chance you have to be able to compete at this level, you can’t take it for granted,” Allen said Sunday. “Obviously, the situation isn’t ideal and you wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but I’m just gonna do whatever I can to try to help the team win. We have a talented group, but anything I can do to get on base and increase traffic, play good defense, and help us score runs…that’s what I’m going to do.”
Allen is 28 and had 221 games of MLB experience on his resume before this weekend, and is one of the “veterans” the Yankees brought up as COVID additions. But even if that may mean he’s one of the first sent back to Triple-A when the roster gets back to normal, it’s “special” for him to be able to get this opportunity with players like Hoy Jun Park and Trey Amburgey, who made their MLB debuts this weekend after spending all season at the Alternate Site or Triple-A with Allen.
“That’s definitely one of the special parts for me, to be able to see them come up for the first time, and I think what’s gonna help the most is the work they put in,” Allen said of Park and Amburgey. “It’s not a coincidence they’re here. They’re both smart individuals, and know it’s still the same game. They’ll have those moments of butterflies, but they are here to compete and can help us win.”
Veteran leadership is something Allen learned the ways of from one of the best: Tony Gwynn, who was a childhood hero of the San Diego native and eventually his coach at San Diego State University.
“Coach Gwynn had a monumental impact, one I probably didn’t realize the true effect of until I wasn’t at SDSU anymore, but one of the biggest takeaways I got from him was remembering when I was a younger player, and he’d always talk to us about slowing the game down,” Allen said. “I think that’s special, especially coming from a guy as talented as he was and someone who had so much success. If it’s something he used, it was something he’d give us. It was an incredible blessing to be there under his tutelage…it’s tough to put into words.”
Allen called Gwynn a “phenomenal coach and even better person,” one who “loved trying to make everyone around him better” with his keen mind and love for baseball, and he now has a chance to be that kind of mentor to many of the Yankees’ younger players.
“I think it’s fortunate we had a lot of veterans in Triple-A – guys who have been around, been up and down and seen a lot of things,” Allen said. “We always stayed even keeled and had a bigger perspective, and realized that all you can control is what you do in the moment.”
So far so good with that for Allen, who played in all three games of the Red Sox series and went 3-6 with a walk, a sac fly, one stolen base, and three runs scored. He brings both speed and a left-handed bat that the Yankees sorely need, and is ready to do whatever it takes on and off the field to make it happen.
“Any way I can impact the game, that’s where my focus is and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
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