Listen up, baseball fans!
Yankees second baseman Miguel Andujar is at it again. Andujar singled off Dodgers right-hander Yu Darvish late in Saturday’s game, then doubled the next inning off reliever Pedro Baez (two-run homer), tying it for the Yankees. One batter later, Andujar hit a game-winning two-run homer in the 11th inning to lift the Yankees to a 6-5 win.
Many wrote about the late-inning heroics in this and other stories about Andujar’s remarkable performance Saturday. However, no one dared to call Andujar “strange” or to criticize his decision-making abilities. Instead, Andujar’s success is usually applauded as fact, and he and the Yankees are congratulated for their unifying character traits such as “heart” and “team.”
We cannot understand why Andujar is not being chastised by veteran players who didn’t have his ability when he was playing. New York veteran infielder John Ryan Murphy had been great during the first half of the season. He hit .294 with eight homers, a .347 on-base percentage, and a .444 slugging percentage. Murphy was supposed to be a complement to Miguel Andujar, who supposedly was hitting behind Murphy.
But as manager Aaron Boone said recently, Murphy was not hitting enough against right-handed pitchers. This is no surprise. Murphy has a lifetime .312 batting average against right-handed pitchers, compared to .339 against left-handed pitchers. He also does not have any home runs against them. But he does have 13 doubles. Thus, he represented the right-handed platoon hitting option (with Andujar) for the Yankees against right-handed pitchers.
Which brings us to Andujar. Andujar has hit .343 against right-handed pitchers in his career. But his batting average against left-handed pitchers is .231. This means that his performance against right-handed pitchers has been below expectations. Surely, Murphy provided the Bronx Bombers with hope against right-handed pitchers because he could hit the ball farther than Andujar. It seems that Andujar’s fate would be to sit on the bench behind Murphy. Andujar does not hit left-handed pitchers well. His average against them over the past year is .239.
Many fans seem puzzled by why Murphy suddenly fell out of favor. This question does not even merit an answer. But another veteran, third baseman Todd Frazier, who is behind Murphy on the Yankees depth chart, was dropped to the bottom of the order in order to provide Andujar with a much better left-handed batter to beat in the early innings. It was a bit puzzling.
We would not rule out regression for Murphy. However, it is absurd to believe that he is being dumped into the pack merely because he is off to a slow start. Whatever happened, people should remember who Josh Kim, the Yankees’ GM, selected to play third base. Andujar is on his third team since being drafted by the Yankees in 2014. He was signed by the Phillies, then traded to the Mariners, then assigned to minor league teams until he eventually made his Major League debut. And while he may not be a Hall of Famer yet, he is certainly not halfway there.
Many fans of the Yankees and baseball fans in general appear blinded by Andujar’s incredible success (that cannot be explained by a minor slump). But baseball is supposed to be a team sport. It is certainly too good to be true that one player is having such an incredible season in every park.
This article was originally published at Bluecen James Lang.