Yankees: Looking for the Future

The Yankees announced over the weekend that injured DH Hideki Matsui is coming back tonight against Toronto. Considering he needs knee surgery over the offseason, he can only play DH. However, that creates a logjam with Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, Xavier Nady, Brett Gardner, and Jason Giambi in the OF/DH mix.

First, who to send down? It’s not that obvious. Justin Christian can play any OF position in a pinch and has blazing speed. The Friday night pickoff hurt his chances, though. Of course, there’s always Chris Britton, whom I hope Yankee fans realize kinda sucks after a homer to freggin’ Ross Gload. I still think Christian gets sent down, because otherwise he’ll just get no playing time.

Now, Girardi said that Gardner was the team’s center fielder. He has more speed and a better arm and better range than Johnny Damon, and with fluky flyball pitchers like Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner on the staff, that really helps. None of the OFers deserve to be benched offensively, but Matsui needs to play because he excels in RISP where other members of the team don’t. Yet when Damon doesn’t play the team doesn’t have a legit lead-off hitter. Here’s my idea of a lineup when he comes back:

Gardner CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
A-Rod 3B
Giambi 1B
Nady LF
Cano 2B
Pudge C

At this rate, Abreu, Damon, and Matsui are in the rotation, where in a game two play and one doesn’t. The above lineup is the example of one day’s rotation. It’s advantageous, because Matsui can’t just play everyday on turf on that knee, and the other two are 34, not to mention that Damon is almost constantly nicked up. Despite the interest in a consistent lineup, this is likely the best idea.