Capellini: Sweet-Swinging Gregorius Rewarding The Yankees For Their Patience
By Jeff Capellini
WFAN.com
He's not a liability anymore. On the contrary, he's now a vital cog in the machine.
When the Yankees acquired Didi Gregorius during the offseason, they did so knowing he'd be a major work in progress. They were willing to give him as much time as necessary to develop into at the very least a serviceable major league shortstop, something he struggled to become during two injury-plagued seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Not only would Gregorius have to eventually prove he could swing the bat as well as he had used his glove during his short career, he would have to do it under the crushing pressure of being the next Yankees shortstop following the retirement of future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
Talk about being in an unenviable position.
Despite not being known as the most patient bunch, Yankees fans seemed ready to give Gregorius a wide berth. It wasn't lost on them that taking over for Jeter, a man who really needs no introduction anywhere in the civilized world, wasn't going to be the easiest thing for any player, let alone one as raw and relatively inexperienced as Gregorius.
And as expected Gregorius looked the part of neophyte during the first two months of the season, struggling so badly at the plate that his trademark defense couldn't run interference.
Gregorius' average bottomed out at .206 on May 28. He had all of 11 RBIs and a .268 on-base percentage to account for his first 136 at-bats, not to mention several base running mishaps he'd rather soon forget.
But no matter how much he was struggling he was going to continue to play. It was the mantra general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi vowed to stick to in an attempt to get younger at key positions. Some guys were just going to have to learn on the fly.
And so far Gregorius has.
Counting the last three games of May, Gregorius jumped his average to .235 by the end of June, going 28-for-102 over his next 30 games, registering nine multi-hit games in that span, or five more than he had in his first 48 games.
Then July rolled around and the player the Yankees hoped would just be average this season became something more -- a bonafide major league hitter.
Gregorius hit .317 (24-for-82) with 13 RBIs and a .360 OBP in July, a month in which the Yankees went 17-7 and assumed control of the AL East.
During the Bombers' recently completed 10-game road trip, which took them to Minnesota, Texas and Chicago, Gregorius raked, hitting .438 (14-for-32), upping his season average to .260.
"I'm actually looking at it day by day," Gregorius said after the Yankees' 12-3 win over the White Sox on Sunday in which he went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. "I don't look at it as how long it's been, but actually, for me, every day it's a little bit better. I'm trying to focus on the stuff I need to work on and trying to get better at everything. I'm making a lot of adjustments and I feel a little better at the plate."
And his teammates no longer see the wide-eyed kid who may have been in over his head at the beginning of the season.
"Earlier on, he had a tough time coming in and taking the shoes of the captain, and everybody was on him," said Stephen Drew, who went 3-for-5 with four RBIs on Sunday and finished the trip 10-for-27 (.370). "He's Didi, and he's got great talent, and he's played a heck of a shortstop. Earlier on, it was here and there, but he's picked it up and it's been fun to watch. Now, his hitting is getting involved, too."
Gregorius has hit the ball where it has been pitched of late, taking it to all fields, a sure sign of not only comfort in his own skin but also in the batter's box. Though he only has five home runs this season, his swing is built for Yankee Stadium, where any left-handed hitter can benefit from the short porch. With time and maturity it's possible that Gregorius will develop more of a power stroke.
In the interim, however, the Yankees simply need him to keep the carousel moving. With a pitching staff that has its fair share of question marks, the Bombers might need to live up to their nickname in order to make sure they get back into the postseason for the first time since 2012.
TANAKA HAS TO SHOULDER THE LOAD
Masahiro Tanaka struggled with his location his last time out. The Yankees can't afford to have that continue.
The Japanese right-hander allowed four runs and nine hits over six innings in a 5-2 loss to Texas last Wednesday. He got hammered because he left a lot of pitches up, something he hopes to avoid doing when he takes the ball in the series opener against the Red Sox on Tuesday in the Bronx.
"It's not just the splitter; it goes for pretty much all the pitches that I was throwing today," Tanaka said after the game. "I just didn't have command of it. I just kept on missing my spots and that was the bad part of today's outing."
Despite the fears that go along with having a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament, Tanaka is now being looked at as the undisputed ace of the staff due to the forearm injury that will keep right-hander Michael Pineda sidelined possibly into September.
Is that fair? Probably not, but it's reality since Cashman did not acquire any starting pitching help prior to Friday's non-waiver trade deadline. The hope is the Yankees can make do until Pineda returns with Tanaka, Nathan Eovaldi and Ivan Nova doing the heavy lifting while hoping for the best from erratic CC Sabathia and rookie Luis Severino, who will make his major league debut on Wednesday after going 7-0 with a 1.91 ERA in 11 starts at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
And it's always possible the Yankees will look to add an arm prior to the Aug. 31 waiver trade deadline.
We're going to learn an awful lot about this staff by the end of this homestand, which concludes with three against the majors' top offensive club, the Toronto Blue Jays.
Read more columns by Jeff Capellini and follow him on Twitter at @GreenLanternJet
