2013 Season Review: What We Thought We Knew & What We Learned (The Infield)

(Courtesy of Reuters)

Once the biggest pillar of the team's offensive strength, the Yankee infield came into the 2013 season a crumbling, weather version of its former self and the first place to point to when making a case against handing out long-term contracts to players approaching their 30s.  The Yankee infield was old, injured, and regressing at the corners, older and more injured at shortstop, and heading for free agency while already on the wrong side of the age 30 threshold at second.  That was just in Spring Training too, and none of those descriptions changed for the better once the regular season started.

It was long and difficult year around the Yankee infield, one that I don't think anybody quite saw coming.  I know I didn't back in March when I first outlined what we knew and didn't know about this group.  Even in my attempt to stay grounded with my expectations, I was still way too optimistic about the prospects of 2013 being a good year for the infield.  Lesson learned there I guess, along with these others.


What We Thought We Knew- Derek Jeter Would Be the Starting Shortstop on Opening Day

You know that unforeseen injury setback I mentioned in March?  It happened not soon after the original "Knowns/Unknowns" post went up and it kickstarted a season-long injury battle that Jeter came out on the wrong side of time and time again.  Way too much weight was put into Jeter's early ST game results and not enough was put on the fact that he was already playing at less than 100% because of all the missed offseason conditioning time.  The ankle never had enough time to fully heal and Jeter never had enough time to get his legs into acceptable game shape.  Looking back on it, his plans to start on Opening Day were doomed the minute he broke the ankle last October.

What We Learned- Never Put All Your Shortstop Eggs In An Injured, 39-Year-Old Basket

As fans and writers, sometimes we're blinded by the image of the players we love and cover, and Jeter is probably the best example of this.  It took years for his bad defensive range to even become a talking point when evaluating him and a few more for it to become accepted as fact like it is today.  But for the Yankee front office and coaching staff to fall into that trap with Jeter relative to his comeback attempt was silly and short-sighted.  While plenty of signs pointed towards Jeter not being ready and not being capable of handling the everyday SS duties, the team made no effort to come up with a good backup plan.  They figured Eduardo Nunez and Jayson Nix could do the job if and when they needed to, and never considered what would happen if Jeter did get hurt again and missed extended periods of time.  Jeter has conditioned everybody to never write him off, but the team did itself an incredible disservice by following that blind faith.

What We Thought We Knew- Kevin Youkilis Could Still Play When He's Healthy

It took a while to get used to, but everybody started to accept the image of Youkilis in Yankee pinstripes when he came out of the Spring Training gate raking.  Expected to be a bridge to the eventual A-Rod return, Youkilis looked the part for most of spring camp and looked like the one veteran position player signing who would actually work out.

What We Learned- Kevin Youkilis Cannot Stay Healthy

Between the ST games and early regular season load, Youkilis' body couldn't hold up to the stress and it started to betray him earlier than anybody anticipated.  Youkilis' back started acting up in April, got worse when he was inexplicably allowed to play in a game in which he injured it worse, and finally shut him down for good in June after he tried to come back and went 5-37 with 11 strikeouts in 10 games.  It's not that the skill isn't still there, it's that the body just won't cooperate and stay together long enough to allow him to produce.  Youkilis was a gamble when the team first signed him, even on a 1-year deal, and he ended up being a bet that didn't pay out.  Even after his surgery, it's hard to see any team out there taking another chance on him this offseason.

What We Thought We Knew- Robinson Cano Was The Only Player in the Infield We Could Count On

And he proved us right.  While Jeter, A-Rod, and Teix all missed the bulk of the season with their respective injuries, Robbie Cano was out there on the field and in the key spots in the batting order all season.  He put up great offensive numbers again, he played Gold Glove-caliber defense again, and he cemented his already strong status as the team's most important player by doing it over 160 games.  In a sea of uncertainty created by all the injuries to his infield teammates, Cano was the constant guiding force that kept the good ship Yankee afloat for as long as he could.  He might not be around next year, but at least nothing bad happened to him this year.

What We Learned- Teix Might Be the New A-Rod

Not in the sense that he's the NY media and MLB's worst enemy, because I honestly can't see anybody taking that crown away from A-Rod for a while, but in the sense that he's the newest and biggest anchor to the payroll.  Mark Teixeira suffered another serious wrist injury in March while preparing for the World Baseball Classic, and like Jeter he simply wasn't ready or able to play every day when he tried to come back from the injury, despite being more than willing.  Teix posted a pitiful .151/.270/.340 batting line (.262 wOBA) with 19 strikeouts in 63 plate appearances before shutting it down for the year, and this second straight year of wrist problems brings the remainder of his time as a Yankee into question.  He'll turn 34 early next year and is still owed $67.5 million over the next 3 years.  If he's going to continue to be hurt and continue to see his power dip, those are going to be a long 3 years.

** Coming up tomorrow- The Outfield. **