Something is off about Brett Gardner. He’s not hitting at all in ST for the 1st time in his career. According to stat cast he’s slower then he’s even been despite stealing bases and such WHAT’S WRONG?
Its hard to say other then Age. He is 37 now and thus it seems to have caught up to him. His bat in SNAIL SLOW through the zone these days which is TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE news for him. Stat cats shows his foot speed at 81 now when as recent as last year it was 93. Bare in mind father time remains undefeated.
Gardner’s breaks for the ball remain as elite as anyone’s but his foot speed does not. He’s among the slowest getting to balls per stat cast and has let 3 balls this ST ALREADY fall stat cast said at least 95% of OFers get to and catch without an issue. Thus he is barley average now for a player who used to be #1 in the game in this area. The Yankees shouldn’t be alarmed about this but they should park him on the Bench as BOTH Cashman and Boone said would happen.
If Gardner continues to not hit or get to balls as he is then what value does he hold? NONE AT ALL! This is the bad part. He was hitting at all last year from the All Star Break on and even worse in the post season! Something is off about him. Thus why the Yankees should’ve let him walk.
The Yankees are to good to have players screwing them out of wins as Gardner did no less then 13 times last year. That’s right, Gardner not catching 100% catch-able balls or wasting key at bats single handily screwed the Yankees out of 13+ wins LAST SEASON ALONE! 3 times in the post season.
Could Gardner pull himself together and at least hit .250? EASILY! At least we all can hope so. Can he get his elite speed back? We can’t expect that at his age. No chance! We all will 100% be hoping for the best but yeah his days in the BIG’s are dwindling FAST due to his declining skills!
You may say something like: “But the Yankees need him in CF!” WRONG! DEAD WRONG! Tauchman is the starting CF per Boone and Tauchman. The Emergence of Rosell Hererra also ends this debate as the 27 year old is a TOP LEVEL DEFENDER at 6 POSITIONS including in CF. Even Estevan Florial has outplayed Gardner this spring and is still with the team after 1st cuts.
Gardner had better get going on he spot on the bench will become extremely secure and he may get DFA’d. Something is very wrong with Brett Gardner…
BY: ADAM KING
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