This winter will be a tumultuous one for the Yankees, with a lot of new faces expected to be brought in and old ones to depart. To keep up with it all in the blog, we will track each of the players the Yankees are trying to keep or pursue in a feature we call Market Watch.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman keeps referring to "the controversy" that has to be resolved with Alex Rodriguez. Joe Girardi says that A-Rod's appeal process "complicates" the Yankees' offseason. What happens if A-Rod's gamble doesn't pay off and he is suspended for the entire 2013 season?
Well, two candidates to fill in for Rodriguez are Eric Chavez and Michael Young. The Yankees had Chavez on the squad for two years before he left last winter. In July, they tried to trade for Young, who was then with the Philadelphia Phillies.
After playing in just 58 games in 2011 with the Yankees, Chavez put up decent numbers in 2012, appearing in 113 games and picking up an .845 OPS. In 80 games for Arizona in 2013, Chavez's OPS was .810. Chavez, who will turn 36 in December, is always an injury risk, but he still makes pretty good sense as an A-Rod backup plan.
Meanwhile, Young is one of those players admired by teammates and hated by sabermatricians. At 37, he is more of a utility guy than anything else. He had a .730 OPS and, like Chavez, would seemingly fit in well in the Yankees' clubhouse. While his bat is OK, his defensive metrics at third weren't great. He might be able to occasionally spell Derek Jeter at short, though pitchers may end up longing for the Captain's range.
While certainly not the player he once was, Young is a guy the Yankees will have to consider.
QUESTION: Who would you want to replace A-Rod?
