Would Hairston Be "Perfect" For The Yankees?

As mentioned earlier this morning, the Yankees are rumored to be "in serious talks" to bring back Jerry Hairston, Jr. Rob Neyer contends that he would be the "perfect Yankee", but I'm not so sure.

The source of that rumor was a tweet by ESPN's Chris Singleton, who added that the Yankees would use the 33 year old utility man to "spell Jeter and Rodriguez and platoon in left possibly". Hairston is capable of playing every position 3-9, but the problem is that he's not particularly well-suited to any of the three tasks Singleton listed.

Although he's right handed, Hairston doesn't make much sense as a platoon partner for Brett Gardner. In his career against left handers, Hairston has put up a weak line of .264/.323/.386, which is better than Gardner but much worse than Reed Johnson (.313/.378/.463) who is also available. Hairston does figure to be an asset defensively, but just how much of one is largely up to your imagination. His 37.7 UZR/150 in LF is simply too good to be true considering it's based on only 132 games and 594 innings there.

Hairston has similar sample size issues with his defense on the left side of the infield, but not the same encouraging results. He's started only 46 games at 3B (40 of them last year) and made 10 errors in that time. Shortstop is a relatively new position to him as well, having logged only 533 career innings there with almost all of them coming in the last two years. The initial numbers say his range isn't great at either position.

Additionally, the Yankees already have four utility infielders on the 40 man roster - Ramiro Pena, Eduardo Nunez, Kevin Russo & Reegie Corona. Hairston figures to contribute more offensively than any of them, but Pena in particular is a far superior defender at both short and third.

Joe from River Ave. Blues explained how Hairston, acting as a back up infielder and outfielder, would free up a spot on the bench. Since the Yankees 12 man pitching staff affords room for only four extra position players, flexibility is at a premium. But production is the end goal, not flexibility.

While Hairston could play a number of positions, he doesn't excel at any of them - at least not in the capacity the Yankees would utilize him. The upshot is that he might save a roster spot by performing multiple functions for the Yanks, but that would only be useful if they could fill that spot with a player who can offer something that Hairston can't. Are the Yanks willing to spend a couple million dollars on a guy who is a bridge to signing another bench player? Because that's the only way it would make sense to bring him back.

Rob Neyer Grants Yankees Postseason Berth!

Great news isn't it? Here's Neyer responding to a tweet from Tyler Kepner proclaiming that Teixeira is the AL MVP, "no question":

No question? Honestly? Maybe Kepner just means that Teixeira will win, rather than that he should win.

What inspired this particular post? An essentially meaningless home run, hit well after midnight (back in New York). I mean, I'm sorry, but the Yankees aren't exactly in the middle of a pennant race anymore. They've got a huge lead over the second-place Red Sox. And if the Red Sox should somehow mount a late charge, the Yankees have a huger lead over the Rangers for that other postseason berth.

I guess what Neyer is trying to do here is gauge the impact this will have on the MVP voting, not give his own feelings on who should win the award, which he does later in the post. He goes both ways on it, though. The same people who weren't paying attention because it was past their bedtime are going to think it doesn't count because the Yankees were too far ahead? Right or wrong, the better the Yankees are, the more it helps the MVP chances of Teix or Jeter, who Neyer apparently doesn't consider a "viable candidate" either by oversight or purposeful omission.

"Essentially meaningless"? I don't care that the Yankees have a 98.9% chance of making the playoffs right now, a game winning shot in the top of 9th inning is still pretty significant. A bigger lead will give the Yankees more flexibilty coming into the postseason, allowing them to skip Joba's starts freely and align their rotation, if they are in fact fortunate enough to still hold the lead when the season comes down to the wire. Which is a major presumption at this point. As good as the Yanks have looked, I don't think you're going to find too many people in that clubhouse who think it's a forgone conclusion. They are one major injury away from looking awfully vulnerable.