BALTIMORE — Five infielders for four positions.
That was a topic of conversation often during spring training, especially after the acquisitions of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Josh Donaldson from Minnesota.
If everyone stayed healthy — which was a significant ‘if’ at the time, and that remains the case — how would the Yankees and Aaron Boone figure out how to keep everyone in the lineup often enough to stay sharp and productive?
He insisted it would work itself out and so far, it has.
Heading into Monday’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards, the division of labor in the Yankees infield has worked just about how they had hoped.
Through 34 games, the numbers back it up.
Anthony Rizzo hits a two-run homerRobert SaboAnthony Rizzo, not surprisingly, has appeared in 33 games with 141 plate appearances and an OPS of .849.
Next up is the player thought perhaps to be without a position, DJ LeMahieu.
As expected, he’s healthy and doing exactly what the Yankees hoped he’d do when they initially signed him as a free agent.
DJ LeMahieu reacts after hitting a home runAPLeMahieu has played 32 games, split among second, third and first. And in his 132 plate appearances, he has a .758 OPS.
Donaldson comes up next, with 31 games and 129 plate appearances. And a recent stretch of success at the plate has bumped his OPS to .741.
Kiner-Falefa, despite some recent struggles, has been mostly solid at shortstop — where he took over for Gleyber Torres — and has a .658 OPS over 112 plate appearances in 31 games.
Finally, there’s Torres, at times the odd man out, since the Yankees have shied away from using him as a backup shortstop and his bat hasn’t been consistent enough to force his way into the lineup every day.
Still, he’s right there with the rest of them, having played 31 games and had 109 plate appearances with a .699 OPS entering Monday.
Gleyber Torres hits a two-run singleRobert Sabo/NY PostThe key has been, as general manager Brian Cashman hoped when he remade the roster after the lockout, to have more flexibility.
And that doesn’t just include the infield.
Giancarlo Stanton’s ability to play the outfield, as well as Aaron Judge’s willingness to move to center field on occasion, has allowed the Yankees to diversify their usage of the DH — which has been especially valuable to Donaldson, who has started 10 games at the spot, as well as 19 at third base.
The Yankees opted to bring Donaldson along slowly, especially on defense, in an effort to keep him healthy.
Other than some mild shoulder soreness, the plan has been successful.
Donaldson had his best game in the field as a Yankee on Sunday, when he made a season-high seven assists, including a diving play to his right to rob Josh Harrison of a hit.
The team’s defense overall has improved from last year since, as LeMahieu put it last week, “it felt like guys were out of place at times” in 2021.
They attempted to fix that by trading for Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson, which allowed Torres to move back to second and LeMahieu to roam among his three infield positions.
Torres has been an above-average second baseman this season, according to Fangraphs’ defensive runs saved — as well as the eye test. And although Kiner-Falefa has been shaky in the field the last week, he’s still been average overall at short, something Torres was not.
As long as they keep winning, the crowded infield should continue to work itself out.
