Yankees sign veteran infielder Neil Walker

Chase Madorsky

Matt Linder

On Monday, the Yankees signed second baseman, Neil Walker to a one-year deal worth up to $4.5M, including incentives.  Although the team has plenty of young options to play second base, the deal for the veteran was too good to pass up, in their eyes.  The organization was roughly $20M under the vaunted $197M luxury tax threshold, so it used the financial flexibility to bolster the one position with some uncertainty.

The 32 year-old hit .265/.362/.439 with 14 home runs in 111 games with the Mets and Brewers last season, which closely mirrors his career totals.  In addition to Walker's ability to get on base, he is a switch-hitter with strong contact skills.  His ability to produce from the left side (his better side) and put the ball in play helps balance a lineup dominated by strikeout prone right handed sluggers.  Defensively, Neil is an average second basemen, but he also can provide some insurance at third and first, which may be valuable considering Greg Bird's injury history.  That being said, Walker himself has his own problems staying healthy.  Interestingly, the Yankees reportedly agreed to acquire him at last year's trade deadline, but backed out due to medical issues.  Either those concerns are no longer a problem or the Yankees were willing to take the $4M risk.  In seven full major league seasons, Neil has only played in 140 games twice and has missed around 50 games each of the past two years due to back and hamstring problems.

Since many Yankees fans were excited to see the continuation of the prospect pipeline in 2018, let's look into how the signing affects the youth movement for this season.  While many thought Miguel Andujar was the favorite to be the opening day third baseman, the trade for Brandon Drury largely quelled those hopes.  However, even after the Drury deal, it seemed as though Tyler Wade had a legitimate chance to start the season as the team's everyday second baseman, thanks to his strong spring training performance.  Even if the Yankees decided that Gleyber Torres was ready for the big leagues sometime after April, he could have become the starting second baseman and Wade could have replaced Ronald Torreyes as the utility-man.  All the while, Miguel Andujar would gain a full year of experience in Triple-A and serve as insurance for Drury.  However, the Walker signing has put a damper on those plans.

Now, it is possible/likely that the Yankees will send all three young players to Triple-A to assemble a formidable infield with Andujar at third and Wade and Torres alternating at the middle infield positions.  Should Walker get injured at some point during the season, which unfortunately seems likely considering his past, the team then has two solid options to fill in at second base.

The Walker deal also impacts the backup first base position.  He can serve as Greg Bird insurance, which allows the Yankees not to carry a primary backup first baseman, such as Tyler Austin, on the roster.  Yesterday, Aaron Boone seemingly reinforced this logic by saying it would be “tough” for Austin to make the roster.  By using Walker as the starting second baseman and the backup at first, the team opens up a roster spot.  They can either go with an eight-man bullpen (which they did for much of last season) or a four-man bench.  If the Yankees opt for the enhanced bench, it could the include the three no-doubters (Ellsbury if healthy, Romine and Torreyes) with someone like Tyler Wade, who could play multiple times per week by serving the super utility role.  If the team does not want to overwhelm Wade with learning multiple positions, they can keep him in Triple-A to develop and fill the fourth bench spot with a journeyman utility player (Jace Peterson?).  This option seems the least likely compared to an eight-man bullpen or a Tyler Wade super utility role.

At this point, there are more questions than answers, but the Yankees still have over a week before Opening Day to come up with solutions, and these situations have a way of working themselves out.  For now however, the youth movement has been put on hold.

If you have any questions, comments or criticisms feel free to reach out to me at mattlinder2@gmail.com