It’s been Preston Claiborne and Shawn Kelley stealing the show in the bullpen, easily the most dominant makeup of the New York Yankees‘ roster. With their assistance in the wake of Joba Chamberlain‘s injury, along with the usual dominance from Dave Robertson and Mariano Rivera, the Yankees’ bullpen is one of the best in the game and its future is in no doubt whatsoever, despite New York having one of the oldest rosters in the game.
David Adams is starting to do his part for the Yankees’ infield.
It’s been a long and tumultuous history for Adams as a Yankees’ prospect. The right-handed hitter was originally drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2005 and wisely did not sign.
In the past five years, Adams, now 26, has been apart of numerous different events. Perhaps most notable, Adams was a second baseman, blocked by Robinson Cano upon being drafted and injury prone early and throughout his minor league career.
The replacement for Kevin Youkilis has played in just one full season, a 132 game minor league campaign in 2009, his first full season with New York.
The bat has always been there from a maturity standpoint. Adams has had a .350 OBP every year of the minors and has hit over .300 every season since 2010. Most notably, his injuries kept him in the Yankees’ system on two separate occasions.
After Seattle acquired Cliff Lee they was publicly looking to trade him. The Yankees had a deal in place contingent upon a passed physical by Adams. He promptly failed it, the deal fell through and Lee went to Texas for Justin Smoak instead of Jesus Montero.
The Rangers would go on to beat the Yankees in six games in the 2010 ALCS that year, driven by a dominant performance by Lee.
Of course, the Yankees and Mariners would hook up on another deal later, when they acquired Michael Pineda for the aforementioned, Montero. In a stretched way, David Adams has cost the Yankees Cliff Lee but gained them Michael Pineda, who is attempting to provide cost-controlled starting pitching depth in 2014.
Adams was hurt again coming into this season. With the Yankees in flux and in need of 40-man roster space, Adams was released by New York earlier this year, then re-signed to a minor league deal making him ineligible to be called up until May 15th.
Of course, in that time, Derek Jeter suffered a setback, Eduardo Nunez hurt himself, Alberto Gonzalez and Chris Nelson were signed and designated for assignment and Kevin Youkilis, signed to a one year deal to replace an injured Alex Rodriguez at the hot corner, has missed lengthy time due to back problems while Ronnier Mustelier injured himself the final week of spring training.
The left side of the infield ran through its first seven options in the six weeks it took before Adams was eligible for a call-up, but in 98 at-bats in 2013, the former second baseman-to-converted-corner infielder made sure it was his name to be summoned from the minors.
Adams was on a tear in AAA, a new level of the system for him after over 350 games at AA or below. Adams started the year .316/.407 with an OPS of .897 and 10 extra base hits.
His bat has been Major League ready for quite some time.
His defense has been major league proven for about a week.
Adams had his first major league hit in his major league game, going 1 for 4 against, you guessed it, the Seattle Mariners. The next day he went 1 for 3, producing his first extra base hit and RBI. His third game was his first multi-hit game and then two days later (Monday night) we saw his first major league home run, a blast to left against the Orioles in Baltimore.
In just 18 at bats it’s entirely too early to draw any conclusions about Adams, and it’s certainly possible any of his past injury concerns resurface, as would be the theme for the Yankees this year.
Still, six hits, solid defense, and a MLB ready bat for a 26-year-old on the Yankees is a wonderful find, even if it’s been collecting dust for five years. Adams can hit enough to make not re-signing Youkilis a no-brainer.
He can force Alex Rodriguez into a permanent DH role long after Travis Hafner doesn’t come back in 2014. He can back up Mark Teixeira at first base, or push Ronnie Mustelier to the outfield when he’s ready to fill one of the roster spots left by Curtis Granderson after this season.
He hits righty and helps balance the lineup against lefties.
It’s too early to know the potential (or lack thereof) of David Adams at the Major League level, but he is officially the first position player in years to have a chance to break through, ala David Phelps last season as a pitcher for this new wave of Yankees’ prospects actually being relied upon to fill up roster spots in the future, starting as early as now.
If Adams can show he belongs, New York will all of a sudden have a lot more money to spend when it comes to potentially letting guys like Phil Hughes walk and locking up players like Cano, the same guy who may have blocked Adams out of his original position.
In a year of experiments, Adams is just trying to stay healthy.
In a year of transition, the Yankees are finally gambling with its own players.
