What to expect from the Dutchies this year? Didi Gregorius

With Spring Training around the corner it is time to see how the players from the Kingdom of the Netherlands will do in the upcoming season. Of course there is no crystal ball and it is still up in the air, but in general you can make a decent prediction based on the performance of previous years.

In case of Didi Gregorius it may be a bit hard though since he only played his second full season in the Major Leagues last year. In the previous years he split time between the Bigs and the Minors.

When Brian Cashman traded Shane Greene to Detroit in exchange for Gregorius as part of a three way trade, many Yankee fans were no too happy. Of course the Dutch baseball fans already knew what Didi was capable of but the Yankee fans did not know yet what they were in for. Especially when Didi stumbled his way through his first two months and Shane Greene had an excellent start with the Tigers, there was an outcry among Yankee fans about what a bad deal this was.

But after his first two months with the Yankees, Didi settled down, perhaps because of the tips that Arod gave to him and because of the advice of Derek Jeter, that Didi should remain Didi instead of Jeter’s replacement. Of course Didi had some big shoes to fill and it is hard to make the fans forget a player that was a fan favorite for twenty years.
After his first two months, Didi had a batting average of .211 but gradually it improved. Also on the defensive side, which was always his strongest part of the game, Didi faltered at times but after two months this improved as well as he showed a rifle arm and some slick fielding plays.

Didi finished the season with an average of .265. Compared to 2013 that was quite a bit better as he hit .252 back then.  As a shortstop he committed thirteen errors, but eight of them were made in the first two months. In general the comments of play-by-play announcers were very positive. Joe Buck for example, stated in early June that Didi is only getting better.

What can we expect from Didi in 2016? It is a bit hard to say that as 2015 was his only his second full season in the Majors. He only sat out seven of the 162 games in the regular season. In previous years he spent only parts of the season with the Diamondbacks and the Reds. In 2014, he started the season at AAA Reno, when the Diamondbacks gave Chris Owings the nod as their starting shortstop, even though Didi had played 103 games for the Diamondbacks in 2013, in which he batted .252. Perhaps disappointment influenced his performance at AAA in the beginning, when he struggled at bat. But eventually he bounced back and hit a respectable .310 when he was called up. With the D-Backs Didi platooned with Chris Owings at shortstop, a decision that did not pan out well for both players. Didi hit .226 for the season in eighty games.

Based on his performance of last year and that of 2014, we may expect Didi to have a slow start at bat. But then again, in 2014 he had to deal with the disappointment of being sent down after spending most of the time in Phoenix in the previous year. Last year he had to get accustomed to a new surroundings and that takes time.

After Didi struggled at bat in the first two months, he started to hit better and hit well above .300 in July and August. As a newby with the team, Didi had the second best average of the team. Only Carlos Beltran hit better with an average of .276.

So he may have a slow start at bat, his defense will be topnotch again. No doubt about that. Eventually he will come around at bat. As he has shown last season that he starts to see the ball very well, his batting average probably will be better that last year’s .265.

With Didi stil under contract until 2020, he will be the Yankees’ starting shortstop for the coming years, though Jorge Mateo’s star is rising fast. Mateo spent the 2015 season between A Full Season and A Advanced. At the latter level he hit better than he did at A Full Season. Even though MLB.com says that there is no reason that he should be moved from the position of shortstop, it remains to be seen if his defense is as good as Gregorius’.

Barring unforseen circumstances, Mateo may not break into the Bigs before 2017 or 2018. As soon as he debuts in the Majors, the Yankees will have a luxury problem. What will they do with Didi and/or Starlin Castro? Can Castro be moved back to third base? Is Didi capable of playing as a third bagger? Or will the Yanks place Mateo at third or second? It is all up in the air for now.

But Didi is still in his prime, so he will improve his game for sure. And as long as that is the case, I don’t think that he will have to fear to be moved to another position.