This year Eric Chavez, 6 time gold glove third baseman for the Athletics, was singed for a minor league deal and may actually have a shot on this team. He was one of those low risk – high reward signings, Cashman made this offseason. With Chavez's experience, Cashman may be highly rewarded with this signing Chavez has been working with Tino Martinez & Mark Texeira on his fielding skills to be the backup first baseman. Yesterday he started at first and had a pretty solid defensive game, which included a nice scoop on a bad throw by Laird. Girardi has been tight lipped about Chavez’s role but it seems he may be carried into the regular season as a backup first baseman and of course third baseman.
I’m not certain who they would drop from the team but I think it would likely be Ramiro Pena. His offense struggled last year when he only hit .227 with a .258 on base percentage, and his winter ball numbers weren’t much better. In the Mexican league he batted only .233 with a .296 on base percentage. It will be interesting to see what role he will play on this team in the future as Eduardo Nunez seems to have caught a lot of attention last season.
Nunez played in Triple-A last season and batted .289 with a .340 on base percentage. He was called up late in the season last year by the Yankees and hit .280 in 30 games. He has decent speed as well and stole 23 bases in Triple-A. Nunez may have beaten out Pena for a backup infielder role with these impressive numbers, but I think Chavez is a very worthwhile option and I believe he will start the season with the Yankees. No matter whether it’s Chavez, Pena or Nunez this season, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Watch for Chavez over the next several weeks.
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