An existential crisis in the Yankee infield poses one great question: Could Gleyber be this year's Donaldson or Hicks?

 

Last night, the Zone of Death (TM) continued in Poe's city of gaslights. I'm referring to the Yankee fog of nothingness that settles in whenever Aaron Judge strides to the plate. It thickens with Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres and whomever is playing CF. Last night, this meager five went 0-for-17, without even a walk, continuing their dismal 2024 seasons, continuing to sink without a bubble.

Okay, let's state it up front: Judge . Will. Hit. We know this. Any day now, any way now, he'll go apeshit. He'll win AL Player of the Week and scatter some opposing bullpen like pigeons from a sandlot. It. Will. Happen.  

Unless he's secretly hurt, in which case, all bets are off. 

As for Stanton? That's another story. He'll probably heat up. But his inability to sprint, without tweaking himself - that's a glitch. Rizzo hasn't fully returned from last year's concussion, and then there is Gleyber, currently the top Yankee enigma.

Thus far, he's been a disaster. He started the season hitting leadoff, the Yankees not wanting Anthony Volpe to face extra pressures. That sure didn't last. Torres stank at the top and has continued to skunk-up the depths of the order. He has yet to hit a HR in 124 plate appearances. (Last year he hit 25.) He has all of 6 RBIs and and 33 Ks. And questions that not long ago were unthinkable have become real: 

How long can the Yankees get nothing from 2B? 

Could Gleyber be this year's Josh Donaldson? Or its Aaron Hicks?

You remember Donaldson and Hicks, last year's Bobsy Twins through May. "Jackie" Donaldson was a complete disaster at 3B, though Aaron Boone defended him, and the YES team constantly saw rebirth in his swings - signs that never materialized. The fans booed, and his BA fell to .142. He was waived and sent to Milwaukee, where he hit .169. This winter, he retired.

On that note, I want to apologize to Donaldson for some of the things we said about him on this site. His problem was simple: He was done. At age 36, he had nothing left. He was out there, feeding his family, and his career was over. You can hate a guy for a lot of things, but growing too old should temper some of the bile. Donaldson was through, and the Yankee management deserved to be booed, not him. 

Then there was Hicks, an electrified corpse who left the Yankees hitting .188 (with 1 HR) who suddenly became reanimated in Baltimore, hitting .275 (with 7 HRs.) Alas, Hicksy flipped his final flop this spring in Anaheim, where he was hitting .222 before being recently released. 

Donaldson and Hicks, gone but not forgotten...

I raise them because DJ LeMahieu will soon start another rehab assignment. His last one, a week ago, lasted two innings. Expectations were for DJ - as soon as his foot stops hurting - to take over 3B from Oswaldo Cabrera. Well, maybe not. Last night, Oswaldo's 2-run HR saved our bacon. His glove his great, and if Oswaldo keeps hitting, LeMahieu might reclaim his natural position, 2B. 

That would leave Gleyber - well - eyeballing the land of Hicks and Donaldson. 

One other question here: 

Must we, as Yankee fans, always need a pariah? At times, I wonder... because someone is always underperforming. I worry that we have a tendency to latch onto that person, even when the team is winning. Of course, Donaldson and Hicks last year had to go. But Hicks made us look exceptionally bad. 

It's hard to imagine that Gleyber - at 27 and entering his walk year - is done. But if LeMahieu moves to 2B - as, frankly, he should - Gleyber is about to face an existential crisis. If he's traded for chum, does anyone not think he'll have a resurgence? Either way, the Zone of Death (TM) must end.