EE replaces The Captain with this guy? hahaha

[SnoBrdr]

The Yankees may have found Derek Jeter's replacement.

The Yankees completed a three-team trade that brings Didi Gregorius, a backup shortstop with the Diamondbacks, to the Bronx. He’ll seemingly get the first crack at taking over shortstop from the franchise icon, who retired after last season.

The Yankees send Shane Greene, one of their more productive starting pitchers last year after he was thrust into the rotation in the wake of injuries to CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka, to Detroit while the Tigers send lefthander Robbie Ray and minor league infielder Domingo Leyba to Arizona.

Gregorius, a 24-year-old lefty hitter first burst onto the major league scene as a promising shortstop when he hit .252 in 103 games for the Diamondbacks in 2013. However he was unable to hold the first-string shortstop job last season, hitting only .226 with a .290 on-base percentage and a .363 slugging in 80 games. Gregorius hit six homers and knocked in 27 runs.

WFAN's Sweeny Murti first reported that the Yankees were working on the deal.

When asked by the News about the value of the trade, one baseball official said, “I don’t see how you trade a good young starting pitcher like Greene for a backup shortstop,” the official said. “That seems to me to be a terrible deal.”

A scout asked for an opinion on Gregorius said the following in a text message: “He’s OK. Solid defender, bat is light – long swing. Good athlete. Nervous type, not sure he can handle NY.”

At a charity function Friday morning, Yankee GM Brian Cashman didn't let slip word of the deal, but he has been clearly looking for a shortstop. When someone presented him with a big cardboard box, a gift, Cashman joked, "Is there a shortstop in there?"

At the event, long before the trade was announced by the team, Cashman acknowledged that the search for a shortstop "has been difficult. That's been difficult. It's not easy, shortstop. It's not a plentiful market. It's very thin and we're not the only club looking for a shortstop, so it makes it even more difficult. It's a premium position. Seems like there's more teams than there are shortstops."

Cashman, who was practicing rappelling down the side of a 22-story building in Stamford, Conn., in preparation for that city's "Heights and Lights" holiday fest Sunday, also added that finding the better shortstops this winter would probably come from the trade market. "But they are costly," Cashman said.

Greene, a 26-year-old righthander, was 5-4 with a 3.78 ERA in 15 games (14 starts).

Gregorius, who was born in Amsterdam and raised primarily in Curacao, was signed by the Reds in 2007 as an amateur free agent. He was sent to Arizona by the Reds in a three-team trade that also involved the Indians.

After that trade was completed, then-Arizona GM Kevin Towers was quoted saying of Gregorius, "When I saw him, he reminded me of a young Derek Jeter."

[junior]

Rangers sitting comfortably in 3rd place in the division, 6th in the conference.

Just can't beat Tampa Bay. Too bad we can't play Philly every night of the season though.

POTVIN SUCKS!!!

Go Blue!!!!