Grading the New York Yankees' Trade For Didi Gregorius

For the first time since in nearly 20 full seasons, the New York Yankees will have a new starting shortstop in 2015. The retirement of Derek Jeter has of course created that void, and it looked possible the Yankees would make a foray into the free agent market for his replacement. But they went a different direction, acquiring Didi Gregorius from the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a three-team trade that also included the Detroit Tigers.

Gregorius has yet to spend a full season in the majors, and he was ranked as a top-100 prospect by both MLB.com (#63) and Baseball America (#80) prior to the 2013 season. He is an immediate upgrade defensively over Jeter, with 85 “out of zone” plays made over the last two seasons with the Diamondbacks (via Fan Graphs.com), but his batting slash-line over 724 plate appearances at the big league level is just .243/.313/.366.

Over 1,992 minor league at-bats, Gregorius has a batting average of .277 and a .332 on-base percentage, along with 25 home runs, 193 RBI and 44 stolen bases (in 74 opportunities). If those numbers are any indication he may never become a notable offensive player, but it’s worth remembering that Gregorius will not turn 25 until February and there is room for improvement. Most notably, he only attempted to steal three times in 80 games with Arizona in 2014, but he was successful all three times. If Gregorius can get on base more, he could easily steal 20-30 bases per season when he reaches his prime.

Gregorius has a .184 batting average and a .490 OPS against left-handed pitching so far in his career, which has Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman already stating that a platoon with Brendan Ryan will happen next season. That makes some sense on the surface, but Ryan is not a great hitter himself and he’s simply not good enough to keep someone with Gregorius’ potential out of lineup on a regular basis.

Gregorius has to prove he can hit well enough to become an every-day player, and next season may prove pivotal in that regard. He is under team control contractually through the 2019 season, which may have been a factor in the Yankees’ interest in him and it also affords them the ability to have some patience. The Yankees did not throw money at the problem of finding a long-term replacement for Jeter, which has to be a good thing. Based on that, as well as his potential, Gregorius is a solid acquisition.

Grade: B-

Brad Berreman is a Columnist at Rant Sports.com. Connect with him on Twitter or Google +.