Taking Maxwell north?
Since there have been very few real position battles this spring, we have spent a fair amount of time discussing the possible outcomes for the Yankees’ 25th roster spot. The consensus opinion is that the Yankees will go for a left-handed reliever, likely one of Cesar Cabral or Clay Rapada, and both of these guys have done nothing to disqualify themselves from earning a roster spot. However, circumstances may be starting to align for outfielder Justin Maxwell to seize the last roster spot.
Maxwell, a 28 year-old career minor leaguer, is nobody’s idea of a top prospect at this stage in his career. He has flashed great tools throughout his career, but has been unable to translate the tools into consistent production. Maxwell has shown the ability to hit for power, slugging as many as 27 home runs in a minor league season, as well as some decent plate discipline. He has also demonstrated solid defensive ability at all 3 outfield positions. However, the inability to make consistent contact has handicapped Maxwell throughout his minor league career, leading to sky-high strikeout rates and low batting averages.
Maxwell has put together a strong performance thus far in spring training, posting a .435/.519/.652 line, including 5 doubles in 23 at-bats. He has outperformed the other competition for the extra outfield position, including Chris Dickerson and Dewayne Wise (not exactly formidable foes, albeit). He has played mostly in centerfield this spring, but his versatility should allow him to be successful at the corners as necessary. He also has enough pop to be a threat in late innings after coming in as a defensive replacement.
There are two circumstances that could help Maxwell sneak onto the roster: Nick Swisher’s health, and Raul Ibanez’s poor performance. Swisher has battled groin injuries all spring, and while he should be on track to start on opening day, it is not out of the question that a aggravation of the injury could lead him to wind up on the DL. If Swisher begins the season banged up or on the DL, Maxwell would be a natural replacement, and could split reps in right field with Andruw Jones.
Raul Ibanez’s well-documented struggles this spring could see the Yankees look for another option for the platoon DH/emergency outfielder role. While Maxwell, as a right-handed hitter, would not be an ideal platoon candidate, he may be enough of an upgrade over Andruw Jones against righties or Brett Gardner against lefties to be useful to the team in some capacity. I don’t see the Yankees cutting bait on Ibanez so quickly, but if it turns out that he has been battling an injury or there is some physical reason for his struggles, Maxwell could get a shot.
The Maxwell decision gets a little interesting because he is out of options, and would have the option to become a free agent if the Yankees don’t add him to the 25-man roster. Maxwell’s strong spring might draw interest from teams around the league who would be looking for an extra outfielder, and I would have to imagine that Maxwell would elect to pursue free agency rather than go back to AAA for the Yankees. I’m not sure it is worth upsetting previous roster plans to keep Maxwell in the fold, but if circumstances change for Swisher and/or Ibanez, Maxwell could be a useful asset.
Tagged with: Justin Maxwell
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No reason to keep a 5th outfielder who strikesout over 30% of the time in AAA. I wouldn’t be at all comfortable saying a careeer minor league player is better against RHP than Andruw Jones, and if you want to replace Gardner against a LHP Jones will take that spot.
For someone who has never really done anything outside of his rookie season with the Reds Maxwell is madly overrated. I’ve seen calls starting in the playoffs last year for him to start over Swisher. He’s a good athlete who’s going to stuggle because of the overwhelming amount of strikeouts he will have.
I agree for the most part, but there could be reason to keep him around if they are uncertain about Swisher’s health at the beginning of the season.
If Swisher is missing the first couple games of the season then it may be worth keeping him, though it’s not like in that scenario he’s anything more than the 4th outfielder. He’s not going to leap frog Andruw Jones, so he still is more of a defensive replacement than anything else, unless you want to sit Gardner for him and have an outfield of Maxwell – Granderson – Jones, but then you have bigger problems to worry about than Gardner’s L/R splits.
I don’t see it happening and I won’t lose any sleep when they end up releasing him or trading him. Still, I think a match up only second lefty is a waste of a roster spot (other than insurance against a Logan injury) and a 7 man bullpen shouldn’t be required with a rotation as good as this one should be. Maxwell has far more talent than he’s had success and he’s had a nice spring. I wouldn’t be opposed to keeping him and seeing if he develops into more working with K Long on a regular basis. If nothing else, he’s got a cannon for an arm and would be a good defensive late inning replacement. We’re talking about the 25th spot on the roster. It almost doesn’t matter who they keep. Hopefully whoever it is doesn’t get much playing time.
He’s really no better of a defensive replacement than Chris Dickerson, yet Dickerson doesn’t actually have to be on the roster on opening day to be around. I also fail to see how a late inning defensive replacement, who would only be coming into a game with a lead, so there would be no intention of hitting is better than another LOOGY. At least the LOOGY is getting batters out in key spots, a defensive replacement is way less valuable. A second LOOGY would be used in the middle against a David Ortiz in order to save Logan for the more important spot, or in the case of Logan’s spot being earlier in the game still having a matchup problem for the other team for late in the game.
How do we know he has more skill than success? He’s a great athlete with a big arm, those are a dime a dozen, the key to making that a baseball player is hitting. Maxwell has struck out 30+ percent of the time in all 3 of the seasons he has appeared in the big leagues, with a 32% K rate in total over 260 PA. We’re talking about a guy who swings at pitches outside of the strikezone more than Adam Dunn and makes contact 10% less of the time doing so. He is a hacking 5th outfielder who can generate power the times he does connect. With consistent playing time he’d be a drag on the offense, with inconsistent playing time he’s just taking up space on the roster.
Yea, I agree with the sentiment. If he were a lefty it would be a different story. Since, hes really no sort of replacement for Ibanez and they have Dickerson who can be stashed in AAA, I cant see them keeping him.
I’d like to see another right handed bat against LHP and would prefer Jones as the DH with Maxwell in left field at the Stadium. Maxwell’s also a threat on the bases.
Along with an 18% whiff rate for this Spring, a triple A OBP of .358 with a SLG of .588 makes me think a new organization may have helped Maxwell turn the corner. In a use him or lose him situation I’d chose the former! At least for a month or two to see if his bat is now MLB quality.
I really don’t see how 48 games in AAA for a 27 year old is enough to prove he’s found something, especially when he had a better OBP with the Nationals in AAA in 2010(.390 OBP in 66 games). I don’t see any reason to keep a 5th outfielder around just because you want to replace Gardner with him againsty LHP, especially when Gardner is the superior defender and faster on the base paths. It’s just not enough of a role to matter, especially when you are talking a career minor league player. At his age he should be ripping up AAA, he’s older than almost everybody he’s facing and has more experience in both the minor and major league level than them. That doesn’t however translate to major league production. I also don’t really care about ST numbers, all studies have pretty much dismissed any connection between ST and the regular season. The competition isn’t the same, and in the case of hitters they are further along than pitchers at this point in the year.
How many lefties are you actually going to face in the first month? Not enough for any real value from a player who only plays LF against the tough lefties, since Gardner still bats against average LHP.
If the argument for taking Maxwell with the big club is to bring another RHB who can play outfield on occasion for Gardner, than we already have one.
In 142 career MLB games Eduardo Nunez is hitting .267/.314/.382, with a wOBA of .315, 6 HRs, and 27 steals. Maxwell in 122 MLB games is hitting .201/.319/.379, with a wOBA of .316, with 9 HRs, and 11 steals.
There career numbers are almost identical, Maxwell has 3 more HRs in 131 less PAs but he also has 16 less steals. But Nunez has the better BA and SLG, with an almost identical OBP. There is simply no reason to fill another spot on the roster with a guy who’s job could be handled by someone we already have. Neither one would see much action in the outfield anyway, so the difference between the two is almost nothing. At least with Nunez he’s the super sub who’s already on the roster to be used in other ways, not just a guy taking up a spot in order to play in a couple games per month. Plus he’s 4 years younger and has more upside, so I’d rather give him those few ABs and see what he can build into.
Sorry T. O., but you’ve again failed to make an argument compelling enough to change my mind.
If Gardner wins more playing time, I’ll be happy because he is my favorite. In fact, if not for Joe Torre’s success, he likely would be wearing my lucky number as he did in the minors.
As I said, I want Maxwell to get whatever glove time Girardi may find for Andruw as long as his bat justifies it. Maxwell certainly has more speed and ability to play CF than Andruw.
Yours is the first opinion I have ever heard that hitters are ahead of pitchers before May or June and my baseball goes back to 1950.
I pride myself on original thought and brevity, but when that finds confrontation and quantity instead of acceptance, I have no need to continue to comment here. I have other places that I’m happy with.
I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about… You’ve found no confrontation here, and at the end of the day I don’t care if I change your mind about anything. I enjoy the back and forth but have no delusions that anyone will ever believe what they don’t want to believe. You’re a grown man, you can believe whatever you want, that’s the joy freedom grants you. However this is a blog and blogs are about discussion, so if you post something and don’t want anyone to disagree with it then you probably aren’t looking for discussion but simple acceptance. If you don’t feel like posting here because people don’t agree with your every thought then you probably won’t be happy with any blog, or life for that matter, since differing view points are what make the world move forward and evolve. But again you’ve found no ill will from me for your “original thought and brevity”.
I see what your plan is for Maxwell now though. You don’t want him to be the 5th outfielder, you want him to be the 4th outfielder and for Jones to be nothing more than a DH against LHP. That makes more sense as to why you would want to carry Maxwell but I don’t agree with it. Jones is the proven bat and limiting him to nothing more than DH duties so Maxwell can take the 4th outfield spot doesn’t maximize Jones’ value. Jones is a fine outfielder so I see no reason to take his glove away, especially since his ability to play all 3 outfield spots and hit lefties is why we signed him. I really wouldn’t want to see either Maxwell or Jones in CF though, we have Gardner and Granderson for that, if one is out the other will be in CF. If for some reason both are out we have bigger problems than Maxwell and Jones.
You are correct pitchers are likely further ahead at this pointy in the year, that is my fault, I’ve got not problem admitting I’m wrong. Still all evidence points to no connection at all between ST numbers and regular season production, so there is no reason to give Maxwell a job based simply on a small sample size in the spring. If you are going to take all of Jones outfield duties away you might as well just make Maxwell the RH DH as well, having both Jones and Maxwell on the roster serves no real purpose if they are splitting one role like that.