Left? Right? DH? Girardi Not Sure Where Grandy Will Play When He Returns
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Of all the Yankees' stars on the disabled list, Curtis Granderson appears to be the closest to returning to game action.
But when Grandy does return to the Bronx and is ready to go, where will he be playing?
It's anybody's guess at this point. Even manager Joe Girardi isn't sure where he'll put the three-time All-Star.
"We might toy around with some other things," Girardi said. "Left, right, (DH) things. (Granderson) is getting reps everywhere right now (in extended spring action in Tampa, Fla.). My concern is how he reacts to all the different spots. We'll decide that as time goes on. We just want to get him healthy. Grandy is going to play, he is a big part of our offense. But as we see around here, a lot can happen in a couple weeks."
The slugger broke his right arm when he was hit by a pitch in spring training. He was hit on the triceps with a pitch on Saturday in Florida, but it didn't appear to set him back. Despite his progress, Girardi said that there's no target date for his return.
Prior to getting injured, Girardi considered moving Granderson from center field to left field and putting Brett Gardner in center. Gardner has played 30 games in center field this season.
With left fielder Vernon Wells playing very well this season for New York -- the 15th-year player is batting .280 with six home runs and 13 RBIs -- the manager will have to get creative with how he divvies up playing time.
The manager said that Granderson will certainly play every day when he comes back, which means that Wells and/or Ichiro Suzuki will see less playing time.
Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira were scheduled to fly to Tampa on Monday to begin their rehabs under team supervision.
"I thought we had a chartered flight going there, actually," Girardi said jokingly, according to MLB.com. "(Francisco Cervelli) is already there and I have to check about (Ivan Nova). I get little updates, but the update I don't want to hear is that we had a setback. If we don't have a setback, I don't get too worried about it.
"I know there are a lot of big people there, I understand that. But that is not going to be the focus of my day. The focus is the people in this room right now."
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