TAMPA, Fla. — The baseball spring is a time of great anticipation, especially for the rookies, and this year there are six of them in particular who are being counted on for various reasons to not only make the grade but to have a significant impact on their teams’ seasons.
Oswald Peraza, Yankees
Aaron Boone can talk all he wants about Isiah Kiner-Falefa still being the frontrunner in a “wide open” Yankee shortstop competition this spring and, accordingly to open the Yankees season at shortstop. But, fair or not, that remains a “been there, done that” proposition. There’s a much better chance of Kiner-Falefa opening the season as somebody else’s shortstop because (1) the Yankees were clearly not satisfied with his wildly inconsistent performance last year, and (2) they are desperate to finally produce their first homegrown regular player since the Jeter/Posada/Bernie Williams ‘90s dynasty. In that regard, it is somewhat unfortunate for them their two top prospects, Peraza and Andrew Volpe, happen to be shortstops, which is why they had no interest in Carlos Correa, Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts on the free-agent market this past winter. Privately, they are committed to Peraza, who hit .306 with a .832 OPS in an 18-game late-season cameo last year after a breakout power (19 HR) and speed (33 SB) season at Triple-A and has a one-year leg up in experience to Volpe. If there is one place in which the Yankees especially need to improve this season to close the gap on the Astros it is shortstop and Peraza would seem to have all the tools to do that.
