One winter after he dangled in the wind until late-May because of the qualifying offer tendered to him by the Red Sox, Stephen Drew has finally signed with the team that it looked like he’d sign with all along – the New York Yankees.
Source: Drew deal with #Yankees is one year, $5M with chance to earn $1.5M in performance bonuses. Again, pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 7, 2015
The 31-year old Drew ended up heading back to Boston for $10.1 million in May of 2014 because no team was willing to forfeit a draft pick to sign him over the winter. The Yankees were the team that most were urging to sign him because of the need to find a potential successor to Derek Jeter, but they held out. Oddly enough, Boston actually traded Drew to the Yankees before the July trade deadline and he earned playing time at second and short for the Bronx Bombers.
But 2014 was a lost year for Drew. He didn’t play in a game until June 2nd, and saw action in just 85 games on the year. In those 85 games, he hit a putrid .162/.237/.299, and was even worse outside of 20 July games, when he hit .206/.325/456.
New York already acquired their apparent successor to Jeter (in 2015, at least) in former Diamondback Didi Gregorius, and will likely use Drew at second base to replace Martin Prado, dealt to the Marlins for Nate Eovaldi. It appears the Yankees will now roll out a defensive-minded infield of Chase Headley, Gregorius, Drew, and Mark Texeira, with Brendan Ryan kicking around as an infield backup. Throw in defensive wizards Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury in New York’s outfield, and it’s obvious that the Yankees are putting a huge emphasis on gloves in 2015.
