With Carlos Beltran sent to the Rangers on Monday, there is an opening at the designated-hitter spot for Joe Girardi to fill.
Yet, if the manager plans on using the struggling Alex Rodriguez regularly in that role, he wasn’t committing to it prior to the frigid Yankees beating the Mets in the first of four Subway Series games Monday night at Citi Field.
After Tuesday night’s action, the final two tilts of the series shift to The Bronx on Wednesday and Thursday.
“I’m not sure. I’m trying to digest this, and I will worry about that when we get to our ballpark,’’ said Girardi, who lost two elite closers and his best hitter in a week, which is plenty to digest. “These are our last two games in a National League ballpark, which is nice. We will be playing the ball we are used to playing. I will take a look at that and talk to [general manager] Brian [Cashman] and the coaching staff and make decisions.’’
That Girardi wouldn’t anoint the 41-year-old Rodriguez as Beltran’s replacement is understandable since Rodriguez is hitting .205 with a .611 OPS and has 65 strikeouts to 44 hits after whiffing as a pinch hitter in Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Rays that capped off a three-game sweep by the lowly Rays.
Before batting practice on Monday, Rodriguez didn’t stop to answer a question. After hitting, he chatted with FOX pundit Bill O’Reilly, and vanished into the dugout.
Rodriguez was in the on-deck circle during the 10th inning to hit for Adam Warren, but was pulled back into the dugout after Mark Teixeira singled to left. Ben Gamel came to the plate to lay down a bunt.
Rodriguez started on July 22 against Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner and didn’t surface in the lineup again until Saturday night against Rays lefty Drew Smyly — a stretch of six games without a start. When he did start Saturday, he went 0-for-4 and whiffed four times.
When the schedule gets back to playing AL teams, Girardi won’t have a whole lot to work with in choosing a DH. He could rotate his regular position players on a daily basis or use the left-handed-hitting Brian McCann against right-handers, which is something he might have to do next year when the Yankees hope Gary Sanchez is ready to catch in the major leagues. Rob Refsnyder is a candidate against lefties.
Girardi had to clear up something he said Monday when talking about the roster.
“I’m not so sure there won’t be other things done during the course of this week, too,’’ Girardi said.
Was he indicating the Yankees might opt to release Rodriguez despite being owed roughly $7 million for the remainder of this season and $21 million next? Could the Yankees find something physically wrong and put Rodriguez on the disabled list?
“I’m not talking about that. Obviously, we called up two players [Ben Gamel and Nick Goody] really quickly and you have to talk about what you want to do in your rotation, who are you going to give the at-bats to in right field,’’ Girardi said. “When I said that, that wasn’t necessarily what I meant. As we move forward, we will judge the at-bats at DH and we will put the best opportunity for us to win.’’
One card Rodriguez had to play earlier in the season was he hit left-handed pitchers well enough to warrant starting against them. However, after going 0-3 against Smyly, Rodriguez is batting .222 with a .681 OPS against southpaws. The next lefty the Yankees will see is Steven Matz on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.