TORONTO — Aaron Judge starting in center field is a big deal mainly because he is a big deal — and, of course, just plain big.
Six-foot-7 guys play center in Division III basketball, not the majors.
But Aaron Boone was faced with a puzzle, and the solution was simple — and 6-foot-7. Boone’s two main center fielders — Aaron Hicks and Jacoby Ellsbury — are on the DL. And the Yankees manager was determined not to overtax his 34-year-old third option, Brett Gardner, with four straight starts on the unforgiving turf at Rogers Centre.
So because Gardner’s numbers were poor against Toronto starter Marco Estrada (6-for-39, .154), Saturday’s game was the one he asked Judge to make his major league debut in center and become just the second 6-7 player in history to start in center (Walter Bond did it 11 times for the Indians and Astros in early 1960s).
Two batters into the bottom of the first, Boone encountered a different puzzle. Billy McKinney crashed into the left-field wall chasing a Josh Donaldson double. He stayed in for one more batter before his throw into the infield after a Justin Smoak RBI single was revelatory. McKinney was pulled, ultimately diagnosed with a shoulder strain and is heading to the DL.
Gardner, thus, was forced into action. But Boone decided to put him in left and keep Judge in center. The calculus to do that was about not wanting to ask Giancarlo Stanton — playing his first game in the field this year — to shift from right to left.
It all was basically a non-issue. Judge handled the only fly ball hit his way in center, and outfield defense was not an issue in the Yankees’ first loss of the season, 5-3 to Toronto.
Boone is going to have to remain flexible now on defensive alignment because McKinney joins Ellsbury, Hicks and Clint Frazier on the DL. Not long ago, the Yankees were concerned about finding playing time for so many outfielders. Now, Tyler Wade is going to be asked to be ready to go out there, and Judge will remain Gardner’s backup in center, at least until Ellsbury comes off the DL (he is eligible Thursday).
Judge professed no concerns about playing a position he played regularly at Fresno State. Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer, via text, said, “I saw him play center field at least three times myself. Our scouts saw it quite a few times. He played it well, he got good jumps and reads.”
He did not play center much in the minors, but when Reggie Willits saw him do so at Triple-A in his capacity as the Yankees’ roving minor league outfield coordinator, Judge was “fine at it.”
Though only Judge and Bond started in center at 6-7, plenty of 6-6 guys have played center, including Darryl Strawberry and Dave Winfield, and on July 20, 2011, in the ninth inning of a blowout loss, a 21-year-old still going by Mike Stanton switched for one inning from right to center — a switch not as famously remembered as requesting before the following season to be called Giancarlo.
In sheer overall size and bulk, Judge is unique. But this wasn’t like asking Randy Johnson to play center.
“It will be a sight to see,” Gardner said. “He will be the biggest guy on the field, but one of the most athletic, too.”