SEARCHING FOR BRETT GARDNER — AND A RELIABLE LEFT FIELDER

The Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day ceremony today will, in part, honor the 2009 World Series team. The guest list from that team ranges from superstars like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Mariano Rivera, to players who make your friends say ‘good pull’ when you’re all sitting around naming retired baseball guys, like Eric Hinske, José Molina, and Phil Coke.

A noticeable omission from the expected guest list is Brett Gardner, whose first full season was in 2009. He went on to become the last remaining player from that championship team with the franchise after CC Sabathia retired in 2019. According to The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty, Gardner is spending his weekend at his kid’s football game, his longtime agent, Joe Bick, said in the story. Another interesting note is that a Yankees spokesperson also said that he has not returned the team’s calls since his playing career ended in 2021. In the three years since he has been out of the league, he has never officially announced his retirement and therefore hasn’t had his proper day of recognition.

While at the tail end of his career, he probably brought more value to the clubhouse as a teammate on the field. Kuty wrote another story at The Athletic how teammates like Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and Gerrit Cole revered Gardner as a teammate and leader. “He might not have been the guy that’s putting up 40-homer seasons or hitting .320 every single year or a (multi-time) All-Star,” Judge told the Athletic. “But what this guy meant inside this clubhouse, the things he taught me about being a leader and trying to treat people with respect — even what I observed from him and how he treated people. I don’t want people to forget that.”

Even though he didn’t have much to offer at the plate in 2021, the Yankees have struggled to find a permanent solution in left field since his final season. From the start of 2022 to August 23, 2024, the cumulative fWAR for Yankees left fielders is 1.9, ranking 25th in the league.

It could, of course, be worse—just look at the Giants, who haven’t had the same left fielder on Opening Day since Barry Bonds.

So we may not have the Curse of Brett Gardner on our hands just yet, but it’s been a struggle to find a replacement despite taking some swings with outfielders. Let’s run through what we have had to deal with in left field since Gardy’s departure:

2022

While Gardner and the Yankees kept the door open for him to return to start the season, they ended up going with Joey Gallo in left field to start the year. After an iffy half-season with the Yankees in 2021 following a midseason trade, things got even worse for Gallo in 2022. He lost confidence at the plate, suffering career lows in on-base percentage, slugging, and strikeout rate. He was heavily booed in the Bronx, lost regular playing time, and was eventually traded to the Dodgers for prospect Clayton Beeter. In June, they shifted Aaron Hicks to left field, but by that point, he was on a trajectory where he lost it at the plate, leading him to be run out of New York the following year.

The team traded for Andrew Benintendi as a rental at the deadline. In his 33 games in pinstripes, he had a solid month (posting a 108 OPS+) before breaking a bone in his wrist in early September, which ultimately sidelined him for the year. Oswaldo Cabrera played the majority of their postseason games that season, hitting just 2-for-28 with a homer.

2023

During the mess of the 2023 season, the team played ten players in left field, and produced the least amount of WAR from left field. They never had a stable left field option the entire year. Instead of diving into stats let me just run through the names that played more than 10 games at left: Oswaldo Cabrera (-1.5 bWAR, 51 games), Isiah Kiner-Falafa (0.0 bWAR, 37 game), Billy McKinney (0.2 bWAR, 33 games), Everson Pereira (-0.6 bWAR, 27 games), Jake Bauers (-0.9, 23 games), Aaron Hicks (-0.5 bWAR, 19 games), Allen (0.0 bWAR, 11 games). In all, the left fielders cumulatively produced -1.5 WAR and 73 wRC+.

2024

In April, it looked like the team had found some stability at the position, trading for Alex Verdugo as their everyday left fielder. A change of scenery seemed to help him become a new player at the plate and in left field. Sadly, baseball is not a one-month season. Since May 1, Verdugo has slashed .216/.267/.328 with a 66 wRC+. For better or worse, the Yankees have stuck with him; he has played 116 games in left field, the most by anyone since Gardner in 2017.

We’ve learned that Gardner’s production in the 2010s is hard to replace. Yes, in his later years, he wasn’t particularly dangerous at the plate, but he stuck around for so long because of his great defense (he actually has the best dWAR for a left fielder in major league history), savvy baserunning, and a bat that could still provide a spark.

As Kevin Winterhalt pointed out when Pinstripe Alley ranked Gardner number 42 all-time on our Yankees top 100, when he was good, the Yankees were good. His splits in team wins and losses are staggering: he hit 100 of his 139 home runs in wins and batted .284 in those games.

His tenure alone is remarkable. There are only five active players who have played 10 or more seasons with their respective teams—José Altuve, Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, José Ramírez, and Aaron Nola. All of those players are current or former superstars. How often do we see a player of Gardner’s caliber play his entire career with one team? CC Sabathia and Gardner were the constants for Yankee fans throughout the 2010s. Gardner played in 918 Yankee wins and 707 losses. He was there with us through all the highs and lows of a baseball season for 14 years.

At the end of the 2021 season, it seemed like Gardner felt he had more left to give, but the Yankees did not. That happens. Hopefully, this hasn’t resulted in bad blood between the two, and Gardner’s absence just reflects a preference to stay off the grid and move on to his next chapter without dwelling on the glory days. While we respect Gardner’s decision to avoid the spotlight, it’s still a bummer for us fans that he won’t be among those in attendance as we reflect on the players who made us love the game. We all want the opportunity to say a proper thank you.

2024-08-24T15:05:38Z dg43tfdfdgfd