TAMPA — So many guys come to The Bronx and quickly show they don’t belong. Some guys don’t love it, others can’t handle it.
Joey Gallo, analytics darling, came to the Yankees for a slew of prospects. The numbers guys would tell you back then he’s one of the game’s best players. In Texas maybe. He didn’t get New York.
Andrew Benintendi, beloved in the Yankees clubhouse, played well enough to be invited back with a nice offer. However, the Cincinnati product preferred to get back to the Midwest and wound up signing with the White Sox instead.
But Harrison Bader, now here’s a guy born to play in The Bronx. He grew up in Bronxville, eight miles to the north. Bader has New York City swagger. He’s about the only guy who appears confident in a walking boot.
Bader belongs in pinstripes. The deadline trade that sent solid starter Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis for Bader shocked us all. That includes Bader, who was recuperating in his folks’ house in Westchester when he heard the news.
Yankees brass had it right even if folks didn’t initially like it because Montgomery started hot and Bader was sidelined for weeks with plantar fasciitis. Bader is the right guy for New York, as we saw last October, when he turned into Aaron Judge for a fortnight and carried the team into the ALCS, where he continued to rake.
“I think just getting healthy and feeling really good about the place I was at allowed me to go out and play free. And let’s be real. It’s New York and the postseason. It’s all we dream of,” Bader said at Yankees camp.
Bader said he was “charged up and excited” to play October baseball for the Yankees. But if anything, that state only enhanced his play. In 30 at-bats, he hit five home runs when most of the rest of the lineup was fighting to scratch out singles.
Bader is a kid who was uber-focused on that dream of his. He was an undersized baller (to use a favorite word in Bader’s verbiage, which is urbane tinged with a touch of baseballese) playing in the sandlots around New York, then at the University of Florida, where he teamed with Pete Alonso. Gainesville was good for him. So was St. Louis, which really appreciates its baseball.
But New York is where he needs to be. This is his town. He fits here. He’s a New Yorker with a true fashion sense — he wore patterned pink socks to the park Wednesday — and an appreciation for what the city offers. He lives on the East Side.
He is dedicated to the Yankees. He called his decision to pass on an offer to play for Team Israel (his father is Jewish) “selfish.” But it wasn’t really. He also thought it was “necessary” to be here at his first Yankees spring training, for his team and his teammates. That’s actually the opposite of selfish.
Bader is a free agent after this year, but the Yankees have yet to initiate contract negotiations. That’s OK, the Yankees were busy doing good work this winter, necessary work. They may also want to see more. I contend, we’ve seen enough.
Bader is the near perfect guy to sign. He’s a dynamo in center, one of the best in the game, which is something Yankees honchos value. And he hits in the clutch. Center fielders are hard to come by, and with generally mundane regular-season numbers (almost irrelevant to the Yankees), perhaps he’d be a potential bargain.
What really matters around here is October baseball. Bader lit up the scoreboard in the postseason, posting a 1.235 OPS.
He loves it here, another big plus. When I offhandedly mentioned he’s no longer a Cardinal, their spring opponent Wednesday, and now a Yankee, Bader, who speaks in perfect paragraphs, succinctly said, “Let’s keep it that way.”
Beyond all the other attributes, he wants to be here. Bronxville isn’t like The Bronx, but it was his proving ground. Bader would like to stay, and he should.
“Being born and raised in New York, it’s always been one of my goals to play in a Yankee uniform. Now that I crossed off playing in a Yankees uniform of course I want to be a Yankee as long as I can be,” Bader said. “But I realize, especially being traded last year, that it’s not really up to me. The only thing I can do is go out there and be the best version of myself for this team and every other team.
“I would love for it to be in pinstripes. But I do understand there are many factors involved. I’m just excited to soak in this year and every single second of every single day in this uniform and be a part of this organization.”
If he doesn’t wind up staying in pinstripes, something’s wrong. He’s nearly the perfect Yankee. If he was only left-handed I’d wonder if he was conceived in a Yankees laboratory.