TAMPA — The main shelf in most of the lockers inside the Yankees’ clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field is populated by one or two versions of the same glove, plus hats, sunglasses and other personal belongings.
Oswaldo Cabrera’s is overflowing with an assortment of gloves that he needs depending on which of his soon-to-be seven positions he will be playing on a given day — and that doesn’t even include the first baseman’s mitt he has lent to prospect Andres Chaparro.
On Saturday, Cabrera started in right field for the first time this spring. In his previous four games, he played left field once and third base three times.
He is also expected to see time at shortstop, second base, first base and even center field, for the first time in his professional career, in case he wasn’t busy enough.
“I love it,” said Cabrera, who homered in the Yankees’ 14-10 loss to the Rays at Steinbrenner Field. “I don’t have no problem when they move me around. I just enjoy it. I want to keep playing and that’s my mentality: The position that the manager wants me to play today to help the team win, that’s what position I’m going to play.”
The budding utilityman emerged as a valuable player last season after he was called up in August.
He had played just four career games in the outfield before making his big league debut, but then started 32 of his 44 games with the Yankees in one of the corner outfield spots, filling a need and delivering a jolt while he was at it.
Cabrera’s impressive late-season run all but ensured his spot on the Opening Day roster this year. It’s just a matter of figuring out how best to use him.
The Yankees are having competitions for their starting shortstop and left field jobs, but Cabrera may be most valuable as a versatile player who can move all around the field.
“I think we should get those shirts made: Where’s Oswaldo?” manager Aaron Boone quipped.
The 24-year-old is ready for anything.
“It tells you all you need to know about the type of kid he is — he’ll do whatever it takes to help the team,” bench coach Carlos Mendoza said. “It says a lot about the makeup.”
Mendoza and Boone have their hands full this spring training making sure Cabrera gets enough work in at each position to fully prepare him for the regular season.
Communication has been key, with the staff trying to give Cabrera at least three or four days’ advance notice of where he will be playing in upcoming games so that he can spend time working out at those positions beforehand.
“If you put in your mind that it’s hard, it’s obviously going to be hard,” he said. ”But I just try to be the most easy that I can be, to not put too many things in my mind. Just go there, have fun and do the things I’ve been working on for a while.”
To help in that pursuit, Cabrera has four different Wilson gloves at his disposal — plus a few more new ones that he is still breaking in.
Aside from the first baseman’s mitt, the biggest one is for the outfield while the other two are for the infield — one for third base and one for shortstop and second base, plus sometimes third base because it is the glove he is most comfortable with.
It’s the smallest glove in his collection, one with a brown hue that he called “my favorite glove in my life.”
Regardless of what glove he wears on his left hand on a given day, Cabrera has made his impact felt while handling the transition to ultra-utilityman smoothly.
“[It’s because of] his ability to slow the game down,” Mendoza said. “His ability to anticipate, position himself, read swings. It helps him when he’s gotta go from the left side to the right side, from the infield to the outfield. He’s got such a good feel for the game. He’s got really good instincts that sometimes he makes it look really, really easy. But it’s not as easy as he makes it look.”