The Other Hot Corner

Among bullpen issues, another hot topic with Yankee fans is the situation at first base. With the release of Andy Phillips, and his eventual signing with the Reds, it appears that the Yanks plan to move forward with a platoon of Wilson Betemit, Jason Giambi, and Shelley Duncan. We've all heard the debate regarding who gets the job in what situations countless times, so I'm going to focus on something else: What do we do in 2009?

Clearly what we have at first base is not a long term solution, I think we can all agree there. The quick answer for most fans is "Mark Teixeira!" While I agree that signing Tex would be an excellent move, especially given all the bad contracts that come off our books at the end of the 2008 season, banking on signing Tex is a dangerous line of thinking. Resting all first base hopes on what will prove to be a very competitive war for his services is hardly considered smart baseball.

So what, exactly, are our options? I recently read an article on another Yankee blog addressing this very question. Its an interesting read, and I encourage you all to check it out here.

Ryan Garko is certainly an interesting option. We could use a right handed hitter, as we have plenty of lefties, and Garko has pretty decent power. He's young (27), and in two years of service, Garko has hit .292 and .289, respectively. In 50 games in 2006, Garko his 7 homers, which is on pace for 22-23 homers in a full season. In 2007, Garko hit 21 bombs in 138 games. His splits are pretty good too, hitting .310 against lefties, and .281 against righties.

Garko isn't the best fielder in the world, but he is better than Giambi, and maybe Duncan (although his fielding at first is still kind of a question mark). I don't believe the asking price will be too high either. Maybe 2-3 mid level guys, and his contract is dirty cheap, making under $400,000 last year.

If our platoon isn't working out at by the end of July for whatever reason (slumps, injuries, etc.), it sure wouldn't hurt to see what the Indians want for him. And if not, I believe Cashman should definitely make a few phone calls regarding Garko next off season. Bottom line is that we don't have much in our farm system for first base. Juan Miranda may get a shot, but he's defense is pretty abysmal from what I've heard, and he has a pretty good shot of not panning out. There are possibilities of Jeter or Posada moving to first in a couple years, but nobody knows how that will work out either. In the meantime, Ryan Garko has proven to be effective at the major league level, and he wouldn't clean out of farm system or take over our payroll.

Feel free to disagree with me, I look forward to hearing some other takes on the future of first base.