With ready Peraza, Yanks can improve offense from within
Jun. 30—Many years ago, as we discussed a Philadelphia Phillies prospect struggling in his first month in Triple-A coming off a big season at Double-A, legendary Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons manager Marc Bombard offered some sage baseball wisdom.
The jump from Double-A to Triple-A, he said, is the toughest in professional baseball.
His reasoning made sense. Double-A is a prospect league, filled with young players. Triple-A is the first chance many of them get to test themselves against big-league veterans, players who know how to make adjustments.
The year was 2002 and the player was 21-year-old pitcher Brett Myers, the 12th overall pick in the 1999 draft. Myers started 19 games with the Red Barons before getting called up by the Phillies that summer. He went on to a 97-96 record and 40 saves over 12 seasons in the big leagues.
That conversation came to mind the last few weeks, as we inch closer to the Major League Baseball trading deadline Aug. 2. One of the top prospects in the organization is heating up with the RailRiders, and the New York Yankees are steamrolling toward the postseason with a top-heavy offense that won't be an excuse for not crossing the finish line.
So over the next few weeks, the Yankees need to take a more focused look at whether Oswald Peraza can give their lineup what it needs in the near-term, and save them some aggravation and a few prospects on the trade block.
This is splitting hairs on the head of what's looking like the best Yankees team since 2009. But there are areas of concern, especially after a slog of a weekend series against AL West-leading Houston, which saw Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton go 6 for 32 with six runs, four home runs and nine RBIs while the rest of the team went 9 for 90 with two homers and five RBIs.
The Yankees are 14-15 in games they've scored three runs or fewer — nine of those losses coming when they've allowed three runs or fewer. So, the Yankees are a few runs here and there away from being more like 62-13 than 55-20. Those few runs will be crucial, perhaps championship determinants, in October.
So, where do the Yankees find those runs? There are three spots of varying levels of concern:
* Corner outfield, where Joey Gallo has a .609 OPS and just 31 hits in 62 games.
* Catcher, where Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka have been outstanding defensively. But Higashioka is slugging a meek .315, and while Trevino boasts a .771 OPS, he hit to a .634 OPS the last four years. He hasn't been a .770 OPS producer since A-ball.
* Shortstop, where Isiah Kiner-Falefa owns a .316 slugging percentage and has come up somewhat short of his Gold Glove reputation.
The Yanks seem destined to move on from Gallo, and they'll be reticent to mess with the defensive success behind the plate. So if they're going to become an offense that is truly seven consistent threats deep, they need more pop at shortstop than Kiner-Falefa can provide.
The A's would part with Elvis Andrus, for sure, and the Phillies could be compelled as well to send Didi Gregorius out of town, if the Yankees wanted to go with a veteran former All-Star a few years past their best seasons. But Peraza is their most intriguing, and cost-effective, option.
Sure, he's hitting just .239 with a .708 OPS with the RailRiders. But Peraza just turned 22 and represents the perfect example of how big a jump it is for young players just getting their feet wet in Triple-A.
Including eight last season, Peraza hit .210 with a .611 OPS in his first 31 Triple-A games. In his last 33, he hit .269 with a .791 OPS. In his last 10 games, his OPS is 1.248.
Oswald Peraza's Triple-A progress
Games BA/OPB/SLG Runs Doubles Home runs RBIs Stolen Bases
First 31 .210/.292/.319 12 4 3 9 9
Last 33 .269/.329/.462 17 5 7 16 8
Last 10 .439/.467/.781 9 2 4 8 4
Does that make him ready for a big league promotion? It's not a slam dunk. But there have been plenty of big-time prospects who got to Triple-A, started slowly and never adjusted.
Peraza has adjusted rather quickly in the overall scope of baseball development. Is it enough development to get a quick call-up? Is he a more productive offensive player at the major league level at this point than Kiner-Falefa? The Yankees don't seem that eager to change what's working, but championship teams in recent years have not been ones to sit on regular season success.
The Yankees will have to tweak this roster, and in some ways, they'll need to spend something significant in terms of money and prospects to make sure they don't let a golden opportunity to break their longest stretch without a championship since 1996 escape.
In the meantime, Peraza gives them something they desperately need, too. A legitimate chance to improve a championship contender from within. They'll be better off making that call sooner, rather than later.
DONNIE COLLINS is a sports columnist for The Times-Tribune. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com and follow him on Twitter @DonnieCollinsTT.
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