No, Joe Girardi hasn’t announced it, but the Star Ledger’s Marc Carig has deduced as much from what Girardi said about the two slot yesterday. Girardi’s comments:
“On-base is extremely important to me because the guys behind him can all hit the ball out of the ballpark. So, yes, you’d love to have a guy that had an extremely high on-base percentage that can run and hit for power. But if you had that guy he might hit somewhere else . . .You like to have guys who can run, but as I said, because of the guys in front of him, that becomes less important. You don’t have to be a flyer.”
I agree with Carig that this is Girardi basically saying, without saying it, that Nick Johnson is batting second this year. Which makes total sense. He’s an OBP God, and with A-Rod and Teixeira hitting three and four, anyone who has guys stealing bases in front of them should be summarily shot.
I think Nick Johnson’s addition is the single most underrated move of the offseason. If he stays healthy -- and really, his injuries tend to be more freak things than chronic things -- the Yankees are going to score tons and tons of runs.