Cash: Granderson Is Our Center Fielder

Brian Cashman was on Sirius XM’s MLB Home Plate to discuss various topics with hosts Jody McDonald and Jim Bowden. One topic that came out was center field. Here's the question from McDonald and Cashman's answer (hat-tip to Was Watching):

Host/Jody McDonald: “With the acquisition of Curtis Granderson and Johnny Damon leaving you now have three guys for two spots – [Brett] Gardner and [Randy] Winn and Curtis Granderson – manning left field and center field. Are you going to try to make a decision as to what’s the best position for Curtis Granderson and leave him there? Is Curtis going to be asked to go back and forth between center and left? How’s it going to shake out as to where Curtis Granderson plays defensively this year?”

Cashman: I think that what’s taken place is when you’re asked questions like ‘Is there a possibility of Gardner playing center?’ I’m like, well, if we feel Gardner makes us our best team with Gardner at center because we’re blessed to have two above average center fielders patrolling Yankee Stadium’s outfield out of the three man alignment. So we have [NSwisher in right, Granderson in center and Gardner, assuming he holds it down and wins it, will be in left. But Granderson’s our center fielder. He’s an above average center fielder and that’s why we acquired him. But to be quite honest if somebody asked, ‘Hey, but is it possible Brett Gardner might be a better center fielder?’ Our defensive metrics on Brett Gardner made him one of the elite center fielders in the game. I’m not saying he’s the top but he’s close to it. So in fairness we acknowledge that but does that mean it’s the right thing to do to move Curtis Granderson over to left? I’m not saying that but I’m also open minded to say, alright, we’ve got a new player. We’re gonna see how our team fits and we’ll make decisions accordingly as we see things playing out. But Granderson’s our center fielder.”

Cashman is speaking about how things are right now, on February 24th, in Tampa. He's obviously left the door open for either to play center depending on what their performances dictate. At some points in the quote he doesn't even sound sure that Gardner will win the left field job, so I think he's taking a wait and see approach.

As I've said many times, if both are in the outfield I like the idea of Gardner in center and Granderson in left, but either way the Yankees will see a much improved defensive outfield in 2010, which is really all that matters.