Baseball

Moving Jeter or A-Rod to center foolish idea

Yanks shouldn't ruin infield defense just because they didn't plan for future

Robert Galbraith / Reuters File /

The Yankees should not move gold-glove shortstop Derek Jeter, left, or gold-glove to-be third baseman Alex Rodriguez to center field, writes NBCSports.com columnist Mike Celizic.

The hallmark of any great organization is great planning. Those that look to the future and anticipate change thrive. Those that live only in the moment ultimately find there’s a huge price to pay for their lack of foresight.

You don’t have to look far to see examples. Ford and GM are staggering toward bankruptcy because they couldn’t see beyond the bumpers of the Terrainosaurus Rex SUVs they poured their futures into. The U.S. Army went to war without a sufficient stockpile of body armor and armored vehicles. The Democratic Party got to the point a couple of years back where it couldn’t elect a dog catcher because it failed to anticipate the mood of the electorate.

Unlike the real world, though, the nation won’t suffer because of the Yankees lack of planning. And if the pinstripes stumble out of the playoffs, a lot of people will be quite delighted.

But to Yankees fans, this situation should be utterly unacceptable, because the Yankees have had their chances to do something about a situation that was as inevitable as snow in Buffalo.

Carlos Beltran may not have had the greatest of seasons with the New York Mets, but he’s a very good center fielder and he was available last year, but the Yankees needed to spend their millions on pitchers with bad arms instead.

If the farm system were stronger, the Yankees could make that trade for Hunter or Gathright. But there, too, the franchise has failed to look ahead.

So it’s the Jeter or A-Rod option now — either that or a center fielder named Bubba.

Torre told Reuters that it shouldn’t be that absurd an idea. Mantle, Murcer, Hank Aaron and Robin Yount, among others, started their careers as infielders. What he didn’t add is that Mantle, Murcer and Aaron were sent to the outfield because they were lousy at fielding grounders and throwing to first.

Jeter and A-Rod are among the best in the game at their jobs. I have no doubt either one of them would become a great center fielder, but the price is weakening the first line of defense.

You move infielders to the outfield when they can’t play infield any more. You don’t do it because the wealthiest organization in sports failed to plan for the future.

Mike Celizic is a frequent contributor to NBCSports.com and a free-lance writer based in New York.

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