Didi Gregorius’ Yankees debut didn’t quite go as planned.
There was the bobble on the first ground ball he handled, getting drilled on the right elbow with a 94 mph fastball in the eighth and then ending the inning by being thrown out at third when he inexplicably attempted to steal a base in the Yankees’ 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays in The Bronx on Opening Day.
“It was a bad mistake by me, I admit it,” Gregorius said of getting caught with two runners on, down five runs and Mark Teixeira at the plate. “I told them right away too. I won’t make the mistake again.”
The guy Gregorius is replacing at short didn’t often make the same mistake twice, but he did make a similar error during his rookie season, as Joe Torre has often said.
Derek Jeter was thrown out trying to steal third in a close game back in 1996, but not wanting to rattle the young shortstop, Torre decided he wouldn’t talk to Jeter after the mistake to make it worse. Instead, Jeter sat down between his manager and bench coach Don Zimmer after the next half-inning to get his punishment.
Gregorius owned up to his miscue, as well, saying he saw Toronto third baseman Josh Donaldson shifting slightly away from third with Teixeira batting from the left side, but Donaldson — and Russell Martin’s throw — easily beat him to the bag.
“He was trying to do too much,” said manager Joe Girardi, who was visibly upset in the dugout following the play. “In a game like this, you’re looking for a three-run homer. Your run doesn’t mean a lot. It was a good learning experience in Game 1.”
The Yankees are hoping for more than that from the 25-year-old, who arrived from Arizona in a three-team trade in December.
One of the few positives for Gregorius was he insisted his elbow was OK despite getting hit by Aaron Loup, saying his elbow pad took much of the blow.
As for the talk about replacing Jeter, he has given up fighting the comparisons.
“No matter what you do, they’re going to compare me to him,” Gregorius said. “So no matter what I do offensively or defensively, they’re always going to compare. I don’t care because it’s not in my hands.”
He could, however, make his life easier with some success on the field.
“If they tell me, ‘You’ve got to be like Jeter,’ I can’t,” Gregorius said. “I don’t think [anybody] can be like Jeter. Everything Jeter did, he made history in the 20 years he played here. It’s way different than me coming in right now and trying to be myself. I can’t be like him. I can try to be me and make some improvements.”