Buck Showalter was a worrier by nature. And a really good manager because of it.
When his team was winning big, Showalter would not revel. He would mentally imagine the pitcher on the mound beginning to melt down and, thus, who was available and what would it mean to use that pitcher not just for today, but the next and who was available at Triple-A to help the next few days if they started to get too deep into the funk.
This was when his club was ahead big.
The mental exercise enabled him to stay ahead of situations, not be caught off guard. “Never drop your guard,” he said Tuesday.
One of Showalter’s pet sayings was “what is the backup to my backup plan.” It is great to know who your backup in center field is. But who is the backup to the backup? You better be planning. A baseball season is going to test all your best-laid strategies. And 2020 is going to put that theory to the challenge in a powerful way — perhaps the most powerful way ever. Because new rules and the abbreviated season and, of course, the reason that caused the new rules and the abbreviated season, the COVID-19 pandemic, is now part of day-to-day baseball life.
Which is why Gleyber Torres is the most indispensable Yankee in 2020.
Indispensable and best are not synonymous, though as the third-place-hitting shortstop on an expected major contender, Torres has a worthy argument for best along with Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge.
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Torres, though, is indispensable because the backup plan at short is Tyler Wade. And the backup plan to the backup plan is Kyle Holder, or hoping some shift-crazed alignment allows someone like Gio Urshela to man the position.
The Yankees’ depth covers them well in most places. Aroldis Chapman, who the Yanks traded to the Cubs in 2016 for Torres, needed to be put on the COVID-19 Replacement Injured List. So the next man up was Zack Britton, a qualified closer.
The Yanks can go about six deep comfortably in the outfield. If Gio Urshela proves a fluke at third, the Yanks can turn to Miguel Andujar, who nearly won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 2018.
The only other place on the diamond where the Yanks have depth concerns is catcher. Austin Romine was trusted by the pitching staff, making him a high-quality backup to the oft-injured Gary Sanchez. Now, the Yanks will need the same from Kyle Higashioka. But the Yanks have learned to live without Sanchez often in recent years and MLB catching might never be as bad as it is right now. The next man up is often not that different from what other clubs have in this depressed area.
That is not true at shortstop. Two of the top five in AL MVP voting last year were shortstops — Oakland’s Marcus Semien and Boston’s Xander Bogaerts, plus Houston’s Alex Bregman made about 40 percent of his starts at short (Carlos Correa’s full-time return would still give the Astros an All-Star level player at the position).
Torres finished 17th in the AL MVP voting last year because, yes, he was a terrific hitter, right there with DJ LeMahieu as the best on the team. But also because he proved capable as the next man up when Didi Gregorius missed the first few months of 2019 after Tommy John surgery. The Yanks won the AL East because Torres was the next man up at shortstop, once the Troy Tulowitzki experiment came and went after a week.
Wade and Holder are not Torres. Not in the same universe.
The Yankees of the past quarter-century have excelled at next man up. Derek Jeter felt pretty indispensable in 2003 when the falloff at shortstop after he dislocated his shoulder in the opener was Erick Almonte. Those dynasty-tested Yankees still rose to first place and 26-11 without Jeter.
No one saw all the terrific production that would be coming from Urshela, Mike Ford, Mike Tauchman and Domingo German last year. These Yankees annually find a way. But that is over 162 games when their quantity of talent has the time to fully express itself.
Sixty games is different. Gregorius missed the first 61 games last year. The Yanks were 39-22 in first place when he returned, Torres having returned to his natural position with competent defense and stellar offense. What if it had been Wade? Or Holder? Maybe they would have been Urshela-esque. Or maybe that sinks the 2019 Yankees.
Better for the 2020 Yankees to not have to find out what happens if their most indispensable player goes down.