Despite the emergence of Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius has been the New York Yankees Most Valuable Player.
Consistency and efficiency, those are the two words to describe New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius 2017 campaign. Gregorius missed the first month of the year. However, he did not let that slow him down.
With the recent slump of Aaron Judge, one thing has been made clear, and Didi Gregorius is the all around MVP of the New York Yankees.
The consistency of Didi’s bat has been very surprising. While in years past he has shown spurts of potential stardom, however, he hit over .275 just once in his six-year career. Sir Didi is putting together a blazing hot .308/.333/.501 slash line this season. Gregorius’s BABIP has also risen 27 points from last season which furthers proves how much his bat has improved.
Didi’s production isn’t a result of a hot stretch; he has been steady over the glory that is the .300 line for a majority of the season as shown in his game log Which ultimately shows how consistent he has been. The ability to get on base and slug at a high percentage all factor into the talented left-hander’s value.
It wasn’t long ago when the shortstop position was seen as perhaps the weakest position in all of baseball. Now, it is one of the strongest as some of the leagues premier players are indeed short stops. Didi ranks in the top four amongst short stops in average, home runs, slugging percentage, and offensive WAR even while missing an entire month.
The shortstop position is arguably the most important position on a team, and shortstop talents are very rare to come by, and the fact that Didi ranks up with players like Corey Seager and Carlos Correa speaks volume about how valuable he truly is.
As effective as Gregorius has been in the box, he’s been even better in the field. Didi ranks third in defensive WAR amongst all shortstops and 10th in the entire MLB.
One of the more impressive statistics about Gregorius is that he ranks 10th amongst shortstops in defensive runs saved even while missing the first month of the season. He still ranks well ahead of top-tier shortstops Francisco Lindor and Xander Boegarts in that category and just about every other one.
Didi is an absolute stud in the field which perhaps is his most valuable asset as having a defensive vacuum at short stop provides such benefits and advantages to a team. When you look at previous World Series winners, most if not all have outstanding defensive shortstops like Addison Russell and Alcides Escobar which further demonstrates how valuable Didi is considering that he has ranked in the top of every defensive and offensive categories.
The ultimate value of Sir Didi’s glove and bat cannot be exaggerated as the short stop ranks in the top tear of every category for a short stop. While Aaron Judge has had a fantastic season, he has not been consistent. With Gregorius being a top tier short stop and just an all-around two-way stud for the Yankees he has earned the rights to be named the Yankees MVP.
The consistency and effectiveness can hardly be matched as Sir Didi has improved drastically and is the MVP of the New York Yankees.
