Yankee Stadium, the home of the New York Yankees, has some peculiar dimensions.
The right field porch is short and invites left-handed hitters to pull the ball in order to score some cheap home runs.
That means there isn’t too much space to cover there.
Left field, on the other hand, is spacious and requires skilled fielders to successfully cover it.
You could say that playing left field in the Bronx is almost as hard as center field.
That’s why the Yanks had Andrew Benintendi, a former Gold Glove outfielder, play left field last year.
As manager Aaron Boone understands the importance of having a good fielder at the position, he is including right fielder Aaron Judge in the mix.
“Aaron Judge will begin playing some left field next week, Aaron Boone said,” Yankees insider Bryan Hoch tweeted.
Aaron Judge will begin playing some left field next week, Aaron Boone said.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) March 1, 2023
Judge’s elite arm is perfectly suited for right field, so that’s why he has played there for most of his career.
But he can also play center: in fact, he did it adequately for 632.2 innings last season.
If he can play both right and center field with good grades, it’s easy to imagine him sliding to left.
It may take a game or two to make adjustments and get used to another wall (with different angles and bounce patterns), but he should be able to be successful there.
The move would surely not be permanent: Boone is more likely to alternate.
It would also allow the Yankees to use Giancarlo Stanton sparingly as a right fielder and keep him out of the more spacious left.
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