Joel Sherman: New York Yankees' Bench Dreadful without Nick Swisher

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Yankees possibly adding more depth to their bench. At the same time, Joel Sherman of the NY Post was also making his own evaluations of the Yankee’s bench—and it wasn’t pretty.

He starts his evaluation with the lineup. He points out that injuries make Jorge Posada's and Hideki Matsui’s production uncertain, and asserts that they could expose the Yankees' limited bench.

He has determined that, without Nick Swisher on the roster, their bench could be "dreadful."

In Posada’s case, he is right. If he spends time away from the team, they will be forced to use Jose Molina as their everyday catcher.

While he is solid defensively, especially when it comes to throwing out base runners, he can’t hit and that would hurt the team.

Only the Yankees know how strong Posada's shoulder is and hopefully, if they have serious questions, they are already looking into adding another catcher.

As for Sherman's thoughts on Matsui, he’s also right. In recent history the guy just can’t stay healthy.

If he misses time, that will also seriously weaken the team’s lineup and bench. I imagine if Matsui does miss significant time, Posada will take over the DH duties—assuming he’s healthy.

That would force Molina to become the everyday catcher and the Yankees would be forced to carry three catchers, which didn’t work out too well last year.

Sherman’s other big question about the bench is in the inability of any of their possible utility players to hit at all. It’s likely that they will carry either Cody Ransom or Angel Berroa on the roster as a backup infielder—neither can hit a lick.

If any current Yankee infielder misses even a week out of the lineup, that replacement would nearly guarantee an automatic out, given the depth of New York's bench.

It’s a serious concern, and one they would probably have to address with a trade because their minor league system is barren of a suitable replacement.

Finally, Sherman complains that, if the Yankees do what’s been rumored for weeks and trade either Xavier Nady or Swisher, it would drastically weaken their bench. It would effectively remove their best piece, and their backup first baseman, left fielder, right fielder, and emergency center fielder.

From my point of view, the best things the Yankees could do to fix these problems would be to sign free agent catcher Javier Valentin as their minor league catcher and insurance for Posada, as well as trade triple-A first baseman Juan Miranda for a utility infielder with a little bit of power potential. Finally, they should add another bat—somebody like Nomar Garciaparra or Ty Wigginton—and keep Swisher around.