TAMPA — Marwin Gonzalez is wasting no time campaigning for the Yankees’ opening day touchdown.
Gonzalez played his fourth position in as many games since signing a minor league contract with the Yankees last weekend. Gonzalez went 3-to-3 on Tuesday, including his third home run of the spring, and flashed some defenses at the Yankees’ first base. The Grapefruit League beat the Phillies 14-2 at Steinbrenner Field.
“I’m just putting together a lot of good bats and moving around the diamond,” manager Aaron Boone said. “When you see him now and you see what we see of him physically, you think last year was just a blip, last year was a bad year.
“Nevertheless, we are in March and trying to keep that in mind. But he definitely came in here and we couldn’t have expected much more.”
Marwin GonzalezUSA TODAY Sports
Gonzalez, 33, has not had a productive year on offense since 2019, his first year with the Twins after finding success with the Astros. But in 144 games between 2020 and 2021 (split between the Twins, Red Sox and Astros), Gonzalez hit just .204 with 60 OPS-plus (100 is the average).
However, the Switch-battling super-utilityman is 6-on-11 in four games this spring while starting at shortstop, left field, second base and first base. He showed his defense at first base Tuesday, reaching wide to snag an off-target throw from third baseman Josh Donaldson in the fourth inning.
Last year Gonzalez started the games in second, first, third, shortstop, left and right field. If he wins a bank job outside of camp, he could also serve as the Yankees’ backup shortstop instead of having to put Gleyber Torres there every time Isiah Kiner-Falefa needs a day off.
“I’m comfortable with him anywhere on the diamond,” Boone said. “You know he’ll behave well. And then he just brings a lot of these intangibles, experience. He won a lot. So he certainly jumped right into the conversation.”