Jay

Bruce

After the Yankees decided to move D.J. LaMahieu to first base, Bruce was no longer a viable option for everyday playing time after starting the season 3-for-34. The 34-year-old would retire with a .244/.314/.467 slash line across 14 major league seasons with 319 home runs, 951 RBI, and three all-star game appearances. Bruce won a Silver Slugger award with the Reds in 2012 and 2013.

Boone’s comments likely spell the end of the Jay Bruce era at first base in New York. The 34-year-old veteran first baseman, who made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster as a replacement for an injured Luke Voit, has gotten off to an atrocious start at the plate, hitting .118/.231/.235 with one home run in 39 plate appearances this season. His days on the major-league roster appear to be numbered at this point. Both Mike Ford and Tyler Wade could also factor into the mix on the right side of the Yankees’ infield rotation, once they’re eligible to be recalled from the team’s alternate site in three days.

Derek Dietrich and Mike Ford both seemed like better bets than Bruce as the Yankees’ first baseman with Luke Voit out, but the team thought it could tap into some magic, as it often has before, and turn back the clock with the 34-year-old slugger. It certainly hasn’t happened yet, and with the entire team off to a rather disappointing start, swapping out Bruce for Ford might be the easiest way to shake things up a bit.

Bruce has officially made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster and will serve as the team’s starting first baseman with Luke Voit expected to be sidelined until at least May due to a partially torn meniscus in his left knee. The 33-year-old slugger struggled at the plate, hitting .194/.292/.419 with two homers in 13 Grapefruit League contests, but he has a lengthy track record of over-the-fence power production at the major-league level. He’s worthy of a late-round lottery ticket in remaining drafts, or a speculative waiver wire addition, for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues and AL-only formats moving forward.

Bruce has been moved up from the eighth spot to sixth in the Yankees’ order, despite going 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout on Opening Day earlier this week. The 34-year-old veteran first baseman is expected to serve as the team’s primary stopgap until Luke Voit is able to return from knee surgery next month. With Bruce sliding up, third baseman Gio Urshela has been dropped to the eighth spot in response. It remains to be seen if this will be manager Aaron Boone’s regular lineup moving forward, but it’s a pretty significant departure from what he rolled out earlier this week.

Bruce has struggled at the plate this spring and it appeared likely that he would opt-out of his minor-league deal with the team. Instead, it appears as though he’s made the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. It’s worth mentioning that this news comes shortly after Luke Voit was absent from the team’s starting lineup for the second consecutive game. Jon Heyman of MLB Network has reported that Mike Tauchman will also made the Opening Day roster. Stay tuned. There’s definitely more news coming out of New York soon.

Boone added that Voit recently underwent an MRI on his left knee, which revealed the partial tear. He will be sidelined for at least three weeks before he can resume baseball activities. Barring any setbacks, the 30-year-old first baseman, who launched a major league-leading 22 homers during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, should be able to return at some point in late-April or early-May. It’s a significant loss for the Yankees, and fantasy managers as well, with less than a week remaining before Opening Day. Both Jay Bruce and Mike Tauchman will be on the team’s Opening Day roster as a result, with Bruce taking over as the team’s starting first baseman. Considering the firepower in the rest of the lineup, both could provide value for fantasy managers in deeper mixed leagues and AL-only formats.

It sounds like he might wind up opting out of his minor league contract with New York. Bruce, 33, had batted .194/.242/.419 with two home runs through 13 games this spring in Grapefruit League action.

There sure has been a lot of talk about how the Yankees are going to make room for Bruce on the roster when there really isn’t any reason to make room for Bruce on the roster. After all, Bruce has hit .217/.282/.448 the last three years. Derek Dietrich is younger, has been better offensively and has more to offer defensively, yet, oddly enough, no one is talking about how to make room for him on the Yankees roster. Of course, now that we’ve written this, Bruce will make the Yankees anyway and hit 25 homers, most of them game-winners, in 300 at-bats.

Bruce got the Yankees on the board with a solo shot off of Cody Ponce in the first. The veteran outfielder is battling for a bench spot with New York, but faces an uphill battle because of his poor defense and the current roster construction. If he does make the club, he could be a nice DFS play against right-handers, but there’s no redraft season value.