I’m not being reductionist at all. Look at his entire corpus of work in the ML and MiL. The man has simply not demonstrated at any level over seven professional seasons, 900 games and 3200 plate appearances that he is anything else than not good at the hitting part of baseball.

He is, however, better than Ramiro Pena.And the fact that he can run makes him valuable off the bench, too.

As to your question about whether he will get more playing time this season, I have to imagine the answer is probably yes, especially if Girardi finally starts to give jeter more regular rest, though last season he did play in 112 games and amassed almost 350 PAs. If he starts any more than that, he will be have become essentially a starter. Add to that 30 or so starts by Cervelli, and the two combine to be potentially a pretty big, black hole.

If Girardi buys into the concept that guys in their late(r) 30s play much better later in the season with regular rest, Nunez (or whoever gets the job he appears to have right now) could turn out to be fairly important. Does he get more playing time than last year if he has a decent spring?

Can he improve? Of course, anything can happen. But looking at it objectively, he’s just not very promising.

Now, for a back up IF who can play all the positions more or less credibly, he’s not the worst thing. And he can run, which is also a bonus.

I agree it’s good that the Yankees get a little competition going at the utility position, especially if it’s going to be a part-time thing with the rotating DH rather than a straight bench position. That’s clearly what they were trying to do by posting for the Japanese infielder (whose name escapes me right now).

But I think it’s too negative to characterize Nunez as a “poor” hitter and fielder with little or no chance of improvement. Mediocre yes, but poor is a bit strong. He has good range and a decent glove, but the yips have to be a one-time thing. At 24 with something to prove this year, I think there’s a decent chance we will see better defense if not a big jump in offensive production. And if not, I’m sure we will see him replaced mid-season. Hopefully, there will at least be some competition by the start of camp and that will come with the added bonus of AJ leaving. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Scroll down on that link to find out what happened when Paul O’Neill found out he was being sent down.

Yay…it really wasn’t my fault, for a change!

Regarding Mel, one would have to ask Stump Merrill why he didn’t come down on him or protect Bernie from him; I don’t believe it was widely unknown at the time. Not for nothing, but Stump never got to manage or coach in the majors after that season (he also instigated the Haircut Controversy with Mattingly that didn’t go over too well with the public unless you were a comedy writer) (note: that aired a week before the incident began; life imitating art?).

I’m not totally blaming Merrill for Mel Hall’s behavior (just his ability to get away with it to that extent), but the question was asked and I bet if he and the rest of the clubhouse had stepped up and put an end to Hall’s bullying or calmed him the eff down, it wouldn’t even be a matter of public record. But then, if you read Buster Olney’s NYT article from 1999, it’s somewhat shocking and rather sad that Bernie was an unlikely target of disrespect within the organization throughout his career and perhaps explains the awkward parting at the end as well.

The Yankees should always look to improve the bench when possible. That said. I’m not sure why the organization should have any confidence in Nuñez offensively or defensively. Yeah, he showed some pop last year, but he posted nearly identical OPS+ for the yankees the last two seasons (82, 84) and his MiL offensive numbers were sort of dreadful: .687 OPS in more than 650 games. I know he’s only 24, but there is nothing in his track record to suggest that he will ever improve with the stick.

And as for defense, we saw with our eyes what that was like last year.

So, with Nuñez, the Yankees have a poor hitting, poor fielding UIF with speed. That’s not the worst thing, of course, but certainly they should kick a few tires and look under a few rocks to see if someone better can be found.