“Gio Urshela, the Most Happy Fella!”
John Sterling called it right! If you have been watching the last month of Yankees baseball, you noticed that permanent smile on Gio Urshela’s face. With Miguel Andujar out for the remainder of the season due to right shoulder surgery, Urshela has an opportunity to make a name for himself within the Yankees Organization.
Urshela ranks fourth in all of MLB for third basemen. He is currently sitting at a .331 Batting Average (which is the highest average on the team), .384 OBP, .471 SLG, and .855 OPS. This definitely came as a bit of a surprise, as Urshela was entering 2019 with just a .225 batting average. An interesting stat for Urshela is that he has a 41.9% hard hit rate, which means 41.9% of the ball he hits have an exit velocity of 95 mph or greater.
Aside from his batting skills, what’s very impressive so far this season is Urshela’s defensive skills at third base. He has a cannon of an arm, and Urshela has flashed that arm strength in multiple difficult plays. I will always bring up one of the greatest plays from Gio Urshela: Red Sox’s Mookie Betts hits a line drive up the third base line, Urshela scoops the ball outside of third base, and while mid-falling throws a bomb to first base and gets Betts out. One word for this play…incredible! “It’s unbelievable,’’ Luke Voit said. “I got over to first and I’m ready for a bad throw and he hits me in the chest. He’s incredible. It’s every day and it’s never a bad throw.” This is not the first time Urshela has either fell or is falling when throwing a ball to first base. More recently during a game against the Kansas City Royals, Urshela was actually sitting down when he threw Martin Maldonado out at first. “There’s no panic when he gets to the ball, even if he falls down. It’s pretty impressive. There’s not a lot of guys in baseball who can do that.”
If Gio Urshela can keep this type of defensive play up throughout the rest of the year, he has to be a candidate for 2019 AL Golden Glove award. When Andujar comes back next year, I think it would be very important for the Yankees to find a spot for both Andujar and Urshela. If we can, our infield will be unstoppable!
