You might recall an old Yankees shortstop named Derek Jeter. Jeter anchored the position for about two decades, but enjoyed a lengthy retirement tour in 2014 that left the Yankees with a shortstop vacancy. In an era with fewer good shortstops than today, New York acquired one of the few that was available in Sir Mariekson "Didi" Gregorius. Gregorius had been forced out of a roster spot in Arizona, but was still only 24 years old and had a strong defensive reputation. Surely he'd figure out the bat eventually.
The Yankees gave up a lightly-regarded pitcher named Shane Greene who they had developed into a promising major league starter. Greene made his MLB debut in 2014 and kept a 3.78 ERA through his first fourteen starts. Not bad for a 15th-round pick! The Yankees didn't have the deepest rotation going into the 2015 season, but it was easier to find a pitcher than it was a shortstop. The Diamondbacks weren't interested in a Greene for Gregorius swap, so the trade became a three-team deal that sent Greene to Detroit and Robbie Ray (and Domingo Leyba) to Arizona.
For a few weeks, it looked like a disaster as Greene made three excellent starts and Didi showed no ability to hit. But then Greene combusted and performed like one of the worst pitchers in baseball for the rest of the year before transitioning into a hyper-volatile relief pitcher. Defensive metrics never loved Didi's ability to play shortstop, but he became a good enough hitter to receive down ballot MVP votes in his final season with the team. When he left to join the Phillies after the 2019 season, Yankees fans were sad to see him go. Gregorius had stepped into impossibly large shoes as Yankees shortstop but managed to fill them admirably. Great trade for New York.
I wrote a (much) longer discussion of this trade and a couple of others from slightly over ten years ago at Trades Ten Years Later, my self-explanatory Substack.
21 comments
People love calling Cashman a terrible GM, but he effing crushed this one. Didi was so good in 17-18 that he got a couple down ballot MVP votes.
10 years??? Holy shit.
Love Didi. I remember reading somewhere that his name sounded like it should be a Beastie Boys lyric.
I remember loving the acquisition of Didi yet hating that they gave up Shane Green. Thought they could have got him for less. I liked his potential.
No problem admitting I was wrong on that one!🤣
Though early on I also remember calling him:
“Did-E6 Gregorius”
Thought I was clever. He never had a bad error total that year. Probably saw him make 2 in a week and think it was a problem.
I’ll always have a soft spot for Didi. He’s still my daughter’s favorite player, and why she wears #18.
Didi set the tone on day 1 and said I’m not Derek Jeter. Then proceeded to become the absolute best Jeter replacement we could have ever hoped for.
Someone needs to sign Didi. Just to get his 1,000th hit
I always liked Didi. He had big shoes to fill after Jeter retired and he did a damn good job for a good number of years. He was a bright spot on a some frustrating teams.
Didi really fell off a cliff at a young ish age
I loved that short period of time in 2019 when the Yankees had C.C., Didi and EE (Edwin Encarnación).
10 years already holy shit 👴
I liked that we had a C.C. and a Didi.
He single-handedly won game 5 of the ALDS in 2017 by homering twice off Kluber.
Kluber was the best pitcher in the world at the time.
Didi’s three-run bomb in the 2017 WC Game and him taking Kluber deep twice in game five of the 2017 ALDS are easily top-10 Yankees moments of the last decade. Will always have a soft spot for him.
Sir Didi will always be one of my favorite Yankees
What a guy
Best SS since Jeter, right?
I love him
Didi is one of my all time favorite Yankees. We haven’t had that production from the SS position since 🤷🏽♂️
He was the perfect successor to Jeter. He wasn’t a high-priced free agent with a ton of pressure. He wasn’t a rookie who would have the weight of the world on his shoulders. It was a veteran guy who was good — not great — and didn’t have a ton of expectations.
And he seemed like a pretty nice dude, too.
One of the best trades Cash has ever made. Didi came in after a legend and still performed with all the pressure.
I was at Game 2 2019 ALDS and man I’ll never forget the Grand Slam
Didi was a great player for us over the years. He even had more home runs one season than Jeter ever hit! I can’t believe it’s been ten years, it makes me feel so old. It felt like we were heading into uncharted waters those days. What’s even crazier to me is that Jeter is 50 years old. Where has the time gone?