CLEVELAND — When spring training ended two weeks ago, Franchy Cordero’s most notable contribution to the Yankees was being the Red Sox first baseman who misplayed a pop-up against them last summer that led to a winning run.
Now, he is their left-handed-hitting slugger who offers the tools to dream on after a hot start with the team.
Monday still only marked Cordero’s fifth start as a Yankee, but in his first four games, he had made a quick impact with two home runs, a double and a 1.257 OPS.
Whether it was just a flash in the pan or something that he could sustain to an extent remained to be seen, but at the very least he was earning himself more playing time as an unexpected contributor after signing with the Yankees on the eve of Opening Day.
“I think one thing that’s certainly tantalizing about him is his talent,” manager Aaron Boone said Monday before the Yankees dropped the series-opener against the Guardians at Progressive Field.
Cordero, 28, was once an intriguing prospect with loud tools, but across his first six seasons in the big leagues, he had yet to put them all together.
Splitting those seasons among the Padres, Royals and Red Sox, he batted .221 with a .676 OPS, 21 home runs and 253 strikeouts in 227 games.
The outfielder could hit the ball harder than most — his max exit velocity ranked in the top 1 percent of the league in three of the past five seasons — but just how often he made contact lagged behind.
“He’s historically chased too much and missed too much,” hitting coach Dillon Lawson said. “Right now, if he can make enough contact in zone, then the power is going to play. I think he’s feeling, at this point in his career, he’s more comfortable with his routine and process in the cage, how he prepares for games. So we’re making sure we don’t change anything just for the sake of changing things because his uniform has changed.
“Let him be who he is and run with the things that are working and then sprinkle in a few things where we feel like we can still gain another edge. So that’s been the process so far. He’s fit in really well.”
After hitting his second home run in as many games on Sunday against the Orioles — who had him in spring training but did not add him to their 26-man roster, opening the door for him to sign with the Yankees — Cordero pointed to having better balance in the batter’s box as important to his success.
Lawson said Cordero was making more contact on balls in the strike zone this spring, which can go hand-in-hand with having better balance.
Want to catch a game? The Yankees schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
“If you swing at more strikes, you’re going to be more balanced,” Lawson said. “There’s minimal movement [in his swing] to begin with, which is impressive. Giancarlo [Stanton] is one of a kind, but Giancarlo has a similar thing where he’s zero to 100 instantaneously. Franchy has a little bit of that. But trying to have a little bit of rhythm to keep the bat path where we want it to be. Take a little bit of length out of the back so he can be as direct as possible to it. When you boil all those things together, he’s got the ability to do as much damage as anyone else.”
Just how much Cordero can continue to produce in the coming weeks could leave the Yankees with a difficult decision once Harrison Bader (strained oblique) is ready to return from the injured list.
If Cordero’s power from the left-handed side outweighs his strikeout tendencies, it could potentially make Aaron Hicks’ roster spot tenuous.
The Yankees don’t have to make that decision just yet, but Cordero may have something to say about it.
“Hopefully he can carve out a little bit of a role here for us,” Boone said. “He’s certainly earning more opportunities with his performance so far.”