Woe but for an infield

Can Gladus here play shortstop?

Via Ken Rosenthal the Yankees signed Brendan Ryan to a 2-year deal worthy around $5 million with an odd option that basically adds another year. On top of that they are still pursuing Stephen Drew and were pursuing Jhonny Peralta until he signed with the Cardinals, via Jon Morosi. This is all with Derek Jeter being under contract for this coming season, but as the Yankees have already noted they will be looking for a new starting shortstop so Jeter may be viewed as more of a DH. At this point right now the Yankees infield is putrid, especially because we do not know what will happen with Robinson Cano, as after him there is only Mark Teixeira in the infield. Obviously there are tiers of free agents and someone like Brendan Ryan ranks toward the bottom,which makes giving him two years very odd, but unfortunately players like David Adams, Corban Joseph and Eduardo Nunez rank lower than him as Ryan is an amazing fielder but a very poor hitter while Eduardo Nunez is a below average to an average hitter and a poor fielder even if he isn't throwing the ball into the stands anymore. I don't expect that Ryan will be the starting shortstop but it does remain a possibility and a strong one at that. As of right now though we have no starting second baseman or third baseman (well technically A-rod is still on the roster) and yes the Yankees are likely to resign Robinson Cano but that still leaves them with a gaping hole at third and everybody else in the infield is over 30 which does not bode well for the health of that infield and there are not any young guys looking to steal somebodies job and not many good free agent targets so we are looking at another stopgap 1-year veteran at third and hoping that Tex does not get injured again. There are no prospects at any of the infield positions that are anywhere close to the majors and so the Yankees are going to be stuck with a lot of one year contract veterans because their big money infielders are getting old, hurt and ineffective; all the while still being owed a ridiculous amount of money. The Yankees have always been good at finding talent on 1-year veteran deals, but we saw last year how that as your entire off season strategy can go very badly and with no solution on the left side of the infield that is exactly what they Yankees will need to do for the foreseeable future.