You know it’s a slow offseason when Yankee fans start going bananas on Twitter about the potential acquisition of Washington’s Mike Morse.

In a nutshell, Morse is a well-above-average hitter (career 127 wRC+ / 126 OPS+) who happens to bat right-handed, which is what the Yankees are reportedly looking for to offset their all-left handed OF.

He did suffer from a variety of ailments last season (shoulder, wrist, hand), but still managed a .291/.321/.470 line. He’s all about power with ISOs from 2010-2012 of .229, .247, .180 (injury effect?), respectively.

Problem is that Morse is a poor outfield defender, with a -15.2 UZR/150 for his career, primarily due to terrible range. Thus, his fielding will really zap a good portion of his overall value if he’s left exposed too often.

If the Yankees use him sparingly to give one of the left-handed outfielders a rest, and use him more often in a DH/1B capacity, then it would be a good move. If Girardi automatically benches Ichiro or Gardner in favor of Morse whenever a lefty is on the mound, then it would be counter-productive.

– Links to Morse’s complete stats on Fangraphs / Baseball Reference –