These 12 minutes a day turned Miguel Andujar into Yankees surprise

Breaking down Miguel Andujar’s pregame routine that’s turned him into a surprisingly reliable third baseman for the Yankees.

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NEW YORK — It starts simply.

Carlos Mendoza, the Yankees‘ infield coordinator, grabs a few baseballs and rolls them to third baseman Miguel Andujar. The idea, Mendoza said, is for Andujar to do everything slowly, for him to “feel the way he separates his hands, how he stays on top of the ball when he’s throwing it across the infield.” The pair then progress to grounders. Mendoza hits them first from short range and then long, with Andujar sprinkling in throws to second base, too. They finish with Andujar charging bunts and firing them to first base across his body.

It all usually takes “approximately 10-12 minutes,” Mendoza said. Andujar has done it before every game for the last few years. And it may be the biggest reason the rookie has far exceeded most expectations about his defense in the majors leagues.

“This is a guy who has put so much work into his defense,” Mendoza said before the Yankees’ 11-0 loss to the Red Sox on Saturday night. “He believes in the work and that, the more he works, the more muscle memory kicks in.”

Andujar’s bat was never the question.

That he was hitting .283 with 12 homers and 38 RBI through his first 69 games entering Saturday was a surprise, sure. But it wasn’t unimaginable.

The concern for the Yankees was whether the 23-year-old would embarrass himself defensively. While Andujar has an impressive arm, many evaluators — as late as this spring — saw a defender with unsure hands and footwork, despite his obvious athleticism.

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Those worries were strong enough within the Yankees for them to acquire Brandon Drury from the Diamondbacks early in spring training, move him from second base and hand him the starting third base job on Opening Day.

But after Andujar, who debuted in 2017, was forced into regular work after Drury complained of headaches and blurred vision just nine games into the season.

Since then, Andujar has taken the job and put a stranglehold on it. When Drury told the team his symptoms had lessened to the point where he could play everyday, he didn’t get his job back. Instead, the emergence of Andujar’s bat — and his glove — kept forced Drury to Triple-A, where he stayed until getting called back up Friday … to play more first base.

Andujar credited the work he’s done with Mendoza every day as a big reason his glove has improved.

“Since the start of the season,” Mendoza said, via team Spanish translator Marlon Abreu, “I said that I wanted to be more consistent defensively. So the way the reason I like to go out there early, even before (batting practice) is so that I can concentrate even more. That gives me the chance to not have anybody around — no hitters or anything else going on. Just me and Mendy.

“That allows me to concentrate even more on my defense and I think it’s important to go out there early and get the job done so that I can fully concentrate, which allows me to be more consistent in games.”

Mendoza, who played parts of two seasons in the majors, was a Yankees minor-league coach when they signed Andujar at 16 years old out of the Dominican Republic for $700,000. 

Mendoza was coaching in the Yankees’ instructional league in Tampa when the initially first tried him out at second base before shifting him back to third, the position he played when he signed.

Mendoza said he believed Andujar kicked his defensive efforts into a higher gear at High-A Tampa in 2016. That’s when he started his routine of taking groundballs well before every game.

“We started doing this a couple years ago in the minor leagues,” said Mendoza, who served as the team’s lead minor-league infield instructor from 2013 until last season. “At Double-A, at Triple-A, it was the same way. It’s just carried into the big leagues now.

“Now, (Andujar) just reacts to the ball and he’s prepared. That preparation, for me, translates into confidence.”

Confidence in Andujar from himself. And confidence for Andujar from the Yankees.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.