Phils New RF: Jekyll or Hyde?

Delmon 'Jekyll/Hyde' Young Now Phillies to Babysit.

OF Delmon Young signed a $750,000 contract on Tuesday with the Phillies.  GM Ruben Amaro Jr. is saying that Young will start for him in RF this season.

Last season, the 27-year-old Young hit .267 with 18 HR and 74 RBI in 151 games with Detroit.

Then, he hit .313 with 3 HR and 9 RBIs in 13 postseason games to win American League Championship Series MVP vs. the Yankees.

Dr. Jekyll

Fans of Amaro will see this as low-risk with high potential upside.  Another in a long line of shrewd moves from the agressive GM.  The team has sought a right-handed corner outfielder with power throughout the offseason. Young could fit into the lineup in the No. 5 spot behind Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.  He is inconceivably thrifty (although could earn over $3-million more in incentives) and is a postseason proven, experienced major league hitter.

Early polls reflect support for the move by the majority of Phillies fans.

Mr. Hyde 

Alternatively, Amaro's detractors will see the Young signing as a desperation move, a sign of the times.  Amaro broke the bank on extended contracts with Halladay, Lee, Howard, and Hamels, while shredding the farm system for short-sighted moves, such as the 2 trades for Lee, each costing plenty of arms and legs of young talent. Now, after a rejected 3-year offer to Josh Hamilton, the player Amaro called "the only difference maker" of this offseason, Amaro signs Young-- straight from the junk heap.

Young, coming off surgery, has not played RF for even a single pitch since '07.  He is best fitted for the DH position, as he is a sub-Pat Burrell fielder.  Detractors will say that there is a reason nobody wanted him until this late in the offseason.  He's a headcase who isn't worth the trouble and can't hit right-handed pitching at all (.247 / .279 / .370 against right-handed pitching).

Rookie Ruf: Already Losing Sleep Over Young Acquisition.

Early expert opinion is strongly cautionary and critical of this move, highlighting the roadblock it poses to developing outfielders Darin Ruf and Domonic Brown.

In '10 for Minnesota, Young, a career .284 hitter, posted his best season, hitting .298 with 46 doubles, 21 home runs and 112 RBI.  He finished 10th in the American League MVP voting that year.

However, in April 2012, then Detroit Tigers OF/DH Delmon Young was arrested in NYC and accused of "Pulling a Mel Gibson."

Young was arrested outside of the club's midtown Manhattan hotel after allegedly shoving a man to the ground and making anti-Semitic remarks, police say.

Young was "highly intoxicated," a police source told the New York Post when the altercation occurred at 2:40 a.m outside the Hilton on 6th Avenue. 

The incident wasn't exactly an aberration, either.

As a minor leaguer in 2006, while playing for Class AAA Durham, he was suspended for 50 games by the International League for flinging a bat at an umpire in disgust after a called third strike. A year earlier, he had been suspended for three games for bumping an umpire.

After his arrest in Manhattan last year, Young issued a statement taking responsibility for his actions. “I take this matter very seriously and assure everyone that I will do everything I can to improve myself as a person and player,” the statement said. 

He later told reporters that he planned to meet regularly with Jewish groups in the Detroit area in an effort to repair his image.

“I’m being branded as a racist and a bigot, and that’s not me,” Young said. “I grew up in a very diverse area and I was raised to always respect everyone around me.” 

Amaro, born of a Jewish mother, did his research on the hate crime and who Young, who recently completed community service, is today:  "I talked to the Anti-Defamation League . . . I talked to a rabbi who Delmon has become very close with in Detroit, and his agents - Arn Tellem and Joel Wolfe - are Jewish," Amaro said. "I came away with the feeling that this is not an anti-Semitic person, I can assure you of that. I also can tell you he is a pretty good guy."

Young had a microfracture surgery on his right ankle in November.

"Oh yeah, we're concerned about it, there's no question about it," Amaro said. "But we're hopeful that he can come back . . . this is not an old player. He's been around a lot. But he's got a lot to prove. Getting back and playing in the outfield is one of the things he wants to do. I think he feels a lot more comfortable in rightfield. He was admittedly uncomfortable playing leftfield and he did not play leftfield very well. We're hoping he can get back and play his natural position at a much higher level."

"My motivation is getting to go out, play the field and contribute to a winning team," Young said. "You get to contribute for a team that is more than about stats and collecting paychecks. We have some guys here that, day in and day out, are going to bust their butt. You want to be one of those guys that come in and be reliable."

Time will tell if Amaro really means to play Young every day or merely hopes to ignite some splendid competition for the outfield corner positions come Spring training.