TAMPA, Fla. — When Phil Nevin was managing the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Class AAA team in Reno, Nev., in 2015, Brandon Drury spent so much time in the batting cages one day that the coaches kicked him out and told him to go home.
They were not quite sure if he followed their directive.
“There was a rumor the next day that he went down to the Family Fun Center and was putting quarters in the cages there,” Nevin said.
The Yankees had tried to trade for Drury, whom they acquired Tuesday in a three-way trade, through three Diamondbacks general managers, but nobody in the Yankees’ organization knows him better than Nevin, the team’s new third-base coach.