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Before A-Rod trade, Yankees Henson and Duncan had big dreams
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Before A-Rod trade, Yankees Henson and Duncan had big dreams

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When the Yankees traded for Alex Rodriguez and he agreed to move to third base, it was a splashy move that changed the course of the franchise - and some of its top prospects at the time.Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

When the Yankees traded for Alex Rodriguez and he agreed to move to third base, it was a splashy move that changed the course of the franchise – and some of its top prospects at the time.

The road to the big leagues can be harsh and unpredictable.

You never know when your path to The Show will take that turn for the better or for the worse.

Drew Henson and Eric Duncan — two former Yankee third base prospects with high potential — know all too well about those ups and downs.

But as Henson struggled his way into a football career and Duncan arrived, a freak accident on a basketball court in Southern California changed the Yankees’ third-base plans. As Aaron Boone tumbled to the ground in agony, clutching his left knee, it was only a matter of time until Alex Rodriguez came to town.

With A-Rod agreeing to slide over from shortstop to third base in the blockbuster 2004 deal with the Rangers, the Yankees had their star at the hot corner — something Duncan and Henson had envisioned they’d become.

Now both are back in the Yankee organization — Henson a scout, Duncan an assistant coach with the Staten Island Yankees — and each recalls the grind of working toward their big league dreams under the microscope that comes with donning the pinstripes.

“I don’t know if there was extra pressure but there’s a little more volume with everything when it comes to the Yankees just because of who they are,” says Duncan. “The Yankees are the best organization in professional sports, so everything is going to be a little more amplified.”

This was especially true for Henson.

A 6-5, 220-pound power-hitting righty, Henson split his time between the minors and the University of Michigan, where he played quarterback, sharing snaps with Tom Brady and seemingly destined for stardom in one sport or the other.

Instead he was out of baseball after just six years, playing in just five games in the majors.

New York Yankees prospect Eric Duncan playing in the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars showcase game at Surprise Stadium in Surprise Arizona. Ron Antonelli

New York Yankees prospect Eric Duncan playing in the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars showcase game at Surprise Stadium in Surprise Arizona.

Enlarge New York Yankees vs Chicago White Sox. Yanks Drew Henson makes final out of the game. Howard Simmons, New York Daily

New York Yankees vs Chicago White Sox. Yanks Drew Henson makes final out of the game.

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Eric Duncan (l.) and Drew Henson were both at one time thought to be star third basemen in the making, but it never truly panned out that way.

“Any pressure I felt I put on myself because, as a perfectionist growing up, I felt like everything needed to happen right now or you’d be behind the curve,” says Henson. “But it does take a certain type of personality to play in New York. Guys that can be consistent and understand the platform but at the same time don’t get overwhelmed by it.”

The Yankees drafted Henson straight out of high school in the third round of the 1998 MLB Draft. After trading him to the Reds in 2000, the Yankees reacquired Henson and gave him a six-year, $17 million contract to exclusively play baseball.

Henson hit .248 with 67 home runs over six seasons in the minors, including three with 100 or more strikeouts, numbers that pointed him in the direction of NFL football.

“Basically I got impatient with myself,” says Henson. “I got a little frustrated. There were a lot of opportunities and a lot of options, but looking back one of my weaknesses was always being impatient with myself and so I think that, more than anything, is what led to my decision.”

As Henson’s tenure with the Yankees was coming to an end, Duncan’s was just beginning.

The Yankees chose Duncan with their first-round pick in the 2003 MLB Draft out of Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey. Duncan, a left-handed hitter with a swing tailor-made for Yankee Stadium, seemed like the perfect fit to replace Henson as the star-in-waiting at third base.

But just eight months after the Yankees selected him, they made the deal for A-Rod, setting up a roadblock for Duncan. Still, he had a different perspective at the time.

“It dawns on you that whether you’re in A-Ball, Double-A, Triple-A or the big leagues, there’s a lot of good players around you and a lot of good players in front of you,” says Duncan. “If you start thinking about ‘I gotta beat out this guy, this guy and this guy,’ you’re making it really tough on yourself.”

Duncan says he realized this early in 2004 in A-Ball, when a guy named Bronson Sardinha was “tearing it up” at third base with the high-A team, one level above him.

If Aaron Boone doesn't hurt his knee playing basketball, maybe things go differently.BEN MARGOT/AP

If Aaron Boone doesn’t hurt his knee playing basketball, maybe things go differently.

“I remember thinking to myself, man, it’s ridiculous to look all the way to the big leagues and think about a guy like A-Rod when I got a guy ahead of me one level in A-Ball who’s a really good player,” says Duncan.

Duncan showed promise, being named the Arizona Fall League MVP in 2005, and reaching Triple-A in 2006 as a 21-year-old. He even began transitioning into a first baseman but when he reached Triple-A he hit a wall.

“I was fixated on taking that next step getting to the big leagues instead of living in the moment,” says Duncan. “It becomes easy to look forward opposed to just getting on a hot streak here and I can live out my next dream.”

After six seasons in the Yankees system and nine in the minors, Duncan decided to walk away form his carer as a player.

Now, he and Henson are using their playing experiences to their advantages in their baseball afterlives.

“I definitely understand failure. There’s a lot of it in this game and it’s a grind,” says Duncan, who also serves as a volunteer assistant coach at Seton Hall University. “The season’s a grind, the career can be a grind and the one thing I came to appreciate is that how special the opportunity is to get a chance to play professional baseball. You only get one shot at it.”

Henson, who worked as a hitting coach for the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League team before becoming a scout, echoes similar sentiments.

“I had success, I struggled, I had series where I felt perfect and series where I couldn’t hit the ball,” he says. “So understanding the difficulty of it, being positive and working with the guys and how you feel if they can get right was something I spent a lot of years at home before I got back into baseball thinking about.”

With plenty of young talent on the horizon for the Yankees, Henson and Duncan serve as a reminder of just how unpredictable that talent can be and how quickly they can be replaced.

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