What player is the most under rated Yankee?

George was on some kind of uniform number retiring kick, because Billy's number being retired is a head scratcher.  

That's a quite a list Clipper!

Yankees have watered down the retirement of numbers. Considering how many all time greats who have played for the team, it should have been for only those very top echelon players.
Numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 42 are the locks IMO.

When Willie Randolph was a Yankee, he had a reputation as a man who "never killed a rally."  While certainly not a virtual truism, it was tough when all I saw as a twelve year old in south Louisiana were about ten televised games per year and two-day old box scores in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.  Nevertheless, it was evident to me that Randolph did all the little things you wanted in a middle infielder of the 1970s and early 1980s.  Sure-handed, disciplined, focused, cagey, fast, and fundamentally sound, the only thing Willow did not have in his game was power. 

As a kid, it was preached to me that Yogi Berra was the greatest Yankee catcher of all time and only challenged in MLB history by Roy Campanella and Johnny Bench. But, when I looked at the numbers, it always surprised me that no one mentioned Billy Dickey, born in Bastrop, Louisiana.  Dickey's numbers are right up there with the greatest catchers of all time offensively.  In fact, B-R.com has Dickey with a career OPS+ of 127, Bench - 126, and Campanella and Berra at 125.  Of course, defensively, Berra always credited Dickey as having taught him how to catch.  Bill Dickey is indeed a Hall of Famer but he is also underrated.

As I have aged and the Yankees' last dynasty years have fallen into memory, Bernie Williams' value has shone in my eyes in a way that it did not while the mild-mannered, soft-spoken Puerta Rican was actually patrolling centerfield and batting clean-up for New York.  To think that the Yankees nearly allowed Williams to sign as a free agent with the Red Sox!  

Williams played in an era of steroid users and growth hormone abusers, when so many average players' slugging and power numbers were artificially inflated.  Bernie's career line of .297/.381/.477/.858 would be a boon for the Yankees' current roster, yet his .477 slugging seems modest to the sometimes upper deck shots he hit with that quick, beautiful, sharp click off his bat.  Bernie's lifetime OPS+ is 125.  From the right side of the plate, Bernie's was stellar: .308/.397/.503/.900. Here is a pleasant factoid: Bernie Williams' OPS at home vs. away: exactly the same at .858.

Though I was often critical of the routes Bernie sometimes took, his meager arm strength, and the occasional late jump, there is a reason Paul O'Neill could shade closer to the right field line:  Bernie would out-run any mistakes and clean-up whatever the other two outfielders couldn't reach.  Watching Bernie go from first to home in Anaheim from the vantage of being seated behind home plate was like watching a thoroughbred rounding the last turn at Belmont.  Dirt flying.  Knees high.  Long, graceful strides.  Bernie was thrilling to watch up close.