The glove was always there, the question was always his bat. He had 453 plate appearances in Cleveland and never close to a league average hitter. There was no reason to believe he would hit for 132 wRC+ in 2019. He could’ve played two seasons here and never figure out what he did in New York, so these hypotheticals have no real meaning. The team identified the talent in Urshela and gave him playing time, that’s a lot more than other clubs did.
Yankees coaches and development staff are good, that’s no secret.