It’s not even three weeks of regular season play, but …
• Have you noticed… the lack of joy around the Yankees? The lack of wins, hits and runs will of course hardly make the group want to break out in a match of Twister. But even in the right moments, there is a muted quality.
The days when Aaron lifted Judge Ronald Torreyes or “Savages into the batter’s box” feel like a different generation. The word that keeps resonating with me is ‘stale’, as if there was a stay fresh date that has expired on this core. Maybe a homers binge will change it or a banking incident like early 2018 at Fenway, when that seemed to move a sleepwalking team to 100 wins.
In 2004, then-Red Sox-GM Theo Epstein felt such antiquity among a tight-knit-but-no-cigar group and became convinced that a lack of defense and athletics would keep the team from winning. He responded by trading the franchise’s face, Nomar Garciaparra, for several better defensive pieces by the July deadline. And Boston went on to win a championship.
Will Brian Cashman ultimately have to make the same decision about this team, shaking up the lethargy in July and tackling defense and athletics by trading, say, an Aaron Judge or Gleyber Torres?
• Have you noticed … that in four relief appearances, Garrett Whitlock has thrown the equivalent of a full game shutout: nine innings, three hits, no runs, no walks, 11 strikeouts? He did this for the Red Sox. After they included him in the Rule 5 draft last December. From the Yankees.
Whitlock was eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft after four pro seasons had the Yankees not put him on their 40-man roster after last season. Decisions whether or not to do this are a combination of art and science, as a team tries to figure out not only who can be selected, but whether that player has the skills to be on a Major League squad all year round. stay because if not, he must be. offered back to the original club. And with grids going from 25 to 26 this year, it’s a little easier to keep a Rule 5 selection.
The Yanks’ minor league strength was in power (they also lost Trevor Stephan to the Indians) and couldn’t protect them all. But will they regret protecting, say, Albert Abreu or Brooks Kriske over Whitlock? It’s early, but in a text exchange, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Whitlock that he’s “been attacking the strike zone with plus gear since day 1 in Fort Myers and his change is becoming a weapon.” Cora praised Whitlock as a “great person who works hard in his craft and asks questions and listens to veterans,” citing Matt Andriese, Nathan Eovaldi and Adam Ottavino.
The plan is for Whitlock to eventually become a starter, but probably not this year.
• Did you notice … that the Yankees called Mike Ford again, this time to replace Jay Bruce? When I first reported on the Yankees as a beatwriter in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was an illogical fact to many of the moves that were made, often fueled by George Steinbrenner’s impetuosity and the split command between New York and Tampa.
With those clubs, it wasn’t that A-plus-B wouldn’t equal C; often it felt like it was not even equal to another letter; A-plus-B can be equal to a ham sandwich. The club would need a short stop and the means to land a short stop and they would add another DH type. Boy, did they like DH types. One Ken Phelps after another Mel Hall followed by a Steve Balboni.
By the way, with Ford, how many DH types do these 2021 Yankees have? Him, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Rougned Odor …
On the one hand, you could say the Yanks lost a lefty-hitting first baseman with Bruce’s retirement, Ford gives them another lefty first baseman and just wait for Luke Voit’s return – another DH, for what it’s worth. Understood. But it also gives them another unwieldy non-defender.
Here’s a question: what would this roster help you win more games: Ford or Kyle Holder? All signs are that Holder, the Yanks’ first-round pick in 2015, will never be able to strike as a big winner. But he can field well in three infield positions. Would going late defensively to Odor or Torres be more helpful than the occasional four Ford-at-bat? It would force the Yanks to use Bruce’s 40-man roster spot to hire Holder and the Yanks will eventually need those spots for Zack Britton and Luis Severino to return from the 60-day IL. The choice is therefore not a lay-up.
Holder – like Whitlock and Stephan – was also included in the Rule 5 concept, but returned to the Yankees.
• Have you noticed … that Stanton has the hardest hit ball of 2021? It was a 120 miles per hour from the Jordan Romano in Toronto on April 13. No surprise. Statcast began monitoring exit speed in 2015, and in each of the seven seasons, Stanton has hit the hardest ball. That includes 2019-20 when he performed in just 41 games together.
There is no doubt that when Stanton makes a pitch, it is often a “wow” moment. But in many ways, this is the Yankee’s lineup – you’ll find Judge and Gary Sanchez, for example, also having the best exit speed and distance on homers anywhere. Stanton has the furthest or second-furthest homerhit of 2018-21.
But the idea is not to win valuable carnival plush toys for speed or distance, but baseball games. Of course, hitting the ball hard is valuable – the harder it is, the more likely it will land for a shot. All too often, it feels like the exchange rate for Stanton and Sanchez is particularly “wow” moments, interspersed with too many pointless at-bats. It reflects a Yankee line-up that, even at best, would be described as dangerous, but not full of good hitters.