From Bill Ladson:
It was a bad day all around for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon. First, they found that their leader, Aaron Judge, would miss his second game of the season with a flexor strain in his right elbow that will send him to the injured list.
There was a game after the news broke about Judge, and that didn’t go any better as the Phillies beat New York, 9-4, at Yankee Stadium.
Right-hander Marcus Stroman started for New York, and he didn’t give the team any length, lasting 3 2/3 innings while allowing four runs on five hits and walking four. The problems started in the first inning when Trea Turner scored the first run of the game on a single by J.T. Realmuto.
Obviously, Stroman isn’t the WORST, but goddamn, he’s pretty fucking bad. He’s so bad that I really think they should just cut bait on him when Luis Gil is ready to return. He has no upside, and he’d be useless out of the bullpen, so he has no real place here.
As to the REAL news of the day, Aaron Judge has a flexor sprain. This is tricky, because his UCL is fully intact, but obviously if you don’t get the sprain treated, it could get worse. So the Yankees were in a weird position, because Judge can still hit. It’s like the situation the Royals were in last season with Vinnie Pasquantino, where he broke his thumb, so couldn’t play first base, but he COULD DH. Similarly, Judge can still hit. And he wanted to just play DH while hoping his arm would heal with some PrP injections. I get the appeal there, but that’s highly unlikely to be able to get him to the point where he could play the field this season. And the Yankees obviously need Judge to be able to play the field, so I think they NEEDED to go this route, and have him heal up to see if he can play the outfield. But, of course, it means taking him out of the lineup for ten days, which fucking SUCKS.
However, this isn’t 2023, this lineup can actually hit a bit without Judge. In 2023, they had ONE other hitter over 100 OPS+. This season they have, like, FIVE. When Judge returns, and can only DH at first, that’ll be fascinating, as we’ll likely see Giancarlo Stanton play the outfield again, which will be hilarious. Anyone remember watching Rob Deer play in the outfield back in the day? That’s what this will be like. Or maybe Matt Stairs?
The key thing, though, is that the pitching fucking SUCKS right now. Only Devin Williams and Cam Schlittler haven’t fucking SUCKED the last week. Even Luke Weaver, who has been great lately, was terrible in the first game of this Phillies series (i.e. the one game the Yankees could have maybe won). Cashman will likely be adding at least two relievers, but in the meantime, it’s DARK, dudes. It’s bleak as fuck. Allen Winans HAS to go down, but I don’t even know who would come up to replace him?
It won’t be Clayton Beeter, who was officially traded away for Amer Rosario tonight. Getting a decent third baseman for a fucking middle reliever is obviously a worthwhile deal, but it still sucks that Beeter never turned into anything here.
Rosario will likely platoon with Ryan McMahon, which is good, except, well, they’re committed to McMahon for TWO SEASONS after this one, and they already don’t think he can start against lefties? THAT ain’t good. The other interesting thing is that with Rosario on the team, do they NOT call up another outfielder or is this it for Oswald Peraza as a Yankee? I imagine Rosario will serve as the fifth outfielder until the trade deadline, as I bet Cash is trying to find a place to dump Peraza ahead of his impending DFA.
Winans was sent down, and the trash heap carousel continues. I guess Sandridge gets another shot? Headrick? They’re all so terrible.
Luckily, the rest of the American League fucking sucks, too. The Blue Jays are, like, the only team playing well right now in the entire fucking league. So the Yankees can still make the playoffs. It’ll be very close, though, as they’re effectively tied with three other teams (the Mariners, the Rangers, and the Red Sox). The Yankees’ chances will likely turn on whether their two All-Star starters, Max Fried and Carlos Rodon, go back to pitching like All-Stars.
They probably won’t, though.
The featured image is Marcus Stroman walking the #9 hitter with the bases loaded and one out to drive in a run (after previously walking the #8 hitter to load the bases).