From Matthew Ritchie:
Max Fried was among the last people to find out that he’d be starting Game 2 of the Yankees’ doubleheader on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. Manager Aaron Boone said the deliberations on the club’s pitching plan started on Tuesday when that evening’s game was rained out, with an interesting rotation crunch lying ahead for the weekend set in Philadelphia.
Boone, bench coach Brad Ausmus and the pitching-coach triumvirate led by Matt Blake first met, then came the talk with the trainers to get their opinion on Fried’s readiness to return fully (as he was also slated to throw on Wednesday, regardless). With the trainers’ go-ahead, Boone and the rest of the coaching staff brought Fried in when the lefty arrived at the ballpark to present their plan to him.
And according to Boone, Fried needed little convincing to be on board.
“Max walked in and was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Boone said.
It’s no wonder why Fried was raring to get back onto a Major League mound. In his return against the Pirates, he was stellar, despite being on a pitch count due to still building back up from his left elbow bone bruise. He tossed five scoreless innings and struck out seven batters, allowing just one hit and one walk — creating a runway for the Yankees’ 2-0 win in the finale. He threw 57 pitches, with 37 of them going for strikes, and produced 10 swings and misses.
57 pitches is, like, two innings for the other Yankees starters, so this really was a remarkable achievement by Fried!
Anyhow, this has been a nice stretch of pitching by the Yankee pitching staff against a few VERY good offenses. They’ve taken on literally the three best offenses in baseball in the last nine games and got their asses kicked once, and that one ass-kicking was due to two relievers that I don’t think will throw a single pitch in a theoretical playoff game for this team.
Annoyingly, they are going to head to Chicago next eek to take on the FOURTH best offense next week AND the EIGHTH best offense. So their pitchers will continue to be tested. It’s notable that the Yankees offense has fallen all the way to tenth in the Majors due to their horrendous slump following Aaron Judge’s injury.
Thank goodness for the pitching! The bullpen has a 2.72 ERA in the last 42 games, and that’s WITH Jake Bird and Camilo Doval shitting up the joint whenever they pitch!
I still can’t quite figure out what the deal is with Fernando Cruz and extra innings. He just completely loses it whenever he is asked to pitch in extras. Boone should probably, well, you know, stop using him in those scenarios. I get that you want Headrick in regulation time, so use Blackburn next time, Boone! Blackburn has looked outstanding. He was huge in this one, pitching around some terrible defense behind him. Volpe got a big hit in this one, but he also played some truly awful defense, and Jazz made a horrendous play to end the game that shouldn’t have ended the game (I have no idea how replay didn’t overturn the call).
But hey, they won the series, so this was ultimately a good result for the Yankees. Too bad Tampa Bay swept the Blue Jays. Fucking Blue Jays.
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I’ve said it before. If Billy Martin was managing this team, we’d be reading Jazz’ obituary today.
He’d be buried next to Volpe
Fried was terrific. Hopefully, he will stay healthy now.
From Katie S —
Paul Blackburn now has 9 games with at least 1 1/3 IP and 0 hits allowed.
That’s tied for the most among AL pitchers.
I’m still kind of irked at how many games were lost earlier in the season due to Boone clearly not trusting Blackburn at ALL.
There’s a reason why Cashman resigned the guy, and Boone treated it like he was just an almost last ditch option (Winquest being the literal last ditch).
(By “how many,” it’s probably only, like, two, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but that’s two too many!)
I think a lot of the Yankees plans for the trade deadline really turn on whether they think Jazz can play third base. If he can, like he did in 2024, I really think they make a deal for Arraez. I imagine McMahon comes in for defense in that scenario. Heck, they might even just say fuck it, and play McMahon at short. How would that look?
Arraez 2B
Rice DH
Goldy 1B
Bellinger LF
Grisham CF
Dominguez RF
Jazz 3B
McMahon SS
Wells C
It DOES improve things. Now, if you add Tyler Stephenson for the #9 hole, that works, too. Stephenson has been very hot lately. Batting over .300 since May. And he’s a righthanded hitter.
I think McMahon has the range to play shortstop. Then, late in the game, you bring in Cabby for Arraez or Jazz, and move McMahon to third.
mcmahon has looked pretty good at the plate lately. i don’t think i will ever really trust jazz on either side of the ball. since re-signing him is out, maybe it makes sense to throw him back to left and let belli play center if they pick up luis.
in this scenario grish is gone to someone who wants an outfielder lefty bat. but the way they’ve looked the last month, i am not sure who is interested in taking replacement level bits and bobs off of cash’s hands.
but volpe in the minors and cabby as speed off the bench with jones and lombard at least sounds fun.
third crappiest offense in the past 25 years or so?
I agree that McMahon has looked good at the plate lately, that’s why I’d try to see if he could stick as the shortstop for the rest of the season. Lombard can take over next season as McMahon moves back to third and maybe the resign Arraez (as Jazz is obviously gone no matter what).
Grisham has the 4th best OPS+ on the team among their regulars (and the second-best is Goldy, who I think we all assume will eventually flake out), so I don’t think there’s any chance they don’t ride him for the rest of the season.
Nice of the Blue Jays to do SOMEthing against Tampa Bay.
Intriguing guy at Somerset.
LHP Xavier Rivas (W, 5-4): 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, HR 4.02 ERA (69.1 IP, 43 H, 34 R, 31 ER, 13 HR, 35 BB, 101 K). June/July: 1.43 ERA (37.2 IP, 14 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 4 HR, 10 BB, 53 K
https://tomkosensky.com/2026/07/23/yankees-milb-7-23-xavier-rivas-is-rolling/
I think there’s a good chance they move one of phenom/Cabby/Rosario and if he stays hot bring up Lombard like they did Cano for Woemack. Cano was 22, Lombard is 21.
The Yankees were five games under .500 when they made that Cano move. I don’t disagree that Lombard might hit his way on to this team (and I would love it), but I don’t think that’ll be before September.
That’s true but it was also the beginning of May, we’re now 80% thru July.
Ahhh…a blast from the past Tony Woe-Mack. He got a big hit off Mariano in Game 7 2001WS and cashman got the hots for him. That 2004-05 offseason was one brilliant move after another, woemack, plus Jared Wright another guy he fell for, because he beat the Yanks in the 97 DS for Cleveland. He also got Randy Johnson (one year too late to save them from the 2004 debacle), signed Carl Pavano (American Idle), held on to Kevin Brown…if not for Aaron Small coming out of nowhere (career 1.6 WAR but had a 2.7 WAR in 2005!) and a world class MVP 9 WAR Arod, they don’t even make the playoffs.
St Louis beat the Yankees 4-3 in the 1964 World Series. The Yankees fired Yogi who had a 99-63 record that year and hired Johnny Keane who managed St Louis. The Yankees finished 1965 77-85.
Over the last 30 days the Yankees are Dead Last not just in BA but OBP also. For years a high OBP was a hallmark of Yankee teams. Seems to me that’s also on Cash for constructing this team and Boone/Rowson for hitters approach at the plate.
We’re also 28th in runs and OPS over the same period.
Baseball is a game of situations. Every spot in the lineup comes up at least three times a game, each of those at-bats potentially calling for a different approach – different score, outs, baserunners, even a different pitcher with different stuff – and you have to be ready to adapt from at-bat to at-bat, even from pitch to pitch. To teach a one-size-fits-all approach to hitting, even if you cater it to the individual hitter, is stupid. Much better to teach everyone to be ready for any situation, and to be able to adjust that mid-at-bat. And most importantly, the hitters have to learn what situation calls for which strategy. This is shit that should be learned in Little League, and if somehow your players haven’t learned it by the time they’re in MLB (as seems to be the case these days), then you have to hire coaches and managers who are willing to teach and insist upon it. More Girardis, fewer Boones.
VJ for President.
Or at least the person who runs this team.
The left mashers. I’m surprised Luzardo didn’t fake an injury.
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B LM
B Rice (L) DH
A Rosario (R) 3B LM
C Bellinger (L) LF
J Domínguez (S) RF
A Volpe (R) SS LM
T Grisham (L) CF
J Caballero (R) 2B
A Sánchez (R) C LM
There’s still time.
Nine pitches, three outs. Yankees hitters at work.
That’s as much Boone on Rowson as the hitters. Last in OBP last 30 days is unacceptable.
I thought it was a 645 start.
Offense thinks it’s a rainout.
phenom just had to swing at the first pitch. He had to.
i am ready for Lombard
2026 sortables on fangraphs has trent at 6th for wrc+. not sure who else they have to sell but they should really look at doing subtraction as well as addition.
rice
judge
shoe
goldy
cody
trent
A run PGold
i’d like to see jd steal one here
since his power has disappeared maybe he can flash the speed?
There’s no reason for his power to have disappeared. I blame the coaches and Boone.
Need a walk or HBP
Three pathetic ABs 1st and second no and one out, bases loaded two out.
I’m not quite sure what value Rosario is bringing to this team now.
Schlittler is demanding a trade to a major league team or he’ll sit out the rest of the season.
Don’t swing at ball phenom.
Grisham first pitch swinging against a pitcher whose pitch count is over 100. I think that’s three first pitch outs for Grisham. Is he pissed that he’s hitting behind phenom?
Literally every pitcher not in the National’s pen has dominated the Yankees.
Gonna get beat by one of those cheesy HBPs and a far worse than WOE offense
Other team’s garbage gets hits. Not ours.
Great job Headrick. Fnfuckingtabulous pitching Schlittler. Good arms Cody and The Martian. Why are the Yankees using their low A team hitters in this game.
Alvarado with a 6+ era. Add on please.
What in the living fuck are the Phillies wearing? Is there an adult in the room when they come up with these alternates? They look like dogshit.
This swim to Cambodia has been invigorating.
So good in left.
Some game. One of the more exciting.games of the season. Now I need to take a shower and get the river smell off.
Cam Terrific.
Two terrific starts in a row, and they scored 3 total runs but managed to win both games.
Katie S Brent Headrick has 44 scoreless appearances this season. That’s the most in MLB.
https://tomkosensky.com/2026/07/24/yankees-milb-7-24-jack-cebert-tosses-5-scoreless-innings/
It takes a shutout with this offense. Goldschmidt lucked into one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the last HR of his career.
David Ortiz OPSed over 1000 at age 40, so with proper sleep and nutrition maybe Goldschmidt can OPS 800+ until age 40.
Dax Kilby Yankee #2 prospect, after rehabbing in the FCL, made his debut at Tampa going 1-3 with a double and 2 walks. Kilby age 18 last year hit 353 in his rookie year.
Crazy if you think about it.
The Yankees have the fourth best record in baseball.
…and how much of that is due to Brent Headrick?
And what would it be if they didn’t use Jake Bird and Camilo Doval as much!