From Bryan Hoch:
It had been 638 days since the Yankees last set foot inside Tropicana Field, having played the role of good neighbors by yielding the keys to their spring ballpark in Tampa as the Rays repaired hurricane damage, including a complete roof replacement.
Surveying a brighter but familiar Trop on Friday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the place looked “great,” and so did their early performance – a couple of first-inning runs that snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak, including an Amed Rosario triple that rolled to the left-field wall.
But despite Ben Rice launching the first pinch-hit homer of his young career, a change of scenery didn’t cure their offensive woes. Even under room-temperature conditions, the bats remained mostly chilled in a 5-3 loss to the Rays, New York’s third straight defeat.
In all seriousness, if you’re going to lose three games in a row, this is how you want to lose three games in a row. A 3-2 loss, a 1-0 loss, and now a 5-3 loss, with the final loss coming from your #5 starter who likely won’t even be in the Majors in a month (I suspect that the plan is to send Gil to the minors to work on transitioning into a short man. His stuff should play up REALLY well in the bullpen, and even his absurd pitch count won’t hurt you as much if he’s just pitching an inning at a time).
This offense simply cannot continue to suck THIS much. This same group of players led the league in home runs last season, and now only one of them can hit any home runs. That will likely not continue. This same group of players led the league in OPS last season, and currently can’t hit their way out of a paper bag. That will likely not continue.
Even if you think the lineup will have a dropoff from last season, which is a fair concern, they shouldn’t be dropping THIS much off. Meanwhile, their pitching could legitimately be this good, if not BETTER, since soon Gil will be replaced by Rodon, and Cole will be replacing whichever one of Warren and Weathers is doing worse (I know the argument is that you keep Warren in the rotation since Weathers already has experience out of the bullpen, but after Weathers’ last start, if he can pitch even CLOSE to that level, how do you send him to the bullpen? I’d sooner just send Warren to the minors to see if HE can transition into a reliever on a short term basis).
The Yankees really have to start considering letting Rice catch when they play lefties. Keeps his bat in the lineup while bringing Goldy in there.
I am not really all that concerned about Judge, Belli, Grisham (he pissed me off last night, of course, but dude has had two at-bats over the last two games. He had a good game the last time he started a game), or even Jazz, but
I am VERY concerned about Austin Wells, and Randall Grichuk so far is definitely not beating the “he’s washed up” charges. It’s only 10 at-bats for Grichuk, though (maybe 9?), so I can’t write him off just yet, but I am so fucking close to writing him off.
I’ve already written McMahon off, to the point where they really should just start Rosario, and let McMahon try to work his way back into the lineup. Cabby is as Cabby does. He’s only a fill-in until Volpe gets back. His best use on the team might legitimately be as a pinch-runner when Volpe gets back. His speed is a game-changer out there.
Some people are calling for The Martian, but he would be pointless sitting on the bench here. Let him keep working on his defense every day in the Minors, and then hopefully he’ll be awesome next season (or he will hit SO well that he forces his way on to the lineup in place of Grisham. That’s fine, too).
Featured image is the first inning before Gil gave up the home run. I just wanted to spotlight his absurd pitch counts, and the runner on first after he walked him following a 1-2 start.
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1.) I’m even more worried about the Martian’s hitting as I am about his fielding. Having him pan out as another cheap but mediocre option is not a win in my book. If that injury means that the real Martian had one one-month stint in the majors, if it was even that long – well, that just sucks on an indescribable level. Brian Taylor suckage.
2.) Why you’re not worried about Grisham I just can’t figure out. He’s had one good year hitting. We posited he’d be great in the field again, which would be a big deal, but the numbers apparently don’t back that up, and hitting less would be almost impossible. You’re going to say that underlying stats have totally convinced you that he’s likely to repeat his career year, despite the almost non-existent results? I mean, you MUST have some substantial degree of doubt. I, personally, think that if his defense doesn’t return to pre-injury levels, even his PRE-last year production may be a long shot.
3.) I don’t understand how they can NOT be panicking about Wells. He went from a stud we thought would be a line-up anchor for the next decade to a player who simply cannot hit at all. Pull him aside, send him to the minors, fix this, you can’t just run him out there to fail spectacularly until… until what?
4.) Didn’t the players vote Jazz the most overrated player in baseball? If it were “overrated by himself,” there wouldn’t be a contest. But he, too, could be SO much better than he is with a coaching staff that knew how to handle emotional players. With a hitting staff that knew how to help hitters hit better. They should trade him before he bottoms out if they’re unwilling to change the staff – they’ll need players who need no coaching, and that’s never going to be Jazz.
And his underlying numbers match last year’s numbers. Hence me not being worried about him. I worry when the underlying numbers look much worse than the previous year, which happens sometimes when a player has a fluky good year. When the underlying numbers look the same, then there isn’t cause for concern.
Josh Donaldson, for instance, saw a huge drop in his underlying numbers when he fell off a cliff here. THAT was concerning. This is not.
As for Jazz, the same coaches had him as basically the second best second baseman in the Majors last year. This is all on Jazz. He’s slumping, but the dude is a streaky hitter, so hopefully he goes on a GOOD streak soon.
Wells, I got nuthin’. He just lost the ability to hit in November 2024.
I’m not worried about Jazz. I am about Grisham. If he’s a 200 hitter with 15 home runs who takes walks which describes much of his career that’s a problem. And if he’s also far from outstanding in CF that’s a problem.
As for the Martian this is the year where we see who he is. Early in the season small sample he’s at 375/1065 with an OBP ~470.
Wells needs to be sent down.
George Lombard Jr. (@Yankees No. 1 Prospect) rips a hard hit double for his seventh XBH of the season.
109.7 mph off the bat 🔥
https://x.com/SOMPatriots/status/2043059303049834675
It sure would be nice if he was legit.