April 16, 2025

131 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Schmidt (shoulder) scratched as Yanks’ pitching woes mount”

  3. If he doesn’t get tested, he can’t be diagnosed with anything bad. Pretty smart move. They shouldn’t have sent Cole for tests either. they’d still be the favorites to win the AL.

    1. The night they reported Cole needed an MRI, DraftKings was slow to move their line and had Un 91.5 (at even money — not even laying -115!) up until sometime early Saturday morning.

  9. Okay, as of right this second, it sounds like they’re going to be doing a bench of:

    Escarra
    Peraza
    Grisham
    LeMahieu

    with Rice the starting DH, likely platooning with Judge (and Grisham playing center on days Judge DHs). Rice might also be used to give Goldy off days, and it’s possssssssible that Rice will catch the occasional game.

    With maybe Dom Smith starting the season in the minors? And Jorbit filling in until DJ returns from IL.

  11. Curry: With the way Boone has raved about Carrasco’s swing and miss stuff, indications are that Carrasco is likely to be in the rotation. He has an opt out on March 22. I see these two sides staying together. Yanks need rotation depth so it would be unwise to lose Carrasco

    1. 11ip / 12k

      i try not to get excited about spring but it would be (not?) crazy if non roster way past prime carrasco outperforms our super gms pickup of stroman.

    3. i do wish they could at least make these guys prove it in AAA before adding them back to the roster and clogging a spot.

    1. I was really uncomfortable with last year’s health. It’s like they were cheating.
      This is much more what I’ve come to expect from the Yankees over the last 10 STs or so.
      If they win now (hahahahahaha) it would count!

    2. I suspect Eric Cressey doesn’t mention his association with the Yankees in any of his brochures.

  16. How many WS teams have 2 starters as FAs that go unsigned the following year?

    Just crazy that they were running out Rizzo and Verdugo last fall.

    1. Interestingly, the last time the Yankees won the World Series, they moved on from two guys from that World Series-winning lineup, including the World Series MVP!

    2. I’d sign 2025 Matsui before Verdugo. Or, unfortunately, Rizzo.
      And if they’re seriously talking about DH’ing Lemahieu, I’d start 2025 Matsui over him too.

      If not as a player, they could pay Matsui to come back as a coach. Players could learn something from his focus and commitment to improvement. Even today, he’s always watching video, practicing his stroke.

  17. When your enemies praise you:

    Alex Cora on Aaron Boone: “That guy over there, man, gets a lot of shit from people but he’s one of the best.”

  19. ” Brendan Kuty of The Athletic reports that Verdugo has yet to receive a formal major league offer from any team since becoming a free agent back in November.”–MLBTR

    1. Wait, so A is connected to B… how, exactly? (I’m sure that’s your point, but… what?!)

    2. Exactly. It’s so fucking stupid, just so they can bring up the Yankees’ Game 5 fuckups again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone make such a big deal out of error fuckups in a series a team lost 4-1.

    3. i can’t find splits for spring but jomboy was saying that he hasn’t had a single pa from the right side this spring.

  22. The more I think about it, the more I think that Cash is going to end up dealing Peraza. It just makes too much sense. He’s basically wasted here, but he’s a good enough defender that he could legit start for a number of ballclubs just based on his defense alone. He could start for the Pirates, White Sox, and possibly the Marlins (they have Xavier Edwards at short, but Otto Lopez isn’t exactly a lock at second base).

    So it just makes too much sense to trade him for a righthanded hitter who could play in the outfield (basically a pinch-hitter who could remain in the game in the outfield).

    2. I’m a little skeptical he has much value. Don’t all teams have a guy who’s a defensive whiz in the minors somewhere?

    3. What am I missing so I can get in on the Peraza hate, he’s one of the guys I’m excited to see.

      A strong defensive year from a 25 year old stud is a huge asset in itself. He has hit homers in the past and he takes walks. I know he’s probably going to wash out at the plate, but I’d rather give him 300 at bats than Cabrera.

      His trade value is limited, 3B is a black hole, and we know who Cabrera is.

    4. as someone who was previously high on peraza, i think he’s just blown his shot. the bat hasn’t played yet and cabrera doesn’t look bad at third.

      i won’t be surprised if he puts it together somewhere but hitting beyond a 400ops this march would have been a good place to start.

  23. MLBTR Carrasco: He’s posted solid results despite shaky command this spring, holding opponents to three runs in 11 innings and punching out 12 of the 46 men he’s faced (26.1%). Carrasco has also issued six walks and plunked three batters, however, so he perhaps hasn’t been quite as sharp as his 2.45 ERA might appear to indicate.

  24. Fangraphs on Jazz Chisholm:

    The Yankees shocked the world last summer by acquiring Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. and immediately moving him to third base, a position he’d never played before. It quickly proved to be a master stroke, as Chisholm more than held his own at the hot corner while posting a 132 wRC+ with 11 home runs and 18 stolen bases in just 46 regular-season games in pinstripes.

    Eight months after that trade, Chisholm is starting his first full season with the Yankees… at second base. Chisholm’s third position change in 24 months brings him right back where he started. Assuming he hasn’t forgotten how to play the position, Chisholm figures to provide a rare combination of power and speed (he hit 24 homers and stole 40 bases in total last year) at an up-the-middle position. With Juan Soto off across town and Giancarlo Stanton on the IL with bilateral elbow tendinitis, Chisholm is now the Yankees’ second-best hitter instead of their fourth-best. He’s probably stretched a little too far carrying that much of the offensive burden, but that’s not his fault. If Chisholm plays like he did last year, he’s absolutely a top-five player in the majors at his position. Building the rest of the lineup is someone else’s job.

    1. Jazz at 2nd is a must. It means maximizing your assets. Of course, if they actually HAD any kind of asset at 3rd, the right move here would be more obviously right.

    1. It was just a matter of time. He was a liberal Republican and a supporter of Nelson Rockefeller. I mean the Enola Gay? Come on. I predict in 2026 MLB we’ll replace Jackie Robinson day with Pete Rose 14 day.

  29. DHing for The Yankees in the split squad game Braden Shewmake. Could he be the answer to Stanton’s elbows. Looking for to the classic matchup in the 2nd or 3rd Braden Shewmake vs
    Spencer Schwellen

  30. Rice has his 6 or 7 hardest hit balls this spring training, so he certainly went to work in the off season working on strength, bat speed.

    Now if he can only keep it up when the bell rings, and adjust when they adjust to him (looking at you, Volpe).

  32. My uncle passed away today. While he wasn’t the REASON I became a Yankee fan, he was a lifelong Yankee fan, and so it was certainly a good experience growing up with an uncle who was so into the Yankees, and even when he was in pretty bad shape in recent months, he still wanted to talk about the various deals this offseason. My aunt is asking everyone attending his wake on Monday to wear their Yankee caps if they have them. I bought one for my wife because I find it amusing to see her actually wearing a Yankees cap.

    Of course, the tragically ironic thing of being a Yankees fan is that he died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, like my mom and my aunt (and yes, that means I might be fucked in the future, as well).

    3. Wow Brian. That’s rough. I’m glad you have those good memories of him, and I’m sending every good thought to you and your family.

    10. So sorry for your loss, Brian. It sounds like your uncle loved you, and he loved talking Yankees with you too. Hope those memories can sustain you in the days, weeks, months ahead. And hope you will have many years of good health ahead of you, and plenty of time to talk Yankees with young ones in your family too.

  34. Annoyingly, it sounds like the Yankees might have to put Schmidt on the IL because he’s unlikely to be ready for April 3 due to a lack of ramping up time.

    I assume it just means one missed start, but it’s still annoying.

  36. Bizarrely, the Reds decided to EXTEND Trevy for two more seasons after this one, for $5.5 million in each season, and then a team option for a third year. That’s hilarious to me. I mean, if he re-learns how to throw people out, Trevy is useful, but that’s a big if!

    1. It’s not unheard of to find answers in Jesus, and there are even some apocryphal texts that some scholars argue may describe Jesus’s performance at third base. (For instance, the gospel of Philip, in which Mary Magdalene features prominently.)

    2. Veggie, it’s best to use Our Lord in relief, as it’s well known that Jesus saves.

    4. Well played, UJD. “Use Our Lord in relief” indeed.

      … and yes, Jesus saves; but if Mo were still available, Jesus would still make a pretty good 8th inning guy.

    5. At first base, Ben Rice, a catcher! At third base, Jesus Rodriguez, a catcher! At DH, Austin Wells, a catcher! And then Escarra actually catching.

    5. I will say one thing for this team. It has more young players with at least the potential to break out and become impact players (not seen as clearly supporting cast players) than it’s had in ages – Wells, Volpe, Dominguez and Rice unquestionably count here. As younger players’ statistical projections logically have to have a wider range between their 50% and 0%/100% projections, that should give the team as a whole a greater chance of outperforming its projection.

    6. Line setting is pretty complicated. Different books will tend to be the first ones to define the market on a sport-by-sport basis. Circa Sports, for example, is the accepted market opener for college football. They’re also very sharp for baseball, but it might be a tossup between them and the Westgate for MLB season win totals who gets there first.

      But usually it’s the offshore places in the caribbean that set a lot of the initial markets for like a regular day of NBA or NFL or whatever. Pinnacle is the go-to for NFL, Bookmaker is a little stronger on NBA.

      The big retail apps usually don’t set any lines themselves first. They just copy from the real-deal bookmakers.

      Of course all that changes once it’s all open for betting, depending on who’s betting where. FanDuel gets a lot of sharp action on college hoops, so when their lines move you tend to give that a little more credence. Definitely not the case for everything. But some books like Caesars or MGM are just hopeless. You don’t bet off their information.

  39. 1:00pm: Smith is opting out, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. He was scratched from today’s lineup, so it doesn’t seem as though the Yankees plan on selecting his contract.

    I’m a little surprised.

    1. I’m pleasantly surprised. There was no way that he was going to be worth a roster spot. Rice also made him SUPER redundant.

      I think they might like Pablo Reyes’ positional versatility.

  41. Wells with a leadoff home run. Might Andrew Velasquez make the team? He hit 16 home runs in the minors last year after switching to a heavy bat. Is Pereira still in their plans depending on how he does at Scranton?

    1. There’s a guy who changed his image. Helluva right hand but bad fundamentals. My father had his grill and my wife still does.

    1. Would be bitterly funny if Wells, Volpe and Rice kicked ass the year Cole got hurt and Judge fell off a cliff.
      Not worried about Judge, of course.
      (Yet.)

    3. I mean, the Yankees just signed a 37 year old coming off a 1.3 WAR season to be their everyday first baseman. So I think they’ll be patient with Judge’s MLB learning curve, especially on defense.

  47. Also, anyone read Alonso’s pitch-by-pitch analysis of the AB that led to that playoff home run? Couldn’t hurt to get Williams one more pitch, one that would be less predictable in that situation – he’d be ridiculous (okay, even more ridiculous).

  50. From the LA Times: “Plaschke: If Dodgers want to be a dynasty, they must win the World Series again”

    Bill Plaschke is the dumbest motherfucker in all sportswriting and that’s a high bar to clear

  52. If Bellinger hits for a 1.124 OPS, and Goldie for 1.003, and Wells for 1.263, and Rice for .880, Escara at .936, and even Dominguez down to .796 and Volpe at 744, even Cabrera at .709 – well, damn, with that they might be able to survive even Judge at .540.

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