It has not even been three weeks of play in the regular season, but …
• Have you noticed … the lack of joy surrounding the Yankees? The lack of wins, hits and runs is obviously not going to make the group the desire to break out in a match of Twister. But even in the good moments, there is a muted quality.
The days when Aaron Judge lifted Ronald Torreyes or “Savages in the batter’s box” felt like a different generation. The word that continues to resonate with me is ‘obsolete’, as if there was a fresh date that has expired on this core. Maybe a bunch of homers will change that or clear up an incident of banks like in early 2018 on Fenway, when it looks like it’s wake a sleepwalking team up to 100 wins.
In 2004, the then Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein, noticed such a flair with a close-knit but non-cigar group and became convinced that a lack of defense and athletics would not let the team win. He responded by trading the face of the franchise, Nomar Garciaparra, by the July deadline for several better defenses. And Boston won a championship.
Eventually, will Brian Cashman have to make the same decision about this team and in July shake up the inertia and address defense and athletics by trading an Aaron Judge or Gleyber Torres, for example?
• Did you notice … that Garrett Whitlock, in four relay performances, ruled out the equivalent of a full game: nine overs, three strokes, no runs, no runs, 11 strokes? He did it for the Red Sox. After they took him to the Rule 5 draft last December. From the Yankees.
Whitlock was eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft after four pro seasons if the Yankees did not place him in their 40s after last season. Deciding whether to do so is a combination of art and science, as a team tries not only to find out who can be selected, but if the player has the skills to stay in a major league all year round , because if not, he must be offered back to the original club. And with schedules going from 25 to 26 this year, it’s a little easier to keep a Rule 5 choice.
The Yanks’ slight league strength was legitimate (they also lost Trevor Stephan to the Indians) and could not protect them all. But will they regret protecting Albert Abreu or Brooks Kriske over Whitlock, for example? It’s early, but in a text exchange, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Whitlock that he “has been attacking the strike zone with pleasure attacks since Day 1 in Fort Myers and his change is a weapon.” Cora praised Whitlock as a ‘tremendous person who works hard at his trade and asks questions and listens to veterans’, referring to Matt Andriese, Nathan Eovaldi and Adam Ottavino.
The plan is that Whitlock will eventually become an appetizer, but probably not this year.
• Did you notice … that the Yankees called Mike Ford again, this time to replace Jay Bruce? When I first treated the Yankees as a beat writer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was an illogical idea for many of the moves made, often fueled by George Steinbrenner’s drive and the split order between New York and Tampa.
With those clubs, it was not the case that A-plus-B would not be equal to C; often it feels as if it is not even another letter; A-plus-B can be equal to a ham sandwich. The club may need a shortstop and have the assets to land a shortstop, and they will add another DH type. Boy, did they love DH types? One Ken Phelps after another Mel Hall followed by a Steve Balboni.
By the way, at Ford, how many DH types do these 2021 Yankees have? Hy, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Rougned Odor …
On the one hand, you can say the Yanks lost a left first player with Bruce’s retirement, Ford gives them another left first player and will only spend time until Luke Voit returns – another DH, for what it’s worth . Got this. But it also gives them another tough non-defender.
Here’s a question: what will help this roster win more races: Ford or Kyle Holder? All signs are that Holder, the Yanks’ first-round pick in 2015, will never be able to hit like a big league. But he can play well at three field positions. Would it sometimes be more helpful to get Odor or Torres in the defense than four Ford bats? That would force the Yanks to use Bruce’s 40s position to get Holder on, and the Yanks would eventually need those spots for Zack Britton and Luis Severino to return from the 60-day IL. The choice is therefore not an essay.
Container – like Whitlock and Stephan – was also included in the Rule 5 draft, but is back to the Yankees.
• Did you notice … that Stanton has the hardest hit ball of 2021? It was a single 120 km / h from the Jordan Romano in Toronto on April 13th. No surprise there. Statcast began monitoring exit speeds in 2015 and in each of the seven seasons, Stanton had the ball hit the hardest. That includes 2019-20 when he appeared in just 41 games combined.
There’s no doubt that when Stanton squares a pitch, it’s often a ‘wow’ moment. But in many ways it’s the Yankee series – you’ll find Judge and Gary Sanchez, for example, getting the best out of speed and distance on homers. Stanton has the furthest or second furthest homer hit from 2018-21.
But the idea is not to win precious stuffed animals for speed or distance, but baseball games. Hitting the ball hard is of course valuable – the harder it is, the more likely it is to find a place for a hit. However, too often it feels as if the exchange rate for especially Stanton and Sanchez ‘wow’ moments has been alternated with too many meaningless bats. It reflects a Yankee series that, even at best, would be described as dangerous, but not full of good hits.