1. I finished the most recent Thoughts with this:
The Yankees and Mariners always play weird, tight, low-scoring games, especially in Seattle, and I’m expecting the same over the next three days.
And that’s what we got on Monday night in the series opener as the Yankees lost a 2-1 game in walk-off fashion.
2. I also wrote this in the most recent Thoughts:
It’s hard to believe I could feel any better about the Yankees after their season-opening series than I do right now. Three games, three wins and one run allowed to begin the season is about as good as anyone could ask for.
What I should have written was “It’s hard to believe I could feel any better about the Yankees’ pitching” because that’s really what I feel. I feel good about the pitching, not the ‘Run It Back’ offense. Aside from one surprising inning on Opening Day when the Yankees ambushed Logan Webb with first-pitch swings, the ‘Run It Back’ offense has been doing ‘Run It Back’ offense things with seven runs over the last three games. (I’m sure they will have a one-game explosion soon to prop up their run differential.)
Giancarlo Stanton had a double and single, Aaron Judge and Jose Caballero each had a single and a walk and Ben Rice had a single and that was the entire Yankees’ offense. Trent Grisham went 0-for-4. Cody Bellinger went 0-for-4. Jazz Chisholm went 0-for-4. Austin Wells went 0-for-3 and Ryan McMahon went 0-for-2. The $22 million qualifying offer, the big free-agent signing, the man who says he can have a 50/50 season, the catcher who made the all-World Baseball Classic team and the guy who supposedly changed his swing have all somewhat struggled to open the season.
3. Again, it’s not “just” four games. This season is a continuation of last season because the roster and lineup are the same. So Wells and McMahon sucking doesn’t qualify for “give them time” because they sucked last year and were both below league average. I’m not worried about Wells and McMahon because I expect nothing from them offensively. I’m the least worried about Bellinger because he has the career track record of being very good (though there is precedent for him completely falling off like he did in 2021 and 2022). I’m very worried about Grisham and was all winter because the back of his baseball card is the ultimate ‘One of These Seasons Doesn’t Look Like Any Other’ and because if he does suck he will continue to bat leadoff and start for months before he’s removed from his spot atop the lineup or his starting outfield spot. I’m also worried about Chisholm because anyone who claims they want to have a 50/50 season when their name isn’t Shohei Ohtani or Ronald Acuna is going to do things at the plate they shouldn’t do to try to reach that goal. Chisholm already had a habit of swinging for the fences in counts and situations he shouldn’t and now with the 50/50 proclamation in his head, he will likely do it even more than he already does. Add in the pressure of being an impending free agent and supposedly wanting to get paid $35 million per year on an eight-plus-year deal, and well, yeah, there’s a lot to be worried about with Chisholm.
4. Aaron Boone went away from his lefty-righty alternation with his linuep and tried to stack lefties together against Luis Castillo, who always pitches well against the Yankees, especially since they chose to not trade for him in 2022 and instead traded for Frankie Montas. Boone’s construction didn’t work, Castillo was able to throw six scoreless innings and then when Seattle when to the bullpen, they had beautiful lefty lanes built for them to breeze through.
5. After having a rather easy series and needing to make pretty much zero difficult decisions in San Francisco, Boone was more involved in Monday’s one-run game, and Yankees fans were reminded why they fare so poorly in one-run games with Boone at the helm. Boone chose to let Paul Blackburn pitch a second inning on Monday and inevitably the Mariners walked off the Yankees in that second inning of work.
“I liked him through the bottom of the order there,” Boone said. “They found a couple of holes and beat us.”
Blackburn was allowed to face Brendan Donovan and Cal Raleigh in the ninth. Donovan was batting first in the lineup and Raleigh pinch hit in the 2-hole. Not exactly the bottom of the order, Boone. So if Boone liked Blackburn against 5-6-7 in the eighth and then 8-9 in the ninth, OK. But once the lineup turned over to actual hitters he should have removed him.
6. Or maybe he could have used Camilo Doval for more than two pitches? Boone claims he didn’t want Doval to sit after ending the seventh and then get back up to pitch in the eighth, but he is OK with him doing that exact thing later in the season … after Doval has thrown hundreds of pitches and didn’t just have five-plus months off.
“I’m sure eventually he’ll have plenty of two-ups,” Boone said. Eventually, just not on Monday, two days after Judge mentioned how important every game is after the 2025 season was ruined by the Yankees not valuing every game with equal importance.
7. Knowing Ryan Weathers is a hard-throwing lefty trying to make a strong first impression in his Yankees debut, it made sense he would open the game overthrowing and having trouble throwing strikes.
“I definitely want to be more efficient and be in the zone a little bit more,” Weathers said. “I don’t want to hang my hat on 4 1/3 innings. I want to get deeper into the ballgame, and a lot of that comes from managing the pitch count myself and not falling behind in counts.”
8. Weathers gave 4 1/3 innings after Will Warren gave the same on Saturday. For two guys pitching for rotation spots once Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole return, that little of length even with minimal damage isn’t going to cut it. Add in Luis Gil who will have a chip on his shoulder once he gets called up as the fifth starter, and Warren, Weathers and Gil will also be competing for one available rotation spot. (That is if everyone else stays healthy).
But for as erratic as Weathers was at times, he still only allowed one run over 4 1/3 innings. The offense provided one run on five hits, and they only scored the one run because the sacrifice fly opportunity that scored the run was created from a wild pitch.
9. There were two huge potentially big moments early in the game both involving Grisham and Caballero. The first came in the third inning when Caballero walked with one out following two successful ABS challenges. Grisham came up and didn’t give last season’s league leaders in steals a chance to go because he got a first-pitch, middle-middle fastball. But rather than hit it into the seats or in a gap, Grisham grounded out and erased Caballero on the bases. The next situation with these two came in the fifth. Caballero reached on an infield “single” with two outs in the inning and the Yankees still trailing 1-0. He could potentially steal and get driven in by Grisham or he could stay on first and see if Grisham could hit his first home run of 2026. Instead, Caballero got picked off of first with too much of a lead. Caballero on base with the lineup turning over is supposed to create offense, not destroy it.
10. Three of the six games the Yankees and Mariners played last year were one-run games and so was Monday’s. With Max Fried and Logan Gilbert going on Tuesday, it would be the least surprising result of all time if another one-run game took place. With the way the Yankees have looked offensively since Webb was removed on Opening Day, the confidence level is low that they will break out against a starter who averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 25 starts last season in a place where they seem to struggle to score runs.
