The Yankees could have won all five games over the weekend against the Mets. They could have also lost all five games. In actuality, they should have gone 4-1. They should have won every game except for the wild, five-run, seventh-inning comeback game they won. Prior to the series, I said I would sign up for a 2-3 weekend and I ended up lowering my expectations to 1-4. Thankfully, the Mets are abysmal and the Yankees’ “C” team, or maybe even their “D” team was able to win three of five against their cross-city rival.

Last season, I wrote the Off Day Dreaming blogs on every off day, but this season there aren’t many off days. There aren’t many games. So instead, I have decided to use the Off Day Dreaming format following each series. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each series this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. A couple weeks ago in an afternoon game against the Rays, Mike Tauchman was listed as the 3-hitter in the lineup. About 12 hours earlier the night before, Tauchman wasn’t allowed to bat in the bottom of the ninth and was pinch hit for by Miguel Andujar. Andujar struck out on three pitches and was sent down to the alternate site after the game. So Andujar was good enough to pinch hit for someone the Yankees feel can bat third in a lineup, but then following the pinch-hit at-bat wasn’t good enough to be on the Yankees.

Twice this season, Luis “Everyday” Avilan was allowed to pitch with the game on the line against the Rays, and both times he blew the game, and the Yankees lost. For the first month of the season, Avilan was good enough to either warm up or come into every game for the Yankees, but this past week he was released by the Yankees, apparently no longer good enough to be a Yankee.

On Sunday, when Michael King ran out of gas in the fourth inning against the Mets, Aaron Boone turned to Brooks Kriske for the final out of the inning. Kriske got the out and returned for the fifth. He was allowed to stay in to face Michael Conforto, J.D. Davis, Dominic Smith and Robinson Cano, and Cano hit a two-run home run off him. Boone stayed with Kriske after the home run to finish the fith and Kriske came back out for the sixth. He walked Wilson Ramos to lead off the inning and Boone still didn’t pull him. He then walked Andres Gimenez, and finally, Boone had seen enough. Or at least I thought he had. Boone walked to the mound, never signaled to the bullpen and talked with Kriske rather than pull him. Six pitches later, Kriske walked Brandon Nimmo to load the bases via walks with no outs. Then Boone decided to take him out. It was Boone’s Mona Lisa; the complete package of managerial incompetence. Kriske was allowed to pitch in a tie game and keep on pitching with the Yankees barely hanging on to a postseason spot, and then after the game, he was optioned back to the alternate site.

The Yankees continue to allow marginal players and pitchers to determine the outcome of their games only to then determine the players and pitchers aren’t good enough to be Yankees.

2. With each Yankees Thoughts I write, Aaron Boone seems to get worse as a manager. There has been no improvement for him managing the bullpen, which remains his biggest flaw, and the only true in-game decision making he needs to do. He is every bit as bad as he was for the last two years, and each game he manages to do something more ridiculous than he did the game before. He consistently fails to put his team in the best position to succeed by making inconsistent choices. As I have written before, these lines from Stanley Hudson to Michael Scott in The Office do a good job of explaining Boone:

Every day you do something stupider than the day before. And I think, “There’s no possible way he can top that.” But what do you do? You find a way, damnit, to top it! You are a professional idiot!

Boone is a professional idiot. He was wrongfully given the Yankees’ managerial job in the middle of a championship window with no managing or coaching experience, and he hasn’t gotten any better in what’s now Year 3. He remains a more challenging obstacle for his team than the Rays, Twins, A’s, Astros and Dodgers combined. The only way the Yankees are safe from Boone’s destructive decision making is if they score 10 runs in a game, and with their current lineup, that’s impossible.

3. The Yankees’ lineup continues to appear to be picked at random. Thankfully, DJ LeMahieu is back to give the leadoff spot stability, and the Yankees are 3-0 since he came back. Coincidence? No. LeMahieu is the Yankees’ best player and the team is 16-5 when he starts and 3-8 when he doesn’t. LeMahieu has hit safely in 20 of the 22 games he has played in (he had a pinch-hit single). He makes the lineup go even if it’s very hard to get this lineup to go right now with the bottom-third it has and because Boone feels the need to screw around with the middle third of it every day. LeMahieu is the most important defensive player on the team, and while I have long thought Aaron Judge to be the most important player on the Yankees, I think I have changed my mind to it being LeMahieu since you actually have to play in games to be the most important player on the team.

Luke Voit has been otherworldly in the 2-hole in Judge’s absence. The 3-hole has become Aaron Hicks’ and up until his game-tying, two-run home run off Edwin Diaz on Sunday, Hicks has done absolutely nothing to deserve being a Top 3 hitter, even with Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres all on the injured list. Hicks entered Sunday with one home run since July 29, and his on-base percentage which has always been his defenders’ only favorable argument had fallen to .343. But Hicks saved the first game on Sunday and prevented another miserable loss, and the Yankees won a game in which they had a 0.02 percent chance of winning in the seventh inning. It didn’t take long for the real Hicks to return, though, as he was pulled from the second game of the doubleheader with “cramping in both of his calves.” I guess there’s a reason why Hicks never plays both ends of a doubleheader and it’s because he can’t play more than nine innings of baseball on the same day. After the game, Boone was asked about the severity of Hicks’ injury and said, “I don’t think it’s serious at all,” and when Boone says that, it’s a guarantee the player will be placed on the injured list, if not worse.

4. It wouldn’t surprise me if Hicks is placed on the IL since that’s what he does: he gets hurt. I realize some (OK, maybe a lot) of my criticism of Hicks is unfair given his advanced metrics, but the criticism stems from his inability to stay healthy. As a Yankee, Hicks has played in 435 of a possible 680 regular-season games or 64 percent, and he has been on the injured list at least once in each of his first four seasons with the team with back, hamstring, oblique and elbow injuries, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others. If there’s a baseball-related injury, Hicks has had it. It wouldn’t be a baseball season without Hicks going on the IL, and after he was able to avoid a first-half stint if the season began on time in March for Tommy John surgery rehab, it was only a matter of time until he landed on a place he has called home for roughly one-third of his Yankees tenure. No, he hasn’t been placed on it yet, but it’s only a matter of time until he is.

5. I was more nervous for Gary Sanchez and his pinch-hit opportunity on Sunday night than Sanchez was. As President of the Gary Sanchez Fan Club, I finally caved and heavily criticized the struggling catcher, while maintaining my belief he will turn it around because he has to … right? When Sanchez stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and one out and the game tied at 1, I could envision the social media meltdown from another strikeout. My wife, who is a Sanchez critic, sat next to me pulling for Sanchez, though I knew she had no faith in his ability to come through since I didn’t even have any. She was just trying to be nice in the moment, waiting to write another one of her critical tweets about him. Once there were two strikes on Sanchez, I was prepared for the at-bat to end as a complete failure. Sanchez had been unsuccessful in putting Drew Smith’s fastball in play, so Smith tried once more to get Sanchez to swing through it, but instead, Sanchez channeled his 2016 self and sent the pitch deep into the New York night. A pinch-hit grand slam to give the Yankees a four-run, extra-inning lead.

Is this finally the hit to get Sanchez going? I thought it might be any of his other five home runs, but it wasn’t. I thought he might be coming alive when he homered in three straight games earlier this month, and those three games were followed by a 3-for-25 slide. Maybe Sunday night’s go-ahead grand slam will be the spot we look back at for when Sanchez’s season turned around. If it’s not, maybe he will never turn it around this season, a season in which he has yet to have a multi-hit game.

6. The Yankees nearly blew the four-run lead after Sanchez’s grand slam because Boone wouldn’t use Aroldis Chapman, deciding to stay with Jonathan Holder for a second inning. Chapman was unavailable because he had pitched two consecutive days. It didn’t matter to Boone that Chapman had thrown 25 pitches over the last 14 days or that he had thrown 45 pitches since being walked off against on Oct. 19, 2019 in Game 6 of the ALCS. Boone and the Yankees have their bullpen usage rules and no amount of pitches and no amount of importance on a game or situation will change their mind. Boone would have rather lost the game to the Mets and erased the momentum the team had built with two straight walk-off wins to end their seven-game losing streak than use Chapman for a third straight day. Ask Zack Britton, who’s on the injured list with a hamstring injury, or Tommy Kahnle, who’s out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, how not pitching on three consecutive days prevented them from getting hurt.

7. Tyler Wade hit a home run in the second game on Sunday for his first of the season and fourth of his career. On Saturday, Michael Kay said, “The only thing keeping Tyler Wade from regular work is that he has not hit.” Really? Is that all, Michael? The only thing that has kept him from being an everyday major leaguer is that he hasn’t been able to perform half of the game of baseball. The line from Kay reminded me of this exchange from The Mighty Ducks when Gordon Bombay find Fulton Reed taking slap shots in an alley way:

Gordon Bombay: Why don’t you play for us?

Fulton Reed: I can’t … I don’t know how to skate.

Gordon Bombay: Whoa! Is that all that’s stoppin’ ya?

Sure, Wade is extremely fast and a threat on the bases, but you have to actually get on base to be a threat on the bases. As long as he plays great defense while he has to be in the lineup, I don’t care if he goes 0-for-100, representing as close to an automatic out at the bottom of the order as you can have. I just can’t wait until he’s no longer needed to be an everyday player.

8. I think we are watching the final weeks of Brett Gardner’s career. I wanted the Yankees to sign Michael Brantley after 2018, and they instead brought back Gardner. He benefited from the super baseball in 2019, hitting a career-high 28 home runs, and got himself another contract with the Yankees. But now that the baseball has lost its unbelievable flight, Gardner is back to being the player he was in 2018 when he look finished and lost his starting job to Andrew McCutchen. Gardner entered Sunday with a .190/.325/.381 line and then went 0-for-5. He has two multi-hit games and two doubles this season and hasn’t homered since Aug. 3. No, power isn’t supposed to be his game, but it shows how last year was an anomaly and a clear product of the state of the ball. Gardner is still an elite defender, and maybe that’s enough for him to keep getting new contracts with the team. It shouldn’t be enough for him to block other outfield options from a path to playing time.

9. The trade deadline is Monday, and I’m OK with the Yankees doing nothing. There isn’t a game-changing starting pitcher available, and that’s all I would be interested in. Mike Clevinger isn’t that, and given his character following his night out in Chicago, I doubt that’s someone Brian Cashman would want on the team after being so concerned with the clubhouse culture for more than a decade now. And Lance Lynn certainly isn’t that. I don’t care about what he’s done since leaving the Yankees after 2018. There’s no point in trading just for the sake of trading and neither are going to swing a series in the Yankees’ favor. There’s a chance the Yankees found a potential front-end starter on Sunday in Deivi Garcia, and there’s a chance they have another one waiting for his turn in Scranton in Clark Schmidt. The Yankees shouldn’t have waited until now to find out what they have in the organization, but they did, and they should stand pat at this deadline.

10. Garcia became the first Yankees pitcher to pitch six innings and allow zero earned runs and zero walks in their debut. He was as good as advertised and his one start was better than any start Gerrit Cole, Masahiro Tanaka or Jordan Montgomery has had this season, and those three would currently be the Yankees’ postseason starters in order. Garcia doesn’t only deserve another start, he deserves to stay. He actually has ability, unlike most Yankees pitchers, and no matter what his role is, he is a better option that just about every Yankees pitcher.

After Garcia’s start, Boone was asked about his roster spot, and Boone said, “We’ll talk about that and get back to you.” It was comical, but also expected from a manager and a team that has no idea how to properly manage a roster as I depicted earlier in this blog with moves like Andujar, Avilan and Kriske. I wouldn’t be surprised if Garcia is optioned back to the alternate site while the Yankees continue to give J.A. Happ unlimited chances and let Michael King open games and let Ben Heller ruin games out of the bullpen. This is the same team that won’t bring up Schmidt to start because he isn’t on the 40-man roster, as if there isn’t a litany of names eligible to be designated for assignment on the current 40-man roster, and because of service time, as if they’re not the New York Yankees and capable of paying any free agent any amount of money. I would be disappointed and frustrated and embarrassed if Garcia were optioned, but that’s life as a 2020 Yankees fan. (Sure enough, Garcia was sent down to the alternate site. It better just be a technicality for the next four days until he’s needed as a starter again.)

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Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes after every game throughout the season.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

Six days ago, I wrote the Yankees Are Falling Apart. Well, they’re still falling. After getting swept in a doubleheader in Atlanta, the Yankees have now lost five straight and after Thursday’s off day, they will play five games in three days against the Mets with a roster representing a mid-March spring training game.

Last season, I wrote the Off Day Dreaming blogs on every off day, but this season there aren’t many off days. There aren’t many games. So instead, I have decided to use the Off Day Dreaming format following each series. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each series this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Wednesday’s doubleheader sweep increased the Yankees’ losing streak to five straight games. They have gone from 16-6 to 16-11 and they have gone from having a 2 1/2-game lead in the AL East to having a 2 1/2-game deficit. They are about to play five games in three days against the Mets and won’t have Gerrit Cole or Masahiro Tanaka for any of the five games, and will be without DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Giancarlo Stanton and likely Aaron Judge for the series as well. At the same time, the Rays will be playing the Marlins. The Yankees had a chance to end the division race last week, and instead they were swept by the Rays to begin this losing streak. The Rays have a chance to end the division race this weekend, and they just might. The Yankees should feel extremely grateful that 53 percent of the AL is going to the playoffs because right now the Yankees would be clinging to a spot in the wild-card game in a five-team postseason format. For a team that was 10 games over .500 nine days ago, the Yankees only have a four-game lead on a postseason spot.

2. Masahiro Tanaka has made five starts this season. In his first start, he threw 51 pitches. Since it was his first start of the season and he was coming back from being hit in the head on a Stanton line drive, the Yankees were being overly cautious, the way they always unnecessarily are. A pitch count is normally elevated by 15 pitches from one start to the next for a pitcher coming back from injury. So if Tanaka had thrown 51 in his first start then he should have been able to throw roughy 66 in his second start and 81 in his third start and then been able to throw as many as needed for his fourth start. Here are Tanaka’s pitch counts this season for his first four starts: 51, 59, 66, 71. There is no rhyme or reason to these numbers. They increased by eight then seven then five and not the standard 15. The only conclusion I could come to is that the Yankees decided in the offseason Tanaka is now roughly a 70-pitch pitcher or a five-inning pitcher, whichever comes first. You might think conclusion is absolutely ridiculous, but it’s something the Yankees would definitely do, thinking they have unlocked some revolutionary strategy. On Wednesday night, in the second game of the doubleheader, Tanaka was removed after five innings. His line at the time: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K. He had dominated the Braves the same way Ian (Jethro Tull) Anderson had dominated the Yankees in the first game of the doubleheader. But Tanaka was pulled and he was pulled after 66 pitches. After the game, Boone said Tanaka could have thrown up to 85 pitches in the start, but that Tanaka told him, “The tank was starting to empty a little bit.” Tanaka also said, “Basically, I told him, ‘I’m good with whatever you decide.’” Tanaka, Tanaka, Tanaka. You never tell Boone “you’re good with whatever he decides” no matter what the situation is, let alone in a one-run game. The Yankees’ goal is to limit the amount of decisions Boone has to make. When he’s needed to make a decision in a close game, he will ultimately make the wrong decision, and he did.

3. There was no reason to remove Tanaka from the game unless Tanaka said, “I’m done.” But the second Tanaka gave Boone the option to remove him, Boone was going to remove him. And if you’re going to remove Tanaka with two inning and six outs to go, the right move is to go to Chad Green, which Boone did. Green got two quick outs and then allowed an infield single to Dansby Swanson and a two-run home run to Freddie Freeman, and the Yankees had gone from being four outs away from ending their losing streak to trailing 2-1 in what eventually be their fifth straight loss. Boone had made the right decision and it backfired. I like to think it backfired for all the wrong decisions he has made that have worked out for him and there is an endless list of those. Green had essentially done his job and was unlucky that Swanson’s weak ground ball led to a baserunner. The inning should have been over if not for the unfortunate placement of Swanson’s weak contact. The pitch to Freeman that led to the opposite-field, two-run home run was supposed to be more away than it was. It caught too much of the plate, and being the great hitter that Freeman is, he was able to muscle it out to left field. Green has been so good that I was stunned he had blown the game. Even after Swanson had reached, the thought of Freeman giving the Braves lead didn’t worry me because of how good Green has been. When Green entered the game, I was worried that he hadn’t pitched in a game in 10 days (and that number was high because of Boone and not postponements), but after striking out the first two hitters, I didn’t think Green looked rusty or off. He just can’t miss his spot against a hitter like Freeman and he did.

4. As disappointing as getting swept on the day was, the latest Judge injury news was even more disappointing. Judge apparently re-injured his calf running from first base to second base. I joked about Judge needing perfect weather and wind and grass and temperature conditions for the Yankees to allow him to play, but maybe it wasn’t a joke after all. Judge is becoming the joke. fter having his 2016 season cut short due to an oblique strain he played through the second half of 2017 with a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery. He needed more than double the expected recovery time from a hit by pitch on his wrist in 2018 and missed two months of 2019 with another oblique injury. He would have missed half of this season had it started on time with a broken rib and collapsed lung from diving a ball last September, and now he might miss half of this 60-game season. He’s only played in 18 of the Yankees’ 26 games, and if he were to be put on the injured list as of Wednesday and somehow miraculously come off the IL after 10 days, he would miss 12 games. Judge can claim he’s healthy and able to play through it and he can say whatever he wants, but if he were able healthy and able to play through whatever is ailing him, he would stop telling the training staff or Boone of his status.

5. Judge’s health continues to hinder the Yankees’ present and his own future. I don’t know how anyone could think giving Judge a long-term contract is a sound business decision.Yes, when he plays he’s one of the top players in the game and the Yankees’ best player, but “when he plays” is the most important thing. Since 2018, he has played in only 66 percent (232 of 350) of the Yankees’ regular-season games. His age 26 and 27 seasons were decimated injuries and an ability to heal in a normal timeframe from injury and his age 28 season was going to be cut in half if it hard started on time and is likely to be cut in half after all anyway.That’s a problem. It’s a problem if he can’t play on artificial turf at the Trop without destroying his lower body at age 28 considering the Yankees play nine to 10 games per year there, and it’s a problem if he can’t run 90 feet from first base to second base without hurting his calf. Judge has become Stanton, and maybe there’s a reason those two are in their own class in the sport in terms of height and body type for a position player. Maybe it’s because that body type can’t handle playing baseball for six straight months. If the Yankees could get out of Stanton’s contract, I’m sure they would in a heartbeat given that they didn’t win with him in his age 28 season, his age 29 season consisted of him playing in 18 of 162 regular-season games and five of nine playoff games and his age 30 season is shaping up to be like his age 29 season. Judge is 28 now and will turn 29 a month into the 2021 season. Do the Yankees really want nearly $50 million a season tied up into two players who can’t stay healthy?

6. It would be nice if Gerrit Cole pitched like the Gerrit Cole I thought the Yankees were getting. Here are Cole’s seven starts:

@ WSH: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
@ BAL: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7K, 1 HR
PHI: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
@ TB: 4.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 1 HR
BOS: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 1 HR
TB: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 2 HR
@ ATL: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9K, 3 HR

He’s had some good starts, but he has yet to be the dominant pitcher he became in Houston who has challenged Jacob deGrom for best pitcher in the world status. The strikeouts are there, but so are the home runs. Somehow, he’s given up a league-leading 10 home runs in 41 innings, or one every 4.1 innings which seems impossible. Last season, he allowed a home run every 7.3 innings, and the year before, one every 10.5 innings. Supposedly, the actual baseball in 2020 is playing like it did in 2018, yet Cole is giving up home runs as if the super ball from 2019 is even more super. I’m not worried about Cole. He’s been good, just not great, and I want him to be the guaranteed win every five days I thought he would be, and not the guy who throws 100 pitches in five innings and give up multiple home runs per game.

7. When Aaron Hicks bats right-handed, it looks like he’s doing it for the first time. Hicks went 0-for-Wednesday in the doubleheader and when Hicks is allowed to play both games of a doubleheader, you know the Yankees are banged up. Hicks continues to bat third, even as his on-base percentage has declined to .344, which is the one stat that has kept him in that spot. But for how bad as Hicks’ extra-base hitting has been (.384 slugging), he’s going to keep hitting near the top of the lineup because the options are limited right now. He was hitting there when the team was completely healthy, so he’s not going to stop now. Torres was removed from the 3-hole for a bad start to the season despite coming off the best young offensive middle-infield season since Alex Rodriguez. Hicks is now 1-for-18, boasts a .192 average and has one home run since July 29, but he maintains his place in the order.

8. This should be the Yankees’ lineup while their Top 4 hitters are out and I don’t care what hand the pitcher throws with:

Aaron Hicks (unfortunately, there’s no other option)
Luke Voit
Gio Urshela
Clint Frazier
Gary Sanchez
Mike Ford
Mike Tauchman
Thairo Estrada
Brett Gardner
Tyler Wade

Sanchez could strike out in 19 of 20 at-bats, as long as the other at-bat is a home run it doesn’t matter. The team right now has enough trouble getting guys on base, let alone scoring a run (12 runs in the last five games), and they need to give at-bats to those who might get the team on the board with one swing. “Singles” Tauchman certainly isn’t going to and neither is anyone else behind him in the order.

9. J.A. Happ needs to shut up. The Yankees have used off days and postponements to skip his starts and he isn’t happy. “You guys [in the media] are pretty smart,” Happ said. “It doesn’t take too much to figure out, sort of, what could be going on.” Happ is talking about his vesting option for 2020, which was tied to innings pitched prior to the shortened season, and though unknown, is likely still tied to innings pitched or possibly starts. The Yankees aren’t avoiding starting Happ to save money. If Happ were pitching like it was 2018, they would gladly send him to the mound and would want him on the team for 2021. Instead, Happ has been as bad and possibly worse in 2020 than he was in 2019. He’s only been allowed to make three starts (I would have never allowed him to start for the team again after two), and has given up nine earned and put 20 runners on base in 12 2/3 innings. He has walked 10 against only six strikeouts and has allowed four home runs. Happ being on the 2020 Yankees has been detrimental to the team and him being on the 2021 Yankees would be detrimental to next season. CC Sabathia with whatever is left of his shoulder would be a better option than Happ in the rotation. Happ needs to shut up and be thankful he’s still on the Yankees given his performance since Game 1 of the 2018 ALDS. He should feel lucky he still gets to call himself a major leaguer in 2020 because he doesn’t deserve to be one and shouldn’t be one in 2021.

10. In February, on paper, the 2020 Yankees were going to be so good. So, so good. Seven months later and their rotation after Cole includes a five-inning pitcher at most, a pitcher in his first “full” season after Tommy John surgery, a pitcher who has more walks than strikeout and a 6.39 ERA and no fifth starter. Their bullpen lost one elite option for the season and another is on the IL. Their lineup is currently missing four of it’s nine everyday players, including the 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-hitters. It feels like a minor miracle when the Yankees are able to score a run that isn’t the result of a Luke Voit home run and it will feel like an actual miracle the next time they win a game.

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Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes after every game throughout the season.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!