Between his disastrous starts, inability to adjust and unwillingness to take responsibility or be accountable for his own pitching, Sonny Gray wasn’t going to work out in New York.

When you combine Gray’s time with the Yankees for the last two months of 2017 and first four months of 2018, he was only given the equivalent of one full season for the Yankees to determine he wasn’t a fit for New York. After he was removed from the rotation, Brian Cashman openly admitted he was looking to move Gray right up until the day he was finally traded. Cashman said, “I don’t feel like we can go through the same exercise and expect different results” in regards to holding on to Gray for 2019 and beyond, so eventually, he dealt him to the Reds.

There’s a reason why the Yankees gave up three of their better prospects at the time for Gray and there’s a reason why the team let him start Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS and Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS. There’s a reason so many teams were connected to him this past offseason and why the Reds ultimately decided to trade for him and give him a $30.5 million extension upon acquiring him, completely disregarding his awful 2018 season. And there’s a reason why David Ortiz said the following about Gray back in 2015:

“The last few seasons, the toughest guy I’ve faced is Sonny Gray from Oakland. This kid’s stuff is legit … the first time I see this Gray kid on the mound, I can’t help but notice he’s 5’10” and skinny. He looks like the guy who fixes my computer at the Apple Store. I’m thinking, Here we go. This is gonna be fun. Then he took me for a ride, man. Fastball. Sinker. Slider. Curve … Whap. Whap. Whap. You have no idea what this kid is going to throw. He drives me crazy.”

The reason for all these things is because Gray has the ability, talent, stuff and repertoire to be a perennial Cy Young candidate. The pitcher Ortiz was talking about is the one who pitched to a 2.88 ERA over 491 innings in his first three seasons in the league and who shut out the Tigers over eight innings in Game 2 of the 2013 ALDS. That’s the pitcher the Yankees thought they were getting. That’s the pitcher I thought the Yankees were getting.

Last August, the Yankees pulled the plug on Gray as a starter after his embarrassing start against the eventual 47-win Orioles sent the Yankees into a downward spiral heading into their eventual four-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox in Boston. When the Yankees finally had enough, Gray had pitched to the following line through 21 starts: 103.2 IP, 112 H, 65 R, 64 ER, 46 BB, 99 K, 13 HR, 5.64 ERA, 1.524 WHIP.

In his first season with the Reds, Gray has returned to the pitcher he was with the A’s, the pitcher the Yankees thought they were trading for. An All-Star for the first time in four years, Gray has a 2.92 ERA in 25 starts, a career-low hits-per-nine innings (6.6) and a career-high strikeouts-per-nine innings (10.6). Outside of New York, Gray has been the young, durable and controllable front-end starter Cashman has failed so many times to trade for in over decades, but while in New York, Gray was every bit as bad as J.A. Happ has been this season.

Once again, on Wednesday night, Happ put the Yankees in an early hole they were unable to climb out of, and for the 19th time in 25 starts, he failed to go six innings, something he has done once since June 6. Happ lasted only four innings in Oakland, giving up another pair of home runs, and making it now nearly a month since he provided the Yankees with one of his six quality starts.

Only a few times has Happ looked like the pitcher who went 9-0 in 11 starts for the Yankees after the deadline last season as he’s mostly looked like a soon-to-be, 37-year-old with a low-90s fastball whose only chance at success is with pinpoint control. In a season in which 20 percent of his starts have come against the Orioles, you would think his overall numbers would be somewhat respectable, but he has a 6.85 ERA against the team on pace to win 52 games. Here’s Happ’s season line after Wednesday’s loss:

129 IP, 141 H, 79 R, 79 ER, 37 BB, 105 K, 31 HR, 5.51 ERA, 1.380 WHIP.

Look familiar? Again, here’s Sonny Gray’s line when the Yankees pulled him from the rotation:

103.2 IP, 112 H, 65 R, 64 ER, 46 BB, 99 K, 13 HR, 5.64 ERA, 1.524 WHIP.

Happ has a better walk rate and a slightly better ERA, but his strikeouts-per-nine innings are lower and his home run rate is absurd. The lines are similar and everything about their seasons has been as well. So why is it that Happ continues to get the ball every fifth day, while Gray was banished to the bullpen and then dealt to Cincinnati with his value at an all-time low?

The answer can’t be because Happ’s under contract for next season because so was Gray, who was under contract for less money, is seven years younger than Happ and still has a future. The Yankees gave up on Gray for good after one calendar year and with two months left in the season, yet there haven’t been any rumors, whispers, rumblings or inklings of Happ losing his rotation spot.

The answer can’t be because there aren’t other starting options because going with an opener two days a week is better than Happ once a week, and there wasn’t any depth last season when Gray was removed either. When the Yankees stopped letting Gray start, they didn’t have pitching depth to turn to and had yet to steal the Rays’ opener strategy. But they still made the move knowing they would be taxing their bullpen and starting pitchers with much less ability and much weaker career resumes than Gray.

The answer can’t be because the division is locked up because home-field advantage is every bit as important as the division. The most likely scenario in the AL playoffs is a Yankees-Astros ALCS. They are going to be the 1- and 2-seeds and they are the two best teams in the league. Two years ago in the ALCS, the Astros went 4-0 at home and the Yankees went 3-0 at home. The Astros outscored the Yankees 15-3 in Houston and the Yankees outscored the Astros 19-5 in New York. This season the Astros are 45-16 at home and the Yankees are 49-20 at home, the best two home records in the AL. At the same time the Astros were about to lose on Wednesday night and give the Yankees a chance to create further separation in the standings, Happ was busy giving two-run home runs in the second and third innings in the eventual loss. The Yankees might have the division won, but the goal isn’t to win the division, it’s to win the World Series, and unless the Yankees have home-field advantage in the playoffs, that goal is going to be nearly impossible to accomplish.

Happ brings no value to the team right now. He’s not eating innings, he’s not keeping the team in games and he’s not working toward anything like a postseason start. There’s no way Happ can get a postseason start. No way. I would rather watch Luis Cessa get the ball in the postseason or have Cessa team up with Nestor Cortes for the first few innings of a playoff game than watch Happ ruin an October game for the second straight year.

The Yankees gave up on Gray for the season in 2018 and then gave up on him for good before 2019. The Yankees aren’t going to give up on Happ for good because of the money he’s owed, his stock being at an all-time low and him simply being untradeable given his age and contract. But they should give up on him for the season.

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

When Brett Gardner cleared the bases with a three-run triple in the first inning of the second game of Monday’s doubleheader, I wasn’t thinking about the Yankees’ early 3-0 lead, that they were on their way to their 14th straight win over the Orioles or that they would have the best record in baseball at the end of the night. I was thinking about the 2020 season.

I didn’t want Gardner back for 2019. I had seen enough from the then-35-year-old outfielder and his career-worst season to want the Yankees to go in a different direction. Entering the first true season of this group’s championship window of opportunity, I wanted a younger and better left field, with the assumption Giancarlo Stanton would be primarily used as the designated hitter. I wanted the Yankees to sign Michael Brantley.

I’m not sure if the Yankees ever even gave a thought to signing someone other than Gardner because in the first minutes of free agency, they brought him back on a one-year, $7.5 million deal, believing his career-low .690 OPS wasn’t indicative of who he was at what’s now considered to be an advanced age in baseball. Gardner was said to be the team’s “fourth outfielder”, a position which might have gone to Clint Frazier if not for a lost season due to unfortunate injuries, and as a reserve player with extra rest, maybe he would be more productive than he was the season before.

Gardner went from being the fourth outfielder to being an everyday player before Opening Day as Aaron Hicks started the season on the injured list and Stanton joined Hicks before April 1. On April 20, Aaron Judge joined them both. In what was supposed a season in which Gardner would transition from an everyday player to a role player, he’s played in 104 of the team’s 120 games, playing in nearly 90 percent of the games despite his own recent trip to the injured list.

Through the first quarter of the season, the Yankees’ decision to bring back Gardner was a disaster. He’s one of the media’s go-to postgame guys and said to be a strong and trusted clubhouse presence, but from strictly a baseball standpoint, he was looking every bit his age on the field. In mid-May, he was batting .197/.287/.381 and his production wasn’t doing anything to dispel the idea he could no longer play every day. Through June, he had been able to prop his OPS up to .760 with a few home runs, though for someone who could always fall back on his ability to get on base, he wasn’t doing that anymore either with just a .319 on-base percentage. Gardner had been horrible offensively for a 907-plate appearance sample size, still looking like the player in 2019 who lost his spot as the leadoff hitter before losing his job completely to Andrew McCutchen in 2018.

During the Fourth of July weekend series in Tampa, at the same time Mike Tauchman was becoming the best hitter in baseball, Gardner was beginning his own career resurgence. Gardner homered in each of the last three games against the Rays, going 7-for-15 with two walks in the four-game series to end the first half on a high note. By the end of July, he had raised his average (.243) and on-base (.325) to respectability and had an impressive .785 OPS. August has been much of the same, as he returned from his end-of-July injured-list stint by batting .375/.444/.725 in his first 12 games this month.

I realize Gardner’s career has been defined by hot and cold streaks (whether or not Aaron Boone and the Yankees actually believe in hot and cold streaks), and it’s why I nicknamed Gardner “The Streak” years ago. I’m not about to think he has become his old self or that he might now suddenly be the best version of himself at this point in his career, though he has shown he’s still capable of putting together these ridiculous runs. (If only the cold streaks weren’t so cold.) It’s why I found myself thinking about 2020 as he motored into third on Monday night.

There’s still a quarter of the season left for Gardner to not become an automatic out again and for him to give the Yankees a reason to bring him back, but with the Yankees’ full outfield nearing a return and September call-ups a few weeks away, Gardner will get the rest the necessary rest he needs to combat his career history of decline in late-season production.

If the Yankees re-sign Gardner for 2020, he’s going to play, and play a lot. He might once again be considered the “fourth outfielder” on the team, but he will get much more than fourth outfielder at-bats, the same way he did this year. As much as I wish the trio of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks would give us a full season, chances are they won’t because their careers and injury histories say they won’t. You can write it in stone that Hicks will make at least one injured-list trip in 2020, as he’s never played in more than 137 games in a season, and for someone who has had nearly every conceivable non-surgery baseball injury, I doubt his 30s (he will turn 30 in October) will be less marred by injuries than his 20s were. Even if the trio of Judge, Stanton and Hicks were completely healthy for a full season, the Yankees would still implement a four-man outfield rotation with the amount of extra and unnecessary rest they provide their players. The player they pick to fill the “fourth outfielder” role will be much more than a once- or twice-a-week player.

Should that player be Gardner (who will be 36 on Opening Day 2020 and will turn 37 during the 2020 season)? If the Yankees were willing to bring him back for 2019 following the kind of season he had in 2018, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t bring him back in 2020, coming off a much better season. Six weeks ago, I didn’t think there was a chance Gardner would be an option for next season, with his roster spot going to Frazier, Tauchman or someone else, anyone else. But this recent resurgence has me easily seeing a path to Gardner getting another one-year deal.

We’re a long way from this decision having to be made, but with each day of Gardner’s resurgence, it’s more and more likely he’ll still be the longest-tenured Yankee in 2020.

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

Mike Tauchman has become the face of the 2019 Yankees. The Replacement Yankees have played more than the expected and real Yankees this season and Tauchman’s breakout over the last five weeks has made him a household name in the Tri-state area.

Tauchman is batting .300/.381/.579 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs in 65 games and 215 plate appearances. Those numbers translate to 30 home runs and 102 RBIs over 162 games, and with a .960 OPS, Tauchman would be an MVP candidate, and a nine-figure contract candidate if he were entering free agency.

This has all essentially happened since July 4 and over his last 95 plate appearances, as he’s batting .417/.484/.821 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs in that time and a ridiculous 1.306 OPS.

This week’s questions and comments are focused on Tauchman, who has been the best hitter in baseball over the last month.

Email your questions to KeefeToTheCity@gmail.com or engage on the Keefe To The City Facebook page or on Twitter to be included in the next Monday Mail.

It’s important to apologize when we are wrong. But don’t feel ashamed. We as Yankees fans expect more out of our players than your average baseball fans. – Christina

Thank you, Christina. I appreciate the kind words in regards to my apology to Mike Tauchman last week for anything negative I have written or said about him this season.

Since his first day as a Yankee, I do not see how anyone had any doubt about his ability, desire and team focus. Maybe if they like controversy, loud mouths or flowing hair and jewelry, would one not like him, but from an understanding of baseball, no doubts. – Jim

Unless you’re Tauchman, a family member of his, the front office employee who suggested or recommended the Yankees acquire him or the biggest Yankees homer of all time, it’s tough to believe you didn’t have doubts about his ability. Tauchman has been the best hitter in baseball for the last month, but in his first 120 plate appearances this season, he was hitting .208/.300/.387. It was impossible not to doubt Tauchman earlier this year as a 28-year-old with minimal major league experience and no success at this level.

As for the comments about Clint Frazier without naming Clint Frazier, there was a debate between the two when it looked like the Yankees were giving away everyday at-bats to Tauchman (when he couldn’t hit) over Frazier (and his .843 OPS in the majors), but now that Tauchman’s hitting, he’s deserving of playing every day, while Frazier continues to work on his defense in Triple-A.

I don’t really think the Yankees have a problem with Frazier. They went with Tauchman at the end of June because they needed a fourth outfielder and they would rather have the 24-year-old Frazier playing every day. Then when Giancarlo Stanton got hurt, Tauchman was given a chance to play more and he ran with it. Had Tauchman continued to hit the way he had in April, May and June, Frazier would have been back up.

Right now, Frazier doesn’t fit on the roster. The four-man rotation is Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, Cameron Maybin and Tauchman. Judge is Judge, Gardner isn’t going anywhere and Maybin is playing the best baseball of his career. The next time we’ll see Frazier is in September.

Mike Tauchman has completely surpassed the punk Clint Frazier on the Yankees, in my opinion. – John

Tauchman’s roster spot in 2019 shouldn’t be about Tauchman vs. Frazier anymore. It was briefly when Stanton went back on the injured list before the London series, but it’s no longer. If another everyday spot in the outfield opened up, Frazier would get the call.

The Tauchman-Frazier debate will be back for the 2020 season, and it will be one wild and controversial debate, if both players are still Yankees then.

Tauchman should be a starter along with Frazier, Maybin and Urshela. – Keith

If your wish came true, the Yankees’ defensive alignment would be something like this:

C: Gary Sanchez
1B: Luke Voit
2B: DJ LeMahieu/Gleyber Torres
3B: Gio Urshela
SS: Didi Gregorius/Gleyber Torres
LF: Clint Frazier
CF: Cameron Maybin
RF: Mike Tauchman

That would mean one of LeMahieu, Torres or Gregorius wouldn’t start, and the one not starting would be up for the DH spot against Stanton, Hicks and Judge. That would be a lot of money and talent sitting on the bench.

We needed a lefty in this lineup. And once again Cash found a guy with no big name to make a big splash and I think could be our next year everyday left fielder to replace Gardy. – AJ

Brian Cashman and his team have done an outstanding job in recent years of finding diamond-in-the-rough position players like Tauchman, Luke Voit and Gio Urshela. If only Cashman and his team were as good at finding, acquiring, signing or developing starting pitching.

If you’re the general manager of one of the other 29 teams (or 27 really since the Yankees won’t do business with the Red Sox or Mets, or those two teams won’t do business with the Yankees) and Cashman calls asking about one of your Triple-A position players, you might want to hold on to that player and give them a chance to play.

Tauchman being a left-handed bat has helped balance the lineup with Hicks and Gregorius being the only other two left-handed options. If the Yankees ever get completely healthy for the playoffs, I don’t think Tauchman will be in the lineup despite how good he’s been. Stanton would be in left field and Edwin Encarnacion would be the designated hitter. Unless the Yankees go with right-lefty and lefty-righty matchups, Tauchman is going to be on the bench in October for bigger names and owed money.

As for next season, I will believe Gardner isn’t getting another one-year deal when he finally doesn’t. I was all for Michael Brantley over a Gardner return this season, and the Yankees went with Gardner as soon as free agency began. Gardner isn’t hitting like Brantley, but does have a career-best .817 OPS. There’s a good chance Gardner will be signed to be the Yankees’ “fourth outfielder” for 2020, and he will end up being an everyday player again since the Yankees’ outfield can’t stay healthy.

Email your questions to KeefeToTheCity@gmail.com or engage on the Keefe To The City Facebook page or on Twitter to be included in the next Monday Mail.

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