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!

I expected the worst when Gleyber Torres was pulled during Sunday night’s game with a “core issue” and was taken to the hospital. How often does a trip to the hospital turn out to be nothing, especially for these Yankees? I began to envision Torres joining what’s once again an overcrowded injured list and started to think about him being lost for the rest of the regular season and postseason. I didn’t think his hospital visit would result in him being fine, allowing him to meet up with the team to travel to Baltimore, and I certainly didn’t think he would be well enough to be in the starting lineup the following night, less than 24 hours after he was in enough pain to go to the hospital.

When any Yankee experiences the most minor of injuries, it’s rare they’re back in the lineup the next day. When a Yankee has to be pulled from a game and taken to the hospital, it’s a little more than a jammed finger or stubbed toe, and I figured when it came to Torres, the Yankees would do their thing where they play shorthanded for three or four days rather than place a player on the 10-day injured list. But there Torres was on Monday night, batting fourth as the designated hitter.

Torres didn’t look like himself in the game, going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, after going 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout the night before. Something looked off about his approach at the plate and his swings. The Yankees thought nothing of it, and on Tuesday, Torres was back in the lineup at the cleanup spot and back in the field at second base. After another two hitless at-bats with the second one ending with Torres flailing at a slider more than a foot off the plate, he was removed from the game. A few innings later, it was reported he had a “core issue”, the same issue which led to his removal from Sunday night’s game and a trip to the hospital.

How was the Yankees’ 22-year-old star middle infielder allowed to return to the lineup so quickly after what seemed at the time like a serious issue? It was at least serious enough that he went to the hospital. That question is rhetorical since there’s no answer. There’s no answer as to why the Yankees continue to screw up the diagnosis of injuries, rehab plan, timetables for return and every aspect of keeping their players healthy. The Yankees can continue to give their players extra and unneeded rest and unnecessary days off to try to keep them fresh and healthy, but it’s not working, and it’s never going to work if they can’t properly handle injuries once they happen.

“Similar sensation that he was having when he came out the other night,” Boone said of Torres after Tuesday’s game. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s back here and it’s a day-to-day situation.”

How could the manager think and how could the organization even want Torres back with the team so quickly and on a day-to-day situation after experiencing the same “sensation” in his core in less than 48 hours?

The botched handling of Torres’s core injury is just the latest of a long line of botched injuries by the Yankees, going back a year ago when the team initially said Aaron Judge would be out for only three weeks with a wrist fracture. Nearly every Yankee has spent time on the injured list this season and nearly every injury has been mishandled in some regard.

Number 18, Didi Gregorius, Number 18
Back in Game 2 of the ALDS, Ian Kinsler hit a ball off the Green Monster that Andrew McCutchen played as if he had no basic knowledge or understanding of geometry. This forced Didi Gregorius to go into the outfield to retrieve the ball and throw it back in. It was on this throw that Gregorius’s elbow popped. But after his elbow popped, he played the last two-and-a-half innings of Game 2, all of Game 3 and all of Game 4. It wasn’t until Boone’s end-of-the-season press conference that the information that the team’s starting shortstop would miss part of next season to undergo Tommy John surgery was announced, and it wasn’t until Yankees public relations man Jason Zillo, not Boone, announced it.

Number 31, Aaron Hicks, Number 31
Aaron Hicks hurt his back on February 27 riding the team bus from Tampa to Lakeland for a spring training game. Two days later (March 1), during batting practice, the discomfort was still there, so he was shut down. Ten days later (March 11), he had a cortisone shot. Six days later (March 17), due to the still-existing pain, he had a second cortisone shot. Despite not having played in nearly three weeks and having two cortisone shots, Boone said “I think he physically probably will be ready [for Opening Day]. We don’t think it’s going to be a long time for Hicks.”

It was reported that Hicks would return for the second series and fourth game of the season on April 1 against the Tigers. He didn’t return and four days later (April 5), Boone said, “I believe he is starting baseball activities.” Boone also said he didn’t think Hicks would need six weeks, or the equivalent of full spring training to return.

It wasn’t until the 42nd game of the season on May 15 when Hicks finally returned to the lineup.

Number 40, Luis Severino, Number 40
On March 5, Luis Severino felt shoulder discomfort while warming up before a spring training start. An MRI showed inflammation in his rotator cuff, and Boone said he would be shut down for two weeks, and it would be “highly unlikely” he would be ready for Opening Day.

On April 8, Severino still didn’t feel well enough to throw off a mound, despite having increased his rehab to throwing from 130 feet, and he was sent to New York to be evaluated. Two days later (April 10), it was announced he had a Grade 2 lat strain which would shut him down for at least six weeks. Severino said he first experienced lat pain the same day as the rotator cuff pain, but the Yankees claimed to be unaware of it.

In June, Severino had progressed to nearly returning to throw off a mound, but he felt soreness near his injured lat. Severino was shut down for another week and an MRI revealed the injury had only 90 percent healed. Brian Cashman said, “Cleary, in hindsight, he should have never started his throwing program,” acknowledging Severino should have received an MRI prior to starting his throwing program to be sure the injury was completely healed.

Number 68, Dellin Betances, Number 68
Dellin Betances missed the beginning of spring training for the birth of his child. His decreased velocity in Tampa seemed like it was a result of not building his arm strength yet, but when the velocity failed to come back, an MRI on March 19 revealed a shoulder impingement. He would be shut down for a few days and begin a cycle of anti-inflammatories.

During a simulated game on April 12, Betances didn’t feel right and an MRI revealed a pre-existing bone spur. Betances received another cortisone shot the following day (April 13) and would be shut down for six to seven weeks. Cashman admitted the bone spur was discovered while giving Betances a physical in 2006, but that Betances was never made aware of the condition by the Yankees.

Number 41, Miguel Andujar, 41
Miguel Andujar injured his shoulder diving into third base in the third game of the season and it was announced he had a partial tear of his right labrum. Andujar and the Yankee determined the third baseman would be able to rehab the injury rather than undergo season-ending shoulder surgery.

Andujar returned to the lineup on May 4, just over a month after injuring his shoulder, but went 3-for-34 with no extra-base hits, and on May 13, he was placed back on the injured list. On May 15, it was announced Andujar would have surgery.

Number 27, Giancarlo Stanton, Number 27
Giancarlo Stanton went on the injured list on April 1 with a biceps strain. The biceps strain, which shut him down, became a shoulder strain, which shut him down, and that became a calf strain, which also shut him down.

Stanton finally returned on June 18 and played in five games with two personal off days during the five days for extra rest. In the sixth game of his return, his hand was stepped on while sliding and he was removed from the game in what seemed to be a hand injury. It was later announced Stanton was removed from the game due to a sprained right knee and Cashman said he wouldn’t return until August. He still hasn’t resumed baseball activities.

Number 24, Gary Sanchez, Number 24
Gary Sanchez complained of leg tightness after catching the game in Houston on April 8. Boone put him in the lineup as the designated hitter the following night. In the series finale, on a Wednesday, Sanchez wasn’t in the starting lineup. “With the off day [Thursday] and having a lot of guys down it is probably best to try and grab a couple days here while we can,” Boone said about sitting Sanchez. But in the eighth inning, Boone used Sanchez as a pinch hitter anyway. “Just trying to be proactive,” Boone said. “I want to make sure we are being smart about this and do all we can to keep him healthy. Making sure this doesn’t become an issue.”

Following the off day after the Astros series, the Yankees placed Sanchez on the injured list with a left calf strain.

Number 77, Clint Frazier, Number 77
On April 22, Clint Frazier slid awkwardly into second base on a pickoff attempt, rolling his ankle. Frazier grabbed his ankle and then hopped around near the base as Boone and Steve Donahue ran out of the dugout. Frazier was able to persuade Boone and Donahue to let him remain in the game, and after his ankle was tightly wrapped, he stayed in for the final innings, playing left field for the 12th, 13th and 14th innings.

Frazier wasn’t in the lineup the following day, and Boone said it was precautionary and the team didn’t believe it was “too serious”. The next day (April 24), Frazier was placed on the injured list after an MRI revealed a partial tear in his left ankle.

Number 45, Luke Voit, Number 45
Luke Voit came up injured after successfully busting his way to second for a hard-earned double to lead off the fifth inning in the first game in London on June 29. After the team’s return to New York, Voit was placed on the injured list with an abdominal strain on July 2. He returned to the lineup on July 13, but a couple weeks later, on July 31, he was back on the injured list with a sports hernia. Boone said, “He was having a hard time getting loose before the game.”

Voit could try to rehab the injury or elect for surgery, which would keep him out for six weeks, but with each day without an answer, a return in time for the postseason would become more bleak. “Over the next 24 hours, we’ll determine a course of action,” Boone said on July 31, the day of the injury. As of August 6, the decision for rehab or surgery was still undecided.

Hal Steinbrenner claimed the team began studying its injuries back in May.

“We’ll wait until all the data is in and at the end of the year, if we need to make changes in the procedures and the ways we do things, then we’re going to do that,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re looking at everything intensely, and any time we have a year like this, we’re going to do that.”

Cashman said he had conducted an investigation into the team’s handling of injuries this season.

“I’ve gone through the process and I’ll leave it at that,” Cashman said on June 30. “We always evaluate our process, and if there are problems and mistakes made by us, then they’re dealt with.”

If the team stated studying their injury problem in May, like Streinbrenner said, and Cashman had already conducted his injury investigation by the end of June, then why do injuries continue to be dealt with the same way?

It’s going to be hard enough to come out of the American League playoffs and advance to the World Series with the Yankees at full strength this October. It’s going to be nearly impossible to do so with an abundance of everyday players on the injured list because their injuries were improperly diagnosed or mishandled.

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