The Yankees swept the Angels and then swept the Tigers. They have won six straight, haven’t lost in June and have a seven-game lead in the loss column in the AL East.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees once again did what they need to do against a soft part of their schedule with back-to-back sweeps and six straight wins over the Angels and Tigers. The Angels suck, having lost 11 straight to fall a game below .500 and nine games in the loss column behind the Astros in the AL West. The Tigers are flat-out awful at 12 games under .500 with a minus-64 run differential and the worst offense in the majors.

With this latest six-game winning streak, the Yankees have maintained having the best record in baseball. At 39-15, they are on pace to win 117 games and can play under-.500 baseball for the rest of the season and still win 92 games, which is what their win total was set at prior to the season. They will blow past that number even if Aaron Boone takes his ridiculous load management strategy to an unforeseen level for the entire second half.

2. Since the start of the Angels series, the worst start the Yankees received was Jordan Montgomery’s on Sunday against the Tigers: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. When the worst start you get in two series is two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings, it’s easy to see why the Yankees have been so good this season.

The Yankees are where they are for four reasons: the starting pitching, three relievers, Aaron Judge and some other bats at various times. All five starters have No. 1-like numbers; Clay Holmes, Michael King and Clarke Schmidt have been dominant; Aaron Judge is the AL MVP, and every everyday hitter other than Aaron Hicks and Kyle Higashioka has helped win at least one game for the team at some point. (Even Joey Gallo had a big two-run home run on Sunday to tie that game at 2.)

3. Even with his game-tying home run on Sunday, Gallo is still a big problem, as are Hicks and Higashioka. The trio is extremely fortunate the Yankees are off to one of the best starts in franchise history through exactly one-third of the season because if the Yankees didn’t have the separation they have in the AL East, the Stadium boo birds would be even louder for them than they already are, which seems impossible.

There are Yankees fans who are unwilling to discuss the fact there are days when the team has four players in the lineup who are below league average in Gallo, Hicks, Higashioka and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. These fans think that since team is winning, why change anything. You change things to make sure the team keeps winning. Being in first place on June 6 is great, but the goal is to be in first place on October 6. The Yankees won’t see teams like the Tigers, Orioles or Royals in October. (Or even the Angels at this rate.) No other October team will boast three players with sub-.600 OPS and four with a sub-.650 OPS. No other team will be giving up one third of their outs in playoff games to less-than-replacement-level bats.

4. The Yankees had a helpful bat on their roster as recently as a few days ago before they decided to once again send down Miguel Andujar. This poor decision by the Yankees was the result of past poor decisions by the Yankees, and resulted in Andujar asking to be traded.

I’m happy Andujar requested to be traded. He’s getting screwed from receiving a major-league salary and major-league service time since he’s a major-league player being forced to play in Triple-A because of bad contracts, bad trades and money owed. That bad contract and money owed would be the Hicks extension and that bad trade would be the one for Gallo.

5. The Yankees’ regrettable decision to extend Hicks has backfired into a worst-case scenario. Since the moment Hicks received that extension he has been either injured or unproductive. But because he’s under contract for this season … and next season … and the season after … and the season after that … and then will be bought out the season after that … he’s not going anywhere.

Hicks’ offensive metrics are abysmal. He’s in the 18th percentile for average exit velocity and the second percentile of barrel percentage. That means 98 percent of players in Major League Baseball square up pitches better than Hicks, and yet, he was the planned everyday center fielder for the 2022 Yankees.

Hicks’ 2021 season was cut short due to needing wrist surgery and other players who have had the same operation on the sheath of their wrist claimed mentioned needing a full year for power to return. So Hicks has a built-in excuse for 2022, like he did in 2020 and 2021 coming off a back injury and elbow surgery. I’m sure he will suffer another injury in 2022 to use as a built-in excuse for 2023 and keep his roster spot safe since that’s what he seems to do

Hicks does two things well: he doesn’t chase pitches (94th percentile) and he walks (96th percentile). But his walks number is misleading as Hicks goes to the plate looking to walk and praying to not have to swing. His entire goal in the box is that the pitcher will throw four pitches outside the zone wildly enough that he won’t have to swing. He’s not going to battle in an at-bat and foul off tough pitches to draw a walk. He’s either going to walk because the pitcher has control issues or he’s going to strike out or weakly put the ball in play.

The thing is, Hicks’ power isn’t necessarily the problem. It’s not like he’s barreling the ball and it’s just dying because of a lack of power. He’s simply not barreling the ball (again 98 percent of the league is barreling the ball better than him).

On Friday, Hicks drove in his first run in 19 days and 46 plate appearances. It was his third RBI in over a month. On Sunday, Hicks produced hit latest 0-for-game with an 0-for-4 and a strikeout. Through one-third of the season, the player who went out of his way to state his goal for 2022 was to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases, is about as close to accomplishing that goal as I am, as Hicks has one more home run than I do this season. He also has one more double than me this season.

I have referred to Hicks as the worst player in Major League Baseball and relative to his contract, his salary, his everyday playing status and the team he plays for, he truly is the worst player in the majors. No other true contender has a player as bad as Hicks in their everyday lineup. But somehow not only is he consistently in the lineup, he has been used as the leadoff hitter in 22 percent of the Yankees’ games. Yes, please give the most possible at-bats on the team to a player that has the same amount of home runs and doubles as Kevin Plawecki.

6. Gallo has been put in a position to get the least amount of possible at-bats on the team. The Yankees traded four prospects at last year’s deadline for one-and-a-half years of Gallo to get Gold Glove defense in the field and the three true outcomes (strikeout, walk and home run) at the plate. They are now getting shaky defense in the outfield and mostly one outcome at the plate (strikeout) and have relegated to being their everyday 9-hitter. In that role, he bats behind Hicks, Kiner-Falefa and at times Higashioka. This is the same player who was penciled in as the team’s 2-hitter upon becoming a Yankee.

Because of what the Yankees gave up for Gallo, they are going to try to salvage this season with him in hopes he can be a productive player for them or good enough that they can trade him at the deadline and actually get back a living, breathing player in return. He’s not going anywhere for at least another two months, and likely isn’t going anywhere then either.

Gallo hit a two-run home run on Sunday. It was his sixth home run of the season and first in exactly three weeks. It also allowed him to pass Hicks in RBIs, as Gallo now has nine and Hicks has eight.

7. The situations with Hicks and Gallo have resulted in Andujar back in Scranton where he has absolutely nothing left to prove as his bat is wasting away in meaningless games. I hope his request is granted and he gets an everyday opportunity somewhere else, while the Yankees continue to employ and play two near-automatic outs.

Between now and the postseason, the Yankees have two things to worry about: health and upgrading the lineup.

There’s not much they can do from a health perspective other than pray for good health. All of the unnecessary rest, planned days off and load management isn’t going to keep them healthy, so this is out of their control. They can upgrade the lineup and they need to. They can’t think they are going to run

An upgraded lineup means more runs and more runs means less close games and less close games mean less Boone. If the Yankees aren’t going to outhit and outscore their own manager, they are going to have a really tough time winning come October. As we saw on Sunday (which we see at least once a series it seems like), when Boone has to get involved in games, the Yankees’ chances of winning drastically decline.

8. In the series finale against the Tigers, the Yankees led 3-2 entering the eighth. Clarke Schmidt had come on in the seventh and preserved the Yankees’ lead and would start the eighth as well. After allowing a leadoff double, Schmidt got the first out of the inning on a flyout. The Tigers had the tying run at second with one out and the heart of their order due up.

Schmidt had thrown 24 pitches in the game. In the last week, he had made one appearance, throwing 25 pitches. Aside from Holmes and King, he has been the Yankees’ only other trustworthy reliever. As a right-hander with three righties due up in Jonathan Schoop, Miguel Cabrera and Javier Baez, Boone had three legitimate options to choose from. He could keep Schmidt in, or he could replace Schmidt with King or he could go to Holmes for a five-out save. (The third option of using Holmes for five outs was never going to be a true option, but it was still one of only three logical, sensible choices.)

So which option did Boone choose? None of them. He instead relieved Schmidt and brought in Miguel Castro, arguably the least trustworthy and effective option in the Yankees’ bullpen.

9. If a move was going to be made (which it didn’t have to be), the move was to go to King. Prior to Sunday, this was King’s recent usage:

May 22: Not used
May 23: Not used
May 24: 21 pitches
May 25: Not used
May 26: Not used
May 27: Not used
May 28: 20 pitches
May 29: Not used
May 30: Day off
May 31: Not used
June 1: Day off
June 2: Not used in either game of doubleheader
June 3: Not used
June 4: 7 pitches

In the previous 14 days and 13 games, King had been used three times, throwing 48 pitches. Boone’s decision to not go to King made me think King was unavailable because of an injury since that’s how little sense it made to not use him.

Sure enough, Castro coughed up the lead and by the time he was done, the Tigers led 4-3. Fortunately, the Tigers turned into the Tigers in the bottom of the eighth and gifted the Yankees a run to tie the game.

When the game went to the 10th inning, King was brought in. So he was available to pitch. Boone would rather use King in the 10th inning of a 4-4 game than in the eighth inning of a game the Yankees lead by one run with the opponent’s 2-3-4 hitters coming up.

In actuality, what Boone did was try to steal the remaining two outs of the eighth inning with Castro. He would never admit it, but what he was hoping was that Castro could get him through the eighth and maybe the Yankees would tack on some insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth and he could avoid using King and Holmes and give them yet another day off followed by the team’s scheduled day off on Monday. Either that or he was hoping Castro would get through the eighth and he could use King in the ninth to close out the game, even though the situation in the eighth (runner in scoring position with 2-3-4 due up) was the more crucial situation and needed the better reliever. Whatever his thinking was, it was idiotic and nearly cost the Yankees the game and would have if not for the Tigers’ error-filled eighth.

10. After health, Boone remains the Yankees’ biggest threat to a championship. It’s moves like the one on Sunday in which he chooses the wrong pitcher, or manages for the future and a situation that may never arise, or his obsession with letting a pitcher stay in one (or even two or three) batters too long before recognizing the severity of a given situation that could ruin the Yankees’ season yet again. His in-game management is atrocious and has not progressed the slightest in now five years on the job.

The Yankees need more wins like Friday when they just destroyed the Tigers (13-0), or like Saturday (3-0) when the starting pitching was so good, the ball can just be handed to King and then Holmes and the win is secure. Games like those two are Boone-proof. He doesn’t have to do anything other than sit on his perch, obnoxiously chew his gum and adjust his oversized watch.

Unfortunately, those games rarely happen come October. In October, Boone will play a big role in the result of nearly every game, and no matter how many games the Yankees win during the regular season, the idea of that is what will keep me anxious until this season and every season he manages ends.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast.

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

The Yankees went to Tampa and did what they needed to do in winning two of the four games. Then they returned home after a day off and handed the Angels their sixth straight loss. They have done all of this with about one-third of their expected everyday lineup and without one-third of their expected bullpen.

Yes, these Thoughts are late because of Memorial Day Weekend. And because of that, it will cover both the Rays series and the first game of the Angels series.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees’ goal was to go to Tampa and win two of four. That would take four head-to-head games against the Rays off the schedule and keep the Rays at four games back in the loss column, where they were before the series started. The Yankees accomplished that goal and they did so with lineups that rival 2013 and 2014 in terms of embarrassing, but the series could have and should have been so much more for the Yankees.

Yes, I said I would be happy if the Yankees split the four-game series in Tampa, especially with the state of the Yankees’ lineup and bullpen, but that was before the Yankees won the first two games and before they blew leads in both the third and fourth games of the series. The Yankees had an opportunity to bury the Rays in the AL East over the weekend, and create eight games of separation between them. Instead, a combination of a makeshift, spring training-looking lineup, Gerrit Cole and Aaron Boone settled for a series split.

2. Cole has been the Yankees’ worst starter in 2022. It’s a small sample size of not even two months of starts, but it’s true. He’s still going to get the ball in Game 1 of any postseason series the Yankees play in, but that doesn’t mean he’s the team’s best starter or ace. That’s been Nestor Cortes through the first nearly one-third of the season.

Cole pitched well on Saturday before melting down over a missed third strike call that would have gotten him out of the inning, and let that missed call snowball into a Yankees deficit. The Yankees’ rotation has been so good that Cole doesn’t need to put the team on his back every fifth day and pitch them to wins, but I’m sure he doesn’t like not being the perceived ace of the team. I’m sure he doesn’t like needing 25 pitches in each first inning he pitches, and I’m sure he doesn’t like never seeming to get the job done against the Red Sox, Blue Jays or Rays.

3. I have written and said it many times, but the more close games the Yankees play in, the more games they will lose simply because of Boone. He’s incapable of correctly managing the bullpen in close games, and unwilling to change his approach from going batter-to-batter with his starter or trying to “steal” outs in the late innings. How Ron Marinaccio is in a one-run game at the Trop on Sunday with the bullpen completely rested is so irresponsible and inexcusable it’s hard to believe a supposed baseball lifer like Boone could make such an egregious mistake. Marinaccio is a fine arm. He’s also that last man in the bullpen who the Yankees deemed not good enough to be in the bullpen before Chad Green, Aroldis Chapman and Jonathan Loaisiga all went on the injured list. He can’t be pitching in a game on Sunday’s magnitude.

4. Every game the Yankees play against the Blue Jays and Rays are of the utmost importance. It’s a three-team race for the AL East, and head-to-head games against your direct competition for the division should be treated as postseason games in the regular season. Theres’ no doubt in my mind Boone was OK with not going all out to win on Sunday, even though it represented a two-game swing in the loss column in the division, and even though the Yankees had a day off scheduled for the following day. “Lose the battle to win the war” has been Boone’s motto as Yankees manager, except he has lost too many battles resulting in one division title in four years and has lost all four wars as well.

5. If Matt Carpenter doesn’t get another plate appearance as a Yankee, his time with them will have been well worth it. The Yankees gave Carpenter a major-league deal out of nowhere after he tore up Triple-A this season with the Rangers, and it’s possible the in-depth hitting evaluation he recently went through actually worked. Carpenter homered in his second game with the Yankees in Friday’s 2-0 win over the Rays and then homered again on Tuesday off Noah Syndergaard. Joe Maddon and the Angels were so worried about Syndergaard facing Carpenter a second time that when his spot in the lineup came up in the third inning, Maddon removed Syndergaard from the game for a left-handed long man. A week ago, Carpenter was in Triple-A wondering if he would ever play in the majors again. On Tuesday, he was hitting a two-run home run off Syndergaard while wearing pinstripes and chasing Syndergaard from a game.

6. Carpenter’s two home runs are now double Aaron Hicks’ season total of one. With each day, game and series that goes by, Hicks remains stuck on one home run and one double on the season. The season is now 30 percent over for the player whose goal was to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases, and Hicks has half of the home runs of Carpenter despite having 129 more plate appearances and one-third of the home runs of Jose Trevino despite having 64 more plate appearances.

Trevino had another awesome night at the plate on Tuesday, going 3-for-4 with two runs and a two-run home run. His OPS is up to .717 on the season, which is higher than Isiah Kiner-Falefa (.603), Joey Gallo (.601) and Hicks (.559). He also picked off a runner on a throw down to first. He is what the Yankees continue to think Kyle Higashioka is, when in reality, Higashioka isn’t a major-league player.

7. Miguel Andujar is a major-league player, but he’s likely to get screwed again once Stanton and Donaldson are healthy. I think it would be a mistake to send Andujar down again and not play him. He’s hitting .281 in nine games and his contact approach at the plate is something the Yankees greatly need.

There’s too many holes in the lineup and too much dead wood on the roster getting playing time because of money owed and not because of recent performance. Andujar is more deserving a roster spot than Gallo or Hicks or Tim Locastro. Andujar’s outfield defense is much improved, and even if it were as bad as it once was, I don’t care. The Yankees’ defense is strong enough at the other positions that they can afford an adventure in left field in exchange for Andujar’s bat.

Let Andujar play, and see what he can do for the first time since the end of 2018. Otherwise, the Yankees will eventually lose Andujar to another team who will play him every day, while the Yankees continue to give endless chances to Gallo and Hicks or roster Locastro.

8. I’m not ready to apologize to Gleyber Torres for asking for him to be traded and no longer a Yankee prior to and even during this season. Torres’ power has returned as he has matched his home run total of 2021 of nine in less than one-third of the plate appearances. His OPS+ and wRC+ are better than league average, even though he’s only hitting .250/.287/.474. He’s on the right track and his career is in a much better place than it was a year ago, but his defense is still not trustworthy and Baseball IQ on the bases remains a disaster. On Tuesday, Torres thought he hit his 10th home run of the season and went into his homer jog after hitting first base, only to realize the ball hit the wall. He then picked it up and went for what would have been a stand-up triple if he had been running hard out of the box, but was thrown out after oversliding the base. After picking up another hit in his next at-bat, he was thrown out trying to steal second. Two of the Yankees’ first seven outs on Tuesday were made by Torres … on the bases.

I’m not about to retract my blog ‘When Will Yankees Say Goodbye to Gleyber Torres?’ yet. Not after seven weeks following what we saw from him in 2020 and 2021. I want to like and appreciate Torres again, and we’re getting close to that, but I’m going to need a little more time.

9. The Yankees’ ability to not just stay afloat, but beat good teams without DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, and without one-third of their Opening Day bullpen is impressive.

This was the Yankees’ lineup on Thursday against the Rays:

Aaron Judge, CF
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Miguel Andujar, LF
Joey Gallo, RF
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
Jose Trevino, C
Matt Carpenter, DH
Marwin Gonzalez, 3B

If you told me on May 26, Torres would be batting third, Andujar at cleanup, Kiner-Falefa up from ninth to sixth, Trevino above to people, Carpenter on the Yankees and Gonzalez starting at third, I would have assumed the Yankees were battling the Orioles for last place in the division. I would have also assumed I would need some new hobby or activity to get me through the summer. Instead, it’s June 1 and the Yankees have the best record in baseball, a five-game loss column lead on the Blue Jays and a six-game loss column lead on the Rays with the Red Sox closer to having the No. 1 pick in 2023 draft (six games) than they are to the Yankees (12 games).

10. The Yankees are in a great place. A great, unexpected place. But they’re not safe. Unfortunately, they don’t play in the AL Central or NL East where they would be just be counting down the days until the postseason with a bye to the division series. They still have to worry about the Blue Jays (who have won six straight), and the Rays (who have followed up their series-salvaging wins over the Yankees on Saturday and Sunday with back-to-back losses to the Rangers). They will likely have to worry about them all season long.

The Yankees are the best team in the American League and the best team in baseball, but these are the things (in order) that will prevent them from reaching the World Series:

1. Health
2. Aaron Boone
3. Their offense
4. Rays/Blue Jay
5. Astros

The Yankees are going to the postseason, though that’s not an accomplishment when 40 percent of the league makes the playoffs. An accomplishment would be winning the AL East, having the best record in the league and getting home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast.

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