Dec. 12, 2013 was a sad day. That is the day the Mariners signed Robinson Cano to a 10-year, $240 million contract. The Yankees’ best player had been lowballed by the only team he had ever known, the richest team in baseball, while the front office was spending the money that should have been used on Cano to sign Jacoby Ellsbury.

Since that day, the Yankees have used the following players at second base:

Brian Roberts
Stephen Drew
Martin Prado
Brendan Ryan
Yangervis Solarte
Jose Pirela
Dean Anna
Kelly Johnson
Rob Refsnyder
Gregorio Petit
Dustin Ackley
Starlin Castro
Ronald Torreyes
Donovan Solano
Tyler Wade
Chase Headley
Pete Kozma
Neil Walker

That’s 18 players, and a lot of bad players, that have played second base for the New York Yankees since Cano left. It’s been a long four-plus seasons.

But on Sunday that all changed. On Sunday, 21-year-old top prospect Gleyber Torres started at second base, nearly 13 years (May 3, 2005) since I was sitting in my freshman dorm room in Boston watching a 22-year-old Robinson Cano make his Major League debut for the Yankees on what was the earliest version of MLBTV (it was actually very good quality even for 13 years ago). Like Cano was with Tony Womack, Torres was also needed because of a production problem, and like Cano, Torres went hitless in his first game. Even without having that ball tossed into the dugout for Gene Monahan (then) or Steve Donahue (now) to place a piece of tape around and write down the first hit of a rookie’s career, there was a breath of fresh air knowing that the position was now stable.

I hate platoons and I hate constant lineup changes. I understand the need for a day off here and there and for a DH day here and there as well, but running out the same lineup and defensive alignment nearly every day (something the 2018 Yankees haven’t done at all), is the goal. The Yankees are close to that goal now, and once Greg Bird returns in a few weeks, they will have achieved (barring on any other injuries … knock on all the wood possible). Once Bird returns, the Yankees are looking at these nine players playing nearly every day:

C Gary Sanchez
1B Greg Bird
2B Gleyber Torres
3B Miguel Andujar
SS Didi Gregorius
LF Brett Gardner
CF Aaron Hicks
RF Aaron Judge
DH Giancarlo Stanton

That is a beautiful thing. Take a minute to just stare at that. OK, take a few minutes to stare at that.

Maybe Andujar cools off so much that Brandon Drury takes over for him, and Drury moves to second and Torres moves to third. Either way, the Yankees have a set nine players. This mean Ronald Torreyes can go back to his utility role, moving around the field to give players days off, Tyler Austin can spell Bird when needed (and knowing the way the Yankees baby their players returning from injury, it will be a lot) and Neil Walker can go to the bench and do whatever someone hitting .172/.232/.203 in 69 plate appearances does. I don’t want to say that Neil Walker is the new Chase Headley, but if his name weren’t Neil, I would definitely be saying that. His first name is the only thing keeping him from such ridicule.

Gleyber Torres cruised through the minors, playing just 370 games there before reaching the majors. And if it weren’t for the freak injury at home plate last season, he would have been a Yankee for the stretch run with Headley watching from the bench. (Instead, Todd Frazier was a Yankee for the stretch run and Headley watched from the bench, and that worked out too.) He’s a star in the making and whether his career unfolds at second, short or third, and whether that changes in a few weeks, for now, Torres gives the Yankees something they haven’t had since Game 161 of the 2013 season: stability at second base.

Last season, from June 13 through June 20, the Yankees lost seven-straight games to the Angels and A’s. Two of the losses were walk-off losses and four of the losses were by one run. After that awful stretch, the Yankees then lost four of their next seven to the Angels, Rangers and White Sox. They weren’t exactly losing to good teams, but even despite their miserable two weeks, after their 4-3 walk-off loss to the White Sox on June 27, they were still 41-34 and only trailed the Red Sox by one game in the AL East.

On June 28, the Yankees called up 22-year-old, highly-regarded prospect Miguel Andujar for his Major League debut. He was penciled in as the DH and to bat seventh in the lineup. In his first at-bat, he produced a two-run single. In his second at-bat, he hit another single, which would have been for a third RBI, but the slow-footed Chase Headley was thrown out at home. In his third at-bat, he grounded out. In his fourth at-bat, he walked. In his fifth at-bat, he lined a two-run double to center field. His Major League debut: 3-for-4 with a double, a walk and four RBIs. With top prospect Gleyber Torres needing season-ending Tommy John surgery from an injury suffered the week before, and with Headley once again struggling, the Yankees might have found their everyday third baseman. Though his defense was still a work in progress, which is why he was the DH for his debut, the kid could mash.

Andujar was sent down after the game and wouldn’t return until September as a mid-September, late-season call-up.

I wanted Andujar to be the Opening Day starting third baseman for the Yankees in 2018, but the late-February trade for Brandon Drury ended that. Despite showing off his bat in the early going of spring training with a home run in seemingly every at-bat, Andujar’s defense was still being questioned and he was sent to the minors to begin the season. But it didn’t take long for the injuries to mount and Andujar was on the Yankees in their first series of the season against the Blue Jays.

Andujar went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his season debut, which was the Yankees’ fourth game of the season. He didn’t play again for four days when he made his Major League debut at third, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout. The next day, he was back at DH, and he went 0-for-5 with a strikeout. Andujar was now 0-for-12 with four strikeouts to begin the season.

The following day, Boone put him back at third base and he went 1-for-3 with an RBI and hasn’t stopped. Over his last seven games, all as the starting third baseman, Andujar is 9-for-28 (.321) with four doubles, a triple, a home run, five RBIs, two walks, two strikeouts and .998 OPS. Four of those seven games have been multi-hit games, including the last three. His last at-bat on Tuesday night against the Marlins was a long home run (his first of the season) to left field that prevented the Yankees from being shut out for the first time this season. Andujar has gotten hot, and I figured that the Yankees would plan on keeping him at third until Drury gets healthy (if he does) and have Torres come up to play second for the struggling Tyler Wade. Instead, the Yankees’ plan on Thursday night against the Blue Jays was to not have Andujar in the lineup at all.

Because of the need for Giancarlo Stanton to DH that leaves only third base as an option for Andujar now that Aaron Hicks is back. Ronald Torreyes got the start at third base on Thursday, so that meant the bench for Andujar.

If you Aaron Boone or Brian Cashman or whoever actually makes the Yankees lineup wants Torreyes in the lineup then it has to be at second base for Tyler Wade. It can’t be at third base for Andujar. I have been as high as anyone (though I’m not sure there’s actually many people high on him) on Wade’s ability to be a full-time Major Leaguer, who can play nearly every position. Last year’s .155/.222/.224 in 63 plate appearances was easy to chalk up to Joe Girardi sitting him for weeks at a time, but this year it’s much of the same at .086/.158/.143 in 38 plate appearances. I bought Tyler Wade stock at $7 and it’s now at $0.29. It’s likely that Wade needs to play every day and get consistent at-bats to be productive, but in a season in which the Yankees already trail the Red Sox by 6.5 games, the Yankees can’t afford to have an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup, waiting and hoping he gets going.

Since Torres is playing third base every day in Triple-A, it’s obvious the Yankees’ plan is to have him come up as a third baseman, move Drury over to second where he has played the majority of his career, and have Neil Walker and Tyler Austin as a platoon at first until Greg Bird is back. That would make Andujar the odd-man out since the organization clearly favors Drury over him (though I’m not sure why), and it will likely be Andujar who’s no longer a Yankee at the end of July if the team needs starting pitching help. Once Torres is up and Drury is healthy, it’s back to Triple-A for Andujar to work on his defense and continue to not work on his hitting since there’s nothing offensively he can learn anymore in the minors.

As long as Andujar’s in the majors, he needs to play. He’s a consensus Top 5 prospect in the organization with nothing left to prove in the minors. Having him on the bench is idiotic. Giving him a rest as a 23-year-old on April 19 is absurd. He’s not going to get better playing defensively by not playing, and if you want to pull him for a late-inning defensive replacement, go ahead, that’s what Torreyes is there for it. But not playing him the night after he crushes his first home run of the season and is arguably the hottest hitter on the team is irresponsible.

Yes, the Yankees won on Thursday night. Yes, they’re back over. 500. But Miguel Andujar needs to play. He needs to play every day as long as he’s a Yankee.

When I left Rogers Centre after the second game of the season, I was in the best mood I had been in since I left the Stadium after Game 5 of the ALCS. The Yankees had started the season with back-to-back wins, the pitching was dominant and everyone in the offense was contributing (even Tyler Wade). It wasn’t until I returned home that everything started to unravel.

***

In Game 3 of the 2018 season, Tyler Austin showed that everyone in the lineup could produce, and in games when the top of the order wasn’t producing, others would step up. But Aaron Boone ran into his first real test as Yankees manager and failed miserably.

Tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Boone took the ball from CC Sabathia and gave it to Adam Warren to start the inning. Aside from Jonathan Holder and Chasen Shreve, Warren is the Yankees’ third-least trustworthy option. A groundout, a walk and a groundout later with the go-ahead run on second, Warren had somewhat done his job, and after just seven pitches, Boone called on the Yankees’ least trustworthy bullpen option: Jonathan Holder. Sure enough, Holder immediately gave up a single to Luke Maile and the Yankees now trailed 3-2.

Austin hit his second home run of the game in the seventh to tie the game once again and Boone brought in Dellin Betances to keep the game tied in the bottom half of the inning.

Betances gave up a leadoff single to Curtis Granderson (ex-Yankee comes through in a big spot against the Yankees) before striking out Josh Donaldson on three pitches. With Justin Smoak up, Granderson got the biggest lead of all time and took off for second and it took possibly the best throw down to second in Major League history from Gary Sanchez to throw out Granderson for the second out. Smoak ended the inning with a groundout.

The Yankees didn’t score in the eighth, so with the game still tied what would Boone do for the bottom of the inning? He could go to Chasen Shreve, the least trustworthy bullpen option remaining, who hadn’t pitched in a game yet. He could go to Chad Green, who didn’t pitch the day before, but did throw 26 pitches on Opening Day. He could go to David Robertson, who threw just five pitches the day before in his first appearance of the season. I’m assuming he didn’t want to go to Aroldis Chapman at all because he had pitched in the first two games of the series, throwing 33 pitches. Boone decided to go with Dellin Betances for a second inning.

Knowing everything we know about Betances since he emerged as an elite reliever in 2014, it’s incredibly risky to ask him to pitch a second inning. On top of that, given the way his 2017 season ended and how he pitched on Opening Day, you would think the Yankees would want him to gain some confidence moving forward. His performance in the seventh inning was a confidence builder.

After falling behind Yangervis Solarte (ex-Yankee alert) 2-0, Solarte, clearly sitting on a fastball got one and didn’t miss it. He crushed it to center field for a go-ahead home run. Betances bounced back to strike out Randal Grichuk and then Kevin Pillar singled. And then Pillar stole second. And then Pillar stole third. And then Pillar stole home. It was a disastrous and embarrassing inning for the most pivotal member of the bullpen and absolutely crushing after his previous inning. Around the single and three steals, he allowed a walk, but did strike out the side. But if his confidence hadn’t hit an all-time low near the end of last season, it certainly had now. The Yankees lost 5-3.

***

The next day, the Yankees had built a 4-1 lead heading to the bottom of the seventh, so with nine outs to go and this bullpen, I figured it was safe to sit down for Easter dinner with my family. It wasn’t.

Green had pitched a scoreless sixth and Boone called on Tommy Kahnle for the seventh. No problem there. Kahnle walked Donaldson to start the inning and then gave up a two-run home run to Justin Smoak. The Yankees’ lead was now 4-3. Kahnle retired Solarte and Granderson, and with two outs and no one on, Boone called on Robertson. He retired Grichuk on two pitches.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees’ lead was 4-3 and Robertson was still on the mound. Russell Martin singled on the first pitch of the inning and then Pillar lined out to center on the seventh pitch of his at-bat for the first out of the inning. Aledmys Diaz doubled to center to move Martin to third, but Devon Travis jumped on the first pitch he saw and grounded it right back to Robertson for the second out. The Blue Jays had second and third with two outs, and Robertson was one out away from holding the lead.

Donaldson came to the plate, serving as the DH because his right arm was so messed up that he couldn’t reach first with throws on Opening Day. Boone and Robertson decided the best move was to intentionally walk Donaldson to load the bases for Smoak, who had already homered in the game. (Donaldson would later go on the disabled list.)

Robertson got behind 2-0 and then got even at 2-2. The fifth pitch of the at-bat was fouled away and the sixth pitch was a ball to move the count full. The seventh and eighth pitches of the at-bat were fouled away. The ninth pitch? The ninth pitch was destroyed to left-center for a go-ahead grand slam. The feeling leaving Rogers Centre after the second game of the season had been erased. Back-to-back bullpen meltdowns had put the Yankees back at .500, and with the way the Easter game unfolded, I thought, That is the low point of the season. Well, I wanted it to be. If the low point were to come in Game 4, at least I knew that the next 158 games wouldn’t crush me the way that one had.

It wasn’t.

***

A week later in Game 10, after dropping two of first three games to the lowly Orioles, the Yankees scored five runs in the first inning to ensure they wouldn’t lose the four-game series. Unfortunately, Jordan Montgomery was unable to get through five innings and the Orioles slowly came back. The Yankees led 6-4 at the end of the fifth, but in the seventh, Boone stuck again.

Domingo German had been called up from Triple-A and he relived Montgomery in the fifth. German threw 11 pitches in the fifth and 24 pitches in the sixth. He allowed one run on two hits with four strikeouts. He had done his job. But Boone wanted him to keep doing his job, so he left him out there for the seventh.

The day before, Boone used Warren (13 pitches), Robertson (20 pitches) and Luis Cessa (10 pitches) in relief of Sonny Gray. The day before that, Boone used every reliever but Warren in the team’s five-hour, 20-minute, 14-inning loss. (It was Jonathan Holder, who lost the game, allowing four runs, three earned in the 14th.)

The bullpen as a whole might have been tired in Game 10, which was partially Boone’s fault for pulling his starters each game with low pitch counts, a trend that had been backfiring on rookie managers around the league, and partially because of the 14-inning game. But that game had happened Friday night into early Saturday morning, and not every reliever was overextended, and it was now Sunday afternoon.

With one on and two outs in the seventh, German had more than done his job, but Boone kept sticking with him, trying to squeeze out with fringe Major Leaguers the way his predecessor Joe Girardi would constantly do. It came as no surprise when Anthony Santander got the green light on 3-0 and hit a two-run home run to give the Orioles a 7-6 lead as they had come all the way back.

The Yankees came back in the seventh on a two-out RBI single from none other than Austin Romine. Boone then went to Betances for a scoreless eighth and Chapman for a scoreless ninth. Apparently, Robertson was unavailable because he went to Shreve for the 10th. I was certain Shreve would give up a run if not more, but he pitched a perfect 10th. Then in the 11th, Boone went to Robertson. So Robertson was available. Boone was willing to lose with Shreve on the mound and Robertson in the bullpen, which means Boone would have had to lie in his postgame press conference and say that Robertson was unavailable because he would have never been able to such a decision.

It wasn’t until the 12th when Adam Warren came in to ruin the game. With Pedro Alvarez on first and two outs, Warren gave up back-to-back singles to Santander and Craig Gentry and the Orioles had an 8-7 lead.

In the bottom of the 12th, Boone let Romine bat for himself, despite Sanchez being on the bench. The only way this is OK is if Sanchez has a broken bone, and if he had a broken bone, he would be on the DL. So if Sanchez is on the bench and not on the DL then he bats for Romine no matter what. Luckily for Boone, Brad Brach was off and walked Romine on five pitches. Brach then walked Didi Gregorius (he had pinch hit for Ronald Torreyes in the seventh) on five pitches. The Yankees had first and second and no one out for the top of their order.

Aside from Nick Swisher, the worst sacrifice bunter in recent memory has been Brett Gardner. Bunt for a hit? No problem. Bunt to move runners over? Disaster. Girardi never learned this and Boone likely didn’t know about it, so he had Gardner do just that. After failing (to no surprise) to get the bunt down on the first four pitches of the at-bat, Gardner bunted again with two strikes(!) and laid it down. Brach was unable to come up with it and the Yankees had the bases loaded with no outs for Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees now had a 75 percent change of winning. The Yankees were going to win the game.

Two pitches later, Judge grounded the ball right back to Brach who throw home to Caleb Joseph for one out and Joseph threw to first for the second out. A 1-2-3 double play. The Yankees now had second and third with two outs for Stanton and a chance for him to erase the early-season Stadium boos and have his first big Yankee moment.

He struck out swinging.

The Yankees were now .500 again at 5-5 and headed to Boston for a three-game series. THAT loss to the Orioles had to be the lowest point of the season.

It wasn’t.

***

In the series opener against the Red Sox, the game was over before it started. Luis Severino gave up one run in the bottom of the first and needed 27 pitches to get through the inning. That one run seemed insurmountable with Chris Sale on the mound, but to put it out of reach for good, Severino gave up three more in the second.

The Red Sox led 5-1 through five, but in the sixth they ended the game. Kahnle started the inning in relief of Severino and this is what happened:

Groundout
Double
Walk
Walk
Double (two runs)
Sacrifice fly (one run)
Walk

Then Chasen Shreve came in:

Hit by pitch
E5 (one run)
Walk (one run)
Home run (four runs)
Groundout

A nine-run sixth inning for the Red Sox made it 14-1 and they would win by that score.

Now THAT loss had to be the lowest point of the season.

It wasn’t.

***

The Yankees routed the Marlins on Monday night because that what good teams and teams with championship aspirations do against bad teams and teams clearly tanking. The Yankees won 12-1 and after beating the Tigers on Friday, they were now 8-7 and maybe ready to go on a run of their own like the Red Sox were.

On Tuesday, Masahiro Tanaka quickly gave up three runs in the first to the Marlins. A Gregorius two-run error was part of it, but Tanaka gave up three singles and a walk around the error, and it’s hard to say anything negative about Gregorius at this point of the season.

In the bottom of the first, Gardner and Judge both walked and looked like the young left-hander Jarlin Garcia might have a little poop in his pants pitching at Yankee Stadium with eight of his first 11 pitches going for balls and Stanton coming up. Nope. Stanton grounded into a double play to ruin the rally.

The Marlins scored again in the fourth to make it 4-0, but even as their lead grew, it felt like the Yankees would come back and win the game. This is a Marlins team whose best player is Starlin Castro.

In the bottom of the third, with one out, Gardner and Judge walked again. Here it is. The moment where Stanton would make the wild lefty pay. Stanton got ahead 3-0 and then swung on 3-0, fouling away what would have been ball 4. He popped up to second on the next pitch.

Tanaka retired the first two hitters in the fifth, but then a slow-roller to third and a walk brought up J.T. Realmuto and he deposited a three-run home run to right field. The Marlins lead was now 7-0.

The Yankees had one last chance to get back in the game when they loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, but Neil Walker and Tyler Austin struck out to end the inning. The Yankees lost 9-1 to the Marlins. A Marlins team that traded away Stanton and Marcel Ozuna and Christian Yelich and Dee Gordon in the offseason. A Marlins team that knows their season is only going to be 162 games for the foreseeable future. A Marlins team that is tanking so hard, Major League Baseball might have to do something to prevent such obvious tanking in the future.

***

If Tuesday’s 9-1 loss to the Marlins wasn’t the lowest point of the 2018 season then I don’t want to know what is. The Yankees are 8-8 after 16 games and already trail the Red Sox in the AL East by six games and the season isn’t even three weeks old.

The Yankees’ next 21 games are against Blue Jays (4), Twins (4), Angels (3), Astros (3), Indians (3) and Red Sox (3). Thankfully, the lowest point of the season is out of the way and now I know that by May 10, when this 21-game stretch is over, if I will have a baseball season to watch this summer or not.

Here is Part I and here is Part II of my three-day, three-game trip to Boston.

I had a little extra pep in my step walking downstairs to the breakfast buffet on Thursday. Everyone else in our hotel seemed to be there for some sort on conference with badges hanging from their necks and looks of fatigue and wanting to go home on their faces. But not me. I felt great. The combination of the Yankees win and the bench-clearing brawl to reignite the rivalry had me walking around Boston like Joseph-Gordon Levitt after he sleeps with Zooey Deschanel for the first time in 500 Days of Summer.

The weather was finally nice in Boston. It had felt like winter for the first two games of the series, but now it felt like spring as we walked around Back Bay. The Yankees would be going for the series win later that night, and the anticipation of the game still several hours away had me pumped.

After a short pregame session at Cask N’Flagon, Brittni and I walked into Fenway, and shortly after game started, it started to rain as the Baseball Gods continued to punish Major League Baseball and its fans for starting the season on March 29. The beautiful day had turned into a disgusting night, and it might not have been as cold as the previous two nights, but the rain was an annoyance.

As the rain rapidly increased, so did Sonny Gray’s pitch count. He only needed 16 pitches to get through the first inning despite a single and hit by pitch that got the crowd’s attention after Wednesday night‘s events. But in the second inning, the wheels came off.

Eduardo Nunez singled to lead off the inning and then Gray walked Jackie Bradley Jr., who does everything in his power to not walk. Gray’s first pitch to Sandy Leon was wild, which allowed Nunez to move to third. Leon singled in Nunez and Bradley moved to second. Gray the  walked Brock Holt, who entered the game batting .077/.294/.077, to load the bases. Mookie Betts drove in Bradley with a sacrifice fly and then Andrew Benintendi drove in Leon with a fielder’s choice. An error on Tyler Wade allowed Benintendi to go to second. Mitch Moreland then singled to score Holt. Gray struck out J.D. Martinez and got Rafael Devers to ground out to end the inning, but the damage had been done. Four runs on three hits and two walks and 33 pitches. The Yankees had their work cut out for them thanks to another egg being laid by Gray.

The Yankees went down 1-2-3 again in the third as Rick Porcello remained perfect through three. Gray followed up his disastrous second by allowing back-to-back doubles to begin the third and make it 5-0. After a pair of strikeouts, a groundout scored the sixth run. The Yankees were down 6-0 after three, the rain wasn’t slowing down and I wanted to be back at the hotel bar eating a burger, drinking a beer and watching this awful game on TV along with the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Giancarlo Stanton got hit by a pitch in the fourth, which led to cheers at Fenway as if the crowd were riled up for Pearl Jam to come out for an encore. Unfortunately, that would be the only baserunner of the inning and the no-hitter was still intact.

Gray gave up a leadoff single to Moreland and Aaron Boone had seen enough. I had seen enough two innings prior, but unfortunately I’m not allowed to make pitching changes for the Yankees (though they would be better off if I were). Domingo German relieved Gray and retired the next three batters to end the inning.

The Yankees went down in order in the fifth and after the bottom of the fifth, the umpires called for the tarp. Great. A rain delay in the middle of a 6-0 game. I wanted to leave, but I also wanted to watch the heart of the order bat again in the event that they could put a rally together. Luckily, our tickets included the Royal Rooters club, so we hung out in there during the 45-minute rain delay.

The Yankees went down in order again in the sixth and now I was worried. Was I really going to  watch Rick Porcello (the worst AL Cy Young winner in history) of all pitchers no-hit the Yankees? I was nine outs away from watching the worst Yankees regular-season loss I had ever seen at Fenway Park.

Thankfully, Aaron Judge doubled to leadoff the seventh and save me from watching the Yankees get no-hit. Stanton followed the double with a single and i started to get excited. But the excitement didn’t last long as Didi Gregorius flew out and then Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks struck out to end the inning. It was time to go. The Yankees were down 6-0 with six outs to their name and I was drenched and hungry.

We got back to the hotel restaurant/bar and warmth and were enjoying some beer and food and playoff hockey when the bartender started to change the channel. She changed the channel to the Yankees-Red Sox, which meant something happened or was happening. Did the Yankees come back? Was there another brawl?

Sure enough, the Red Sox had brought in Marcus Walden with a six-run lead in the ninth and he proceeded to walk Judge, give up a single to Giancarlo Stanton and walk Gregorius. Sanchez had just hit a bases-clearing double and was standing on second when the bartender changed the channel. I was excited, but not excited in the event that they did complete a six-run, ninth-inning comeback and I had left early. 

Craig Kimbrel made sure I didn’t regret my decision to trade cold, wet, miserable Yankees baseball for food, beer and warmth. He got Hicks to ground out and the struck out Neil Walker and Wade, to no surprise, to end the game.

The Yankees had lost the game and the series and were now 4 1/2 games back in the division after just 13 games. After three days and three games in cold, wet weather, I was ready to leave Boston and I’m sure the Yankees were too.