Two series into the season for the Yankees and two series wins. The Yankees took two of three from the Phillies at the Stadium and their only loss came in a game Aaron Boone gave away with his lineup.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Monday’s game was the Brandon Marsh game. If not for Marsh misplaying DJ LeMahieu’s leadoff line drive into a triple and running into the third out on the bases in the fifth inning the game may have been a whole lot different. Instead, the Yankees won easily, 8-1, in what was a game that was starting to seem like one of those games where the Yankees have a chance to end the game early, but don’t, and eventually lose. Thanks to Marsh, it never got to that point and the Phillies extended their season-opening losing streak to four straight.

2. The streak wouldn’t get to five, and the way Yankees fans can thank Marsh for Monday night’s win, Phillies fans can thank the Yankees manager for getting them their first win of the season on Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s game was over before it started. The moment Boone posted the lineup, the Phillies had won. This was the lineup:

DJ LeMahieu, 1B
Aaron Judge, DH
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Giancarlo Stanton, RF
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Aaron Hicks, LF
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, CF
Kyle Higashioka, C
Anthony Volpe, SS

No Anthony Rizzo. A 5-6-7-8 of Donaldson-Hicks-Kiner-Falefa-Higashioka? Irresponsible.

3. It was the fifth game of the season. The Yankees had last Wednesday off. They had last Friday off. They will have a day off before the start of the Orioles series. In nine days, they will have have had three full days off. That’s not counting coming from Florida the previous six weeks for spring training which isn’t exactly bootcamp and having nearly four months off prior to that since Game 4 of the ALCS.

I understand the concept of “lose the battle to win the war,” but the Yankees haven’t won the war in a long time. Unnecessary days off, extra rest and load management has helped extend their championship drought to 13 years (and going on 14 if it isn’t ended this year).

4. It came as no surprise that the 5-6-7-8 hitters combined to go 0-for-13 with four strikeouts. And it was no surprise the Yankees were being shut out until the bottom of the ninth when a LeMahieu solo home run erased the zero. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth when Josh Donaldson came up with two on and two outs, but weakly flew out to end the game. Donaldson left four on in the game, got hurt the following day and is potentially headed for the injured list after going 2-for-16 with six strikeouts to begin the season.

This is what Boone said about Donaldson this offseason: “I think you’re crazy to think that a bounceback is not in there offensively. This guy still has bat speed and, again, is super talented.”

I guess everyone in the world is crazy other than Boone. Donaldson is as washed up offensively as washed up gets, and if he weren’t owed $29.75 million he would be doing something other than playing baseball for the Yankees. There’s no bouncing back. There’s no bat speed left, made obvious by his 1-for-13 with six strikeouts against righties. He’s now an automatic out that continues to bat fifth and be treated like an MVP rather than a former MVP of eight years ago.

5. Donaldson isn’t the only one Boone made outrageous and outlandish remarks and wildly inaccurate evaluations about. A little over a week ago, Boone had this to say about Aaron Hicks: “I really have liked what I have seen from Hicks especially the last couple weeks of spring training, where I feel like the at-bats, the edge, everything has been there.”

There’s lying and then there’s that quote from Boone. If Boone really liked what he saw from Hicks, why didn’t he start any of the games and receive just one pinch-hit at-bat in the Giants series?

6. Boone made good on his promise and started Hicks on both Monday and Tuesday after Hicks complained about his playing time on Sunday morning. After whining about not being an everyday player, Hicks went 0-for-6 with a walk and two strikeouts and heard boos from a Stadium crowd that likely listened to or read about his playing time comments from the weekend. A crowd that hasn’t forgotten how he played the outfield against the Rays last September.

On Wednesday, Hicks was left out of the lineup for the fourth time in six games. His limited playing time to date this season coupled with the vitriol from his own home crowd must have been embarrassing enough, but things would get worse in a game he wasn’t even playing in.

In the bottom of the eighth, with the Yankees hanging on to a 4-2 lead and Gleyber Torres on second with two outs, the left-handed Franchy Cordero came to the plate to face the left-handed Gregory Soto. With Giancarlo Stanton on the bench for having had an unnecessary day off, he seemed like the option Boone would call on. If not Stanton, then surely the switch-hitting Hicks would bat for Cordero, who has enough trouble hitting major-league pitching, let alone left-handed pitching. Boone chose to not use Stanton and give him a full day off. He also chose to not use Hicks. Boone let Cordero bat for himself and he struck out on three pitches in what Michael Kay called on the broadcast a “non-competitive at-bat.” I don’t know that it will be topped in terms of being non-competitive by another Yankee this season even with 156 games remaining.

The move was an indictment on both Boone and Hicks. Boone for going against everything every statistical figure in the world said about the matchup, and Hicks for being so bad that he can’t even be trusted to bat for Cordero against a lefty.

7. In less than one week, we have learned that Hicks is not part of the current “A” outfield configuration despite Brian Cashman and Boone saying they expected Hicks to be the team’s starting left fielder. (Once Harrison Bader returns, Hicks will be further removed from playing time.) We learned the Yankees only view Hicks as a left fielder as Kiner-Falefa (with now two games of outfield experience to his name) started two games in center field with Hicks starting zero. (The Yankees gave Hicks a seven-year, $70 million extension to play a position he’s now not allowed to play.) We learned that Boone would rather have a helpless Cordero face a lefty than let Hicks get any additional plate appearances. With Cordero getting the same amount of starts as Hicks this season (2), and with Cordero getting that at-bat on Wednesday, we learned Cordero is higher on the Yankees’ outfield depth chart than Hicks. We officially learned that Hicks is only still a Yankee because he’s owed $30,357,144 for this year and the next two years and then $1 million to not play for the Yankees in 2026 for a total of $31,357,144.

8. I don’t know why Hicks isn’t playing playing over Kiner-Falefa, who isn’t a major-league player. I don’t know why Boone didn’t use Hicks as a pinch hitter for Cordero. The only thing I can think of is that the Yankees are trying to make it so if they are unable to trade Hicks before his 10-5 rights kick in (they won’t be able to) that he won’t block a trade if they are somehow able to move him once they do kick in (though they won’t be able to trade him once they kick in either.) As I wrote after the Giants series, the only way this ends is in his release.

After the 2018 season when Cashman regrettably passed on Bryce Harper because he had an outfield plan of Judge, Stanton, Hicks and Clint/Jackson Frazier, he turned around and extended Hicks for seven years and $70 million, saying, “He has more gas in his tank. He has more mountains to climb.” There is no gas left in the tank. There are no more mountains.

9. Through the first two series and six games, the Yankees have been carried by who you would think. Gerrit Cole has allowed one earned run in 12 innings (as the result of a pitch timer violation) and 19 strikeouts; Aaron Judge has a 1.032 OPS, Stanton has a couple of home runs, Rizzo has been his normal self, LeMahieu’s hard-hit ability has returned and the bullpen has been dominant (outside of Michael King). But the one player who has exceeding first-week expectations is Torres.

Through six games, Torres is batting .421/.560/.789 with a double, two home runs, six RBIs, and six walks to two strikeouts. He has been the Yankees’ best hitter, which is kind of ridiculous, since again, Judge has a 1.032 OPS.

I have called for the Yankees to trade Torres since the end of the 2021 season, having given up on him. One week isn’t going to change my mind, but it’s a start. I wish the Yankees could figure out a way to make an infield of Torres, LeMahieu, Rizzo, Volpe and Oswald Peraza work, but that would entail releasing Donaldson and moving on from Kiner-Falefa, and neither of those things are likely to happen.

For now, I’m cautiously optimistic that I will be wrong about Torres. I want to be wrong about him. I don’t want him to be who he was in 2020, 2021 and for long stretches in 2022. I want him to do well and be a star because that helps the Yankees win, and the Yankees winning helps my overall health.

10. The Yankees’ schedule is about to get a little tougher. Yes, going to Baltimore is tougher than hosting the mediocre Giants and the banged-up Phillies. The Orioles were a dropped fly ball from opening the season with a series winning in Boston and then took two of three from the Rangers in Texas. The Orioles you could count on for 16 or 17 Yankees wins each season are gone. While they aren’t close to being a contender, they are certainly going to be on the bubble for a postseason berth, and if they ever get starting pitcher, they would finally be out of their near-decade hole of historical losing.

The Yankees are about to start a stretch of 10 straight games without a day off, so if you think the unnecessary rest and spring training-looking lineups from this past week were bad, get ready.

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After a disappointing (and somewhat embarrassing) loss on Saturday, the Yankees looked like themselves on Sunday, winning their first series of the season against a bad Giants team. Beating up on bad teams is what the Yankees should do, and they did just that in two of the first three games to open the season.

Opening Day was awesome. It was as good and as clean of an Opening Day win as you could ask for, and it made for an enjoyable Thursday night, Friday and first half of Saturday, being able to bask in the glory of starting the season 1-0. I wrote about Opening Day here, so while the Thoughts typically cover the entire most recent series, I’m just going to keep this to the games on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Clarke Schmidt was filthy on Saturday … the first one-and-one-third times through the order.

Here is what Schmidt did in the first three innings: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Here is what he did in the fourth inning: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 HR

The Schmidt we saw in innings 1 through 3 was the guy I expected him to develop into in now his fourth season of getting innings in the majors. The guy we saw in the fourth inning is the guy I feared he would be with the Yankees needing him to step up with 60 percent of their expected rotation on the injured list.

2. Schmidt was bad, but he wasn’t the only one. Michael King, pitching for the first time since July 22 (and since his offseason comments about the Astros can’t beat the Yankees when healthy) allowed five baserunners and two runs in 1 2/3 innings. Clay Holmes (who is supposed to be the Yankees closer despite losing all fan trust in the second half of last season) allowed two runs on three hits and couldn’t even complete a full inning.

I’m not worried about the Yankees’ bullpen because of its depth and because Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta and Ron Marinaccio are all outstanding (even if Aaron Boone had Marinaccio throw two innings and a career-high in pitches in a five-run game on freezing cold Opening Day and then had him throw another 1 1/3 innings on Sunday). But I’m worried that Boone will continue to use King and Holmes as his Nos. 1 and 2 relievers like it’s June of last year and not a completely new season.

3. Because Yankees pitching allowed seven runs to the mediocre-at-best Giants on Saturday, the Yankees trailed 7-4 entering the bottom of the ninth. Aaron Hicks made his 2023 debut as a pinch hitter for Jose Trevino and was immediately granted a 1-0 count because of a pitch timer violation on Camilo Doval. Hicks worked what should have been a walk in the at-bat to lead off the ninth, but got screwed by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher and ended up striking out. (I need robot ball-strike calls or ball-strike challenges in 2024. Enough is enough.) After the Hicks strikeout, Anthony Volpe singled and DJ LeMahieu walked. Aaron Judge singled in Volpe and then Anthony Rizzo walked to load the bases for Giancarlo Stanton with the Yankees trailing 7-5.

Doval got behind Stanton 2-0 and this had been Doval’s appearance to that point: a strikeout that should have been a walk, a single, a walk, another single, another walk, two pitch timer violations and now a 2-0 count to Stanton. Stanton should have laid his bat down and stood in the box batless, because there was absolutely no way Doval was going to throw three strikes before two more balls (unless Fletcher helped him out again). But I knew better than to think Stanton would take. Just as Doval came set, I said to my wife, “He’s swinging at this 2-0 no matter where it is.” Sure enough, Stanton swung and banged into a 6-4-3, game-ending double play.

Upon replay, it looked as though Thairo Estrada wasn’t on second base when he caught the ball for the first out of the double play, and it looked like LaMonte Wade may have not been connected to first when he got the ball for the second out either. There was a chance everyone on the play would be called safe after a review, but at worst, it looked like Rizzo would be safe at second, Stanton out at first with LeMahieu scoring to make it 7-6 and runners on second and third with two outs. Instead, the league office decided the call on the field would stand and the game was over.

You can complain about the horrendous called strike to Hicks (and I will) or you can question how the league office couldn’t recognize Estrada’s foot off the base (it was), but what Saturday’s loss comes down to is you can’t allow seven runs to this Giants team.

4. Outside of the seven runs allowed on Saturday, the Yankees didn’t allow any runs in the other two games. Eighteen scoreless innings from Yankees pitching in Games 1 and 3 of the series and season. Six of those were from Gerrit Cole on Thursday, and on Sunday, in his major-league debut, Johny Brito shut out the Giants for five innings.

With Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino expected back in a month (pray) or so (“or so” is more likely) there will still be a need for a fifth starter in the rotation since Frankie Montas has likely thrown his last pitch as a Yankee. Schmidt bombed in his first audition for that role, while Brito looked every bit the part of a major-league starter in his first opportunity. (Even if Domingo German dazzles on Tuesday, I want no part of German winning the spot in the rotation.)

Brito was phenomenal in first taste of the majors (5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K), and for a pitcher who barely walked anyone in the minors, that carried over to the majors. I love everything about Brito, but especially the lack of walks. Make the opposition beat you. Don’t nibble and don’t give free passes. Give me more Jhony Brito!

5. The power continued its presence as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka all hit home runs, and nearly everyone contributed to the win. If you didn’t watch the game, I’m sure you can guess who didn’t contribute. That would be the dynamic duo of Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who went a combined 0-for-7 with a walk and two strikeouts.

When the lineup was posted on Sunday, all I could do was laugh. DJ LeMahieu wasn’t in it, needing a day off after playing second base on Thursday, getting a day off on Friday and DHing on Saturday. With LeMahieu’s foot issue from last season, Boone and the Yankees are going to take the load management to a whole new level with their leadoff hitter this season. Even if there’s no proof it will keep his foot healthy or prevent him from injuring something else. But that wasn’t even the most egregious lineup decision for the third game of the season. That honor would go to Kiner-Falefa starting in center field.

Kiner-Falefa entered Sunday with zero career appearances in the outfield. He just started getting time in the outfield two weeks ago in spring training, yet here he was playing center field in Yankee Stadium, while a guy the Yankees gave $70 million to (of which they still owe three years and $30 million on) to play center field was on the bench. To make matters worse, the Giants’ starter on Sunday was the right-handed Ross Stripling. Kiner-Falefa is a right-handed bat. The $70 million Hicks is switch hitter who can therefore bat left-handed against right-handed starters.

The decision was more than puzzling. If Hicks isn’t going to play his most customary position over someone who has never played the position before, then why is he on the team? That’s before you even factor in Kiner-Falefa being a right-handed-only bat and Hicks being a switch hitter against the right-handed Stripling. It’s hurting my head trying to simplify this as I write about it.

6. Before the game, Hicks was asked by The Athletic about his playing time and he didn’t hold back.

“I have no idea what my role is,” Hicks said. “It’s kind of uncertain.”

“Uncertain” is a nice way to put it when you’re getting passed over for Kiner-Falefa.

 “I just want to play,” Hicks said. “I don’t want to come off the bench and face closers all day. I want to play the field, I want to play every day, and it’s just what I want to do. I want to start. I really don’t know what else to say.”

Hicks must have a short memory. Luckily, I don’t. Last August, in the middle of one of his many benchings during the 2022 season, Hicks said, “If I’m a guy that’s in the lineup, cool. If I’m not, it is what it is.” He did his best to say he didn’t care if he played or not last season and now all of a sudden he wants to play every day?

“If you would have told me (in spring training) that I wouldn’t have started the first three games, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Hicks said. “But it is what it is. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Just sit around and wait for my opportunity and try my best.”

No one likes saying “It is what it is” more than Hicks. I’m just glad he’s going to try his best when he plays. That’s nice of him.

Word of Hicks’ unhappiness got to Boone who was asked about it.

“He’ll play even though he hasn’t been in the lineup these first few,” Boone said. “It was kind of the last two days, didn’t love that matchup. But likely in there the next two days.”

7. Hicks wasn’t good enough to play in any of the first three games, but now he’s automatically playing the next two games? If Hicks plays that means someone sits,. Someone who deserves to play. You have to admire the Yankees’ inexcusable stubbornness to plan out their lineups days in advance and to begin giving their regulars scheduled days off not even a week into the season.

It’s obvious Boone doesn’t like Hicks, and I can’t blame him. Boone benched him outright on at least three occasions last season and pulled him from that September 9 game against the Rays when Hicks misplayed two fly balls in a row. In February, Hicks spoke about that benching and said, “Boone was like, ‘I’m sorry, I read the situation wrong. I understand what you’re going through … blah, blah, blah.'” And Boone responded by saying, “I don’t know if I said it like that … It was my decision to make and one I felt like I had to make in the moment. It’s as simple as that.”

8. As I stood at my seat at the Stadium in October during Game 5 of the ALDS and watched Boone help Hicks limp off the field following his season-ending collision with Oswaldo Cabrera, I figured it was the last time I would ever see Hicks play for the Yankees. I’m sure Hicks thought the same thing. I’m sure Boone, helping Hicks, thought the same thing. I don’t think Hicks expected to be a Yankee in 2023. I’m sure he thought they would eat money or attach a prospect to his contract to move him. They tried and no one wanted him. The only way another team will want him is if he’s released and then owed just the veteran minimum by the new team. That’s where this is headed, and until it gets there, if Hicks can’t even play his customary position over an infielder with no outfield experience, let alone center field experience, he’s just wasting a roster spot.

9. “I was concerned about things that shouldn’t be concerned about,” Hicks said in February reflecting on last season. “I should have been playing the game, trying to win the game, that’s it. I felt like I allowed myself to get wrapped up in the position change, the dropping down the order. I got really wrapped up in my performance, too.”

Hicks said all of that less than six weeks ago, and it seems like he’s headed down the same road. Rather than replying, “I’m here to do whatever is needed to help the team,” or “I’m just waiting for my chance and I’ll be ready,” or using some other boring, generic answer when asked by The Athletic about his role, Hicks decided the hours before the third game of the season was the time to publicly voice his displeasure with his playing time.

On a day when the Yankees won a game, won a series, posted their second shutout in three games to the start the season and received an impressive effort from a pitcher making his major-league debut, Hicks should be the farthest player from creating a story or headline considering he didn’t appear in the game and has contributed one non-productive at-bat through the first three games of the season. That’s what is called a distraction. The Yankees don’t need an unnecessary distraction, the same way they didn’t needed to extend Hicks and haven’t needed to stand by and wait for him to overcome injury after injury and disappointing season after disappointing season. But they keep rostering him, keep trying to make it work, keep trying to make him happy and now his mere presence is taking away from the actual on-the-field result.

10. When it comes to the schedule, it’s not necessarily about who you play, but when you play them, and the Yankees will play their three games against the Phillies this season this week when the Phillies are without Bryce Harper and when the Yankees will be able to miss seeing Zack Wheeler (as he started on Saturday). The Phillies are off to horrible start, winless in their first three games. They blew a five-run lead on Opening Day, got blown out 16-3 on Saturday and then scored one run on Sunday night. They will be hungry for a win and manager Rob Thomson will be hungry to shove the decision to pass over him for Boone in the face of the Yankees’ front office over the the next three days at the Stadium.

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