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.

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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.

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The Yankees won yet another series, taking two of three from the Orioles, even though it seemed like their season might snowball out of control. And it still might, but for now, there is some stability. “Some” stability.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. After losing Monday’s series opener, the Yankees had lost three straight, four of five, and the last two games they had played against the Orioles going back to the previous Thursday. They would go into Tuesday with Jordan Montgomery starting (who the offense weirdly never gives run support to) and facing Bruce Zimmermann (who the offense never seems to score against). After that it would be JP Sears on Wednesday making his first major-league start followed by a four-game series at the Trop. Things were set up for the Yankees to piss away their hot start and their unexpected division lead in a single week. Fortunately, they were able to overcome blowing a three-run lead on Tuesday to win in 11 innings and hold on in a minuscule two-run effort on Wednesday to provide some stability given their recent play and the litany of injuries ruining the roster.

2. That litany of injuries started out as Chad Green needing Tommy John surgery. Then after allowing runs in five straight appearances, Aroldis Chapman landed on the injured list with an Achilles issue. We may now know why Jonathan Loaisiga has been less ineffective than Chapman this season as he joined Chapman on the IL with a shoulder problem.

The injury bug hasn’t just gone after the bullpen. Joey Gallo, Kyle Higashioka and Josh Donaldson have all ended up on the COVID IL in recent days. DJ LeMahieu was scratched from Tuesday’s lineup with wrist discomfort that required a cortisone shot and also kept him out of Wednesday’s lineup. Giancarlo Stanton was pulled from Tuesday’s game in what was reported as a calf strain, but after undergoing an MRI that came back clean, his diagnosis was changed to ankle inflammation. What? Are we really doing this again with the Yankees and their inability to properly diagnose injuries? I thought they cleaned house with that medical team?

3. In 2019, Stanton played in 18 regular-season games after suffering a biceps strain, that while on the IL turned into a shoulder strain, that while on the IL turned into a calf strain. During 2020 spring training (prior to the pandemic), Stanton suffered a calf injury that would have kept him out for months if the season had started on time. Given the mysterious nature of this current injury that has included a clean MRI and a misdiagnosis, I would not plan on Stanton returning when he’s first available to be activated. Hey, it could happen (like all the crazy, impossible things that happened in those ’90s McDonald’s commercials), but I wouldn’t bet on it. Not given Stanton’s lengthy injury history and his ability to return on time from injuries just like this one.

4. Stanton’s injury combined with other injuries to the roster and the Yankees’ lack of offense has opened the door for Miguel Andujar to once again be an everyday player for the Yankees. After he was Wally Pipp’d by Gio Urshela in 2019, he was forced to learn the outfield, and then was blocked in the organization by Stanton, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Mike Tauchman, Clint Frazier and even Tyler Wade. But now Stanton is hurt, Hicks is unplayable, Tauchman is in Japan, Frazier was released for nothing and Wade is on the Angels. The path has been cleared and an opportunity has presented itself for Andujar to play every day like he last did in 2019.

I often wonder what would have become of Andujar if he wasn’t unnecessarily off of third base on March 31, 2019 and needed to dive back to the bag to avoid being out, tearing his shoulder in the process. That dive cost Andujar his 2019 season and essentially his career to this point.

Prior to that dive, Andujar was coming off a rookie season in which he hit .297/.328/.527 with 27 home runs, 92 RBIs and 47 doubles. If not for 2018 also being the rookie season for Shohei Ohtani, Andujar would have won the American League Rookie of the Year, but instead had to settle with finishing second to the modern-day Babe Ruth. Even during his five-game debut in the majors the season before in 2017 Andujar proved he could hit, going 4-for-7 with two doubles in five games. If not for the money owed to Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury, Andujar should have been the designated hitter in the 2017 playoffs, and maybe the Yankees’ World Series drought wouldn’t be going on 13 years this season.

The problem with Andujar has always been his glove. Position-less has been the most common word to describe him. But now on this Yankees team in which injuries and underperformance have put the roster in a serious predicament, Andujar is going to play and he should. Defense or no defense, the Yankees need his bat in the lineup as he’s off to a 4-for-13 start in four games this season. The Yankees have to be willing to sacrifice defense for offense even if it means experiencing an adventure in the outfield with Andujar to get another major-league quality bat in the lineup. Though it’s not like he can be much worse defensively than both Hicks and Gallo have been this season.

I have always been an Andujar fan. I have always appreciated his offense. Defense grows on trees. A bat like Andujar’s doesn’t.

5. Injury hasn’t been the only thing to ruin what I called the greatest bullpen ever. Performance has done as much damage to the bullpen as injuries have. Both Chapman and Loaisiga were painful to watch before landing on the IL, and the high walk rate for Miguel Castro has finally caught up to him. The only true trustworthy reliever remaining is Clay Holmes (since Aaron Boone only uses Clarke Schmidt once a month) now that Michael King has turned back into pre-2022 Michael King.

King couldn’t protect a one-run lead on Wednesday after Boone decided to go batter-to-batter with Montgomery and it resulted in a leadoff home run in the seventh inning. King gave up three runs of his own, producing a stinker in his second straight outing and in three of his last six. Thankfully, the bottom of the Yankees lineup erased King’s horrendous performance and the Yankees went on to win in 11 innings in what will forever be known as the Jose Trevino Game, as the light-hitting (and I mean light) catcher went 3-for-4 with a home, a game-tying single in the seventh, an important two-out walk in the ninth that Aaron Hicks did nothing with and the game-winning, walk-off single in the 11th.

6. It should come as no surprise that Hicks did nothing to win the game on Tuesday, and nearly cost the Yankees the game on Wednesday. He has to go. He has to. I have been saying this for years, and now it seems like the Yankees might finally be moving in that direction. I don’t think it will ever happen, but it should. Between Hicks’ inability to hit (he has one double and one home run with a .582 OPS), defend (his routes and first steps on balls combined with his lack of urgency to get to the ball or get it in is disturbing) or run the bases (getting picked off at second in a one-run game on Sunday was completely unacceptable), he provides zero value to the Yankees.

When Hicks was unnecessarily given his regrettable seven-year contract extension, the general consensus was that the money owed would be small enough that the Yankees could cut ties if he failed to stay healthy or produce. Well, there’s been no one less healthy who still has an everyday job in baseball than Hicks since he signed that extension in February 2019, and the last time he was a productive hitter was when the baseball was juiced. That was a surgically-repaired elbow and wrist ago for the now 32-year-old Hicks.

7. Tuesday was the worst game of what has been an MVP season for Aaron Judge, as he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and hit into two double plays. Judge was the Yankees offense in the first game of the series on Monday (two home runs) and the Yankees lost. Then he was Aaron Hicks Jr. on Tuesday and the Yankees managed to score seven runs (six without counting the automatic runner run in the 11th) and win. It’s good to know it doesn’t always have to be the Aaron Judge Show for the Yankees to score. I don’t mind if it that show if he’s going to do it for the entire season and the entire postseason.

8. At some point, the other eight bats in the lineup are going to have do something. The Yankees’ success this season has been a combination of Judge and the starting pitching. That can’t continue. Unless the rotation is going to stay this good and this healthy for the next five-plus months and unless Judge is going to have one of the single-best offensive seasons in the history of baseball, others will need to contribute.

And by others, I really only mean a select few in LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo and Donaldson and Stanton when they return. I don’t expect anything out of Torres, Gallo, Hicks, Kiner-Falefa or the catchers on a daily basis. That’s too many everyday spots to not expect anything out of. Either a few of those names will start producing, or Andujar will step up with his opportunity or within the next two months the Yankees will have to trade for players who can.

9. It’s a bad time for the Yankees to be playing the biggest series of the season to date against the Rays. There’s a good chance Hicks could be leading off this weekend, Torres could be batting fifth and Kiner-Falefa could be one of the most important bats in the lineup.

The Yankees lead the Rays by four games in the loss column, and if they have a bad weekend at the Trop, their hot start could be erased by the end of play in Sunday. It’s not out of the question either. The Boone Yankees have been thoroughly embarrassed by the Rays over the last four years.

10. The Yankees can’t go to the Trop and get run out of the building this weekend. They need to go there and win two of the four games. It will take four head-to-head games off the schedule between the two and will keep the distance between the two in the loss column the same: at four games. They will likely put out a spring training-esque lineup each of the next four days, hoping to scratch across a few runs and praying their starting pitching continues this magnificent run.

The Yankees are going a place they never win in the Trop to play the team they seem to never beat since Boone took over at the worst possible time given the state of their roster. It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing they can do about it. As Joe Torre used to say when injury situations like these would occur: “No one is going to feel sorry for the Yankees.” Certainly not the Rays.

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The Yankees lost two of three to the White Sox to drop their first series since the second week of the season. Both losses came in a doubleheader in which the Yankees scored one run in 18 innings.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees are 29-12. They have the best record in the majors. Up until this week, everything had gone right them. They had taken advantage of an easy schedule to date, they had stayed healthy, when the hitting disappeared the pitching remained constant, when the pitching was short of outstanding the offense came together, and most importantly, the manager was removed from the in-game equation for most of the first six-plus weeks of the season.

After getting swept in a home doubleheader on Sunday, while scoring one run on an Aaron Judge solo home run in the 18 innings, the Yankees have now lost three of their last four games. Certainly, the sky isn’t falling because of a bad few days (thanks to their 28-9 record before the four games), but things aren’t what they were on Thursday morning.

2. Chad Green has most likely thrown his last pitch as a Yankee. After leaving Thursday’s loss to the Orioles with forearm discomfort, Green needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of 2022, and he will be a free agent after this season. He turns 31 tomorrow (nothing like major elbow surgery to celebrate your birthday) and I find it hard to believe the Yankees will be willing to pay him as a free agent when they have been so good at creating relievers just like Green in recent years. Combine that with his dip in velocity and performance, and it’s easy to see why Green won’t be a Yankee in 2023 and beyond.

Green’s 2017 season was magnificent. He pitched to a 1.83 ERA (1.75 FIP) in 69 innings with 103 strikeouts and 17 walks. On a team that had Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances, Green was the Yankees’ best and most trustworthy reliever.

His signature Yankees moment (hat tip, Michael Kay) was when he relieved Luis Severino in the first inning in the 2017 wild-card game with the Yankees trailing 3-0 and runners on second and third with one out. Green got the Yankees out of that jam, Didi Gregorius hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the inning and the Yankees went on to get within one win of the World Series in a season in which they weren’t supposed to sniff the playoffs.

Green was outstanding again in 2018 (stats), but in 2019, after allowing 14 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings in April, he was sent down to Triple-A until mid-May. After his return to the majors that season, he struck out 91 with 15 walks in 61 1/3 innings.

In 2020 and 2021, Green’s effectiveness began to decline. He was no longer a sure-thing for a shutdown inning and after being overworked and overused in the first month of 2021, by midseason he was blowing every lead he was asked to protect. Up until his injury last week, he was doing the same thing this season.

The Yankees got Green (along with Luis Cessa) for Justin Wilson after the 2015 season. They got 272 combined starts, opens and relief appearances from him over 383 2/3 innings with a 3.17 ERA and 1.022 WHIP. When he was at his best he was arguably the best reliever in the majors.

There was a time when Aroldis Chapman was the best reliever in the majors. Unfortunately, he’s still be treated as if he is.

3. Chapman has continued to be the Yankees’ “closer” because of his name, his career history when he was at his peak and the money still owed to him. Not because he’s deserving of the role. Not because he should still be protecting close games in the ninth inning.

The idea that in 2022 baseball teams still manage their bullpen based on the made-up statistic of the “save” is truly hard to fathom. Chapman is asked to pitch the ninth inning of games in which the Yankees lead by three runs or less. At this point, managing like that is archaic.

It’s been a long time since Chapman could be trusted. Even last season when he began the year with 18 straight scoreless outings, any smart Yankees fan knew not to let their guard down because the Chapman we have seen of late still existed and it was only a matter of time until he came out.

Here is Chapman’s line from Opening Day through May 21, 2021:

18 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 7 BB, 36 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.667 WHIP

And here is Chapman’s line for the rest of 2021:

38.1 IP, 31 H, 22 R, 21 ER, 33 BB, 61 K, 9 HR, 4.93 ERA, 1.670 WHIP

Yes, 33 walks in 38 1/3 innings.

Here is Chapman’s line this season:

14 IP, 13 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 10 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 3.86 ERA, WHIP

Chapman has allowed 11 home runs and 43 walks in his last 52 1/3 innings. He has allowed at least one earned run in five straight appearances. With Green injured and Chapman possibly injured and not pitching well, along with Jonathan Loaisiga not pitching well, the bullpen is suddenly not nearly as strong as it was four days ago.

4. After giving up a go-ahead home run to the first batter he faced in the ninth inning of the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday, Boone went with a trainer to talk to Chapman who talked Boone out of pulling him. After Chapman allowed another run to score, Boone finally pulled him and then after the game it was reported that Chapman is dealing with an Achilles injury.

Maybe Chapman is hurt and that explains his ineffectiveness. But that would only explain his 2022 ineffectiveness. What’s the reason for 2021?

To me, the explanation is easy: Chapman isn’t the same pitcher he was once was. His command and control is the worst it has ever been, he relies too heavily on offspeed pitches and because he no longer throws the ball as hard as he once did with consistency, hitters have an easier time sitting fastball and adjusting to his breaking pitches or vice versa.

Chapman is a real problem because when he’s available, he’s going to pitch and he’s going to pitch as if he’s still the guy the Yankees made the highest-paid reliever. If Chapman is healthy this postseason and is used like it’s October 2019 and not October 2022, he could end the Yankees’ season for third time in four years.

5. I wrote about Aaron Hicks at length on Friday. I finished my thoughts on him by writing:

I want to like Hicks. I want him to be able to make contact with a changeup when hitting from the left side. I want him to get good jumps on balls hit to him. I want him to throw the ball to the right base with runners on. I want Hicks to stay healthy and succeed because I want the Yankees to succeed.

Since then, Hicks misplayed a fly ball in left field, got picked off second base while representing the tying run in the first game on Sunday, failed to drive in a run in eight plate appearances and failed to record an extra-base hit as he still has just one double and one home run on the season, which is now 25 percent complete.

The Yankees love Hicks. Brian Cashman loves him. Boone loves him. Everyone who makes decision that actually impact the Yankees’ on-the-field product loves him, and all Hicks has done in his baseball career is put together a resume that should make no one love him.

Aside from the seasons when the ball was juiced to the point that Gleyber Torres hit 38 home runs and Brett Gardner hit 28 in a single year, Hicks’ career has been a disappointment. He was a first-round pick bust for the Twins that the Yankees thought they could save and solve, and have treated him like Bernie Williams for now seven seasons in trying to unearth some untapped potential that doesn’t exist. Hicks has missed more games due to injury than he has played in his career, and when he has played, he’s underachieved.

Hicks is now 32 and still has three more years left on his contract after this one. For a guy that went out of his way to proclaim his 2022 goal was to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases this season (he had never accomplished either in his career), he has one home run and five steals through nearly two months. (He’s been caught stealing at the base twice and picked off once.)

The Yankees have two bad third outfielder options in Hicks and Joey Gallo, and they seem unwilling to give Estevan Florial a serious or extended look in the majors. The Yankees chose to not upgrade their outfield in the offseason and went into yet another year believing Hicks would stay healthy and produce. He’s been healthy, but he hasn’t produced anything other than outs at the plate and on the basepaths, defensive miscues and a whole lot of runners left on base.

6. Leaving runners on base is a common problem for the Yankees. Getting runners on base is also a problem.

The Yankees are lucky they were playing at the Stadium on Saturday afternoon for DJ LeMahieu’s grand slam to be a grand slam, since it wouldn’t have been a home run at any other park in the majors. If not for that home run, the Yankees’ offense would have had a more miserable weekend that it had, and even with that home run it was a miserable weekend for the offense.

My biggest fear about this Yankees team is what my biggest fear has been about every Yankees team since their last championship: the offense. The frequent disappearing act for days at a time isn’t an anomaly when it occurs, it’s a trend. And come October, I fear the disappearing act will lead to another championship-less year.

When the Yankees’ offense has a bad game or games, it’s not like they’re hitting into bad luck. They just don’t hit. There’s no baserunners. There’s no traffic. There’s nothing. On Sunday night, the Yankees were shut out for the fourth time this season. Michael Kopech started for the White Sox and he’s capable of shutting down any lineup in the game, so it was understandable, especially without him having a control issues for a few batters last Sunday, he would have shut them out then too. But to be thoroughly dominated by 2022 Johnny Cueto like they were in the first game of the doubleheader is unacceptable.

7. But that performance from Cueto is one we have seen from many mediocre and bad starters against the Yankees. (That’s not to say Cueto is bad, but he hasn’t been the Cy Young-worthy version of himself in six years.)

Jordan Lyles: 5.1 IP, 1 ER
Bruce Zimmerman: 5 IP, 0 ER
Michael Pineda: 5 IP, 0 ER
Tyler Wells: 5 IP, 2 ER
Yusei Kikuchi: 6 IP, 1 ER
Dane Dunning: 6 IP, 1 ER
Glenn Otto: 5 IP, 2 ER
Jon Gray: 4.1 IP, 0 ER
Kikuchi: 5.2 IP, 2 ER
Dallas Keuchel: 5 IP, 0 ER
Lyles: 7 IP, 2 ER
Johnny Cueto: 6 IP, 0 ER

That’s not including games in which the Yankees were shut down by front-end starters like Kopech or Alek Manoah. Those are just games in which the Yankees were held to minimal to no runs by average to borderline major leaguers starters. In most of those game, the Yankees were held to just a few hits and baserunners, and in a startling amount of those games, they were no-hit through four or five innings.

8. Bad offensive performances are going to happen over 162 games. But for the Yankees, they happen all the time. The Yankees have the record they have because of their pitching. Even in the 13 games in which the offense scored six or more runs, the pitching only allowed 3.8 runs per game. The Yankees are 28-3 when they score three runs. That’s how good their pitching is.

And the pitching was great against this weekend, even if they lost two of three and lost their first series the second week of the season. Nestor Cortes was good and Jameson Taillon (7 IP, 1 ER) and Luis Severino (7 IP, 0 ER) were awesome.

9. The Yankees have the pitching to win in October, which is something they haven’t had in a really long time. If last October lasted more than one game, they were going to have an injured Gerrit Cole, an unreliable Corey Kluber, Nestor Cortes and Jordan Montgomery to navigate through the postseason. (Taillon was hurt and Severino was in the bullpen after his return from Tommy John.) If the Yankees survived the wild-card game, they weren’t going to survive the Rays or Astros.

The Yankees’ championship chances in 2022 come down to health. When healthy, they have the best team in the American League. If the roster was managed and optimized correctly for the entire season, they would undoubtedly be the best team in the AL. A bad weekend against the White Sox doesn’t change that. But it did further prove the Yankees are from perfect and they have flaws that can be exposed in a short series, which is what the postseason is.

10. When in need of a bounceback performance and to prevent a two-game losing streak from evolving into something worse, you either want to play a bad team or have you ace on the mound. Fortunately, the Yankees have both of those as they will open a three-game series at home against the Orioles with Cole pitching.

One loss in the seven games between last week and this week against the Orioles is all the Yankees can afford, and they used that up in last Thursday’s blown game. After Wednesday, the Yankees will play the Rays (their closest competition in the division) in a four-game series, and they will only have six games remaining for the rest of the season against the Orioles. It’s a big week for the Yankees, and adding to the win total before going to the Trop.

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 have the best record in baseball. It feels like the old days and the old days were amazing.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees went to Baltimore and won yet another series, winning three of four against the Orioles to improve to 7-3 on the season against the last-place Orioles.

The Yankees could have swept the four-game series, but blew two different two-run leads in the series finale before getting walked off on. Oh well. Losses like that are going to happen. (I wish they didn’t happen when I have a sizable investment on the Yankees.) At least the Yankees kept their streak alive of only losing winnable games this season. They have yet to lay an egg or get routed and all 10 of their losses have been a game in which they had a chance to win in the eighth inning or later.

2. Everything is going right for the Yankees. OK, not everything. They have the worst offensive catcher situation in the majors, have a shortstop with no power and questionable defense and they may have just lost one of their Top 3 or Top 4 relievers for the season in Chad Green. But none of that is worse than Aaron Hicks. I’m going to change the Thoughts format for this one and focus on Hicks.

3. I’m tired of writing and talking about Hicks. Now in his seventh year as a Yankee, I have Aaron Hicks fatigue. I spend an inordinate amount of time being frustrated with Hicks and even more time being frustrated with the front office and the manager for continuing to treat him like he’s Bernie Williams. Unfortunately, it’s not going to end anytime soon.

Hicks is under contract this year … and next year … and the year after that … and the year after that … and then the year after that he will be bought out for $1 million. So after an enormous extension and a mediocre career, he will get paid an additional seven figures to not play for the Yankees in 2026.

4. When Hicks received his extension, the common response was that it was a fair deal for both the player and the team for a player who was close to free agency. It was a no-brainer for Hicks to sign. A team was willing to give him seven years of security and generational wealth in $70 million despite not being worth the years or the money. It was enough money where it was a sizable investment for the Yankees, but not enough where they couldn’t get out of it eventually if they had to. It wasn’t necessarily an immovable contract, but it wasn’t an albatross deal like the one the Yankees are worried of giving to Aaron Judge.

The Yankees were willing to gamble that a 29-year-old who had spent his entire 20s mostly either injured or underachieving his first-round draft status would be healthy on the other side of 30 and productive through his age 35 season. For an organization that portrays being meticulous about data and sample sizes, everything about Hicks’ career through 2018 suggested not committing to him through 2026. The Yankees did it anyway.

5. Since the day Hicks signed the deal, it has been a disaster. Shortly after agreeing to the extension, Hicks hurt his back on a 29-minute bus ride in late February in spring training 2019, but Aaron Boone said he would be ready for Opening Day. Hicks missed the first six weeks of the season, and after appearing in 59 games, he tore his elbow, which would need offseason Tommy John surgery.

Had the 2020 season started on time, Hicks would have missed the first half recovering from the surgery. Because the season didn’t begin until late July, he didn’t miss any time and played in 54 games.

In 2021, Hicks was named the No. 3 hitter in spring training by Boone. When Hicks went 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the season-opening series against the Blue Jays, Boone was asked if he would move Hicks down and sarcastically laughed at the media for asking the question, claiming Hicks would “be fine.” Less than two weeks later he was moved down in the order and after 34 games, he needed season-ending wrist surgery.

From 2016 through 2021, Hicks played in 493 of a possible 870 regular-season games (57 percent). From 2019 (when he got the extension) through 2021, Hicks played in 145 of a possible 384 regular-season games (38 percent). He has experienced just about every injury a baseball player can experience in going on seven seasons as a Yankee.

6. The only time Hicks has missed in 2022 has been due to paternity leave for the birth of his son.

Having a baby is obviously no joke. Whether or not Hicks makes $10 million to play baseball, he still has a one-month-old at home consuming a lot of his time and drastically altering his life and routine. I have a 20-month-old and a one-month-old and every minute of my life I feel like I have the bases loaded with no outs against me and Mike Trout, Juan Soto and Bryce Harper are due up. I get it.

Or at least I would get it if Hicks sucking in 2022 was solely tied to his performance in home games when he’s living and sleeping at home and prone to middle-of-the-night wakings. But Hicks is hitting .229/.386/.314 at home and .177/.297/.194 on the road. He’s been replacement level at home and Kyle Higashioka on the road.

7. Hicks is a problem. He’s nearly always been a problem, though in the past his problem was that he was never healthy and provided mediocre production when he was healthy and the baseball wasn’t juiced. Now he’s healthy, but he sucks, and this is a new level of suck. Hicks went into this season claiming on CC Sabathia’s podcast that he wanted to be a 30/30 guy. Yes, a guy who never stole more than 13 bases in a season and only ever exceeded 15 home runs in a season in 2019 when the ball was juiced and Gleyber Torres hit 38 and Brett Gardner 28 thought he would suddenly become a superstar.

Hicks has one double and one home run this season. In 2021, coming off a shortened season and the elbow surgery, he posted a .627 OPS before the wrist injury. It’s not unfair to attribute to his lack of power to the wrist surgery which ended his 2021 season in May, but it’s not like he’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa and hitting a bunch of singles with no power. He’s just not hitting at all. He’s hitting .196/.331/.237 in 2022 with his one quality being his ability to not chase pitches and draw walks, however, he has now walked once in the last 10 days.

Last year, Hicks was given a pass as he worked on being further removed from Tommy John. This season, his power outage is being given a pass as he works on being further removed from the wrist surgery. By next year, there will likely be some other pass being given for some other injury. Hicks gets hurt. That’s what he does.

8. Luckily for Hicks, like Higashioka, Jose Trevino, Kiner-Falefa, Joey Gallo and Torres a lot of the time, the Yankees are winning. The Yankees aren’t winning because of Hicks. He has done essentially nothing to help the team win and has actively hurt them both at the plate with runners on base and in the field with questionable (and at times appalling) defense. But if the Yankees hit a skid at some point, which they likely will unless they truly are going to challenge the 1998 Yankees in terms of success, the criticism will come for Hicks and the others. It comes with the territory of losses. I’m the most critical person of the Yankees I know on a daily basis, and even I was accepting of a loss like Thursday’s given the team’s 28-10 record. If the Yankees don’t keep winning the anti-Hicks sentiment will increase dramatically. He’s being given a free pass right now to work through his offensive issues, and it would be nice if he takes advantage of this sort of grace period before any regression for the team comes.

9. Like every other Yankee that causes me to lose sleep, Hicks didn’t force the Yankees to trade for them. Didn’t force them to play him every day. Didn’t force them to give him a seven-year extension. Didn’t force them to continue to go into each season believing they will get a full healthy and productive season from him. If Hicks were always batting sixth or lower in the lineup, getting the occasional runner in from third with less than two outs and playing a sound center field, no fan would have a problem with him. But because the Yankees feel the need to bat him first and third and try to make him into something he’s not, he’s prone to the criticism that comes with batting in the top half of the order for the New York Yankees. Couple that with his questionable defense this season and the lack of trust Yankees fans have for him after the oft-injured previous six seasons and you get an unruly fan base spending most of their day dreaming of his release.

I want to like Hicks. I want him to be able to make contact with a changeup when hitting from the left side. I want him to get good jumps on balls hit to him. I want him to throw the ball to the right base with runners on. I want Hicks to stay healthy and succeed because I want the Yankees to succeed.

10. After a successful series in Baltimore, the Yankees still have the best record in baseball (2 1/2 games better than the Dodgers) and have five-game lead in the AL East. To win at the rate the Yankees have and only have a five-game lead is depressing. (The Yankees would have a 10-game lead in NL East.)

The White Sox-Orioles stretch continues. After four games against the White Sox in Chicago and three games against the Orioles in Baltimore, the Yankees will now host the White Sox for three and then the Orioles for three. After that, it’s the much anticipated four-game series in Tampa against the Yankees’ closest division competition. Two more series wins at home before heading to the Trop isn’t an unreasonable expectation. Given the way the Yankees have played and the two opponents they will play, just winning both series seems like too low of a bar to reach.

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!