It might as well be 2021. The 2022 Yankees are a continuation of the 2021 Yankees and as Brian Cashman said about the 2021 team, the 2022 team is “unwatchable.”

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees ruined Easter. Rather than completely enjoy the day with my wife, 19-month-old and newborn, I let a collection of underachieving players led by an arrogant asshole manager spoil what should have been a celebratory Sunday. There was no celebrating on Sunday for Yankees fans as the Yankees were shut out by the Orioles, losing two of three in Baltimore to a team destined for another triple-digit-loss season. 

On Saturday, I wrote that Friday’s loss wouldn’t be topped as the worst loss of the season. I stand by that. Sunday’s loss wasn’t worse, it was equally as bad. The Yankees were shut out for the second time in seven games. Here are their runs scored by game in 2022:

6, 4, 3, 0, 4, 4, 3, 1, 5, 0.

That’s 30 runs in 10 games. Two of those 30 runs were a product of the automatic runner being placed at second base with no outs in extra innings. (They also failed in both the 10th and 11th innings on Friday to score either automatic runner.) Subtract the two automatic runner runs from Opening Day, and the Yankees have actually scored 28 runs in 10 games for an average of 2.8 runs per game.

But let’s call it 30 runs for the Yankees since that’s what they are being credited with. Only five teams have scored less than 30 runs in the majors: Minnesota (29), Detroit (28), Kansas City (25), Baltimore (21) and Arizona (21). Minnesota, Detroit, Baltimore and Arizona have played one less game than the Yankees and Kansas City has played two less. Minnesota is coming off an 89-loss season, Detroit an 85-loss season, Kansas City an 88-loss season, Baltimore a 110-loss season and Arizona a 110-loss season. The Yankees are coming off a season in which they were the odds-on favorite to win the American League and instead finished fifth in the AL and third in their own division. The five teams with less runs than the Yankees this season include the worst teams in baseball. This season, the day before Opening Day, the Yankees were listed as co-favorites to win the AL with the Blue Jays.

2. The Yankees’ offense is a mess. It’s a combination of poor roster construction (believing in Gleyber Torres, Kyle Higashioka and Isiah Kiner-Falefa as everyday players), unnecessary rest (every position player has gotten at least one day off through 10 games), nonsensical lineups (10 different lineups in 10 games), unexpected underachieving (Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson and Joey Gallo), expected underachieving (Torres, Higashioka and Kiner-Falefa), a lack of power (two combined home runs for Judge, Donaldson and Gallo) and a lack of situational hitting (everyone).

“First off, credit,” Boone said after Sunday’s loss with a straight face, “I thought they pitched us really tough today.”

This wasn’t Alek Manoah and the AL-favorite Blue Jays shutting out the Yankees like it was on Monday night. This was career 5.02 ERA and career 5.34 FIP Bruce Zimmermann stifling the Yankees for five innings, followed by Felix Bautista in his fourth career appearance for an inning, then former Yankee prospect Dillon Tate for an inning, and lastly, career 6.04 ERA and  career 5.14 FIP Jorge Lopez in the eighth and ninth innings. Apparently, everyone and anyone can pitch the Yankees tough.

“I thought [Zimmermann] did a good job of changing speeds on us,” Boone said. “It was a little unpredictable.”

Actually, it was very predictable. In 2021, Zimmermann, in the middle of a season in which he would post a 5.04 ERA, 5.38 FIP and put 99 baserunners on in 64 1/3 innings, allowed one earned run over 5 2/3 innings in an Orioles win over the Yankees on May 16. Zimmermann dominating and shutting the Yankees down wasn’t unpredictable. It was as predictable as it gets considering it happened 11 months ago.

3. “Obviously, today didn’t muster a lot,” Boone said of his offense. “A little bit of a cold weekend … These guys will get it rolling, so I’m not too worried about it.”

Boone actually said that on April 18, 2021. A year ago today. The Yankees had just been swept by the Rays in a three-game series at Yankee Stadium, scoring seven runs, and falling to 5-10 on the season.

The Yankees never did “get it rolling.” They finished the season with more runs than only five AL teams: the 110-loss Orioles, 85-loss Tigers, 88-loss Royals, -51 run differential Mariners and 102-loss Rangers. The only reason they reached the “postseason” on the final pitch of their regular season was because of their starting pitching and bullpen.

“It just didn’t happen today,” Boone said. “And we’ve got to turn the page real quick.”

OK, Boone didn’t say that after Sunday’s game either. He actually said that on Sept. 3, 2020. I’m sick and tired of hearing Boone saying the Yankees need to“turn the page” like they’re Bob Seger.

“Just couldn’t get much going today,” Boone said. “We gotta turn the page and start getting it rolling.”

Boone actually did say that after Sunday’s loss to the Orioles. Notice a trend? Boone used the same two lines he used in both 2021 and 2020 to put together an answer. It’s as if he’s an Apple Watch with pre-programmed response options.

4. The Yankees haven’t been able to get much going in each of their 10 games this season. Their game-high run total came on Opening Day when they scored six runs, and again, two of those runs were a product of the automatic runner in the 10th and 11th innings.

“I don’t get too emotional over a few games,” Boone said. “I am confident in this offense that we’ll be what we should be. We gotta get rolling.”

Boone wasn’t worried on April 18, 2021 and he essentially said he’s not worried on April 17, 2022. He should be worried.

The Yankees took the 2021 roster, changed out Gio Urshela for Donaldson, Gary Sanchez for Kyle Higashioka/Jose Trevino and added Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Based on career resumes, the Yankees got better at third base with Donaldson over Urshela, but they created the worst offensive catching situation in the sport with Higashioka and Trevino, passed on the greatest free-agent shortstop class in history in favor of acquiring Kiner-Falefa and forced themselves into a situation where one expected everyday player now sits on the bench, so players like Kiner-Falefa and Torres can play every single day.

Donaldson has been an unmitigated disaster. The 36-year-old is hitting .200/.256/.325 and has struck out 15 times in 43 plate appearances. The Opening Day hitter only 10 days ago, Donaldson has already lost that spot, getting relegated to the middle-third of the lineup. He’s closer to being a sunk cost and playing himself out of the league than he is to replicating his .827 OPS from 2021.

For as bad as the former MVP (seven years ago) Donaldson has been, Higashioka has made Donaldson look like it’s seven years ago. Higashioka is hitting .120/.120/.160 in 25 plate appearances, having reached base just three times, while mostly striking out and hitting the ball on the ground to short. A career .179/.227/.373 hitter, Higashioka’s .600 career OPS made it obvious the Yankees would be taking an enormous step back by trading the second-best power-hitting catcher in the majors, but they would supposedly be improving their defense. Instead, Higashioka’s defense has looked like Sanchez’s at his worst, and yet the “lazy” reputation and tag hasn’t been mentioned with Higashioka, and the YES pregame show, postgame show and broadcast booth have passed on commenting on Higashioka’s defense.

Kiner-Falefa was going to bring Gold Glove-level defense to the Yankees and a high-contact bat to a lineup full of power-hitting, high-strikeout bats. His defense at short has been just as bad as Torres’ was in 2020 and 2021, which led to Kiner-Falefa becoming a Yankee. As for his bat, it’s stunning when he puts the ball in play, and astonishing when a batted ball of his reaches the outfield.

Higashioka’s performance and Kiner-Falefa’s performance aren’t concerning at all. Higashioka’s entire career foreshadowed this kind of season from him. Even if his numbers get better, they’re never going to be Yankees’ starting catcher-worthy.

The same goes for Kiner-Falefa. He’s 27 with a .668 OPS in 1,432 plate appearances. It takes a special kind of Yankees fan — a true homer and a real idiot — to have thought simply putting on the pinstripes was going to transform Kiner-Falefa from below replacement-player level to capable everyday Yankee.

The Yankees believe so little in the players they went into 2022 with as their starting catcher and starting shortstop that they have pinch hit for Higashioka in four of eight games played and have pinch hit for Kiner-Falefa in three of nine games played. With Boone’s history of being over-loyal to his players, it’s more than telling that he has already given up on Higashioka and Kiner-Falefa.

Donaldson’s performance is extremely concerning. At the advanced baseball age of 36, at some point he’s going to lose “it” and it’s possible he’s lost “it” already. Sure, a 10-game, 43-plate appearance sample size isn’t enough to call Donaldson’s career over, but the quality of those 43 plate appearances is more than enough to be concerned. It’s a good thing the Yankees only owe him $48 million between this season and next.

5. Why should anyone think these Yankees are going to suddenly start mashing? We know Higashioka and Kiner-Falefa are below replacement level. We know Torres has been lost since the league unjuiced the baseballs and since he came to Spring Training 2.0 in 2020 out of shape. We know Gallo is what he is in that he will strike out an inordinate amount of times, walk an inordinate amount of times and hit a bunch of home runs as the least aesthically-pleasing player in the majors. We know Stanton will go on his streaky runs where he’ll be impossible to get out for a week and then flailing at pitches that bounce before the plate or are in the other batter’s box for a week. We know Anthony Rizzo is coming off the worst year of his career since 2013 and is a year older and on the wrong side of 30. We know Aaron Judge is feeling the pressure of free agency and the possible regret of the ill-advised decision to turn down $30.5 million per year for seven years as he’s on pace to hit 16 home runs. That leaves DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks who have been the Yankees’ only two consistent hitters this season.

The Yankees’ lack of offense creates an even bigger problem than not scoring enough runs, as their inability to blow open games means Boone has more of an impact on games. Close games need logical decision making with pinch hitters, pinch runners and defensive replacements. They need pitching changes and pitter-hitter matchups. They need every element and aspect of in-game management that Boone is atrocious at, failing to grasp any bit of it despite spending his entire life around Major League Baseball.

His decision to stay with Wandy Peralta for a second inning and waitng for the Yankees’ lead to be blown before going to the ready-to-come-in Jonathan Loaisiga on Friday night, followed by his choice to bring in Aroldis Chapman and his well-known lack of control with the bases loaded in extra innings was excruciating. His inability to recognize Loaisiga’s fatigue on Sunday was unbelievable.

6. A year ago, Boone used Chad Green 12 times in the month of April. Opening Day was on April 1 and by April 11, Green had been used for multiple innings four times. By midsummer and late in the season, Green was ineffective, allowing game-tying and go-ahead home runs seemingly every appearance as he was overworked and tired from his early-season mismanagement with Boone never adjusting. The same thing is happening to Loaisiga this season.

Loaisiga leads the league with six appearances in 10 games. On Sunday, it was more than obvious he needed several days off as he was unable to put away the bottom of the lineup. But rather than go to the deepest bullpen ever constructed, Boone stayed with Loaisiga forcing him to try to get out of the eighth inning with nothing on his pitches.

7. With two on and two out in the eighth, 38-year-old catcher Robinson Chirinos was able to work a 10-pitch walk against Loaisiga.

“It was a great at-bat,” Boone said. “It was. Laid off a lot of tough pitches. That’s one thing Chirinos does, he does a really good job of controlling the zone.”

If I were to play for the Yankees on Monday night in Detroit, Boone would tell the media I control the zone well. It doesn’t matter your actual ability, career track record or performance, Boone will find a way to talk you up.

If the 38-year-old Chirinos controls the zone so well, why isn’t he a Yankee? The Yankees signed him for 2021 and had him in their spring training before he fractured his wrist on a hit by pitch. But if he controls the zone so well, why was he signing a minor-league deal with the Yankees prior to 2021 and not getting a guaranteed major-league deal somewhere? And why didn’t the Yankees sign him for 2022? A catcher who controls the zone well, who can had be inexpensively for a team in need of a good-hitting catcher? Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Instead of realizing Loaisiga wasn’t his normal self following the third batter of the inning reaching base and Chirinos of all hitters working a 10-pitch walk against him, Boone stayed with Loaisiga to face the left-handed -hitting, former Yankee Rougned Odor. Now on paper Loaisiga against Odor is a huge matchup advantage for the Yankees since Loaisiga vs. anyone is a matchup advantage for the Yankees. But that’s in a vacuum with Loaisiga at his best and Odor or any hitter at their best. Loaisiga wasn’t at his best, not close to it and he shouldn’t be expected to be giving his workload in the first 10 days.

8. Left-hander Lucas Luetge was available, warmed up and ready to come in the game to face Odor once Odor was announced as a pinch hitter. But Boone chose to stay with Loaisiga again, and when asked about it, Boone was appalled.

“Nah, that was Lo,” Boone said about the matchup of Loaisiga against Odor. “That was Lo all the way there. It was just Luetge in case it got really heavy on him … That was the matchup I wanted.”

The condescending way Boone said “Nah, that was all Lo” to Meredith Marakovits was cringe-worthy. I felt second-hand embarrassment for Boone. As Yankees manager the team has grown progressively worse each year under his leadership and here he is acting annoyed that his bullpen management could possibly be questioned.

9. Of course it was Odor who delivered the go-ahead two-RBI single. Odor the Yankee in 2021 represented everything wrong with the current state of the team. After being released by the eventual 106-loss Rangers despite being owed $27 million and despite the Rangers knowing they were entering a lost year, they still didn’t want him clogging up a spot on their roster. So the Yankees happily acquired him because their Opening Day left-handed bats were Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner and Jay Bruce and because they didn’t have a backup infielder other than Tyler Wade. (The Rangers also traded Kiner-Falefa away and spent nearly $500 million on Corey Seager and Marcus Semien rather than roster and play Kiner-Falefa. I wonder why?) The Yankees rostered Odor and played him all season because he only cost the league minimum to them, and the only thing Hal Steinbrenner likes more than players on his roster making the league minimum is passing on free-agent superstar position players in their prime.

What makes the situation even better is that Orioles manager Brandon Hyde used Odor over the right-handed Chris Owings. He purposely chose Odor to bat in that spot and gave Boone the opportunity to counter with the left-handed Luetge against the left-handed Odor, who becomes Kiner-Falefa at the plate when facing lefties. Boone passed and the Yankees lost.

10. The Yankees didn’t lose on Friday and Sunday because of Boone. They lost because of their lack of offense. But Boone played an enormous role in the losses.

The Yankees have grown comfortable and content with losing. Steinbrenner has retained a general manager who has provided one championship despite spending billions of dollars over the last 21 seasons. Cashman retained a manager who made history by keeping his job without overseeing a championship in his first four seasons with the team, and who has led the team to grow progressively worth in each of his seasons. The organization kept together a clubhouse that has listened to their loser manager tell the media and public for years that there’s always tomorrow, and that mindset has now been instilled in them as we have heard it with player responses to media questions and have seen it with player reaction on the field, like Gerrit Cole literally tipping his cap to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the middle of a play.

I thought Boone with better players in 2022 than he had in 2021 would mask his abundance of flaws as a manager and that the Yankees could outhit their own manager and take away his impact on games. That plan and wishful thinking went out the window when the Yankees decided to return nearly the same lineup from last season.

The 2022 season has been a continuation of the 2021 season. The Yankees brought back as close to the same roster as possible for a fourth straight season, expecting different results. So far it’s been the same result: a collection of underachieving players in a comfortable-with-losing, no-urgency environment.

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The Yankees finished their season-opening, seven-game homestand with a winning record (4-3) against the Red Sox and Blue Jays. I would have signed up for that prior to the first pitch on Opening Day and I’m happy with the result. Again, it could have and should have been more, but to come out of those two series with a winning record is what was needed (even if the Red Sox aren’t very good and nowhere near the level of the Blue Jays).

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Through seven games, the Yankees’ offense has been a problem. The offense has produced 24 runs this season and two of those were scored by automatic runners, so it’s really 22 runs in seven games. That’s 3.1 runs per game. That’s not going to cut it.

Last season, seemingly every day Yankees fans were told the lineup would eventually hit and they would get on a roll and they would turn it around, only to never to do any of those things. So why should any Yankees fan think the offense that underachieved all of last season won’t do the same this season, if it includes the same players?

It’s not early either. The core of this Yankees lineup has played hundreds of games as a unit, not just seven, and Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo have now been Yankees for nearly the equivalent of half of a full season. Don’t let any player, the manager, the front office or media members tell you its early in assessing the Yankees. They brought back the same team plus Josh Donaldson and it’s completely fair to evaluate them on their performance to date in 2022 because it’s been a continuation of 2021.

2. Donaldson has been dreadful in his first week as a Yankee. Sure, he drove in the automatic runner on Opening Day to beat the Red Sox in the 11th inning, but that’s all he has done. He’s hitting .185/.241/.222 with one extra-base hit and has struck out 11 times in 29 plate appearances. He deserves to be the leadoff hitter about as much as Aaron Hicks deserved to the be 3-hitter last season.

There’s always risk when rostering and playing a 36-year-old every day that at any moment he could just be finished. Time is undefeated and when it comes to baseball players in their mid-to-late-30s, it’s usually not forgiving.

Donaldson isn’t having the kind of bad luck Gallo was having in the season’s first weekend when the quality of his at-bats were good and he was hitting the ball hard and not coming out with hits. Donaldson’s at-bats have been painful. He seems to be behind in every count and when he does put the ball in the play, he’s not doing so with authority. I didn’t think the Yankees were getting the 2015-16 version of Donaldson when they acquired him, but I didn’t think they were getting what has been a near-automatic out to this point.

The Yankees will continue to bat Donaldson leadoff because of his name and his career history and hope that they didn’t just trade for a third baseman whose finished who they owe $48 million to over this year and next.

3. The problem with the Yankees’ offense is twofold: their stars haven’t hit (outside of a couple games against the Red Sox) and the bottom of their order can’t get the ball out of the infield, let alone get on base.

Jose Trevino, a career .248/.273/.366 hitter, who the Yankees acquired just before Opening Day is currently the team’s best catcher. It’s scary, but it’s true.

It’s scary because the Yankees chose this catching tandem. It wasn’t created out of necessity because of injury or some other circumstance. The Yankees purposely traded away Gary Sanchez to create the worst catching situation in the majors. Thankfully, Trevino at least had the two-RBI performance he had on Thursday night to make up for Higashioka’s atrocious start.

4. I didn’t expect anything out of Higashioka this season because I have never expected anything out of him. When a player has a .178/.226/.370 career batting line, there’s no positive expectation that can come with them, only a negative one, and Higashioka has surpassed every negative expectation with flying colors.

Higashioka hasn’t just been bad, he’s made himself unplayable. He hit a 79-hopper on the ground up the middle in his first at-bat of 2022, and since then nothing. He hasn’t had another hit. Not even a walk. In the 17 plate appearances to follow that single, he has made 18 outs (he hit into a 6-4-3 double play), mostly by hitting the ball to the shortstop (his specialty) or by striking out.

I’m not mad at Higashioka. I’m not frustrated or angry. He didn’t tell the Yankees to trade the second-best power-hitting catcher in the majors so the Yankees could inexplicably make Higashioka their starter to improve the team’s framing. He’s starting most games for the Yankees despite his inability to generate offense and his inability to throw out baserunners because who wouldn’t want to play Major League Baseball? It’s like not he’s the one who created this roster issue and he’s not the one who continues to put himself in the lineup.

Trevino should be playing over Higashioka. This isn’t a 2022 sample size. This is a career sample size and Higashioka’s career suggests this is who he is. Naming him the starting catcher wasn’t going to magically make him play like someone worthy of being a starting catcher. It didn’t work last season when Boone started giving him the majority of the catching playing time over Sanchez, and it didn’t work the year before either. Higashioka hasn’t been having these kind of offensive results for a week, he’s been having them for a career. Sanchez would unfairly lose his playing time for having a week like Higashioka just did. It should go both ways.

5. It’s hard for me to hold back on Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who like Higashioka didn’t ask to be the Yankees’ starting shortstop. I’m going to do my best to hold on a little longer with him because he’s playing a position in shortstop that hasn’t been his primary position and he’s on a new team trying to prove himself.

It hasn’t been good for the front office to date that their all-glove, high-contact offseason acquisition has been a mess in the field and at the plate through the first two series. Kiner-Falefa needed a 3-for-3 night on Thursday to get his batting average up to .200, and with the way averages jump with so few at-bats this early in the season, that should tell you how bad he was prior to Thursday when he, Trevino and Luis Severino led the Yankees to a win.

6. I love Severino. He has been my favorite Yankee for several years, and it feels good to have him back, healthy and starting games. With his litany of injuries since 2019 spring training hopefully behind him, it’s not surprising he’s having the kind of success he’s had in his first two starts against the Red Sox and Blue Jays (8 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, 1 HR, 2.25 ERA, 1.125 WHIP).

Severino has been the Yankees’ best pitcher through his first two starts, and no one should be shocked by that. He was a Cy Young contender in his last healthy season (2018), and in his late-September 2019 and 2019 postseason starts, he was really good, and last season when he came back from Tommy John surgery he was great. Severino has been an elite, front-end starter since 2017, and as long as he avoids injury, he will continue to be one. I love having him back and watching him pitch every fifth day.

7. Severino held the Blue Jays scoreless for five innings on Thursday, two nights after Nestor Cortes held them scoreless for 4 1/3 innings. Three years ago, Cortes was used as a piggyback option to the opener for the Yankees (usually Chad Green) and he couldn’t have been less deserving of the role or a spot on a major-league roster. But since changing his style last season, he has become a valuable part of the pitching staff, and a trustworthy part of the staff. (I never thought I would use “trustworthy” as a way to describe Cortes). I look forward to his starts as much as I didn’t look forward to his appearances three years ago, and his style and demeanor continues to be enjoyable.

8. The difference between last season and this season is the Yankees’ rotation is better and their bullpen is the best ever assembled. The Yankees can win games scoring three and four runs like they have in 2022 because their starters will rarely ever take them out of the game and their bullpen will be able to protect nearly every lead and hold nearly every deficit to give the offense countless chances to get back into games.

I can’t say enough about the bullpen construction and how comfortable I feel once the Yankees’ relievers start entering games.

This is what the Yankees’ bullpen did in the Red Sox series:
18.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 9 BB, 19 K, 1 HR, 0.96 ERA, 0.803 WHIP

This is what the bullpen did in the Blue Jays series:
16 IP, 13 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 15 K, 1 HR, 1.69 ERA, 1.063 WHIP

This is the bullpen’s line through seven games:
34.2 IP, 19 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 13 BB, 34 K, 2 HR, 1.30 ERA, 0.923 WHIP

Even on nights when Aroldis Chapman tries his best to throw away a game like he did on Thursday, the Yankees aren’t out of options despite having already used Lucas Luetge, Miguel Castro, Clay Holmes and Chad Green, and with Jonathan Loaisiga unavailable after pitching back-to-back games. Boone didn’t have to sit by and watch Chapman single-handedly ruin a game. He was able to go back to a bullpen in which Chapman is no longer the best option and not even a Top 5 option (he’s more like a Bottom 3 option) and bring in Michael King to save the game.

9. After getting shut out on Monday (3-0), the Yankees shut out the Blue Jays on Tuesday (4-0) and Thursday (3-0). Yankees pitching held the Blue Jays to seven runs over the four games after the Blue Jays scored 20 runs in a three-game series against the Rangers to open the season.

The Blue Jays are for real. Of course they are. They are the favorite to win the American League. But I’m not as worried of the Blue Jays as maybe I should be. I’m most worried of the Rays in the AL East because the Kevin Cash Rays have owned the Boone Yankees. I’m less worried about the Red Sox than either of those two teams. I’m not worried about the Orioles at all.

What I am worried about though is the Yankees playing to the Orioles’ level. Something we saw far too often last season which cost the Yankees a chance to win the division and forced them to play the one-game playoff on the road. The Yankees’ inability to beat up on the 110-loss Orioles of 2021 ruined their season because the rest of the division beat up on them.

10. The Rays have already played and swept the Orioles in three games. With the Yankees playing the Orioles this weekend, they need to hold serve. A series win would be acceptable, but a series sweep is what’s really needed. (A series loss or Orioles sweep is an outright disaster.) As long as the Rays, Blue Jays and Red Sox are stacking wins against the Orioles, the Yankees need to as well.

The Yankees, Blue Jays and Rays are all currently 4-3. The Red Sox are 3-3. The Orioles are 1-5. The wins and losses will change, but the standings will closely resemble that order for the entire season with the Yankees, Blue Jays and Rays all about equal, the Red Sox just behind and the Orioles buried. With the non-Orioles teams in the AL East all beating up on each other and likely all playing close to. 500 against one another, the team at the top will be the team that performs best against the Orioles. This weekend isn’t just an early-season, mid-April series against the lowly, last-place Orioles. It could be the difference between getting a bye to the ALDS or having to play a best-of-3 with all games in the series on the road. It could be the difference between playing past Game 162 or not. It should be treated as such.

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It feels good to have Yankees baseball back for nearly every day of the next six (and hopefully seven) months. It feels even better that the team got off to a good start and took two out of three against the Red Sox. However, it should feel even better than it does.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Overall, it was a good weekend for the Yankees. But it could have and should have been better. (Kind of like their offseason.) The Yankees could have crushed the Red Sox with a win on Sunday night, sending the Red Sox to an 0-3 start and needing to only go 7-6 to win the season series, which is more important than ever since tiebreaker games no longer exist and the difference between going to the postseason or not could easily come down to head-to-head record. (Last season, it was the difference between the Yankees playing the one-game playoff at home or on the road.) Instead, the Yankees gave away Sunday night’s game. They had 16 baserunners in the game and left 13 on. Sure, they were unlucky at times with expected batting averages of .630, .990, .450 and .560 on balls that were outs, but they also left the bases loaded in the first and third, couldn’t score with second and third and one out in the fifth, hit into two inning-ending double plays and got the leadoff man on in five innings and only scored him once.

Yes, I went into the weekend wanting a series win, since that’s all anyone can ever want as a baseball fan. But the Yankees left a win on the table and a sweep on the table, and it’s something they did far too often last season.

2. For as frustrating as Sunday night was, the weekend as a whole was a positive, considering the Yankees recorded 87 outs and their starters only produced 31 of those outs (36 percent). Over an entire season, that’s a recipe for disaster, but in early April and coming off a shortened spring training, it’s acceptable.

I went into Opening Day with the same kind of bad feeling I went into the wild-card game with because it was Gerrit Cole against Nathan Eovaldi and because Cole can’t seem to pitch well against the Red Sox (or the Blue Jays or Rays for that matter) and because Eovaldi has dominated the Yankees ever since leaving New York as a complete bust. Two batters and six pitches into the game, the Red Sox led 2-0 and my bad feeling had come to fruition. After 10 pitches, Cole still didn’t have an out, and the Yankees were conducting their first mound visit of the season after three batters. After four batters, the Red Sox had a 3-0 lead in what ended up being a 27-pitch first for the Yankees’ “ace.”

3. After the game, Cole didn’t use the “sick my stomach” line he used after getting lit up and thoroughly embarrassed in the last game the 2021 Yankees played, but I was sick to mine. Cole had been awful again against the Red Sox (4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR), and this wasn’t a ‘Hey, it’s the first game of the season and the first of 33 starts for him’ performance, this was the latest example in a trend of his inability to beat the Yankees’ direct competition for the AL East.

Cole might not have been pitching with a hamstring injury like he was in October, but he did have to deal with the extenuating circumstance of having his start delayed by four minutes because of the Opening Day ceremonies.

“The festivities got a little away from schedule,” Cole said as an excuse for his first-inning meltdown.

It’s not quite the cringe-worthy, humiliating kind-of line Brian Cashman gave us all a few weeks ago when he essentially said the Yankees won the 2017 World Series, but it’s embarrassing for someone of Cole’s stature to act like a four-minute delay was the reason he walked Kike Hernandez on four pitches and then gave up three straight hard-hit balls with exit velocities of 101.4, 111.8 and 91.9 mph.

4. Thankfully, Cole’s disturbing first inning didn’t sink the Yankees’ day. Anthony Rizzo launched an important two-run home run in the bottom of the first to get the Yankees on the board in their eventual comeback, walk-off win. The next day he hit another two-run home run in another Yankees’ comeback win, and on Sunday night, it was his two-run single that tied the game in the fourth. Rizzo finished the series 3-for-10 with two home runs, 6 RBIs and three walks. He was easily the Yankees’ best position player over the weekend.

When the Yankees re-signed Rizzo, I wrote Anthony Rizzo Is Not Freddie Freeman. And it’s true, he’s not. I wanted Freeman because he’s the better player and because Rizzo was coming off the worst season of his career since his rookie season nine years ago, and players in their 30s don’t usually turn their performance trajectory around once it starts to head south. (At least not since the ’90s and early 2000s when there was a way to do so.

5. Giancarlo Stanton was the other position player star of the weekend, homering on both Friday and Saturday and becoming the first Yankee to homer in six straight games against the Red Sox. He has been a different player since the start of last season, and that’s because he has been a healthy player since the start of last season. In 2018, he played the majority of the season through a hamstring injury, in 2019, he barely played, and in 2020, it was more of the same from 2019. But since last year, the Stanton I thought the Yankees were trading for back before 2018 has been available and locked in. (Except for that swing on a pitch from Hansel Robles on Opening Day that bounced before the plate.)

6. For as good as Rizzo and Stanton were in the first three games of the season, the Yankees’ bullpen was the collective MVP of the series. Here’s their line: 18.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 9 BB, 19 K, 1 HR, 0.96 ERA, 0.803 WHIP. That’s simply ridiculous. That kind of line against the Red Sox’ offense shouldn’t be possible. It’s possible because this is the best Yankees’ bullpen ever.

I’m not just saying that because they pitched six hitless innings on Saturday and allowed one hit in 5 2/3 innings on Sunday. I say it because every option out of the pen is trustworthy. The Yankees don’t have to exhaust Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga because they have Clay Holmes and Miguel Castro and Lucas Luetge. They don’t have to always turn to those four because they have Michael King and Wandy Peralta. They have their top pitching prospecting in Clarke Schmidt out there (who was impressive on Sunday), I think everyone liked what they saw out of Ron Marinaccio’s horizontal break on his slider and we’re still waiting for JP Sears to make his debut. There’s no Nick Nelson or Brooks Kriske. Albert Abreu is gone. Brody Koerner and Justin Wilson aren’t coming into games. The Yankees’ bullpen is the deepest its ever been with reliable arms.

7. Rizzo and Stanton were great, the bullpen was outstanding and even Aaron Boone did his job well. Yes, that’s a real sentence I just wrote. Opening Day was the best managerial job he has ever done in a single game between his lineup decisions (playing DJ LeMahieu over Gleyber Torres and batting LeMahieu fifth), the order of his bullpen choices and his call to pinch hit Torres for Kyle Higashioka in the 10th. Don’t get me wrong, all of these decisions were simple and logical, but nothing comes easy to Boone, so when he does so many things right in a single day, it’s remarkable and worth praising. Boone had many chances to screw up Friday’s game and he never did.

On Saturday, he had another good game. Yes, two consecutive games of competent managing from a major-league manager. It’s been a long time since Yankees fans have experienced that. But on Sunday, Boone showed he hasn’t completely evolved into making the logical decision every time.

On Sunday, Boone sat LeMahieu. He sat his Gold Glove-winning second baseman, who hit a game-tying, eighth-inning home run on Friday, so that he could play both Torre and Aaron Hicks. A flat-out irresponsible choice for the third game of the season against a division opponent.

Prior to Opening Day, Boone spoke at length about how hard the decision was to play LeMahieu over Torres, as if he were choosing between two equal players and not the Yankees’ 2019-2020 MVP and a player who has ruined what was once a promising career. He said Torres “understood” the decision, which I’m glad an incapable defender with a .703 OPS over his last 676 plate appearances can “understand” why he’s not in the lineup. But two days later, Torres was in over LeMahieu.

8. This is going to be a constant problem this season. The Yankees’ obsession with load management and unnecessary rest (a strategy that has produced zero World Series appearances in 12-going-on-13 years) coupled with them having too many players for not enough lineup spots is going to be a daily theme. It’s not that they have too many “good” players for not enough lineup spots, they just have too many players they feel are worthy of everyday at-bats. No one more than Hicks.

The Hicks’ contract extension was a foolish mistake the day it was offered, and has grown into a regrettable decision, as Hicks entered 2021 having played in 62 percent of the Yankees’ games since the start of 2019. It’s not the money that’s the problem in ways that seven-year deals for players into their late-30s is normally a problem, since it was $70 million over seven years (and because I don’t care about the money since it’s not my money), but it is the money that’s the problem because it’s not enough money. It’s not enough money in that the Yankees don’t have to justify playing Hicks every day for a return on their investment, so Hicks can just linger on the roster for THREE MORE YEARS AFTER THIS SEASON and cause lineup chaos.

The crowded lineup is an issue because the Yankees have made it an issue. Rather than commit to playing Stanton in the outfield regularly and making Hicks the fourth outfielder, they go out of their way to clog up the DH spot with Stanton, forcing Hicks into the outfield and then forcing an infielder to the bench, and it seems like the Yankees are now going to rest an infielder everyday because of this. Hicks as a two-days-a-week player is fine with me. Hicks every day and forcing a better bat to the bench is not fine.

9. You can bet the house a regular (probably Josh Donaldson) will be on the bench in Monday’s series opener against Blue Jays and at some point in the series you will likely see Stanton (who mostly only bats) or Aaron Judge on the bench because it’s too many baseball games in a row for the Yankees’ best two hitters.

Judge needs to play. He needs to play because he’s the Yankees’ best player and the lineup’s most important hitter. And now he needs to play because he has to accumulate enough stats to try to top the $30.5 average annual salary he turned down prior to Opening Day.

I don’t know if Judge thinks he’s younger than he is, thinks he’s less injury prone than he is or think he’s the best player in baseball, but the offer the Yankees extended to him was more than fair. When reports came out he rejected an extension, I assumed he turned down like six years and $150 million. But seven years at $30.5 million per season? It’s likely he regrets that. For him to say he’s “disappointed” is off-putting. He’s disappointed he’s inaccurately valuing his own worth and turned down nearly a quarter of a billion dollars?

When Bryce Harper hit free agency, he was 26 years old, a .279/.388/.512 hitter who had won Rookie of the Year, and MVP, a Silver Slugger and was a six-time All-Star. He had only missed 17 percent of the games in his career to that point. He received 13 years and $330 million.

When Mookie Betts got traded by the Red Sox and extended by the Dodgers, he was 27 years old, a .301/.374/.519 hitter who had won an MVP, four Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers and was a four-time All-Star. He had only missed eight percent of the games in his career to that point. he received 12 year and $365 million.

Judge is going to be 30 in two weeks. When his new contract begins, he will a few weeks shy of 31. He entered this season as a .276/.386/.554 hitter who won Rookie of the Year and two Silver Sluggers and was a three-time All-Star. He has missed 24 percent of the games in his career from his major-league debut through the end of 2021.

If it’s true that Judge is seeking a nine- or 10-year-deal worth more annually than Mike Trout then good luck to him. Judge spent a good amount of his 20s on the injured list and we are expected to believe he will be healthier with age. Is he a fine wine? No, he’s the biggest everyday player in major-league history for which there’s no comparison as to how he will age, and he wants more annual money than arguably the best player in the history of the sport. I like 30-year-old Judge hitting second (or third like he did on Sunday) in the Yankees’s lineup. I will probably like 31-year-old Judge through 34-year-old Judge doing the same. But 39-year-old Judge and 40-year-old Judge making somewhere around $37 million per year and likely playing sparingly? No thanks.

10. I’m happy with the weekend, but I could be happier. I’m more content than anything since it was another missed opportunity from a franchise that has missed every opportunity in the front office and on the field in recent seasons.

There’s no off day on Monday, and there’s no break in the opponent either as the Yankees host the Blue Jays for the next four days. The Blue Jays entered the weekend as the odds-on favorite to win the American League, mostly because of their deep and vaunted lineup, and then they went out and scored 20 runs over the weekend. The good news is they gave up 23 runs. I don’t think the gap between the Blue Jays and Yankees is large, and there might not be a gap at all. We’ll start to find out on Monday night.

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