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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 29, 2021

Aaron Judge Injuries Becoming a Joke

Aaron Judge has spent a lot of his 20s injured. I don’t see how Judge will be less injury-prone on the other side of 30.

Four years ago, there was no doubt Aaron Judge would be a career Yankee. Three years ago? Same thing. Two years ago? Somewhat the same thing. One year ago? Eh, possibly. Now? I don’t see how he could be.

There’s no question Judge is an elite talent, a true difference maker in the Yankees’ lineup and the most important player to the team’s offense. Judge turned 29 on Monday and he celebrated his birthday with a Yankees loss to Matt Harvey and the Orioles as the team fell four games under .500 again. Judge treated himself to an eighth-inning, rally-ending out when he inexplicably decided to run to third base and get into better scoring position with two outs, representing the game-tying run.

Judge has spent a lot of his 20s injured. He will be a free agent after his 30-year-old season and will turn 31 in the first month of whatever contract he gets following 2022. It’s hard to envision someone with his size and stature and injury history getting healthier as their career progresses. I don’t see how Judge will be less injury-prone on the other side of 30.

This week pushed me over the edge on Judge. It was bad enough he was missing time six games into the season, but this week was the breaking point with him and his unavailabilty.

Judge was pulled in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game, and immediately, every Yankees fan assumed he was injured. When Judge was pulled from the fourth game of the season, it resulted in him missing the sixth and seventh games of the season. When he was pulled early from a game last season, it resulted in him missing more than half of the shortened season. Each time this happens, Aaron Boone says the same thing, and Tuesday was no different. 

“Yeah, he’s been pretty sore the last couple of days and I’ve been wanting to get him a day here,” Boone said. “So just wanted to get him off his feet there at the end there, probably, get him one of these next two days a full day.”

That scary Boone phrase of “just wanted to get him off his feet” has never boded well for Judge. It’s never about giving him a rest. There’s always something more. Maybe Boone is foolish is enough to think that answer would suffice the New York media and his postgame press conference would continue without a follow-up as to how and why Judge is sore.

“I think it’s more just lower body stuff from kind of the travel,” Boone said. “Eight days in a row, obviously, he’s been on the bases a lot, running around a lot.”

That was it. That was the moment I realized giving Judge a contract of anything more than three years after 2022 would be idiotic and regrettable. Even three years would likely be too long.

Traveling. TRAVELING. TRAVELINGGGGGG! Judge didn’t get hit by a pitch or slide awkwardly into a base or fall funny on a dive or crash into a wall to experience soreness. He’s sore from traveling in luxury as part of the most prestigious franchise of the major sports.

When Aaron Hicks missed nearly the first two months of the 2019 season after suffering a back injury during a 35-minute bus ride in spring training, I thought an injury that absurd was as safe as Cal Ripken’s consecutive-game streak in terms of being untouchable. But then Judge went and one-upped his teammate and fellow outfielder. The only way Judge can be topped is if a Yankee is unable to play from being too sore from sitting on the bench in the dugout. 

Half of Judge’s job is spent traveling since half of the Yankees’ schedule is played away from Yankee Stadium. The Yankees fly on chartered planes, stay in five-star hotels and Judge makes more than enough money ($10.175 million in 2021) to enjoy the highest-quality meals. It’s not like the Yankees are flying coach on Spirit Airlines, staying at Days Inns and eating fast food on the road.

What exactly is sore for Judge?

“It is non-specific right now,” Boone said.

Those nagging non-specific, travel-related soreness injuries are the worst.

“I expect Judge to be in there tomorrow,” Boone said after Thursday’s loss. “I expect him to play regularly and to play all three games into the off day.”

Holy shit! Three games in a row! I’m not even being sarcastic. Since 2017, Judge has played in 263 of the Yankees’ last 409 regular-season games. That’s 64 percent. He’s averaged missing one game of every three-game series for the last four seasons. (In 2016, when he was called up for the first time, he ended up being shut down for the season with an oblique injury.) So playing in three games in a row is a big deal. That exceeds his average over the last four seasons.

In all seriousness, let’s not get crazy here, Boone. Before Boone starts filling out the lineup card for Friday, I hope he looked at the travel itinerary for the team from Baltimore back to New York because Judge either suffered his soreness traveling from New York to Cleveland (67-minute flight) or from Cleveland to Baltimore (54-minute flight) and we don’t want that to happen again. There are important questions Boone needed to have answered before declaring Judge a starter all weekend.

Are the Yankees flying home from Baltimore (37 minutes) or taking the train (2 hours and 40 minutes)?

Whether it’s plane or train, will Judge’s pillows be fluffed properly so he doesn’t get a stiff neck?

Will a body pillow be available for him to avoid any further “lower-body stuff?”

Will his ride home from the airport or Stadium have the heat or air conditioning in the vehicle set to the exact temperature necessary to avoid further discomfort?

Here’s to hoping the postgame spread in the clubhouse was to Judge’s liking on Thursday afternoon and that his steak dinner was cooked to his liking and that he made it home from Baltimore in complete comfort.

Boone was asked what he has to say to the fans who question the health of Judge.

“I’d say we’re at the end of April here,” Boone said. “(Judge) has played a lot here already in the month of April.”

Boone, Boone, Boone. To take a line from Michael Scott, “Why are you the way that you are?”

You know what I’d say? I’d say you’re at the end of April and you have an 11-14 record. I’d say you’re tied for the last in the AL East, already five games back in the division, 1-5 against the Rays, 2-4 against the Blue Jays and just lost two games to the Orioles.

Judge hasn’t played “a lot” in April. This has been his schedule:

April 1: Played complete game
April 2: Off
April 3: Played complete game
April 4: Played complete game
April 5: Played eight innings
April 6: Played complete game
April 7: Off
April 8: Off
April 9: Off
April 10: Played complete game
April 11: Played complete game
April 12: Played complete game
April 13: Played complete game
April 14: Played complete game
April 15: Off
April 16: Played complete game
April 17: Played complete game
April 18: Played complete game
April 19: Off
April 20: Played complete game
April 21: Played complete game
April 22: Played complete game
April 23: Played complete game
April 24: Played complete game
April 25: Played complete game
April 26: Played complete game
April 27: Pulled in ninth inning
April 28: Off
April 29: Pinch hit in eighth inning

“He’s as tough as they come,” Boone said, “And does always want to play and be there.

Boone said that was a straight face. He didn’t even crack the slightest smile or blink. For a second I believed him. Then I remembered this:

In 29 days, Judge has played 19 complete games, been pulled early in two, pinch hit in one and had seven days off. In four weeks, Judge has had a week off. He has spent a quarter of the baseball season not playing baseball. This after having the previous six months off. And prior to that, he played 35 baseball games (2020 regular season and postseason) in a calendar year. Since the last out of the 2019 ALCS, Judge has played in 57 games in 18 months.

“I think he also understands more than ever that this about posting over the long haul,” Boone said on Wednesday. “This is about being able to go to the post whether it’s 140, 145 150 times. That’s what we’re eyeing.”

What Boone wanted to say was, “We want him to be healthy for October,” but not even Boone is dumb enough to say that when the team is three games under .500 and an overall disaster.

Judge has played 155 games once. His next highest is 112. So don’t act like 140 or 145 or 150 games is the norm or even a possibility when it comes to Judge. It’s not. He’s already missed four games. He would have to play in 129 of the remaining 137 games to play in 150 games this season. There’s a better chance Boone doesn’t say the word “obviously” in his next press conference than there is of Judge pulling that off.

A day later, Boone was asked if it’s fair to say Judge won’t play in the 140-150-game range, considering he’s already missed four games and simple math coupled with Judge’s injury history and Boone’s obsession with days off guarantees it.

“No, I think it’s silly to try to guess on it now,” Boone said, clearly upset with the question. “The proof will be in the pudding. When we get down to September, we can see where we’re at and we can revisit that. I expect him to be a regular for us throughout the year.”

Boone said all of that with a shit-eating grin on his face. If Boone thinks the pudding in September is going to show Judge on pace for 140-150 games played, there’s probably some hallucinogens baked into it.

“You can go ahead and speculate on what the number will be,” Boone said. “I think it’s a little silly to do that at the end of April.”

There’s no “speculating.” It’s simple math.

“Judgey always wants to play,” Boone said with a sarcastic laugh. “But I think just me kind of talking through with him and just saying I want to do one more day, my message to him was ‘I want you to be in there a ton throughout the season.’”

Judge doesn’t always want to play. If he did, Boone wouldn’t know about his soreness from traveling. If he did, he wouldn’t tell Boone about his soreness from traveling.

The Yankees are so concerned with Judge being available in September and October that they’re not worried about him playing and the team winning in April. At the team’s current rate of urgency, Judge will be healthy to play meaningless games in September and to watch the postseason in October. Then he can have another six months off his feet.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 27, 2021

Yankees Find New Low Point in Losing Season

The Yankees found a new low point, and this time, I don’t know that they will be able to go any lower, losing to Matt Harvey and the Orioles.

The Yankees found a new low point, and this time, I don’t know that they will be able to go any lower. The Yankees were shut down by Matt Harvey at Camden Yards to lose for the eighth time in 12 games, falling to an embarrassing 9-13 on the season.

On Monday, I wrote the three wins over the Indians were nice, but the Yankees hadn’t resolved any of their issues. They only scored 16 runs in the four-game series, trailed early in three of the four, blew a three-run lead in the only game in which they scored first and continued their sloppy defensive play. Those issues which have been on display in New York, Tampa, Dunedin and Cleveland made their way to Baltimore as well.

New series, new city, new stadium, same team. The Yankees rolled over for Harvey like they have for every starting pitcher this season as they were one-hit for five innings and didn’t score until the sixth inning. They briefly provided excitement with a bases-loaded rally in the eighth thanks to three walks from the wild Tanner Scott, but Aaron Judge ran his team out of the inning. Judge inexplicably attempted to get into better scoring position with two outs in the eighth following a Gio Urshela base hit, and his decision cost the Yankees a run at the plate and cost them their rally on the basepaths.

After the game, the media only wanted to ask Boone about getting ejected from the game for not being allowed to challenge the call on the field of whether LeMahieu scored before Judge was tagged at third. Boone believes he must have been looking at bench coach Carlos Mendoza when the umpire looked into the dugout to see if he was going to challenge.

“I must have been looking at Mendy on the phone when he made that call because it seemed so early to me,” Boone said. “It was very quick. Usually, I have a good rhythm where I look with Mendy and I’m holding them off. Apparently, he said something and when I went to turn and challenge, it was too late.”

Trailing by 2 in the eighth inning, why wouldn’t Boone automatically challenge the call. When would he have another moment of that significance to challenge again in the game?

“Obviously,” Boone said, “I’m going to challenge that at that point in the game all day long.”

If Boone was “going to challenge that at that point in the game all day long” then why didn’t he?

The eighth-inning non-challenge and ejection became the postgame story when it should have never occurred if Judge didn’t try to unnecessarily take third. The real story was the Yankees’ lack of offense yet again.

“We had some chances,” Boone said, “Obviously.”

The Yankees have 13 losses this season and Boone has used nearly an identical line in all 13 of them about “having chances.” There’s always an excuse for why the Yankees lost. It’s never the starting pitcher’s fault or the offense’s fault, and it’s certainly never Boone’s fault.

Everyone keeps saying how the Yankees will hit. Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, the players, David Cone. They have all said the Yankees will eventually break out. But it’s now been 26 days and 22 games of saying the same thing and nothing has changed. Seriously, nothing. Not a single player has shown a sign of turning their season around.

DJ LeMahieu, who once seemed slump-proof, picked up another 0-for-3; Giancarlo Stanton did what he does best, disappearing with the game on the line in the eighth; Judge picked up just his second extra-base hit in the last nine days and celebrated his 29th birthday by ending the Yankees’ eighth-inning rally; Rougned Odor inexplicably batted fourth again and rewarded his manager’s confidence in his career, which should be over, by going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts; Gio Urshela had a nice game and continues to be the Yankees’ best hitter; Gleyber Torres is now 3-for-15 since everyone thought he was snapping out of it in the series opener in Cleveland; Aaron Hicks had another strong performance, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts to fall to .162; an 0-for-4 for Gary Sanchez who is down to .182, Clint Frazier failed to get a hit again, but did pick up two walks. That summary could be used to describe any of a number of games this season.

This was going to be it. This 11-game stretch was going to be the 11 games to erase the previous 11 games in which the Yankees went 3-8 against the Rays, Blue Jays and Braves. Eleven games against the Indians, Orioles and Tigers were going to save the Yankees’ season. They would have the chance to beat up on the Indians, who now have the second-lowest payroll in the league by essentially admitting they don’t care to be competitive, they could continue their dominance over the Orioles at  while miraculously missing John Means in a four-game series and finally they would get to see the Tigers, who boast the majors’ worst record and run differential. By the end of play on May 2 and after a month of bad baseball, the Yankees’ season would be in a disappointing, but acceptable place. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen anymore.

Something has to change with this team. Until it does, don’t expect different results from a team and a roster that has grown comfortable and accepting of losing.

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Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Apr 26, 2021

Yankees Thoughts: Nothing Changed in Cleveland

The Yankees won their first series in nearly three weeks, taking three out of four from the Indians. Yes, it was nice to see the Yankees win again, but the issues the team had when

The Yankees won their first series in nearly three weeks, taking three out of four from the Indians. Yes, it was nice to see the Yankees win again, but the issues the team had when they landed in Cleveland are still obvious as the team arrives in Baltimore.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees won the four-game series, but it could have and should been even more than that. It should have been a four-game sweep of the Indians, who have one elite hitter (Jose Ramirez) and only one other hitter who should scare you (Franmil Reyes), though I know the Yankees have always had problems with Roberto Perez (the way they do with every team’s catcher).

After winning the first three games of the series, Aaron Boone mailed in the series finale on Sunday, sitting one-third of his current everyday lineup and putting out this lineup:

Brett Gardner, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Aaron Judge, RF
Rougned Odor, 2B
Gleyber Torres, SS
Gio Urshela, 2B
Mike Ford, 1B
Gary Sanchez, C
Mike Tauchman, LF

No DJ LeMahieu, no Aaron Hicks and no Clint Frazier. If you want to give guys the day off for a day game after a night game on a Sunday getaway day, you can’t be 9-11 on the season (as the Yankees were before Sunday’s loss) after having started 6-11. That’s something great teams can do. Teams that are well above .500. The Yankees aren’t even a good team right now and they are acting like they had the kind of start and have the kind of division lead the Dodgers have. You’re 9-12. Act like it.

The A’s had a 13-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday in Baltimore and they weren’t happy about it.

“You do want to win the series, but you also want to get greedy,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve been greedy here recently. It’s about winning every game that you go out there and play.”

The A’s were 0-6 and now they’re 13-7. They had won for two straight weeks and were upset their ridiculous streak ended. The Yankees won their first series since April 5-7 and entered Sunday acting like they just had a 13-game winning streak of their own. Boone would never manage with the mentality Melvin talked about.

2. On Thursday, the Yankees trailed 3-0 after the first because of more sloppy defensive plays. It didn’t help that Boone chose to bat Gardner first, Ford fourth and sit Stanton.

Gardner led off two games this weekend. It’s 2021. Gardner is now batting .194 with a .560 OPS. Frazier hasn’t been good, but Gardner has been just as bad. Frazier is the one with the future, and he needs to play. Enough is enough with Gardner. He’s not an everyday player anymore and hasn’t been for a while now. He needs to stop being forced into the lineup nearly every day. When he does play, he can’t be hitting anywhere other than ninth. Not first, not third. Ninth.

Ford got called up upon Jay Bruce retiring. The same Bruce, who the Yankees thought Ford wasn’t better than on April 1. That didn’t stop Boone from batting Ford sixth in his first two games up and then fourth on Thursday, despite having done nothing in the majors since 2019.

As for Stanton having Thursday off, it was the 22nd day of the season and the 18th game of the season. The Yankees had already had four scheduled days off and it was the third time Stanton was being given a personal day off. He doesn’t play the field, is the Yankees’ highest-paid position player and entered the season having played 51 games since the start of 2019.

3. The Yankees came back and won on Thursday because the Indians are very, very bad. On Friday, the Yankees again went down 3-0 to the Indians in the first and had to come back to win. The Yankees have scored one run in the first inning in 21 games this season. One. O-N-E. A Judge solo home run against he Blue Jays on April 14. Of all the upsetting stats regarding the Yankees’ offense this season, that is the worst one.

The Yankees won three of four in Cleveland, but they barely look any better than they did before the series began. They scored 16 runs in the four games and had to come back in the first three games of the series before blowing a three-run lead in the fourth game.

“Our at-bats are getting better,” Boone said after his team managed only three runs and six hits in Sunday’s loss. “I feel like as far as where are right now as a club, I feel like we’re in a good spot to hopefully go out and continue to play well.”

“Right now as a club,” the Yankees are 9-12. And “to continue” to do something you have to already being doing that thing. For the Yankees “to continue to play well” they would already need to be playing well, which they’re not.

4. If you thought Torres finally broke out with his three-hit night on Thursday, he followed it up by going 3-for-13 with a walk and seven left on base; Sanchez’s first two games of the season seem like they never happened as he is now sitting in his all-too-familiar spot below the Mendoza line (.196); Judge keeps getting on base via walks, but he has one extra-base hit in the last nine days, hasn’t homered in 12 days and hasn’t hit a non-solo home run in 20 days; Stanton had a two-home run night on Friday, but has been awful overall and is still close to the last person I want up in a big spot; Frazier remains lost; Gardner is an automatic out; even with three home runs, Hicks has a .602 OPS and is batting .172/.274/.328; Odor is exactly the player the Rangers paid to go away as he will run into one every once in a while and do nothing in between the times he runs into one.

The Yankees might have a better wining percentage than they did before going to Cleveland, but the problems that got them off to a 6-11 start haven’t moved any closer to being resolved.

5. Gerrit Cole dominated on Saturday in a true pitcher’s duel against Shane Bieber. Cole has been outstanding this season and one of five bright spots on the 26-man roster, along with Kyle Higashioka, Chad Green, Darren O’Day and Aroldis Chapman. However, I have as much to do with Cole’s success as Higashioka does. Cole and Higashioka have been together against the Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays and Indians. Aside from the Blue Jays, none of those other teams can hit. If Cole is the one requesting Higashioka to catch him, then OK. It would be sad that someone of his stature needs a personal catcher, but OK. If it’s not his doing, then the first time he doesn’t pitch well, and the magic of Higashioka isn’t there, it needs to be Sanchez.

6. Boone has said in the past he and the Yankees don’t believe in players being hot. Hicks homered on Friday and Saturday and wasn’t in the lineup on Sunday. Yet Odor, who also homered on Friday and Saturday was in the lineup and batting fourth. FOURTH! So Hicks being hot couldn’t get him in the lineup on Sunday, but Odor being hot was good enough to bump him up four spots in the batting order. Boone is truly the guy at the Blackjack table that hits on 16 with the dealer showing a 7 sometimes and stays in the same exact situation other times.

Boone said Hicks was experiencing back tightness and that’s why he didn’t play on Sunday. Since it’s hard to believe anything Boone says, Hicks either wasn’t in the lineup because the Yankees don’t believe in a player being hot, or Hicks is actually hurt (again). If you recall, Hicks missed the first seven weeks of the 2019 season after injuring his back on a 35-minute bus ride in spring training, so back injuries are nothing new with him. (There isn’t an injury that would be new for Hicks.) Hicks was never going to make it through the season without some sort of ailment since he has never played single season without missing some amount of time due to injury. I’m actually surprised he made it through 20 games before we heard about something.

When asked after the game if Hicks was available to play today, Boone said, “We would have had him possibly late, yes.” So Hicks was able to come into the game, but didn’t play in the game.

7. The Yankees’ roster clearly has an issue playing through the minor aches and pains that come with a six-month baseball season. Whenever someone on the roster has a minor issue, they’re out of the lineup because of Boone’s precautions. But how does Boone know about every minor ailment? It’s because the players are making it known they are dealing with something, no matter how minor it is. So Hicks (like Judge a few weeks ago) went to Boone and let him know he couldn’t go. Remember that when you get a quote about always wanting to play.

8. The Yankees scored first on Sunday, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning. It took four batters in the bottom of the fourth for the lead to disappear and for the Yankees to trail.

Jameson Taillon once again didn’t make it into the fifth inning, blew a three-run lead immediately after he was given it and allowed four earned runs in four innings. How did Boone think he pitched?

“I thought he regrouped and finished strong that (fourth) inning,” Boone said. “I thought the stuff was good throughout.”

Surprise, surprise! Boone thought his starting pitcher had good stuff! A starting pitcher who allowed four earned runs in four innings, blew a 3-0 lead and gave the team no length. You know who had good stuff? Cole on Saturday. That’s good stuff. Not what Taillon produced on Sunday.

In the bottom of the fourth, Taillon went single, single, single, home run to blow the lead and put the Yankees behind 4-3. He retired the next three hitters to end the inning, which is the “regroup” Boone is talking about, but the stuff was not good throughout. No one allows a four-spot in a game with good stuff.

Taillon is a problem. Sure, he looks great at times, but so did A.J. Burnett. Like Burnett, Taillon can look unhittable one second and before you can go to the fridge and get back to your couch, he has unraveled. In four starts, Taillon has made it through five innings once and has only made it into the fifth twice. Through 17 1/3 innings, he hasn’t really walked anyone (2), but he has allowed four home runs. The Yankees have lost three of the four games he has started.

9. Taillon was out of the game after the fourth. Trailing by one run with five innings of at-bats left, the Yankees were very much in the game. That was until Boone decided to bring in Nick Nelson to hold the deficit.

There is a contingent of Yankees fans who think Hicks is Bernie Williams. There’s the contingent who want Higashioka to be the starting catcher over Sanchez, like there was the contingent who wanted Austin Romine over Sanchez. But there’s no one, and I mean no one worse than the weirdos in the contingent of Yankees fans who think Nelson is good.

Here were Nelson’s five appearances this season before Sunday:

April 1: Enters in 10th inning on Opening Day, allows the runner on second with no outs to score and the Yankees lose.

April 7: Pitches 1 1/3 scoreless innings in a loss to Baltimore.

April 9: Enters with the bases loaded, immediately gives up a two-run double and ends up allowing four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

April 16: Is inexplicably used an opener against the Rays and allows the first three batters of the game to reach, giving up two runs in his only inning of work.

April 21: Enters with the bases loaded and two outs and walks in a run on four pitches.

The Yankees lost all five games Nelson pitched in entering Sunday, and they lost on Sunday as well after he came in and allowed three earned runs in two innings.

Yes, Nelson has a lot of strikeouts (15) in 8 1/3 innings. He has also allowed a lot of hits (11), walks (5), baserunners (17, including a hit-by-pitch) and earned runs (9). He has a 9.72 ERA and 1.921 WHIP.

Thankfully, Nelson was sent down after the game. Of the Yankees’ 12 losses this season, he has had a huge hand in five of them. Now you know why all spring training I feared his place on the roster after the injuries to Zack Britton and Justin Wilson.

10. If you had asked me what I thought the Yankees needed to go during their recent 11-game stretch against the Rays, Blue Jays and Braves, I would have said 7-4 and would have been upset with 6-5. Well, they went 3-8, so that 6-5 would have been really nice.

The Yankees are currently in the middle of an 11-game stretch against the Indians, who they just went 3-1 against, the Orioles (four games) and the Tigers (three games). Anything less than 8-3 here would be an enormous disappointment, considering they always play well in Baltimore, they are miraculously missing John Means in a four-game series (as he pitched on Sunday), the Orioles aren’t good and the Tigers are the worst team in baseball (7-15) with the worst run differential (-37) and have lost nine of their last 10.

If the Yankees aren’t at least .500 at 14-14 at the end of play on Sunday, it’s going to be bad.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episode after every game during the season.

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

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Blogs

Apr 22, 2021

Yankees Thoughts: Aaron Boone Believes in Team, No One Else Does

The Yankees won a game and then lost a game. They don’t need a win, they need a winning streak, and a long one at that if they plan on saving their season before it can’t be saved.

The Yankees won a game and then lost a game. They don’t need a win, they need a winning streak, and a long one at that if they plan on saving their season before it can’t be saved.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Things are bad. Really, really bad. The Yankees are 6-11, have the worst record in the American League and have scored 18 runs over their last seven games, losing six of them. The team has 17 home runs in 17 games. Gleyber Torres (1), Clint Frazier (1) and Brett Gardner (1) have as many RBIs combined (3) as Jay Bruce, who retired on Sunday and was barely playing after the first week of the season. Giancarlo Stanton is hitting .158. Aaron Hicks is hitting .154. Frazier is hitting .175. Gardner who has supposedly played so much better than Frazier is hitting .214. Kyle Higashioka has had 16 plate appearances and has as many home runs (2) as Hicks, Torres, Frazier, Gardner, DJ LeMahieu, Mike Tauchman and Mike Ford combined.

The Yankees have recently turned to the Mikes (Ford and Tauchman) to save their season despite Ford not being good enough to make the team over Bruce three weeks ago and Tauchman not being good enough to play much at all to this point. The Yankees tried to revive Rougned Odor’s career, but are seeing exactly why the Rangers are happily paying him $27 million to not play for them (.120/.185/.240).

Anyone who thinks Luke Voit coming back (whenever that actually happens) is going to save the season is kidding themselves. This team isn’t one player away from going on a run. They are an entire lineup away from going on a run.

2. On Tuesday, in the first of two games against the Braves, Hicks wasn’t in the lineup. Aaron Boone said Hicks would have the two-game series off to work on “mechanical adjustments.” The same Hicks who Boone laughed at the media for asking about moving out of the 3-hole after the first weekend of the season. The same Hicks who Boone said would be fine “over the long haul.” After 15 games, he was being benched.

Hicks entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter. It only took him seven innings to make those “mechanical adjustments.” He was back in the lineup on Wednesday night as well, but batting seventh. What happened to him being the No. 3 hitter? What happened to needing a left-handed bat to bat third to separate the right-handed hitters?

The Yankees called up Ford to play first base, so that three-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman LeMahieu could play his natural position. Last September, the Yankees sent Ford down, deeming him not good enough to be a Yankee in the regular season, but in October, he was on the postseason roster and used as a pinch hitter over Frazier and Gary Sanchez in the ALDS with the season on the line. Not good enough to be a Yankee in September, but good enough to pinch hit in October.

On Tuesday, Ford was batting sixth. Not good enough to be a Yankee over Bruce on April 1, but good enough to bat ahead of Sanchez and Frazier on April 21.

3. Just two days ago I wrote Aaron Boone Has Excuse for Every Loss and listed the excuses Boone had made for each of the team’s 10 losses to that point. Well, the loss total is now 11.

I have watched a lot of Boone press conferences in his time as Yankees manager. I watched him come up with a bullshit excuse for leaving Luis Severino in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS (after he didn’t know the start time) to load the bases with no outs with the Red Sox hitting every ball hard. I sat through him trying to find something that made sense for why he went to Lance Lynn to get out of that bases-loaded jam. I struggled through him saying he let CC Sabathia go through the entire Red Sox’ lineup a second time in Game 4 of that series just so he could face No. 9 hitter Jackie Bradley. I watched in disbelief as he tried to walk the media through his 2020 ALDS Game 2 strategy. I never thought a press conference could top those, but Wednesday’s night might have. At worst, it’s a first-ballot Aaron Boone Postgame Press Conference Hall of Fame inductee.

4. Corey Kluber wasn’t good again, failing to get through five innings for the fourth time in as many starts as a Yankee. What did Boone think of his No. 2 starter?

“I thought the stuff was good.”

How could the stuff have been good? Kluber pitched only 4 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs and walked four. You know who had good stuff? Braves’ starter Ian Anderson. The New York native has now embarrassed the Yankees in his two career starts against them: last night and his major league debut last season.

Things unraveled for Kluber in the fifth inning. What happened to Kluber that inning?

“I think, obviously, it being cold and windy, I think at times and a little bit tough getting a feel,” Boone said. “It might have had a little bit to do with the weather.”

Boone has officially run out of excuses. He’s now using the weather to defend his team. I guess there were ideal weather conditions in the bottom half of each inning when Anderson was on the mound shutting down the Yankees (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 0 HR).

5. At 62 pitches and three outs away from getting 15 outs for the first time as a Yankee, Kluber allowed a line-drive single to Pablo Sandoval. He struck out Dansby Swanson and then walked No. 8 hitter Austin Riley. He followed that by walking No. 9 hitter Guillermo Heredia. No teams walks 8- and 9-hitters like the Yankees. Boone stayed with Kluber with the bases loaded and he allowed a sacrifice fly to Ehire Adrianza to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Boone left Kluber in to face Freddie Freeman of all people, and Kluber, either too scared to make a pitch or unable to know where the ball was going (likely the latter) walked Freeman on four pitches. Bases loaded.

Boone had seen enough. He went to the mound to get the ball from Kluber. Knowing his team’s offensive struggles since Opening Day and knowing how big of a spot in the game this was, Boone called on … Nick Nelson. What? That’s right, Nick Nelson.

After the game, Meredith Marakovits asked Boone why he went to Nelson there and did he consider using Darren O’Day, who is a proven elite reliever and automatic against right-handed batters.

“No, not O’Day,” Boone replied to Marakovits with a sarcastic, cocky tone. “Not at that point in the game.”

Not at that point in the game? The game was on the line. It was a high-leverage situation regardless of the inning, yet Boone continues to manage to the inning and not the situation.

6. Nelson isn’t good. He wasn’t good last year, and he hasn’t been good this year. On Opening Day, the Yankees used him for the 10th inning with the runner on second and no outs. The Yankees lost in the 10th inning. In the first game in Tampa, leading 4-2, Boone went to Nelson to relieve Kluber with the bases loaded. His first pitch was a ball, and the next pitch was a two-run double to tie the game. When the Yankees inexplicably didn’t have a starting pitcher for the 13th game of the season against the Rays, they decided to go with an opener. That opener was Nelson. Three batters into the game, the Rays had a 2-0 lead and hadn’t made an out. So why wouldn’t Boone go to Nelson with the game on the line on Wednesday night? All he has done in his career is prove himself time and time again.

Nelson walked Ozuna on four pitches to walk in a run. These weren’t borderline calls that just missed and it wasn’t like Nelson was getting squeezed. The four pitches were either short of home plate or in the other batter’s box. If you told me Nelson was a left-hander throwing with his right arm, I would have believed it, that’s how bad he was coming into the game.

Nelson might as well be Jonathan Holder or Ben Heller or Brooks Kriske or Luis Cessa or Johnny Barbato or Nick Goody or Anthony Swarzak or Esmil Rogers or Branden Pinder or Chris Martin or David Carpenter or Nick Rumbelow or any other incapable right-hander the Yankees have let destroy games over the years. Nelson, Cessa and Kriske are all in this list and they all pitched on Wednesday night. The Braves scored a run off each of them.

7. Ultimately (Boone buzz word!), the pitching didn’t matter. The Yankees could have allowed one run or 100 runs, they were going to lose on Wednesday. The only run they scored came in the ninth inning because the Braves didn’t hold Hicks at first base and he moved to second on defensive indifference and scored on a Frazier bloop single over first. Congratulations to Frazier on his first RBI in Game 17 of the season!

The offense hasn’t shown it’s coming out of its slump. Even in the win on Tuesday, the Yankees only won because the Braves gift wrapped an eighth inning rally for them. They had the bases loaded with no outs and needed a wild pitch and walk to score two runs as Torres and Frazier both popped up. The scary thing is this is no longer a slump. A slump is a series or a week. It’s April 22 and 11 percent of the season has been played. This isn’t a small sample size.

Stanton has been awful, but unsurprisingly awful since he’s a complete guess hitter and hasn’t been guessing right. Hicks has been horrible, but unsurprisingly horrible because he isn’t good. Frazier has looked lost, but unsurprisingly lost because he plays sporadically and this isn’t the sport to play sporadically. The one player who I’m surprised and who truly worries me is Torres.

8. Torres hasn’t been good since the 2019 ALCS. Last year, he reportedly came to Spring Training 2.0 out of shape and unprepared, but what’s the excuse for this year? He was supposed to evolve into the Yankees’ best player, a franchise shortstop who could bat third for years to come. His defense isn’t major league caliber and he might as well not go to the plate with a bat and hope the pitcher throws four balls before three strikes (it works for Hicks sometimes).

On Wednesday, Torres check swung on a pitch and it ended up going in play. He jogged to first the way you would jog if you were seconds away from being home and it started to rain. Torres most likely wasn’t going to beat the throw anyway, but the effort wasn’t there, and running hard to first is the easiest thing any major leaguer can do.

“I think any time that kind of situation where a guy’s gotta get out off the mound, you gotta get after it,” Boone said. “I think initially the check-swing, he just probably in his mind (thought) foul ball right away and then it’s, ‘Oh no, I gotta get going.’”

Boone did say, “Sure, yeah,” when asked if he would talk to Torres about the lack of hustle. Hustle is easy to do and demonstrate. When you’re going as bad as Torres, it’s a must. I’m very worried about Torres and his future.

8. It’s not just Torres though, it’s everyone. LeMahieu is hitting every ball on the ground to short and third. Judge can only get hits and hit home runs when the bases are empty. Stanton is never on base. Hicks is never doing anything. Sanchez’s comeback story has stalled out since the first two games of the season. Frazier is a mess. Urshela might be the Yankees’ best hitter of late and he has a .311 on-base percentage. Odor is a lost cause the Yankees will continue to try to save. Gardner has been arguably worse than Frazier, who he continues to play over. The mustache isn’t bringing Ford any success and Tauchman is still the 30-year-old with six good weeks to his name in his major league career.

“I believe in our guys,” Boone said, yet again. “I know who they are. I know we’re gonna mash.”

Boone knows who his guys are. That’s good. It would be awkward if he didn’t know his own players or their names now in his fourth season as manager.

“So it’s frustrating that it doesn’t happen tonight or every game you go out there,” Boone said. But is it hard to stay positive? Not at all.”

I don’t know how anyone could be positive about this team. They have six wins in 17 games. Their six wins: two Gerrit Cole starts, a Jordan Montgomery start, a Bruce bases-loaded bloop single, a Odor bloop single and a gifted rally from the Braves. That’s it. That’s how the Yankees have won their six games.

“I know we’re walking out there with heavy artillery each and every night,” Boone said. “We just gotta unlock it right now and we will.”

Boone keeps saying the team is going to be successful and is going to get it going and is going to hit and is going to mash. Except he doesn’t know when they might be. It might not happen.

10. This Yankees team lost 15 of 20 games last year. They were 10 games above of .500 and then they were .500. In a 60-game season, they were seven games worse than the Rays. They are already 1-5 against the Rays this season and 3-9 against the Rays and Blue Jays.

Now the Yankees will see the Indians for four games. The same Indians that gave away Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco in the offseason and have cut so much payroll, it has Hal Steinbrenner jealous of the way they operate.

The Indians aren’t good, and they aren’t going to be good. They are the perfect opponent for the Yankees right now. The problem is the Yankees are the perfect opponent for everyone else.

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