There was a time last year when a large faction of Yankees fans wanted Austin Romine to be the everyday starting catcher for the Yankees. The same Romine who entered 2018 with a career .220/.263/.314 batting line and seven home runs. The same Romine who had previously been designated for assignment by the Yankees and went unclaimed by the rest of baseball in the process. The same Romine who had lost his job seemingly to every other catcher in the Yankees system and a bunch of journeymen catchers they had picked up throughout his time in the organization.

That’s how bad things were for Gary Sanchez in 2018. Despite finishing second in Rookie of the Year with only 53 games played in 2016 and then hitting 33 home runs with 90 RBIs as an All-Star in 2017, the Austin Romine Fan Club (the Rominers) were quick to forget Sanchez’s talent level and abilities. Sanchez struggled to a .186/.291/.406 line in only 89 games, while battling injuries, but still managed to slug 18 home runs and drive in 53 runs. But the perception of the one-time face of the franchise prior to Aaron Judge’s emergence had become that he was lazy, fat, lacked hustle, was poor defensively and didn’t give 100 percent. At the same time, there was a perception that Romine was better than him defensively, could hold his own offensively and was the type of player the Yankees needed. Mike Francesa went as far to say Austin Romine deserved to start somewhere in the league, if not with the Yankees.

It was bad enough the Yankees front office continued to believe Romine was the best possible option as a backup for the team that having fans and the media think he was better than Sanchez was unfathomable. The 2018 perception of both players was completely wrong. Thankfully, 2019 has fixed it.

Sanchez has returned to his pre-2018 form this season, batting .263/.336/.653 with 14 home runs and 30 RBIs, even after a two-week absence for a leg injury suffered in Houston in April. He is winning games and breaking open games the way he did for the last two months of 2016 and all of 2017. He’s once again the power threat he was against the Indians and Astros in the 2017 postseason and the game-wrecking force he was when he single-handedly won the only game of the ALDS last season. As the President of the Gary Sanchez Fan Club, and someone who stuck by him through last year’s lost season, I couldn’t be happier to have the Yankees’ biggest advantage back.

Sanchez presents such a huge advantage offensively at his position over every other team it’s inexplicable any fan could have wanted to bench him or trade him for someone like the overly-coveted J.T. Realmuto, who is two years older than Sanchez, and through today has 20 career home runs less in 1,072 more plate appearances. During Monday’s game YES relayed the fact that since arriving in August 2016, Sanchez has the most home runs in baseball for a catcher, and that was before he went deep again on Tuesday. Since Aug. 3, 2016, Sanchez has 85 home runs and Yasmani Grandal has 65. That stat is impressive even before you realize Sanchez missed a month of 2017 and 45 percent of 2018.

The Romine over Sanchez “debate” has completely halted this season, not only because Sanchez is mashing home runs and has tightened things up defensively, especially when it comes to passed balls, but also because Romine has been nearly unplayable, hitting a paltry .191/.203/.265. Fortunately for Romine, the only other catching option is Kyle Higashioka and he’s not an upgrade. Romine isn’t going anywhere because there isn’t another option and because the organization loves him, which they have proven by bringing him back time and time again, turning down better options. The Sanchez-Romine controversy was never about Romine though, he just happened to be the subject idiot Yankees fans were defending. I want Romine to succeed and always have, and I would like for nothing more than for him to be a serviceable option at the plate on days when Sanchez is off.

Now that the unintelligent idea Romine ever deserved to play over Sanchez has been put to rest, I think every Yankees fan who ever said Romine should be the starting catcher for the Yankees should send a handwritten formal apology letter to Sanchez. Then they should shut up, sit back and watch the Yankees’ biggest lineup advantage and appreciate that one of the best hitting catchers of all time is on their team.

***

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

I feel bad for Miguel Andujar. He successfully dodged trade rumors in both 2017 and 2018 and then went on to bat .297/.328/.527 with 27 home runs and 92 RBIs as a 23-year-old rookie, finishing second to in Rookie of the Year voting to an unprecedented freak who’s both dangerous at the plate and dominant on the mound. His defense was more than questionable at times with his cannon-like arm unable to make up for his sloppy footwork and poor positioning. His inconsistent and untrustworthy defense forced him to the bench in the late innings as the season progressed and out of the lineup completely in the final game of the 2018 Yankees season.

With Manny Machado no longer a long-term option for the Yankees, Andujar was going to be the guy in 2019 and beyond, and he spent the offseason working to prove he could handle the hot corner. Both he and the Yankees desperately want his future to be at the hot corner and not at first base or in left field or simply as a designated hitter. Three games into thus season, he dove back to third base (why he was leading so far off third base with two outs to begin with is a story another day) and tore the labrum in his right shoulder. The initial diagnosis was possible season-ending and career-altering surgery, and just like that, all of his hard work in the offseason would possibly be erased.

Andujar and the Yankees went the rehab route, and 34 days after he tore his labrum, he was back in the lineup, playing third base and batting fourth. He beat Aaron Hicks (hurt his back on a 35-minute bus ride on February 27), Giancarlo Stanton (bicep strain on March 31) and Troy Tulowitzki (calf strain on April 3) back to the team despite having what one would think is a much more severe injury.

During Andujar’s 34-game absence, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela, the former Cleveland and Toronto defense-first infielder. Now 27, Urshela is no longer a prospect, and after batting .225/.274/.315 in 167 major league games had been type-casted as a utility infielder or late-game defensive replacement. Urshela claimed he fixed his approach and mechanics at the plate over the offseason to make himself a more well-rounded player, but how many other hundreds or thousands of baseball players have claimed the same only to maintain the numbers on the back of their baseball card?

Whatever Urshela actually did in the offseason worked. While Andujar was getting healthy, Urshela batted .338/.405/.492 and played Gold Glove defense at third base. Since Andujar’s activation from the injured list, Urshela hasn’t slowed down, going 5 for 10 with a double , a home run and 2 RBIs. That home run, of course, being the ninth-inning, game-tying, two-run home run to Monument Park on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, Andujar has looked like a player who missed more than a month at the plate (2 for 15) and a pair of errors in his only start at third since his return.

Now, the same way a lot of Yankees fans turned on Gary Sanchez last year, calling for Austin Romine to be the team’s starting catcher (a group of people I refer to the as the Romines), there is the same call for Urshela to be the Yankees’ starting third baseman, even when the entire roster is back at full strength, if that ever happens.

For now, injuries make it possible for both players to play with Andujar DHing and Urshela starting at third most of the time. But if the Yankees do ever get 100 percent healthy, there will come a time when there are too many players and not enough spots in the lineup and on the roster. I realize that’s a great problem to have, and we might never be presented with it with the way the injuries have piled up and keep piling up this season and the way the Yankees slowly bring back their players.

If the 2019 Yankees were 100 percent healthy, here is who would be the candidates for a spot on the 25-man roster.

Gary Sanchez
Luke Voit
Gleyber Torres
Miguel Andujar
Didi Gregorius
DJ LeMahieu
Gio Urshela
Troy Tulowitzki
Aaron Judge
Aaron Hicks
Giancarlo Stanton
Brett Gardner
Clint Frazier
Cameron Maybin
Austin Romine

Luis Severino
Masahiro Tanaka
James Paxton
J.A. Happ
CC Sabathia
Domingo German
Jonathan Loaisiga
Aroldis Chapman
Dellin Betances
Adam Ottavino
Zack Britton
Tommy Kahnle
Jonathan Holder
Luis Cessa

That’s 15 position players and 14 pitchers for 29 total players, which means four players would have to go.

Despite my love for Johnny Lasagna, he would go back to Triple-A and remain a starting option.

Unfortunately, even though I have always been a Cameron Maybin fan and feel he’s a better player than Brett Gardner in 2019, he would also lose a roster spot.

I think the Yankees would cut ties with Troy Tulowitzki, considering he’s on a one-year deal at the league minimum and is barely hanging on to a career.

Since the Yankees seem so set on having a 13-man pitching staff (though I have no idea what would happen with their rotation since you can’t demote German to the bullpen or minors with the season he’s had, so I guess they would go to a six-man rotation, which might be helpful given the fragility of their rotation), then the last roster spot would get taken from a position player, and I have no idea who that player would be.

Even deeper than that, how would you fill out a lineup card? How do you not play LeMahieu? Who plays third? How do you keep Frazier out of the lineup? Who becomes the DH?

The Yankees could potentially have a great problem with too many players worthy of a 25-man roster spot, and not enough spots for everyone. Thankfully, this decision doesn’t have to be made today, and it most likely will never have to be made. If it does have to be made, I hope the roster and lineup decisions are based on performance and not history, money owed or seniority.

***

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

You didn’t need to go to the bathroom or take a shower or get a beer. If you blinked, you might have missed Masahiro Tanaka erase a four-run lead in the fifth inning on Thursday night in Anaheim. Two starts ago, Tanaka blew a four-run lead to the White Sox by giving up a grand slam and this time he blew it with a pair of two-run home runs.

Tied 4-4 heading to the bottom of the sixth, Aaron Boone let Tanaka put two more baserunners on and with two outs, he finally went to his bullpen. With runners on first and second and a right-handed hitter up, I expected to see Adam Ottavino. Ottavino had made only two appearances and thrown 46 pitches over the last six days and this might be the highest-leverage situation the game would have. His slider repertoire against a light-hitting, right-handed 8-hitter? It was about as perfect of a matchup as you could ask for to get out of the inning. Boone didn’t think so, most likely opting to save Ottavino for later in the game, once again allowing the inning and not the situation determine which reliever he uses. Boone instead went to his personal favorite: Jonathan Holder.

Holder quickly got ahead of David Fletcher 0-1. Gary Sanchez then called for a slider and flipped his glove over expecting a slider low and away, but Holder threw a fastball, surprising Sanchez and getting by him to allow the runners to move up to second and third. A single now didn’t mean one run, it meant two, and sure enough, Holder missed his spot on the 2-2 pitch and gave up the inevitable two-run single.

I wasn’t surprised Holder allowed both inherited runners to score, effectively losing the game. I expected it. The moment YES panned to him walking out of the bullpen I knew what was going to happen. I feel like you shouldn’t expect the worst out of a reliever the organization continues to trust with games on the line, but there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense with the Aaron Boone Yankees.

Last season, Holder blew the the third game of the season when he allowed an inherited runner to score and followed that up by allowing six earned runs in his next two appearances over 2 1/3 innings, which forced him to Triple-A. Upon his return, Holder pitched to a 0.88 ERA over his next 35 games and 41 innings with hitters batting .148/.196/.230 against him.

Holder’s stock dramatically rose on May 9 when he entered in the eighth inning against the Red Sox at the Stadium with the Yankees trailing 6-5. Chasen Shreve left Holder with runners on second and third and one out (because of course he did) and Holder was able to get out of the inning unscathed. The Yankees scored four runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to win 9-6.

Despite Holder’s improbable run, I still didn’t trust him in a big spot, even if Aaron Boone and the organization did. On August 2 in Boston, my feelings toward for Holder were justified.

In the first game of the pivotal four-game series in Boston, the Yankees held a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth. CC Sabathia had labored through three innings, throwing 77 pitches and putting seven runners on base, so Boone made the right decision to go to his bullpen to begin the fourth inning, but made the wrong decision of who he was going to: Holder.

Holder’s three-month stretch had earned him important innings and none to date would be more important than the ones he was about to pitch. The Yankees were trailing the Red Sox by 5 1/2 games in the division, needing to win the series to even think about winning the division over the final two months of the season.

Holder entered and walked the nearly-impossible-to-walk 9-hitter Jackie Bradley on five pitches. After that, what unfolded was the single worst relief appearance I have ever seen and will likely ever see in a Major League Baseball game. Including, the walk to Bradley, here’s how Holder’s appearance went:

Bradley walks
Mookie Betts doubles, Bradley to third
Andrew Benintendi reaches on fielder’s choice to pitcher, Bradley scores, Betts to third
Benintendi steals second
Steve Pearce three-home run
J.D. Martinez doubles
Ian Kinsler singles, Martinez scores
Kinsler steals second
Eduardo Nunez doubles, Kinsler scores

Holder faced seven batters and didn’t retire one of them, giving up four extra-base hits and seven runs and likely needed to change his underwear after being consumed by the Fenway Park crowd in the biggest game of the season. With a chance to get back in the division race for the last time, Holder rewarded the Yankees with a performance fitting of his level of trust to everyone outside the organization. His line for the game: 0 IP, 5 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.

This season, Holder has been his usual self, which is the self the Yankees don’t feel he truly is. Rather than recognizing his three-month run last season as an unfathomable overachievement like we have seen in the past from a reliever like Brian Bruney or starters like Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon, the Yankees believe Holder is their next elite reliever, and they keep treating him as if he’s already one.

Holder’s line this season: 13.1 IP, 15 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 5.40 ERA, 1.350 WHIP. He has made nine appearances this season, giving up earned runs in six of them and allowing four of six inherited runners to score.

I don’t trust Jonathan Holder, but it’s not his fault. The reason I don’t trust him is because I’m forced to in big spots and high-leverage situations, and he’s not that kind of reliever, rarely ever coming through. He’s good (at times), but he’s certainly not great, and he’s certainly not worthy of the spots Boone keeps using him in.

With Chad Green being sent down after Tuesday’s win, the Yankees are already down one formerly trustworthy reliever, leaving them with only Ottavino, Zack Britton and Aroldis Chapman until Dellin Betances returns. Unfortunately, there will be high-leverage situations in which Boone won’t go to his best relievers (for illogical reasons, like trying to prevent injuries which aren’t preventable or continuing to manage to the inning and not the situation), but he can’t go to Holder. Tommy Kahnle has started to look more like his 2017 self and Luis Cessa has proven he’s better suited as a reliever than a starter in the majors, and I now trust those two more than I do Holder.

Eventually, Boone and the Yankees will realize Holder isn’t their next 2017 Green and he’s nowhere near the level of Ottavino or Britton, let alone Betances. They just need to realize it before it costs them more games.

***

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

I wasn’t upset when the Yankees lost on Thursday night, destroying the momentum they built with a two-game sweep of the Red Sox and falling to 3-7 at home against the Orioles, Tigers, White Sox and Royals. As I wrote on Thursday, I have tempered my expectations when it comes to these Yankees, and it’s hard to expect much, let alone winning streaks, until some combination of Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar and Didi Gregorius return to the lineup.

Thankfully, the Orioles were able to beat the Rays in extra innings and being swept by Tampa Bay to keep the Yankees at 5 1/2 games back in the division. I don’t expect the Yankees to go on any sort of extended run while they continue to bat four Triple-A to major-league-backup-at-best players in their lineup each day. The most important thing they can do right now is avoid being buried in the division race before their real everyday players return.

I don’t know what to expect from the Yankees for the rest of this four-game series against the Royals. I would like to think even these Yankees could easily handle this Royals team, but it’s hard to know which Yankees will show up on a given night? Will it be the Yankees who can’t hit Homer Bailey or Ivan Nova or will it be the Yankees who had a lead against Justin Verlander, beat Chris Sale and ruined Ryan Brasier?

The Yankees are now 8-10, but if I were to pick a time for these Yankees to play with some consistency and “turn Aaron Boone’s corner” for even three games, it would be this weekend. Because while the Yankees are hosting a very, vey bad Royals team, at the same time down in Tampa, the Rays are playing the Red Sox. There is potential for ground to be made up on the Rays or further separation from the Red Sox to occur in the standings with a winning weekend from the Yankees.

The question for Yankees fans is who to root for in Tampa? The answer is just no sweep. If the Yankees can win three straight, and there isn’t a sweep in Tampa, they will gain ground on Tampa and continue to create separation from Boston. No sweep, short starts and a lot of outs needed from both bullpens to poorly set them up for after this series. That would be the ideal weekend.

Eventually, we are going to need other teams to beat the Rays. The Red Sox? They’ll beat themselves. The Rays are the team I’m worried about in the division this season, not the Red Sox. If the Yankees are to end their division-winning drought and avoid the wild-card game for the fourth time in five years, they are going to have to beat the Rays to do so.

The Red Sox aren’t the Yankees’ biggest threat in 2019. They are who I believed them to be in 2018 before they put together an improbable season, winning 108 games and easily handling the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers in the postseason. The Red Sox have a built-in excuse for this season after winning the World Series last year and they are playing like it. There’s no 17-2 start, no weekly magical six-run, ninth-inning comebacks and there’s running away and hiding with the division.

Chris Sale, the most dominant pitcher against the Yankees other than Cliff Lee (at least to me), has to be hurt; David Price is his usual inconsistent self; Rick Porcello, the worst Cy Young winner in history, is once again pitching like the guy the Tigers gave up on; Nathan Eovaldi has reverted back to the Nathan Eovaldi who is on his fifth team despite being 29 years old and able to throw 101 mph; Eduardo Rodriguez continues to prove the Red Sox should have gotten more than they did for Andrew Miller.

J.D. Martinez still scares me, Xander Bogaerts is solid and Rafael Devers is very good for 22; Mookie Betts, for as great as he is, is no longer playing like Mike Trout; Steve Pearce is a few big games against the Yankees and a good week against the Dodgers from being out of baseball and hopefully sentimentality will continue to waste a roster spot and at-bats for the Red Sox; Eduardo Nunez sucks; Andrew Benintendi is hurt; Mitch Moreland isn’t an everyday player; Christian Vazquez only hits at Yankee Stadium and Sandy Leon wasn’t good enough to be on the Opening Day roster.

The 2018 Red Sox bullpen featured the second-best closer in history, but the bridge to him was so untrustworthy the starting rotation became the bullpen in the postseason. The Red Sox returned to the same bullpen this season minus its only valuable piece.

It’s no surprise the Red Sox aren’t any good. They just lost to a Yankees team missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, center fielder, shortstop, third baseman, ace and best reliever. They certainly aren’t .316 winning percentage bad, but they aren’t 108-win good either. It took every below-average- and average player playing well, every good player playing great and every great player playing at an MVP level for their 2018 season to happen and they all did in what was one ridiculously improbable parlay that couldn’t be stopped. Screw the 1967 Red Sox. The 2018 Red Sox were the Impossible Dream.

The Rays won 90 games last year and didn’t need anything extraordinary to post that win total. They revolutionized the way a starter is used and a bullpen is managed with their “opener” strategy. They added Charlie Morton and have Tyler Glasnow for a full season to go along with the reigning Cy Young winner in Blake Snell and a pair of openers in Ryne Stanek and Yanni Chirinos, who have the ability to dominate for two-plus innings. Their lineup lacks any household name and it would take a miracle for the Rays to be represented in the All-Star Game by a position player. Their offense consists of .240 and .250 hitters up and down the order, who seemingly only gets hits with runners in scoring position and only hit home runs when there are men on. Their offense is centered around situational hitting and creating runs, not launch angles and exit velocity. The Rays are built on the postseason success blueprint of pitching and timely hitting, and everyone expects one of the two to fall off at some point, but they didn’t last year, and they haven’t this year. This isn’t just a 19-game sample size for the 14-5 Rays. This is now a 181-game sample size, and the Rays are 104-77 since the start of 2018.

I will be rooting for the Yankees to win all three from the Royals this weekend and for no sweep in Tampa. For now, Yankees fans don’t have to root for the Red Sox, but eventually we will.

***

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

For the second straight game, I didn’t have to look back and wish the game had been postponed due to inclement April weather, rescheduled for later in the season when Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Luis Severino or Dellin Betances might be back. Tuesday and Wednesday’s wins over the Red Sox felt like I was watching the Yankees.

Aaron Boone didn’t have to spend his postgame press conference trying to find the positive in yet another loss. He didn’t have to give some bullshit cliche about how he feels his team is close to getting in a groove and that their focus and energy are in the right place. He didn’t refer to “the corner” he has frequently mentioned his team “turning” at some point.

I didn’t think the Yankees’ first home series win would come in their fourth home series — a two-game set — against the Red Sox after having dropped two of three to the Orioles, Tigers and White Sox. I didn’t think they would find a way to beat Chris Sale, given his career against the Yankees, and win a game started by J.A. Happ, given what he has done since Game 1 of the ALDS. I didn’t think Mike Tauchman was capable of hitting a ball as far as he did on Tuesday night and I didn’t think Brett Gardner had the ability to turn around a 97 mph fastball on 0-2 for a grand slam on Wednesday night.

These Yankees are confusing. Not the 2019 Yankees, but the team filling in for the 2019 Yankees. There are nights when they look listless at the plate, leaving you to wonder if they will ever get a hit with runners in scoring position, and lost in the field, appearing as though the beverages in the dugout are being kept in brown paper bags. Then there are nights when you forget they are missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, third baseman, shortstop, center fielder, ace and best reliever because they play as if they aren’t missing anyone.

I have tempered my expectations for the time being with the current roster. I accept Gardner is going to bat leadoff until Hicks is back. I realize some combination of Austin Romine, Kyle Higashioka, Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, Tyler Wade and now Mike Ford are going to be in the lineup every night. I recognize there isn’t a guaranteed win every five days the way there is when Severino is in the rotation. I understand close games are going to feel even closer with Betances unavailable in the bullpen. I have come to accept these Yankees aren’t good enough to fulfill the preseason requirement of ending the soon-to-be-decade-long World Series drought. For now, I have adjusted my nightly expectations to grinding out wins in an attempt to stay afloat and within striking distance until the All-Star injured list returns.

Maybe these Yankees have “turned the corner” in that they won’t look completely overmatched at the plate and make careless mistakes on the basepaths and on defense. It’s quite possible the rotation will contribute more than four to five innings per night moving forward and the bullpen will serve as the trustworthy strength everyone anticipated it would be. But the corner won’t really be turned for good until the Yankees, the real Yankees return.

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