I wanted the Yankees to go to London and win one game, not lose any ground in the standings and take two more games off the schedule. They did even better, sweeping the two games and pushing their division lead out of reach for their competition.

This is going to be a fun, relaxing and enjoyable summer with no chasing for the Yankees to do. For the first time in a long time, Yankees fans can sit back during the second half and not worry about the division title or wild-card seeding.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. The division is over for the Rays and Red Sox. O-V-E-R. Yes, on July 1, with essentially half the season left, I’m calling the division for over for both the Rays and Red Sox. I called it over weeks ago for the Red Sox, but I’m eliminating the Rays from the AL East now as well.

If the Yankees were to play .500 baseball over their remaining games and go 40-40, the Rays would have to go 46-32 (.590) to tie them and the Red Sox would have to go 50-28 (.641) to tie them. Both winning percentages represent higher win percentages than both teams are currently playing to, though that doesn’t even matter since the Yankees aren’t going to become a .500 baseball team for the next three months. The level of competition in baseball this season won’t let them.

The Yankees currently have a .659 winning percentage (54-28), so let’s say they win 60 percent of their remaining games, which still might be low. That would give them a final record of 102-60. The Rays would then have to go 54-24 (.692) to tie them and the Red Sox would have to go 58-20 (.744) to tie them. So yeah, the division is over.

2. The Yankees return home from London with a two-game series against the Mets and then four games in Tampa against the Rays. The best part about having such a big lead in the division is the Yankees no longer have to win series against their direct competition. They don’t have to go to Tampa this weekend looking to win three of four to gain ground on the Rays or create more separation. All they have to do is play .500. Win two of the four and that’s four more games off the schedule and four more games off the schedule between them and the Rays.

It’s a beautiful feeling to have this type of division cushion that I forgot what it felt like. It’s been nearly seven years since the Yankees last won the division and have had only a handful of division, some only for a day or two, in that time. The second half of this season is going to be about getting healthy, staying healthy, acquiring a starting pitcher and preparing for the postseason. It’s just like the old days: the regular season is set up as a formality for the postseason. I couldn’t be happier.

3. The problem is the Yankees could go out and win 100 games again like last season or 105 or 110 and it won’t matter if they don’t get those 11 wins in October. I hate to rain on the parade of the best team in the AL, especially after they destroyed the Red Sox this weekend, but it’s the truth. Nothing matters if the Yankees don’t finish the job for the first time in a decade in October.

4. What a weekend it was for the Yankees. Putting up 29 runs in the two games against the Red Sox and ruining any small chance the Red Sox had of getting back in the division race. The Red Sox are now 12 games back in the loss column of the Yankees and two games back of the second wild-card berth. The best-case scenario for the Yankees would be for the Red Sox to play themselves out of the postseason completely since they would have the best chance of winning the AL Wild-Card Game among the competition and that would most likely set up a best-of-5 with the Yankees. The Yankees might own the Red Sox this regular season, but that would mean nothing in October, and I don’t want to find out if the Yankees can continue their 2019 success against their rival.

5. I think DJ LeMahieu should officially change his first name and replace the DJ with Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter LeMahieu. We are watching Derek Jeter at the plate when LeMahieu comes up. A contact-first, opposite-field approach that not only works, but is every bit as good as Jeter’s was. LeMahieu is up to .345/.392/.534 on the season with 12 home runs and 61 RBIs, playing first base, second base and third base. If the season ended today, LeMahieu would be the AL MVP. Remember when he wasn’t in the Opening Day lineup and was going to be used a super utility player?

6. I don’t care that Aaron Hicks hit a home run on Saturday and I don’t care that he hit that seventh-inning triple on Sunday, Hicks should never bat third for the Yankees. He shouldn’t bat higher than seventh, and even putting him seventh might be too high. The only person Hicks should ever bat higher than on this current Yankees team is Brett Gardner. That’s it.

Hicks isn’t Bernie Williams, though the Yankees keep treating him like he is. He has no business batting between Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez with Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton both out, and he has no business batting higher than Edwin Encarnacion or Gleyber Torres either. For some reason, the Yankees keep confusing Hicks’s ability with Torres’s ability, batting the 23-year-old star at the bottom of the order in favor of the career two-month wonder. Come postseason time, if the team is at full strength, this should be the lineup:

DJ LeMahieu, 3B
Aaron Judge, RF
Gary Sanchez, C
Luke Voit, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton, LF
Gleyber Torres, 2B
Edwin Encarnacion, DH
Aaron Hicks, CF
Didi Gregorius, SS

Unfortunately, the Yankees would likely not bat Sanchez ahead of Voit and Stanton since there’s no amount of records Sanchez can break to solidify himself as the team’s No. 3 hitter, wouldn’t bat Voit ahead of Stanton, wouldn’t bat Torres ahead of Encarnacion, wouldn’t bat Hicks behind Torres and would never bat Gregorius ninth. But that’s what the lineup should be. I don’t care about breaking up the right-handed bats since there are too many that you can’t break them up.

7. Given the odd travel schedule, playing baseball in a soccer stadium and everything being weird about the London games, it makes sense to give Masahiro Tanaka a pass for Saturday’s disaster. No pitcher pitched well in London, so it’s hard to get on Tanaka for a bad inning when Rick Porcello managed to do worse and the teams combined for 50 runs in two games. Even if you remove Saturday’s first inning from Tanaka’s season ledger, it doesn’t change the fact he has one inning nearly every game in which he lets the game get away from him.

London aside, Tanaka is the team’s best and most consistent starter right now. He’s going to get the ball in the postseason, whether it’s in Game 1, 2 or 3 and I have all the faith in the world he will pitch as brilliantly as he has in the last two postseasons. I’m not worried about his regular-season inconsistencies because I trust him more than any other Yankees starter and I know when the calendar turns to October he’s unbeatable.

8. I have a feeling if Luis Cessa let the Red Sox extend their lead considerably on Sunday, it might have finally been his last game as a Yankee. Instead, Cessa went out and pitched four shutout innings, keeping the Yankees in the game, and allowing them the chance to come back and tie the game before taking the lead for good.

This doesn’t change the fact that Cessa isn’t good and doesn’t belong on the Yankees. Give any fringe major leaguer enough chances and eventually they will be successful in some capacity. That game wasn’t Cessa turning a corner or figuring it out once and for all, it was just the last man in a major league bullpen having a good outing. Don’t be surprised when he’s now trusted in a bigger spot in the coming weeks and fails to come through. That’s who Cessa is, not the pitcher from Sunday.

9. Zack Britton is a problem. A real problem. Normally, on a team like this, a bad reliever would eventually be removed of his late-inning role and would pitch in mop-up duty or meaningless games. But because of Britton’s contract, resume and stature, he’s going to get the ball in high-leverage situations no matter what, and I’m petrified he’s going to lose a game in October, just like he did last October.

Don’t let Britton’s 2.55 ERA fool you. He has walked 20 and struck out 26 in 35 1/3 innings this season. Since May 20, he has walked 12 and struck out four in 15 innings. I don’t know what’s worse, the four strikeouts or the 12 walks. But I do know a pitcher with those kind of numbers can’t be trusted to pitch the eighth inning in close games and can’t be viewed as an elite option. It’s only a matter of time until Britton’s high walk rate and low strikeout rate translate into earned runs. He can’t pitch like this and escape damage forever and he better figure it out before it gets to that point.

10. My expected record for the Yankees for June was 15-11 and they finished 17-9, two games better. When they started the month 4-8, it looked like they weren’t going to come close to the mark I set for them, but winning 13 of their last 14 certainly helped.

The Yankees play 25 games in July. They are off today, four games for the All-Star break and again on July 29. My expected record (by expected record, I mean a record I would be content with them having) for July is 13-12. That doesn’t seem great, but with 12 games against the Rays and Red Sox, and a bunch of other somewhat decent matchups, playing a game over .500 isn’t bad. August is when they can get fat again with 13 games against the Orioles, Blue Jays and Mariners. If the Yankees are 67-40 through the end of July, they will still have a comfortable lead in the division with only 55 games left.

***

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

The Yankees are the hottest team in baseball, having won 11 of 12, and have opened up their lead in the division to seven games in the loss column over the Rays and 10 games in the loss column over the Red Sox. The Yankees are a good weekend in London and a bad Rays weekend from being set up to coast to their first division title in seven years.

The Yankees are off for the second straight day today and then again on Monday. They will then play six straight before the All-Star break. After the All-Star break though, they will play 38 games around one off day. The dog days of summer are about to be here, and the Yankees have set themselves up to make it a relaxing summer, one in which they won’t have any chasing to do for the first time in a long time.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. Giancarlo Stanton retuned to the Yankees on Tuesday, June 18. The Yankees then gave him the Wednesday, June 19 game off and the Sunday, June 23 game off as well. He still got hurt. It’s just another example of the extra, unnecessary rest the organization feels the need to instill, which prevents nothing. Injuries happen and there’s nothing you can do about them. Somehow, the Yankees still haven’t figured this out.

Stanton slid into third base, got his hand spiked by a cleat and ended up on the injured list with a PCL strain in his knee and is now out until at least August. Another odd injury in what has become a long list of odd injuries for him this season, a now lost season.

If you’re a Yankee and you get injured, expect to go on the injured list. Aaron Boone said the tests on Stanton’s initially-diagnosed knee contusion “were good” only for his knee contusion to become a PCL strain.

If Stanton were to come back on August 1, which he won’t, there will be 55 games left in the season at that point. If he were to play in every game, which is impossible since there are already two doubleheaders scheduled along with all the extra unnecessary rest he will receive, he would finish the season with 64 games played (his nine games played so far plus the 55 remaining games). But Stanton isn’t going to come close to playing in 64 games this season and the Yankees would be lucky if he finished the season with 54 games played, the equivalent of one-third of the season.

Stanton will come back sometime in late August since Brian Cashman said, “I would say it’s safer to look into August,” when asked about his return, and because we know of the potential setbacks or maybe inevitable setbacks is a better phrase to use when talking about Stanton, I don’t see him coming back before August 15. When he does come back, he will be inserted into the middle of the order and will be asked to return to the height of his abilities in only a few weeks times leading up to the postseason.

After Stanton’s performance last October and what’s gone on with him this season, he can’t afford to be swinging-and-missing his way out of the batter’s box down the stretch and again in the postseason, and the Yankees can’t afford it either. He won’t have much time to get back into a groove and make sure that doesn’t happen, if he’s not back until late August, and I don’t like where this is all headed.

2. The Yankees are in London and Clint Frazier is in Triple-A. The Yankees have decided using Brett Gardner as an everyday player, which has gone as bad as expected this season, and letting Mike Tauchman, who doesn’t belong in the majors, serve as the fourth outfielder is better than having Frazier on the roster.

Cashman cited Tauchman’s defense as the reason why he’s on the team for the London trip, saying, “This ballpark has a lot of foul territory. The corner would be be best served with having somebody that can really go get the ball and go a long way.” Does that mean Tauchman might actually start or play in this series? I sure hope not.

Cashman also said Frazier isn’t being punished for taking three days to report to Triple-A after being sent down.

“His send-down was tougher than most because of how good he performed here and how much he helped this club. If he needed the extra time to process being the odd man out, I was OK with that personally. It had nothing to do with him not being selected coming here.”

If the Yankees already had their roster set and departed for London prior to knowing Stanton would need more than just the two off days to recover from his knee injury, then these decisions make a lot more sense. But if Frazier isn’t on the 25-man roster on Tuesday when the Yankees return to play the Mets at Citi Field, then we’ll know the truth.

3. This latest Stanton injury could possibly save Frazier’s Yankees tenure. I still think the team is going to move him in a deal for starting pitching after botching better money-only pitching options, but the Yankees might be forced to keep Frazier now.

Gardner can’t play every day. He can barely play as a role player. He’s a near automatic out at the plate, and in the field, it’s obvious he’s not what he once was, with his arm looking like it left him in the offseason. Sure, he can play this weekend against the Red Sox, but after Monday, the Yankees play six straight heading into the All-Star break and then after the All-Star break, they play 38 games with one day off. There’s no way the team can think Gardner or Tauchman is going to be in the lineup for those games.

Stanton has proven he’s both prone to injury and doesn’t heal quickly. An August return seems reasonable for a PCL strain, but no one would be surprised if August become late August and late August became September. The Yankees have a capable everyday player in their system with Frazier, and maybe, just maybe he won’t be dealt for starting pitching.

4. The more James Paxton sucks, the better the chances are the Yankees make a rash decision for starting pitching at the trade deadline. And nearly every start, Paxton sucks.

Wednesday was Paxton’s 13th start of the season and for the sixth time he failed to go five innings and for the 10th time he failed to go six innings. I was one of the fools who thought his back-to-back starts against the Red Sox and Royals in April were him turning a corner, but since then he’s pitched to a 5.35 ERA in eight starts and has landed on the injured list once. Paxton hasn’t been any different as a Yankee than he was as a Mariner: a left-handed starter with lights-out stuff who can never seem to put it together consistently.

I have no idea how the Yankees have been able to build a seven-game lead over the Rays in the loss column and a 10-game lead over the Red Sox in the loss column with their replacement lineup for the first two months of the season coupled with their disastrous rotation. Outside of Masahiro Tanaka right now, which Yankees starter does anyone feel good about? Paxton? No. CC Sabathia? No. J.A. Happ? No. The opener combination of Chad Green and Nestor Cortes? No.

The Yankees are going to go out and get at least one starting pitcher and then hope Domingo German comes back and performs well and that Luis Severino might even come back at some point too. The Yankees, as currently constructed, are built to win in the regular season since most of their games are against teams not even trying to be competitive, but they are hardly built for the postseason, and that’s what this is all supposed to be for.

5. I love DJ LeMahieu. How can you not? Expected to be somewhat of a super utility player despite being a two-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner and former batting champion, LeMahieu went from being on the bench on Opening Day to becoming the Yankees irreplaceable leadoff hitter. LeMahieu leads the league in hitting with a .336 average, is three home runs shy of his his season-best total (15) with 82 games left, has a .385 on-base percentage, rarely ever strikes out, and on top of all that, he has played first base, second base and third base. I have said before he is essentially Derek Jeter at the plate and after a few years of watching too many strikeouts from the team and too many home run-or-nothing players come through the organization, LeMahieu is a breath of fresh air and as fun to watch hit as anyone on this team.

6. Edwin Encarnacion has been bad in his small nine-game sample size with the Yankees. Sure, he’s hit three home runs, which is what the Yankees got him to do, but he’s batting .152/.263/.455 in pinstripes. I thought he was going to come over to the Yankees and immediately go off the way so many other veterans have once they put on the pinstripes, but I guess it’s going to take Encarnacion a little time to get going. That’s not a problem since the team is winning and has gone 8-1 in the nine games he has played, but he’s going to hit somewhere in the middle of the order because of his career and reputation, so it would be good if he hit like someone deserving of his lineup spot and not like Kendrys Morales.

7. Speaking of Morales, I feel safer now that he’s no longer a Yankee. Knowing he was still part of the organization and looming on the injured list with a chance to return and unfairly take a roster spot from an actual worthy major leaguer made me fearful. But now Morales is gone and I and all Yankees fans don’t need to worry about seeing his bat-only game (minus the bat) in the lineup and a few weak groundball outs in every game he plays. Morales finished his Yankees tenure batting .177/.320/.242 with a home run and five RBIs in 19 games. He was every bit as bad as his .562 OPS suggests he was and I have to think the Yankees were his last chance in the majors. At least he provided the Yankees with a 3-for-5 day on June 11 in what will likely be his last major league game.

8. I don’t think I have to tell anyone how ecstatic I was for Jonathan Holder to be sent down. Thankfully, the final straw for Holder came in a game win which the Yankees still won, and he didn’t cost the team yet another game in the standings on his way out.

My dislike of Holder isn’t really his fault. He’s not very good and he’s used in spots in which a relief pitcher who is actually very good should be pitching. That’s not Holder’s fault. It’s not his fault the front office and Boone feel he’s capable of pitching in high-leverage situations, and it’s not even Holder’s fault when he blows leads or loses games. He shouldn’t be allowed to. He should pitch when the Yankees are up by a lot or down by a lot and have little to no chance of blowing the game or winning the game. If he were used the way his abilities say he should be used, I would have no problem with Holder. Unfortunately, for the second straight season, the Yankees asked him to be a pitcher he’s not, and now he’s in Triple-A, where he can’t ruin anymore games.

9. Holder realizes he deserves to be sent down and everyone knows he should have been sent down a long, long time ago before it ever got to this point. Green was sent down three weeks into the season and is much more established and has a much better career resume than Holder. But Holder has to be wondering, like everyone else, how Luis Cessa is still a Yankee.

The answer is: options. Cessa is out of options and the Yankees would have to pass him through waivers to remove him from the 25-man roster. So because the Yankees are worried about one of other 29 teams claiming Cessa, they continue to roster a pitcher who has no role, but does have a 5.11 ERA to go along with his 4.79 career ERA. Cessa has pitched in 22 games this season and has allowed runs in 11 of them. Every other time he comes out of the bullpen, he’s giving up runs and many times, they come as a result of a home run, which he’s now allowed eight of in 37 innings.

For as bad as Holder has been, Cessa has been worse and worse for a long time. But for some reason, the Yankees are scared they might lose him.

10. The Yankees began June 4-8 and are now 15-9 in the month. My expected record for them this month was 15-11, which seemed impossible a couple weeks ago, and now they can’t do any worse than it.

I will gladly sign up for one win in London this weekend, which would keep the Red Sox 10 games back in the loss column and take two more games off the schedule, and more importantly, two more games between the two teams off the schedule.

***

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

The Yankees won the first game of the Subway Series doubleheader on Tuesday and were set up perfectly to pull off the two-game sweep of the Mets. James Paxton against the soft-throwing, left-handed Jason Vargas? That’s about as good of a matchup as you can ask for if you’re the Yankees. Paxton couldn’t keep runners off base and the Yankees left too many baserunners on against Vargas and they had to settle for the doubleheader expectation of winning one and losing one against their cross-city rival.

Today is the Yankees’ second day off in three days after Monday’s rain out and their second scheduled off day so far in June. Their next scheduled off day isn’t until June 27 when they will have back-to-back days off before playing the Red Sox in London.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. Some people complain the Subway Series isn’t what it used to be or that it’s lost its luster, but I still love it. In a 162-game schedule, which features 76 games against only the Red Sox, Rays, Blue Jays and Orioles, it’s nice to have a few games against the Mets. Even if they count the same in the standings, they feel like they count for more. I love the Subway Series, always have and always will.

2. Tuesday we got a full-day reminder of how bad the Yankees’ rotation is. On paper, the rotation seems great, but on the actual field, it’s a disaster.

Masahiro Tanaka put together another lackluster performance in the afternoon game: 6.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 1 HR. James Paxton followed that up with his worst start as a Yankee in the night game: 2.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR.

Remind me again why the Yankees passed on Dallas Keuchel? Oh yeah, because they’re cheap. The Yankees let Keuchel sign with the Braves over $3 million. Do you know how insignificant $3 million is to the New York Yankees? Even when you add in the luxury tax for signing Keuchel, it’s still insignificant.

I’m not saying Keuchel should have replaced Tanaka or Paxton. I’m saying he would have provided durability and length to a rotation in desperate need of it. He would have easily filled the void left by Domingo German and would have filled it with an experienced and established veteran. Instead, the Yankees are going to have to fill it with some combination of an opener through Chad Green, Nestor Cortes, Luis Cessa and David Hale or a minor-league option like Chance Adams, who we all saw why the Yankees have been hesitant to give him spot starts in the second game of the doubleheader.

The Yankees have now played 66 games and their starters have pitched six innings in 25 of them and have provided 21 quality starts. That’s not good. I’m not sure what the average or rate around the league is for starters going six innings or providing a quality start, but I don’t care about teams around the league. I care about the Yankees, who are in the middle of a championship window, and who are currently built from a rotation perspective like a team who’s going to end up in the wild-card game again. And if they do end up in the wild-card game again, they won’t be getting Ervin Santana or Liam Hendricks this time. They will be getting Chris Sale.

3. Yes, the Yankees are better now that Didi Gregorius is back and they will be even better when Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton return. But those three only make the Yankees offensively and defensively better. They don’t pitch and they don’t prevent the bullpen from getting worn down and potentially worn out long before October comes.

The Yankees chose to pass on Keuchel, who would have only cost them money. Now they will have to address their starting pitching performance and depth issues through a trade, considering they are out of in-house rotation candidates, which will likely cost them both money and prospects,. And with the way the trade market has historically played out, the Yankees are about six weeks away from upgrading their rotation.

But who are those rotation upgrades going to be? Madison Bumgarner, who has both a no-trade clause involving the Yankees and will likely want to be taken care of financially to waive it, to go along with the destruction of the Yankees’ farm system to acquire him? Marcus Stroman, who doesn’t miss many bats as a groundball specialist and will also cost valuable prospect assets along with a raise from his $7.4 million salary he received in arbitration prior to this season? Or a rental with less ability than Keuchel? No matter who it is, it will cost more than it would have to sign Keuchel and the pitcher most likely won’t be better than him either.

4. German was already facing an unknown innings limit this season and that was before he got hurt. Now that he’s on the injured list, who knows how he will able to help the team for the rest of the season and what role he will have if and when he returns.

German has a history of injuries, like most pitchers do, and it only makes it all the more puzzling as to why the Yankees thought they could get by this season with a rotation whose only non-injured member and only member who has no injury history is the 36-year-old J.A. Happ.

The Yankees have no more pitching depth. Luis Severino remains out, German is now out and Jonathan Loaisiga is injured. The Yankees are going to have to piece it all together with Tanaka, who has never pitched a full season in the majors, Paxton, who has the most lengthy injury history of all Yankees starters, CC Sabathia, who has scheduled trips to the injured list for knee maintenance, Happ, who has been healthy, but inconsistent, and some sort of opener with four blah bullpen arms. The Yankees might be sitting in first place right now, but I have no idea how they plan on staying there over the remaining 96 games with the state of their rotation.

5. Aaron Hicks returned to the Yankees on May 13. Through today, he has been back with the team for 31 days, or one month. The Yankees have played 26 games in the last 31 days, but six of them were a part of a doubleheader. They have had four rainouts and three scheduled off days in the 31 days, which translates to one full week off. Even with that full week off, Hicks has only played in 21 of a possible 26 games.

I only understand this playing schedule because I’m a Yankees fan and realize they will stop at nothing to give their players extra rest and unnecessary time off. They will cite their reasoning with Hicks as they are protecting him from aggravating his back injury, which makes no sense, since if he’s able to play baseball at all, why is it that they think more rest will somehow prevent it?

Hicks gets injured. That’s what he does. He’s never played more than 137 games in a season and in all four seasons with the Yankees he has been on the disabled or injured list at least once. Last season, he spent time on the injured list, the Yankees gave him unnecessary rest, and guess what, he still got hurt in the ALDS and missed postseason games.

The Yankees were rained out on Monday and are off today. You’re telling me Hicks couldn’t play baseball for 18 innings yesterday sandwiched between two days off? So instead of having a switch hitter in the middle of the Yankees order against Jason Vargas in the night game, the Yankees had the left-handed hitting Brett Gardner.

6. Oh, Gardner. Where to begin, where to begin.

Clint Frazier’s career has been marred by injuries and last season he missed almost the entire season due to injury. Knowing Frazier has missed significant development and Hicks has never played a full season in the majors due to injury, the Yankees chose to re-sign Gardner to a one-year, $7.5 million deal the second free agency opened. This after Gardner had just produced the worst season of his career, batting .236/.322/.368 and had lost his place atop the lineup and then lost his role as a starter completely following the acquisition of Andrew McCutchen.

The Yankees’ plan was to have Gardner get significant rest throughout the season because of his history of decline as the season progresses. This was an odd plan considering the Yankees feel every player needs significant rest, so they were signing a player who would turn 36 in the middle of the season and who would also require extra rest. Gardner was also going to serve in somewhat of a platoon role, only facing right-handed starters. This all changed when Hicks, Judge and Stanton went on the injured list and the Yankees needed Gardner to become an everyday player despite his lack of ability at 35.

Hicks has been back for a month and Frazier has also been back for a while from his brief trip to the injured list. But it’s Gardner who continues to play every game, whether the opposing starter is right-handed or left-handed.

Gardner picked up four hits in the doubleheader, including a ball which was misplayed into a triple and a garbage-time home run off the Mets’ version of Luis Cessa. The two multi-hit games were his first in nearly three weeks and the triple and home run did wonders for his sinking OPS, bringing it up 39 percentage points to .745. But Gardner is still batting .234/.316/.390 over his last 202 games and 854 plate appearances and that’s no small sample size.

Gardner’s roster spot will never be in jeopardy. The Yankees will eventually get rid of Cameron Maybin and Kendrys Morales when Judge and Stanton return or they would send Frazier, who has nothing left to benefit from in Triple-A, back down if they had to.

Gardner was supposed to be a role player and the fourth outfielder at best on the 2019 Yankees and was forced into a more regular role. He’s no longer being forced into that role because of a lack of roster depth, but the Yankees keep forcing him into the lineup.

7. Yes, that was another home run for Gary Sanchez on Tuesday, his 20th of the season, as he’s currently on a 68-home run pace over 162 games. When Sanchez nearly stole the AL Rookie of the Year from Michael Fulmer (and should have) in 2016, it was because he inexplicably hit 20 home runs in 53 games. He has 20 home runs in 48 games this season to go along with a .965 OPS.

8. Remember last year when a large faction of Yankees fans wanted Austin Romine to be the team’s starting catcher and wanted Sanchez benched or traded? That was fun.

Romine experienced a career year offensively last season, batting .244/.295/.417 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs in 77 games and 265 plate appearances. This season, he’s come’s crashing back down, batting a miserable .198/.215/.253 in 27 games and 94 plate appearances. His OPS is currently .468. Mike Trout’s OBP is .460.

I don’t know what the Yankees see in Romine. He must not just be a great guy, teammate and clubhouse presence, he must be the greatest guy, greatest teammate and greatest clubhouse presence of all time because he provides no real value to the team on the field. He doesn’t hit for average or power and doesn’t walk, isn’t great at blocking or framing pitches and can’t really throw any runners out. It’s bad enough the Yankees feel the need to grant extra rest to their players, it’s even worse when it forces Romine into the lineup. Romine has walked twice all season and has one extra-base hit since April 20. There has to be a better backup catcher option for 2020. There has to be.

9. The news that Judge could play in rehab games starting this weekend and could be back with the team for the London trip is exciting and I’m sure Major League Baseball is even more excited than Yankees fans since they don’t want to showcase their two most storied franchises to Europe without the biggest star from the two teams.

I’m not counting on Judge playing in rehab games this week and I’m not going to plan to watch him play against the Red Sox at the end of this month. That’s not me being pessimistic, but rather a product of me being crushed time and time again by the Yankees and their ridiculously inaccurate timetables for their injured players. Last year, we were told Judge would be out for three weeks after breaking his wrist in late July. Three weeks became two months and there was a time when it looked like he might not return for the regular season or postseason.

I was at the game on April 20 when Judge left with a torn oblique and I figured he was done until at least the All-Star break. Now he’s going to be ready two weeks before that? I want that to be true more than anyone, but the Yankees have screwed up injuries for Judge last season and Severino, Hicks, Dellin Betances, Sanchez, Frazier and Stanton this season. It’s hard to believe anything they say regarding injuries.

10. The Yankees are fortunate their recent 4-6 slide hasn’t cost them any real ground in the standings. They do now share the same record and possession of first place in the division with the Rays, but the Red Sox still remain nine games back in the loss column.

My expected record for the Yankees in June is 15-11 and they are now 4-6, so they have a lot of work to do. They will have to go 11-5 for the rest of the month to match my expected record and be 52-30 after the London trip.

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

Another series, another series win. That’s what the 2019 Yankees do and I can’t tell you how good it feels to see consistent separation from .500 for their record and increased separation from the Rays and Red Sox in the AL East standings.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees’ on the first of four scheduled off days in June.

1. The AL East is now a two-team race. The Yankees took out of three from the Red Sox over the weekend to eliminate them from the division. If you’re thinking, “It’s June 3!” or “There’s over 100 games left!” then think about this math.

The Yankees are 38-20 and have 104 games left. The Red Sox are 30-29 and have 103 games left. If the Yankees were to play .500 baseball the rest of the season (52-52), they would finish with 90 wins. The Red Sox would have to go 60-43 just to tie them in that scenario. But the Yankees aren’t going to play .500 baseball over 104 games. Not when they’re about to get Didi Gregorius, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Dellin Betances and eventually Luis Severino back. Let’s say the Yankees played .600 baseball for the rest of the season (and they will most likely play even better). They would finish 100-62, the Red Sox would then need to go 70-33. Like I said, the division is over for the Red Sox.

So now the Yankees can focus on the team I have said all season long they need to worry about: the Rays. It’s between the Yankees and Rays for the AL East and the loser of the two will end up in the wild-card game. I can’t take a fourth wild-card game in five years.

2. DJ LeMahieu is the closest thing the Yankees have had to Derek Jeter since Derek Jeter and the “DJ” is a great coincidence. His contact approach at the plate is refreshing as he’s now batting .311/.361/.450 and his Gold Glove defense in the field, especially at second base, is astonishing. After a few years of Brian Roberts, Stephen Drew, Kelly Johnson, Rob Refsnyder, Starlin Castro and Gleyber Torres as a rookie, you forget just how good second base defense looks.

I’m sure LeMahieu will get screwed when everyone is back and sent to near the bottom of the order, so Aaron Hicks can bat leadoff for reasons I will never understand. But for as long as LeMahieu continues to bat at the top of the order and play everyday, I will enjoy watching him.

3. It’s obvious the Yankees are going to keep treating Aaron Hicks like he’s Bernie Williams, even if he’s never really done anything to deserve the kind of treatment he gets. Hicks continues to bat second or third or fourth in the lineup, ahead of someone like Gleyber Torres, based off a couple good months in 2017 and 2018, and when everyone is back, I’m sure they will put him in the leadoff spot. That’s what this team needs: more at-bats for Hicks!

Here is how I would fill out the lineup card when everyone is back:

LeMahieu
Judge
Sanchez
Voit
Stanton
Torres
Gregorius
Hicks
Gardner

Here is how Aaron Boone and the Yankees front office (since no one knows who actually manages the team) will most likely fill out the lineup card when everyone is back:

Hicks
Judge
Gregorius
Stanton
Voit
Sanchez
Torres
LeMahieu
Gardner

4. The Clint Frazier in right field experiment needs to end. If Frazier is going to play right field like he’s drunk then he better have an OPS around 1.000. With two more misplayed balls on Sunday night, one of which was downright embarrassing, the Yankees have to have seen enough to keep putting him out there. If you want Frazier’s bat in the lineup then he either needs to play left field where he is less of a disaster or be the team’s designated hitter. Fortunately, Frazier’s miscues against the Red Sox didn’t lead to any runs which weren’t going to score anyway with the way Luis Cessa was pitching, but at some point he’s going to single-handedly lose the Yankees a game out there if they let him.

5. Luis Cessa isn’t good. The only reason he’s on the Yankees is because he’s out of options, and for some reason, the Yankees are scared to lose him. Sunday night was a perfect situation for him with no lead to protect, just a deficit to not let increase. He didn’t get any defensive help from Frazier in right field, but the balls Frazier misplayed were still going to be hits. Here was Cessa’s night as he faced nine batters and retired only three of them:

Walk
Groundout
Single
Single
Popout
Single
Groundout
Double
Single

After pitching well for most of April, Cessa has reverted back to the same old guy the Yankees are unsure what to do with. Cessa isn’t good enough to start, he’s not overpowering or trustworthy enough to be a back-end reliever and now he’s proven he’s not really a long-man either. So he’s a mop-up duty guy? Since April 29, he’s allowed earned runs in five of nine appearances and his ERA and WHIP for the season are now 4.72 and 1.425 WHIP. It’s time to give someone else a chance in Cessa’s “role”. If the Yankees try to pass him through waivers and he gets claimed, so be it. Maybe another AL team will pick him up and the Yankees can get some of the runs back against him in a future matchup to make up for all the runs he has given up as a Yankee.

6. CC Sabathia had his routine trip to the injured list for his ongoing knee issue and returned to start against the Red Sox on Sunday night. His line: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K. It was actually better than I expected from Sabathia against the Red Sox, considering their right-handed heavy lineup.

A “quality start” is all I ever expect from Sabathia at this point and it’s more important he gets the additional three outs and refrains from only getting through five since it’s clear the Yankees are going to avoid using their elite relievers at all costs.

7. I’m not sure when I will stop mocking anyone who thought Gary Sanchez should be benched in favor of Austin Romine or anyone who wanted to trade Sanchez for J.T. Realmuto or any other player. I don’t think I will ever stop giving it those fans and I don’t think I should. They deserve it.

Sanchez now has an AL-leading 18 home runs and a .995 OPS and his defense is back to being what it was prior to 2018. He showed off his cannon-like arm on Friday night, picking Eduardo Nunez off at second base for an important out just when it looked like J.A. Happ might blow the Yankees’ two-run lead.

Sanchez is amazing and I’m glad everyone is remembering that now after last season.

8. Chad Green will most likely never return to his 2017 self, but the Yankees are going to keep giving him chances to.

Green has now had three scoreless outings in a row (3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K) following an opener and two relief appearances. The late life on his fastball has reemerged in those outings and he looks to betting the swings and misses he got two years ago. I still don’t trust him and I won’t for a while after what he was saw through his first 15 appearances this season. But he seems to be headed in the right direction, and the better he gets, the less chance there is of seeing Holder in a high-leverage situation.

9. I have always thought Alex Rodriguez was OK at in-game analysis and much better at studio analysis, but after Sunday night’s performance, he’s no longer even OK at in-game analysis.

In analyzing the idiotic baserunning which ended the Yankees’ fourth-inning threat, A-Rod said, “I love that play by Aaron Boone.” No one knew if it was even a play or a missed sign or Torres just nonsensically taking off for second, which then forced Hicks to take off for home, but it took the bat out of Frazier’s hands with the tying run on third base and two outs. If it was a play, it was ridiculously dumb, and shouldn’t be praised.

Later in the game, A-Rod credited the Red Sox for putting pressure on the Yankees and Alex Cora’s team approach to hitting for the balls Frazier misplayed. There was no pressure involved and no special hitting approach which led to Frazier misreading two balls as if he were playing right field in a Central Park beer league.

A-Rod needs to be in the studio where he has time to prepare and explain why something happened. When he’s on the spot, his answers are rather out there.

10. My May expected record for the Yankees was 17-12, but after a couple rainouts, they only played 27 games, going 20-7, three wins better than I asked for.

My expected record for them for June is 15-11. They are already 1-1, so they need to go 14-10 to match it. That would give them a record of 52-30 after the London trip.

***

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

This is really the only off day left in the month for the Yankees, but after a pair of rainouts this week, the Yankees got some extra rest. I doubt that will prevent Aaron Boone from giving unnecessary rest to the team’s best players, but maybe it will help a little.

The Yankees continue to win games and keep pace with the Rays, who they will host this weekend, and hold off the Red Sox, who they will see for four games at the Stadium in two weeks. Except for the crowded injured list, everything has been going well for the Yankees, and it’s made my life and health a lot better.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on their second and last scheduled off day this month.

1. It sucks Miguel Andujar is done for the season. I know there is a large group of Yankees fans, maybe even the majority at this point, who want Gio Urshela to be the team’s third baseman, though they are disregarding Andujar batting .297/.328/.527 with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs last year in his first season in the majors. Sure, Andujar’s defense was still a work in progress and he couldn’t be trusted to make even the most routine plays in the field, but I really believe he will improve as a fielder over time. Now his future and career are in question because no baseball player ever wants to have shoulder surgery, no matter how small a tear he has in his labrum.

Andujar’s agent Ulises Cabrera said, “Miguel tried to give as much to the team as he could but realized that he just wasn’t physically able to deal with the pain and still be as productive as we all know he can be.”

If Andujar was experiencing enough pain that he was basically a pylon in the batter’s box and in the field, how is it possible the Yankees deemed him eligible to return to the team after just over a month of rehab? This isn’t sitting Gary Sanchez and then using him as a pinch hitter only to put him on the injured list the next day and it’s not letting Clint Frazier finish a game after taping his ankle and then putting him on the injured list the next day. While those two are bad, this is way worse. The Yankees placed Andujar on the IL with a torn labrum, let him rehab and then activated him for just over a week before electing for surgery. Out of all the egregious things the Yankees and their medical staff have done in 2019, this was the worst of them all.

2. I’m not in the Gio Urshela Over Miguel Andujar Fan Club, but I’m certainly interested and intrigued as to what they have to say. I read through their pamphlet and checked out their website.

Urshela will get his chance now, or at least some sort of chance until Didi Gregorius returns. Urshela is batting .330/.385/.489 and playing Gold Glove-caliber defense. The defense has always been there and now it’s up to Urshela to prove he can maintain a non-utility player bat for an entire season. At worst, Urshela returns his old self and the Yankees eventually have a second, short and third combination of Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius and DJ LeMahieu and won’t need to rely on Urshela, and at best, the Yankees uncovered another diamond in the rough and they have a real third base competition for 2020 or another valuable asset to use in a trade.

3. I would much rather have a healthy Luis Severino in the rotation than not, but it was Severino’s spring training injury which led to Domingo German joining the rotation to begin the season. Through all the early-season injuries, German has stepped up and been as good as Severino has been and a near-guaranteed win every five days. Looking back, it’s comical the Yankees skipped one of his start’s earlier in the season. Actually, I don’t have to look back since I said it was ridiculous at the time.

German is now 8-1 in eight starts and nine games (he picked up a win in relief after having his start skipped), and his one loss came in a game in which he went six innings, allowed six hits, three earned runs, no walks and struck out nine. That pitching line should have been enough to produce a win for the Yankees, but unfortunately it didn’t that time against the lowly Royals. German now has 52 strikeouts in 50 innings and has allowed two earned runs or less in five of his eight starts. He has been the Yankees’ best and most consistent start through the first quarter of the season, and if Severino returns this season and all other starters are healthy at the time, I have no idea what the Yankees would do. I think they would have to go to a six-man rotation.

4. Aaron Hicks finally returned to the lineup on Wednesday. He was supposed to play on both Monday and Tuesday before those games were rained out. The Yankees chose not to play him in both games of the doubleheader, even though he needs playing time and at-bats. Hicks wasn’t immediately inserted as the 3-hitter in his season debut, as if he were Aaron Judge returning to the team, and it’s clear the Yankees will continue to treat him like an All-Star and MVP candidate despite him never being the former and only being able to dream about being the latter. Hicks went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, which is exactly what you would expect for a player making his debut in the middle of May.

Hicks is a fine player and a good center fielder, but he’s not Judge or any other of a number of Yankees, yet they act as if he is. Put him at the bottom of the lineup like you would with any other player returning to real game action and let him find himself before deciding he belongs in the heart of the order.

5. Zack Britton seems to have a hold on the eighth inning, no matter the situation, and right now, that’s the only real thing to complain about with this team. I do like Adam Ottavino and Tommy Kahnle being used in high-leverage situations, but I don’t like how it seems Britton gets the eighth no matter what. He certainly hasn’t earned that as a Yankee between last season and this season and handing him the role based on his pre-Achilles career is a dangerous idea. The move hasn’t backfired since last month in Houston, but it’s come very close lately, and it will be a while until I trust Britton the way I thought I would.

6. Tommy Kahnle’s line for the season is now: 16.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 6 BB, 23 K, 1.08 ERA, 0.780 WHIP. The best part about Kahnle’s resurgence isn’t that he’s another trustworthy and elite option out of the bullpen, it’s that it means less Jonathan Holder in spots when Jonathan Holder has no business pitching.

7. The Yankees were rained out on Monday, were rained out on Tuesday and had Thursday off. Aaron Boone better play his regular everyday lineup for all three games this weekend against the Rays with first place on the line. If someone needs a day of extra rest (which they don’t, but Boone will make sure they get), schedule it for any of the next seven days after this weekend against the Orioles and Royals. Get first place and then you can act like you’re a first-place team.

8. I went to the Trop last weekend for the Yankees’ bid at moving into first place for the first time since Opening Day. Even though the Yankees were unsuccessful in pulling off the three-game sweep and moving atop the AL East, they still won the series and closed the gap on the Rays.

I thought the Yankees needed to go at least 3-3 against the Rays in the six games between last weekend and this weekend and figured they would lose two of three in Tampa and win two of three in New York. After winning the series at the Trop, where they haven’t been able to do much winning for a long time, I think it’s time to get greedy this weekend at the Stadium. A series win this weekend would give the Yankees sole possession of first place, which they haven’t been able to achieve this season, and would finally put pressure on the Rays, who have been able to hold off both the Yankees and Red Sox through the first month and a half.

You have to go back to 2015 for the last time the Yankees were in first place this late in the season, which is extremely sad, and I almost forget what first place in the division feels like after so many wild-card berths.

9. After the Yankees play the Rays, they have a week of cleaning up to do with four games against the Orioles and three against the Royals, two last-place teams who the Yankees should have no problem beating. Last season, the AL East came down to the Yankees’ inability to pick up wins against the league’s worst, and this season started off exactly the same way. The Yankees have done a better job of late, winning their last five in a row against last-place teams in the Giants and Orioles, but they need to continue to do so. Tampa Bay and Boston have taken care of business against the crap teams and the Yankees need to as well.

10. My 17-12 May projection for the Yankees had a wrench thrown into it with the two rainouts against the Orioles, costing the team a game this month. The new expectation is to go 17-11. The Yankees are now 9-4 and have to go 8-7 for the rest of the month, which is now more than doable.

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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!