The Yankees have lost three of five at home, lost a bat they can’t afford to lose and found out their big, offseason free-agent starter signing is headed for tests on his back. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
The Yankees have lost three of five at home, lost a bat they can’t afford to lose for the next six weeks and found out their big, offseason free-agent starter signing is headed for tests on his back. It’s hard to feel good about this team right now.
1. When Hal Steinbrenner signed Carlos Rodon, he said his Yankees “weren’t done” with their offseason. He lied.
The Yankees were done. They brought back Aaron Judge and signed Rodon. The only other move they made was bringing back old friend Tommy Kahnle. They chose to not address left field. They chose to not move on from Aaron Hicks or Josh Donaldson or Isiah Kiner-Falefa. They chose to not add starting pitching depth to the organization to protect a fragile rotation and refill the depth they depleted to trade for broken-down arms last July. They chose to not address their bench even with a roster littered with oft-injured players.
2. Less than three weeks into the season and Rodon hasn’t thrown a pitch and neither has Kahnle, and Frankie Montas likely won’t throw another one for the Yankees. Luis Severino is on the injured list again, as are IL frequenters Harrison Bader, Josh Donaldson and Giancarlo Stanton. Bader hasn’t played a game this season, Donaldson was unplayable before he became literally unplayable and the Yankees continued their unnecessary rest plan for Stanton to keep him healthy, and once again, it worked about as well as using the 2004 ALCS as a motivational tactic for the 2022 ALCS.
3. Hicks has been even worse than imagined, as has Kiner-Falefa. The bench the Yankees chose to ignore has a career negative-2.0 WAR Willie Calhoun on it, a player who Aaron Boone pinch hit with instead of DJ LeMahieu on Friday night. The limited starting pitching depth the Yankees entered the season with is now part of the actual rotation and filling in about as well as could be expected.
4. If only the Yankees could have seen this coming. If only they could have known players with injured pasts would get injured. If only they could have predicted bad baseball players would continue to be bad baseball players. If only they could have been aware of any of this, maybe they could have prevented all of this.
5. This being playing with a lineup that has at least three automatic outs each night. This being playing with a rotation featuring one starter who has made three career starts, one who has a 6.16 ERA and 1.696 WHIP in eight career starts and another who has allowed 72 home runs in 378 2/3 innings as a starter.
6. Following a day off on Monday, the Yankees were beat rather easily by a crappy Angels team that just got beat up by an even worse Red Sox team over the weekend. The Yankees were lifeless at the plate, foolish on the basepaths and Clarke Schmidt continued to sabotage any future he may think he has a starter in the majors. It was the kind of game the Yankees gave us in July, August and September of last season.
7. Unfortunately, it’s hard not to envision a lot more of these games coming. Prior to the loss to the Angels, it was announced that Rodon will have tests done on his back. The same pitcher who initially said when going on the IL that if it were the ALDS he would be pitching. Do they let pitchers pitch in the postseason who needs to have tests done on their back following bullpen sessions?
8. Along with the Rodon news, the Yankees announced Stanton would be out for six weeks with a hamstring issue. The same hamstring issues he had in the 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons. The best-case scenario is a Memorial Day return, and the worst-case scenario is a repeat of 2019 when he played 18 games and took himself out of the lineup in that postseason.
9. There’s not much to feel good about with this team right now. This season feels like a continuation of last season, and that’s because it is. Saying “It’s early” or calling the team’s injuries “bad luck” is completely disregarding everything this team and organization has done (or hasn’t done) as a group over the last few years. This season, like the recent others that preceded it, was once again set up as a massive parlay, from both injury and performance standpoints. I have seen how this story ends and it’s going to take a lot of change and unexpected production for this version to not end the same way the others have.
10. The Yankees aren’t bad. They’re 10-7. But to get there, they have needed Gerrit Cole to have the best four-game stretch of his career, Franchy Cordero to save the day a few times and a favorable early-season schedule. Thinking this team can pull the same Replacement Yankees miracle the 2019 team did to weather this injury storm isn’t just wishful thinking, it’s foolish. But that’s all Yankees fans can do right now is think foolishly that this team won’t get buried by the Rays trying to runaway before the end of the first month of the season. Think that this team with this makeshift lineup and this makeshift rotation can stay afloat until the always-injured players return. If they return.
After a rough first game in Baltimore on Friday, the Yankees bounced back to win on Saturday and Sunday. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
The Yankees’ weekend in Baltimore started off with their manager doing what he’s done for five-plus seasons: manage the team to losses in winnable games. Thankfully, Jhony Brito was on the mound on Saturday, and the Yankees bounced back to win the final two games of the series.
1. Another series, another series win for the Yankees. That’s three series, three series wins and a 6-3 record. The Yankees have been slow starters in the Aaron Boone era in the first couple of weeks of March/April, so to be three games over .500 and playing as well as they have has been enjoyable.
The Yankees have lost three games and in all three games they were in it and had a chance to win in the ninth inning. They have yet to lose a laugher or get blown out. On the other hand, they never seem to lose laughers or get blown out. It would be nice if they would just lose like every other team and not make it so painful right down until the final pitch, keeping you hooked and making you think they will come back.
2. By now all Yankees fans should know that unless the Yankees outpitch and outhit their own manager, he’s not going to help them win. After some illogical decisions in the second game of the season (and first loss of the season) and after giving away the fourth game of the season (in what was the second loss of the season), Boone had an all-time Boone game in the seventh game of the season on Friday night.
Clarke Schmidt wasn’t very good in his second start (3.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K) and after putting the Yankees in a 4-0 hole, the offense fought back to take a 5-4 lead in the sixth. With one out in the sixth, Oswaldo Cabrera was at third. Franchy Cordero was due up to face the left-handed Danny Coulombe, so Boone went to the bench for a pinch hitter. That pinch hitter? Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
3. How the Yankees got to a place where Kiner-Falefa is the Yankees’ right-handed pinch-hit option off the bench is quite the embarrassment. Aaron Hicks was available, and was certainly the better option no matter how lost he may be or seem to be, but Boone would rather eat from a Manhattan restaurant with a “C” health rating than play Hicks any more than he has to. (The best part about the decision was after the game Boone said he went with Kiner-Falefa over Hicks because the Yankees needed a base hit there and not a walk. Yes, he really said that. He thinks getting more people on base and increasing the amount of runs the team may score is not a good idea.)
There was only one way Kiner-Falefa’s at-bat was going to end and it was without him getting the runner in from third with one out. I wasn’t sure if he was going to strike out, ground out weakly or pop one up in the infield, but the end result was inevitable. Kiner-Falefa went with the old infield popup, hitting it to the first baseman.
4. In the bottom of the sixth, Ron Marinaccio relieved Ian Hamilton to face the top of the order with a runner on first and one out. Jorge Mateo stole second on Marinaccio and moved over to third on a Cedric Mullins ground out. Mateo was now at third representing the tying run with Adley Rutschman at the plate.
The Yankees had first base and second base open. Walking Rutschman would have meant facing Anthony Santander with two on, but if that at-bat wasn’t going well, he also could have been put on to face the right-handed Ryan Mountcastle. It was as if Boone was looking at Google Maps and he had the fastest possible route, a route with a similar ETA and then a route with a 43-minute delay for road work and a detour involved. He chose the last option.
Boone had Marinaccio face Rutschman. Fine. Marinacco went fastball, fastball, changeup, changeup and fell behind 3-1. At this point, putting Rutschman on made the most sense. Why risk throwing a changeup that could catch too much of the plate or a fastball that could do the same? Four pitches and four fastballs later (that Rutschman had now seen six times), he singled to left to tie the game. The next batter, Santander, struck out on four pitches and swung through two Marinaccio fastballs.
5. Boone sent Marinaccio back out for the seventh with the game tied at 5. He walked Mountcastle on five pitches and then struck out Gunnar Henderson while Mountcastle stole second. The go-ahead run was now in scoring position with one out. Removing Marinaccio was the right move, if it meant bringing in Jonathan Loaisiga or Wandy Peralta or even Michael King despite King looking awful in the first week of the season. Boone chose Jimmy Cordero. (We would find out later that Loaisiga was unavailable and would end up on the injured list.)
Cordero’s first pitch was wild, allowing Mountcastle to go to third, and his second pitch was an RBI double for Ramon Urias to give the Orioles a 6-5 lead. Cordero got Adam Frazier to ground out, moving Urias to third, and then threw another wild pitch to allow Urias to score. It gets worse.
6. In the top of the eighth, the Yankees opened the inning with a double and back-to-back singles. The Orioles’ lead was now one run at 7-6 and the Yankees had first and second with no one out. They could tie the game by just making out. Well, the right kind of outs.
Jose Trevino came up and with the whole world knowing he was going to bunt, he didn’t care about showing the whole he was going to bunt and got into a bunting position before Bryan Baker even started his delivery. Baker missed badly on the first two pitches, so Trevino now had a 2-0 count. Trevino could wait and take a strike and the wild Baker might walk him to load the bases with no outs or he could continue to look for a strike to bunt. Boone had other ideas. He took off the bunt for Trevino and Trevino swung away at the 2-0 pitch, hit a grounder to Urias at third who stepped on third and threw to first four a double play, destroying the Yankees’ rally.
Kiner-Falefa followed Trevino and with a chance to redeem himself and drive in the game-tying run he swung through a couple of middle-middle fastballs in his at-bat and struck out.
7. With the Yankees trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the eighth, Boone then turned to Peralta. Yes, Boone had passed over Peralta for Cordero with the game tied at 5 in the seventh, and now wanted him to pitch with the Yankees trailing by a run in the eighth. There’s nothing Boone likes doing more than holding back his elite relievers from tie games to use them when the team is trailing. Now watching him in his sixth season continue to implement this ridiculously moronic strategy, I really, truly don’t want things like this from him to upset me anymore, but they do. Peralta pitched a scoreless eighth because he’s awesome, but the Yankees ended up losing 7-6.
8. Saturday was Johnny Brito day and I love Brito. After shutting out the Giants for five innings his in major-league debut, Brito didn’t have his best stuff with him right from the start on Saturday and faced first and third with no outs and the Orioles’ 3-4-5 hitters in the first. Brito had created a shitstorm for himself two batters into his night, and it seemed like maybe he wasn’t going to run away with a rotation spot after all.
But Brito reset after a mound visit initiated by Anthony Rizzo (and not the dugout) and got a fly ball and two ground balls to limit the damage to a run to get out of the inning. That was all he would allow all night in what was another impressive performance: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Brito is the heavy, heavy favorite right now to remain in the rotation when and if Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino return. I love how he attacks the zone and doesn’t nibble, believing in his stuff to be enough and not trying to make the perfect pitch every pitch. On a night when he didn’t have his best stuff, he kept his composure, battled and grinded through five innings. Put Schmidt or Domingo German in that first-inning situation and the game is likely over. I look forward to his next start.
9. It was a beautiful Easter made possible by Nestor Cortes, who did his thing and Aaron Judge, who did his thing. Not only was Cortes solid (5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) and not only did Judge hit two more home runs (3-for-4), but Franchy Cordero also had a day, banging his second of the season.
Cordero came to the Yankees as the left-handed Wily Mo Pena, who would hit a 700-foot home run every few weeks, and in between the mammoth blasts would be non-competitive strikeouts. So far as a Yankee, Cordero is 5-for-14 with a double and two home runs and seven RBIs. Cordero is tied with Judge for the team lead in RBIs.
I thought Cordero getting designated for assignment once Harrison Bader returned was inevitable, but right now it can’t be. There’s a lot of time for Cordero to regress to the player he has always been, and if he doesn’t, he has already given the Yankees more than I thought he ever would. I’m rooting for him to be this season’s out-of-nowhere fan favorite. Having the same amount of RBIs as Judge in just 39 percent of the plate appearances is certainly a way to start seeing Cordero shirseys popping up on River Ave.
10. Up next, it’s off to Cleveland where the Yankees last were in Games 3 and 4 of the ALDS. (Game 3 was a Boone special.) The Guardians are pesky and a tough group, and they will get to face Domingo German and Schmidt in two of the three games in the series. (Gerrit Cole is going to need to pitch as well as he did in his first two starts in the second game of the series on Tuesday.)
The Yankees took two of three from the Phillies at the Stadium and their only loss came in a game Aaron Boone gave away with his lineup. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
Two series into the season for the Yankees and two series wins. The Yankees took two of three from the Phillies at the Stadium and their only loss came in a game Aaron Boone gave away with his lineup.
1. Monday’s game was the Brandon Marsh game. If not for Marsh misplaying DJ LeMahieu’s leadoff line drive into a triple and running into the third out on the bases in the fifth inning the game may have been a whole lot different. Instead, the Yankees won easily, 8-1, in what was a game that was starting to seem like one of those games where the Yankees have a chance to end the game early, but don’t, and eventually lose. Thanks to Marsh, it never got to that point and the Phillies extended their season-opening losing streak to four straight.
2. The streak wouldn’t get to five, and the way Yankees fans can thank Marsh for Monday night’s win, Phillies fans can thank the Yankees manager for getting them their first win of the season on Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s game was over before it started. The moment Boone posted the lineup, the Phillies had won. This was the lineup:
DJ LeMahieu, 1B Aaron Judge, DH Gleyber Torres, 2B Giancarlo Stanton, RF Josh Donaldson, 3B Aaron Hicks, LF Isiah Kiner-Falefa, CF Kyle Higashioka, C Anthony Volpe, SS
No Anthony Rizzo. A 5-6-7-8 of Donaldson-Hicks-Kiner-Falefa-Higashioka? Irresponsible.
3. It was the fifth game of the season. The Yankees had last Wednesday off. They had last Friday off. They will have a day off before the start of the Orioles series. In nine days, they will have have had three full days off. That’s not counting coming from Florida the previous six weeks for spring training which isn’t exactly bootcamp and having nearly four months off prior to that since Game 4 of the ALCS.
I understand the concept of “lose the battle to win the war,” but the Yankees haven’t won the war in a long time. Unnecessary days off, extra rest and load management has helped extend their championship drought to 13 years (and going on 14 if it isn’t ended this year).
4. It came as no surprise that the 5-6-7-8 hitters combined to go 0-for-13 with four strikeouts. And it was no surprise the Yankees were being shut out until the bottom of the ninth when a LeMahieu solo home run erased the zero. The Yankees had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth when Josh Donaldson came up with two on and two outs, but weakly flew out to end the game. Donaldson left four on in the game, got hurt the following day and is potentially headed for the injured list after going 2-for-16 with six strikeouts to begin the season.
This is what Boone said about Donaldson this offseason: “I think you’re crazy to think that a bounceback is not in there offensively. This guy still has bat speed and, again, is super talented.”
I guess everyone in the world is crazy other than Boone. Donaldson is as washed up offensively as washed up gets, and if he weren’t owed $29.75 million he would be doing something other than playing baseball for the Yankees. There’s no bouncing back. There’s no bat speed left, made obvious by his 1-for-13 with six strikeouts against righties. He’s now an automatic out that continues to bat fifth and be treated like an MVP rather than a former MVP of eight years ago.
5. Donaldson isn’t the only one Boone made outrageous and outlandish remarks and wildly inaccurate evaluations about. A little over a week ago, Boone had this to say about Aaron Hicks: “I really have liked what I have seen from Hicks especially the last couple weeks of spring training, where I feel like the at-bats, the edge, everything has been there.”
There’s lying and then there’s that quote from Boone. If Boone really liked what he saw from Hicks, why didn’t he start any of the games and receive just one pinch-hit at-bat in the Giants series?
6. Boone made good on his promise and started Hicks on both Monday and Tuesday after Hicks complained about his playing time on Sunday morning. After whining about not being an everyday player, Hicks went 0-for-6 with a walk and two strikeouts and heard boos from a Stadium crowd that likely listened to or read about his playing time comments from the weekend. A crowd that hasn’t forgotten how he played the outfield against the Rays last September.
On Wednesday, Hicks was left out of the lineup for the fourth time in six games. His limited playing time to date this season coupled with the vitriol from his own home crowd must have been embarrassing enough, but things would get worse in a game he wasn’t even playing in.
In the bottom of the eighth, with the Yankees hanging on to a 4-2 lead and Gleyber Torres on second with two outs, the left-handed Franchy Cordero came to the plate to face the left-handed Gregory Soto. With Giancarlo Stanton on the bench for having had an unnecessary day off, he seemed like the option Boone would call on. If not Stanton, then surely the switch-hitting Hicks would bat for Cordero, who has enough trouble hitting major-league pitching, let alone left-handed pitching. Boone chose to not use Stanton and give him a full day off. He also chose to not use Hicks. Boone let Cordero bat for himself and he struck out on three pitches in what Michael Kay called on the broadcast a “non-competitive at-bat.” I don’t know that it will be topped in terms of being non-competitive by another Yankee this season even with 156 games remaining.
The move was an indictment on both Boone and Hicks. Boone for going against everything every statistical figure in the world said about the matchup, and Hicks for being so bad that he can’t even be trusted to bat for Cordero against a lefty.
7. In less than one week, we have learned that Hicks is not part of the current “A” outfield configuration despite Brian Cashman and Boone saying they expected Hicks to be the team’s starting left fielder. (Once Harrison Bader returns, Hicks will be further removed from playing time.) We learned the Yankees only view Hicks as a left fielder as Kiner-Falefa (with now two games of outfield experience to his name) started two games in center field with Hicks starting zero. (The Yankees gave Hicks a seven-year, $70 million extension to play a position he’s now not allowed to play.) We learned that Boone would rather have a helpless Cordero face a lefty than let Hicks get any additional plate appearances. With Cordero getting the same amount of starts as Hicks this season (2), and with Cordero getting that at-bat on Wednesday, we learned Cordero is higher on the Yankees’ outfield depth chart than Hicks. We officially learned that Hicks is only still a Yankee because he’s owed $30,357,144 for this year and the next two years and then $1 million to not play for the Yankees in 2026 for a total of $31,357,144.
8. I don’t know why Hicks isn’t playing playing over Kiner-Falefa, who isn’t a major-league player. I don’t know why Boone didn’t use Hicks as a pinch hitter for Cordero. The only thing I can think of is that the Yankees are trying to make it so if they are unable to trade Hicks before his 10-5 rights kick in (they won’t be able to) that he won’t block a trade if they are somehow able to move him once they do kick in (though they won’t be able to trade him once they kick in either.) As I wrote after the Giants series, the only way this ends is in his release.
After the 2018 season when Cashman regrettably passed on Bryce Harper because he had an outfield plan of Judge, Stanton, Hicks and Clint/Jackson Frazier, he turned around and extended Hicks for seven years and $70 million, saying, “He has more gas in his tank. He has more mountains to climb.” There is no gas left in the tank. There are no more mountains.
9. Through the first two series and six games, the Yankees have been carried by who you would think. Gerrit Cole has allowed one earned run in 12 innings (as the result of a pitch timer violation) and 19 strikeouts; Aaron Judge has a 1.032 OPS, Stanton has a couple of home runs, Rizzo has been his normal self, LeMahieu’s hard-hit ability has returned and the bullpen has been dominant (outside of Michael King). But the one player who has exceeding first-week expectations is Torres.
Through six games, Torres is batting .421/.560/.789 with a double, two home runs, six RBIs, and six walks to two strikeouts. He has been the Yankees’ best hitter, which is kind of ridiculous, since again, Judge has a 1.032 OPS.
I have called for the Yankees to trade Torres since the end of the 2021 season, having given up on him. One week isn’t going to change my mind, but it’s a start. I wish the Yankees could figure out a way to make an infield of Torres, LeMahieu, Rizzo, Volpe and Oswald Peraza work, but that would entail releasing Donaldson and moving on from Kiner-Falefa, and neither of those things are likely to happen.
For now, I’m cautiously optimistic that I will be wrong about Torres. I want to be wrong about him. I don’t want him to be who he was in 2020, 2021 and for long stretches in 2022. I want him to do well and be a star because that helps the Yankees win, and the Yankees winning helps my overall health.
10. The Yankees’ schedule is about to get a little tougher. Yes, going to Baltimore is tougher than hosting the mediocre Giants and the banged-up Phillies. The Orioles were a dropped fly ball from opening the season with a series winning in Boston and then took two of three from the Rangers in Texas. The Orioles you could count on for 16 or 17 Yankees wins each season are gone. While they aren’t close to being a contender, they are certainly going to be on the bubble for a postseason berth, and if they ever get starting pitcher, they would finally be out of their near-decade hole of historical losing.
The Yankees are about to start a stretch of 10 straight games without a day off, so if you think the unnecessary rest and spring training-looking lineups from this past week were bad, get ready.
Beating up on bad teams is what the Yankees should do, and they did just that in two of the first three games to open the season. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
After a disappointing (and somewhat embarrassing) loss on Saturday, the Yankees looked like themselves on Sunday, winning their first series of the season against a bad Giants team. Beating up on bad teams is what the Yankees should do, and they did just that in two of the first three games to open the season.
Opening Day was awesome. It was as good and as clean of an Opening Day win as you could ask for, and it made for an enjoyable Thursday night, Friday and first half of Saturday, being able to bask in the glory of starting the season 1-0. I wrote about Opening Day here, so while the Thoughts typically cover the entire most recent series, I’m just going to keep this to the games on Saturday and Sunday.
1. Clarke Schmidt was filthy on Saturday … the first one-and-one-third times through the order.
Here is what Schmidt did in the first three innings: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Here is what he did in the fourth inning: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 HR
The Schmidt we saw in innings 1 through 3 was the guy I expected him to develop into in now his fourth season of getting innings in the majors. The guy we saw in the fourth inning is the guy I feared he would be with the Yankees needing him to step up with 60 percent of their expected rotation on the injured list.
2. Schmidt was bad, but he wasn’t the only one. Michael King, pitching for the first time since July 22 (and since his offseason comments about the Astros can’t beat the Yankees when healthy) allowed five baserunners and two runs in 1 2/3 innings. Clay Holmes (who is supposed to be the Yankees closer despite losing all fan trust in the second half of last season) allowed two runs on three hits and couldn’t even complete a full inning.
I’m not worried about the Yankees’ bullpen because of its depth and because Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta and Ron Marinaccio are all outstanding (even if Aaron Boone had Marinaccio throw two innings and a career-high in pitches in a five-run game on freezing cold Opening Day and then had him throw another 1 1/3 innings on Sunday). But I’m worried that Boone will continue to use King and Holmes as his Nos. 1 and 2 relievers like it’s June of last year and not a completely new season.
3. Because Yankees pitching allowed seven runs to the mediocre-at-best Giants on Saturday, the Yankees trailed 7-4 entering the bottom of the ninth. Aaron Hicks made his 2023 debut as a pinch hitter for Jose Trevino and was immediately granted a 1-0 count because of a pitch timer violation on Camilo Doval. Hicks worked what should have been a walk in the at-bat to lead off the ninth, but got screwed by home plate umpire Andy Fletcher and ended up striking out. (I need robot ball-strike calls or ball-strike challenges in 2024. Enough is enough.) After the Hicks strikeout, Anthony Volpe singled and DJ LeMahieu walked. Aaron Judge singled in Volpe and then Anthony Rizzo walked to load the bases for Giancarlo Stanton with the Yankees trailing 7-5.
Doval got behind Stanton 2-0 and this had been Doval’s appearance to that point: a strikeout that should have been a walk, a single, a walk, another single, another walk, two pitch timer violations and now a 2-0 count to Stanton. Stanton should have laid his bat down and stood in the box batless, because there was absolutely no way Doval was going to throw three strikes before two more balls (unless Fletcher helped him out again). But I knew better than to think Stanton would take. Just as Doval came set, I said to my wife, “He’s swinging at this 2-0 no matter where it is.” Sure enough, Stanton swung and banged into a 6-4-3, game-ending double play.
Upon replay, it looked as though Thairo Estrada wasn’t on second base when he caught the ball for the first out of the double play, and it looked like LaMonte Wade may have not been connected to first when he got the ball for the second out either. There was a chance everyone on the play would be called safe after a review, but at worst, it looked like Rizzo would be safe at second, Stanton out at first with LeMahieu scoring to make it 7-6 and runners on second and third with two outs. Instead, the league office decided the call on the field would stand and the game was over.
You can complain about the horrendous called strike to Hicks (and I will) or you can question how the league office couldn’t recognize Estrada’s foot off the base (it was), but what Saturday’s loss comes down to is you can’t allow seven runs to this Giants team.
4. Outside of the seven runs allowed on Saturday, the Yankees didn’t allow any runs in the other two games. Eighteen scoreless innings from Yankees pitching in Games 1 and 3 of the series and season. Six of those were from Gerrit Cole on Thursday, and on Sunday, in his major-league debut, Johny Brito shut out the Giants for five innings.
With Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino expected back in a month (pray) or so (“or so” is more likely) there will still be a need for a fifth starter in the rotation since Frankie Montas has likely thrown his last pitch as a Yankee. Schmidt bombed in his first audition for that role, while Brito looked every bit the part of a major-league starter in his first opportunity. (Even if Domingo German dazzles on Tuesday, I want no part of German winning the spot in the rotation.)
Brito was phenomenal in first taste of the majors (5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K), and for a pitcher who barely walked anyone in the minors, that carried over to the majors. I love everything about Brito, but especially the lack of walks. Make the opposition beat you. Don’t nibble and don’t give free passes. Give me more Jhony Brito!
5. The power continued its presence as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka all hit home runs, and nearly everyone contributed to the win. If you didn’t watch the game, I’m sure you can guess who didn’t contribute. That would be the dynamic duo of Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who went a combined 0-for-7 with a walk and two strikeouts.
When the lineup was posted on Sunday, all I could do was laugh. DJ LeMahieu wasn’t in it, needing a day off after playing second base on Thursday, getting a day off on Friday and DHing on Saturday. With LeMahieu’s foot issue from last season, Boone and the Yankees are going to take the load management to a whole new level with their leadoff hitter this season. Even if there’s no proof it will keep his foot healthy or prevent him from injuring something else. But that wasn’t even the most egregious lineup decision for the third game of the season. That honor would go to Kiner-Falefa starting in center field.
Kiner-Falefa entered Sunday with zero career appearances in the outfield. He just started getting time in the outfield two weeks ago in spring training, yet here he was playing center field in Yankee Stadium, while a guy the Yankees gave $70 million to (of which they still owe three years and $30 million on) to play center field was on the bench. To make matters worse, the Giants’ starter on Sunday was the right-handed Ross Stripling. Kiner-Falefa is a right-handed bat. The $70 million Hicks is switch hitter who can therefore bat left-handed against right-handed starters.
The decision was more than puzzling. If Hicks isn’t going to play his most customary position over someone who has never played the position before, then why is he on the team? That’s before you even factor in Kiner-Falefa being a right-handed-only bat and Hicks being a switch hitter against the right-handed Stripling. It’s hurting my head trying to simplify this as I write about it.
6. Before the game, Hicks was asked by The Athletic about his playing time and he didn’t hold back.
“I have no idea what my role is,” Hicks said. “It’s kind of uncertain.”
“Uncertain” is a nice way to put it when you’re getting passed over for Kiner-Falefa.
“I just want to play,” Hicks said. “I don’t want to come off the bench and face closers all day. I want to play the field, I want to play every day, and it’s just what I want to do. I want to start. I really don’t know what else to say.”
Hicks must have a short memory. Luckily, I don’t. Last August, in the middle of one of his many benchings during the 2022 season, Hicks said, “If I’m a guy that’s in the lineup, cool. If I’m not, it is what it is.” He did his best to say he didn’t care if he played or not last season and now all of a sudden he wants to play every day?
“If you would have told me (in spring training) that I wouldn’t have started the first three games, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Hicks said. “But it is what it is. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Just sit around and wait for my opportunity and try my best.”
No one likes saying “It is what it is” more than Hicks. I’m just glad he’s going to try his best when he plays. That’s nice of him.
Word of Hicks’ unhappiness got to Boone who was asked about it.
“He’ll play even though he hasn’t been in the lineup these first few,” Boone said. “It was kind of the last two days, didn’t love that matchup. But likely in there the next two days.”
7. Hicks wasn’t good enough to play in any of the first three games, but now he’s automatically playing the next two games? If Hicks plays that means someone sits,. Someone who deserves to play. You have to admire the Yankees’ inexcusable stubbornness to plan out their lineups days in advance and to begin giving their regulars scheduled days off not even a week into the season.
It’s obvious Boone doesn’t like Hicks, and I can’t blame him. Boone benched him outright on at least three occasions last season and pulled him from that September 9 game against the Rays when Hicks misplayed two fly balls in a row. In February, Hicks spoke about that benching and said, “Boone was like, ‘I’m sorry, I read the situation wrong. I understand what you’re going through … blah, blah, blah.'” And Boone responded by saying, “I don’t know if I said it like that … It was my decision to make and one I felt like I had to make in the moment. It’s as simple as that.”
8. As I stood at my seat at the Stadium in October during Game 5 of the ALDS and watched Boone help Hicks limp off the field following his season-ending collision with Oswaldo Cabrera, I figured it was the last time I would ever see Hicks play for the Yankees. I’m sure Hicks thought the same thing. I’m sure Boone, helping Hicks, thought the same thing. I don’t think Hicks expected to be a Yankee in 2023. I’m sure he thought they would eat money or attach a prospect to his contract to move him. They tried and no one wanted him. The only way another team will want him is if he’s released and then owed just the veteran minimum by the new team. That’s where this is headed, and until it gets there, if Hicks can’t even play his customary position over an infielder with no outfield experience, let alone center field experience, he’s just wasting a roster spot.
9. “I was concerned about things that shouldn’t be concerned about,” Hicks said in February reflecting on last season. “I should have been playing the game, trying to win the game, that’s it. I felt like I allowed myself to get wrapped up in the position change, the dropping down the order. I got really wrapped up in my performance, too.”
Hicks said all of that less than six weeks ago, and it seems like he’s headed down the same road. Rather than replying, “I’m here to do whatever is needed to help the team,” or “I’m just waiting for my chance and I’ll be ready,” or using some other boring, generic answer when asked by The Athletic about his role, Hicks decided the hours before the third game of the season was the time to publicly voice his displeasure with his playing time.
On a day when the Yankees won a game, won a series, posted their second shutout in three games to the start the season and received an impressive effort from a pitcher making his major-league debut, Hicks should be the farthest player from creating a story or headline considering he didn’t appear in the game and has contributed one non-productive at-bat through the first three games of the season. That’s what is called a distraction. The Yankees don’t need an unnecessary distraction, the same way they didn’t needed to extend Hicks and haven’t needed to stand by and wait for him to overcome injury after injury and disappointing season after disappointing season. But they keep rostering him, keep trying to make it work, keep trying to make him happy and now his mere presence is taking away from the actual on-the-field result.
10. When it comes to the schedule, it’s not necessarily about who you play, but when you play them, and the Yankees will play their three games against the Phillies this season this week when the Phillies are without Bryce Harper and when the Yankees will be able to miss seeing Zack Wheeler (as he started on Saturday). The Phillies are off to horrible start, winless in their first three games. They blew a five-run lead on Opening Day, got blown out 16-3 on Saturday and then scored one run on Sunday night. They will be hungry for a win and manager Rob Thomson will be hungry to shove the decision to pass over him for Boone in the face of the Yankees’ front office over the the next three days at the Stadium.
Opening Day always feels more important than other regular-season games, even if it holds the same value as the other 161 regular-season games. It feels like a playoff game.
On Wednesday, I overheard someone ask, “When is Opening Day?” When is Opening Day? When is Opening Day?! WHEN IS OPENING DAY?! I couldn’t understand how someone couldn’t know when Opening Day is. It’s a day I know as soon as the schedule is announced during the prior season. It’s a day I count down to. It’s a day I eagerly and anxiously wait for. Every year.
This offseason seemed to go by incredibly fast. Maybe it’s because the Yankees gave us a somewhat extended postseason run into late October. Maybe it’s because of the mild winter we had. Maybe it’s because I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and an 11-month-old that I’m trying to keep alive every day. I don’t know what it is, but it feels like I was just walking out of Yankee Stadium during (yes, during) Game 3 of the ALCS knowing I wouldn’t be returning to it until this season.
A year ago on Opening Day, Gerrit Cole laid a first-inning egg against the Red Sox, the way he always lays an egg against the Red Sox, and the Yankees had to overcome an early hole on their way to a walkoff win. On this Opening Day, Cole walked the first batter of the game on four pitches for the second consecutive season, and I began to wonder if that was an ominous sign for the season.
Cole wasn’t hurt by that walk though. Instead, he struck out the side. The only thing that he would hurt in the game would be his pitch count as he racked up strikeout after strikeout, which left me yearning for the chance for the Yankees to compete in the NL West rather than the AL East with this type of competition. Cole would go on to dominate the feeble Giants offense, striking out 11 and setting the Yankees’ Opening Day strikeout record. It was as dominant a pitching line as Cole has put together as a Yankee, even if his stuff didn’t look as sharp as it can be when he’s completely on.
If you had to pick a pitcher to beat these Yankees, Logan Webb would probably be that pitcher. Everything he does well as a pitcher combats what the Yankees do well as an offense. As a hard-throwing righty who doesn’t allow home runs, he would face a nearly-all-right-handed lineup on Thursday wanting to hit home runs. Like Cole, Webb was really good, striking out 12 in six innings, but the Yankees were able to do exactly what they wanted to do against him and what they want to do against every pitcher: hit home runs.
I kept thinking on Thursday what if Aaron Judge were batting in the top of the first for the Giants at the Stadium instead of in the bottom of the first for the Yankees. It was close to happening and for a few minutes on December 6, we all thought it was going to happen. Thankfully, Judge is a Yankee, and thankfully, he was there batting second on Thursday and driving a Webb sinker into Monument Park. Webb had to be thinking, “What the fuck just happened?” because Webb doesn’t allow home runs (just 11 in 192 1/3 innings last year), and certainly not home runs like that.
It took until the bottom of the third inning for Anthony Volpe to get his first major-league plate appearance. The rookie shortstop swung at the first pitch he saw (very Derek Jeter-esque), and ended up drawing a seven-pitch walk, in which he saw five balls, but unfortunately, Laz Diaz was the home plate umpire. Once on base, everyone knew Volpe was going to run, including Webb, who threw over to first with Volpe standing on the base. Volpe did run, did steal second and looked every bit like a major leaguer in his debut. He made a nice play off-balance on a slow roller on the infield grass and turned a perfect double play with DJ LeMahieu later in the game. To think, just five months ago Yankees fans had to watch Isiah Kiner-Falefa play shortstop every day.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees were still holding a 1-0 lead and the game under that opened at 7.5 and closed at 6.5 looked like it should have been set at 4.5 or even 3.5 To that point in the game, there were two hits and 17 strikeouts. Despite all the rule changes, it looked exactly like a Yankees game from the past. The game was flying by, but it wasn’t because of the pitch clock. It was because no one was putting the ball in play. There had been just two hits in the game through 4 1/3 innings.
Josh Donaldson changed that with a single on a ground ball to left field before Gleyber Torres extended the one-run lead to three with a two-run home run to right-center. I have been an advocate for trading Torres since the end of the 2021 season, but like I wrote in Yankees Thoughts earlier in the week: I’m fine with Torres being a Yankee, but feel like he should no longer be a Yankee. If he remains a Yankee, so be it. If he’s traded, so be it.
It would be hard to argue for the Giants having had a real threat in the game. They had the walk to lead off the game. They had a runner on second with two outs in the second. They had a leadoff walk in the fourth. They had a runner on second with one out in the seventh. Those were their “threats” for the day. The only threat was that of Cole giving up his pair of home runs that he seems to allow every start, and those home runs never came. Instead the Giants were held to four singles (two from ex-Yankee Thairo Estrada who continued the theme of every ex-Yankee playing well against them), and they never had multiple baserunners in any inning. That’s likely to happen often this season for the Giants, who have Wilmer Flores batting third.
Aaron Boone didn’t have to do anything. He got to stand in the dugout, chew his gum and play with his oversized watch. That’s how I wish every Yankees game would go. Cole gave them six shutout innings, the bullpen added three more shutout innings and the offense did enough to get the win. Boone never had to interject himself on Thursday, and any reliever he called on would have likely shut down the Giants, including Albert Abreu. But it was Wandy Peralta, Jonathan Loaisiga and Ron Marinaccio who did it in on Opening Day. (It was very odd that Boone had Loaisiga only throw two pitches and get one out and then asked Marinaccio to pitch two innings and throw the most pitches he has ever thrown in a game.)
It was as good a Yankees Opening Day win as you could ask for. Cole dominated, Judge did what he does, Volpe looked like he belongs, Torres continued with his returned power from last season and the bullpen was as good as expected. The only Yankee who went home feeling down was Oswaldo Cabrera after going 0-for-4 with strikeouts. I’m not worried about Cabrera, but you just know Boone will now likely play Aaron Hicks in left on Saturday. I would have mentioned Hicks as feeling down for not being in the starting lineup or playing on Opening Day, if not for his comments last season about playing time: “If I’m a guy that’s in the lineup, cool. If I’m not, it is what it is.”
Opening Day always feels more important than other regular-season games, even if it holds the same value as the other 161 regular-season games. It feels like a playoff game. And because of that, there’s nothing worse than an Opening Day loss especially with the scheduled day off following. But there’s also nothing better than an Opening Day win, and there wasn’t anything better on Thursday.
