The Yankees won another series, taking two of three from the Rangers at the Stadium. But with just five runs scored in the series, the Yankees’ offense looks a lot like it did prior to their 11-game winning streak.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Rangers are a bad team, and like the Yankees have done to bad teams this season (except for that one miserable weekend in Baltimore), the Yankees won the series against them. But like that miserable weekend in Baltimore, the Yankees’ offense was close to non-existent in the three games in roughly 28 hours.

The Yankees’ recent 11-game winning streak came to an end in a game started by the Blue Jays’ Yusei Kikuchi, who the Yankees went into that game with a team 1.078 OPS against him. He allowed one run over six innings in the Yankees’ 2-1 loss.

After three days off (one scheduled and two rainouts), the Yankees were no-hit through five innings by the Rangers’ Dane Dunning, and eeked out a 2-1 win in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader on a Gleyber Torres walk-off home run in the ninth.

In the second game of the doubleheader, former Yankees prospect Glenn Otto (who was traded to Texas in the Joey Gallo deal) allowed two earned runs over six innings (both coming on a Giancarlo Stanton home run) in a 4-2 Yankees loss.

In Monday’s series finale, the Yankees managed three singles through the first seven innings, until an Aaron Judge single and Anthony Rizzo double broke a 0-0 tie in the Yankees’ eventual 1-0 win.

2. Since the winning streak ended, the Yankees have won two of four games, scoring six runs in those four games. One on a solo home run. One on a sacrifice fly. One on a solo home run. Two on a two-run home run. One on a double. That’s it. That’s the Yankees’ offense over their last 35 innings: six runs.

The Yankees’ offense looks a lot like it did prior to scoring 19 runs in three games against Cleveland (6.3 per game), 27 runs in three games against Baltimore (9 per game) and 21 runs in three games (7 per game) against Kansas City. Even in Toronto, the Yankees scored 12 runs in the first two games of that series before being shut down and fooled for six innings by Kikuchi.

The starting pitching the Yankees faced from the Rangers (Dunning, Otto and Jon Gray) is certainly better than what they faced when they were blowing out those other teams, but it’s not even close to being what they will face later this week against the Blue Jays (thankfully, they are missing Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman) or the White Sox (thankfully, the White Sox can’t score).

The Yankees were able to score five runs in 26 innings and win twice because their pitching continues to be outstanding, top to bottom. Gerrit Cole was dominant in the first game on Sunday and Jordan Montgomery was excellent in the second game. Nestor Cortes took a no-hitter into the eighth on Monday and outside of Michael King’s first hiccup of the season, the bullpen was lights out the entire series.

3. Aaron Boone loves so Kyle Higashioka so much that after two scoreless outings from Gerrit Cole, he was willing to let Higashioka catch Cole on Sunday. (This kind of treatment happens for only the Boone favorites: Higashioka, Aaron Hicks, Gleyber Torres.) Cole was great again for a third straight start (as once again it clearly has nothing to do with the catcher and everything to do with the opponent), until he gave up a game-tying home run to Kole Calhoun (who is barely hanging on to a job in the majors) in the seventh. That home run came on Cole’s 114th pitch. It was the most pitches thrown by any pitcher in the majors in 2022.

I’m fine with letting Cole for as long as he thinks he can physically go. But in this instance, Boone had gotten King up with Cole having thrown 106 pitches through six innings. It seemed improbable that Boone would let Cole go back out for the seventh in his sixth start of the season on a cold May day in the Bronx with his pitch count already over 100 and King ready to enter the game. But he didm and after striking out Mitch Garver on three pitches, the Yankees’ 1-0 lead was erased on Calhoun’s first home run of the season.

Boone never did bring King into the game. He instead had King sit down (after having already warmed up) and went to Jonathan Loaisiga. As David Cone said on the YES broadcast in Toronto, “You don’t get King hot and then not bring him into the game.” But Boone did just that. And a few hours later, Boone brought King into the second game of the doubleheader and King gave away the Yankees’ lead and then some in his worst outing of the season.

4. When it comes to Higashioka and Jose Trevino and the Yankees’ catching situation, it’s obvious that Trevino is the No. 1 in a duo that really has no No. 1. In the offseason, I wrote several times how the Yankees traded their way into having the worst catching situation in the majors and that has proven true. Trevino is hitting .189/.231/.216 and Higashioka is hitting .146/.208/.416. Neither of them is a playable option and yet one of them is playing every day for the New York Yankees.

Maybe at some point Oswald Peraza will start hitting Triple-A pitching and Anthony Volpe will start hitting Double-A pitching (neither of them doing well in the minors this season isn’t great!) and will force the Yankees to move them up. And maybe then the Yankees would move Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who has caught 73 games in the major) to catcher. It’s probably crazy, but it’s not that crazy. It’s not as crazy as playing the Trevino/Higashioka combination every day.

Yes, the Yankees are winning, and yes, they’re in first place. I want them to stay in first place. Are the Yankees four games (in the loss column) better than the Rays and five games (in the loss column) better than the Blue Jays? Unlikely. The true margin between teams in the AL East is slim, and the Yankees need to optimize every aspect of their team to gain any advantage they can over Tampa Bay and Toronto. Playing with an automatic out at the bottom of the lineup like they’re a coed softball team in Central Park without enough women and forced to have the 9-hole be an out, isn’t going to increase their chances at winning the division.

5. I can’t stand Hicks. I really can’t, and that’s the Yankees’ fault, not Hicks’ fault. Hicks didn’t force the Yankees to give him the seven-year deal, and he doesn’t force them to bat him as high as first in the lineup. They do that on their own.

Yes, Hicks has a high on-base percentage. It’s a product of a combination of mediocre and bad pitchers being unable to throw strikes and Hicks not wanting to swing the bat. Hicks’ plan in each plate appearance is to not swing, hoping four pitches will be out of the zone before three pitches are. He’s not going to go to the plate and grind out a walk with multiple foul balls and close takes, like someone like Rizzo will. The only way Hicks is walking is if the pitcher is shockingly wild and makes it easy for him to walk.

The worst part about Hicks is his inability to drive a runner in from third with less than two out. It’s painful to watch him hit with runners on, always swinging over changeups or popping up balls in the infield. He’s 0-for-16 (that equals .000) with four walks in high-leverage situations this season, and in low- and medium-leverage situations he’s 17-for-52 (.327) with 12 walks. It’s not a small sample size either, it’s in line with his career numbers in high-leverage situations: .211/.315/.351.

The higher you bat in the order, the more opportunities you get to hit. Why would you want Hicks getting more opportunities over Judge, Rizzo, Stanton, Donaldson or LeMahieu? You wouldn’t. If Hicks were to bat near the bottom of the order and performed the way he does, I would have no problem with him. My problem isn’t with Hicks, it’s with the way the Yankees view and use him as if he’s Bernie Williams.

Hicks has 17 hits this season. Sixteen of them are singles and the other was a home run. He has no doubles. None. The Yankees’ season is 17 percent over. I wish for the next 83 percent the Yankees would bat Hicks seventh.

6. The only way Hicks could bat seventh frequently is if Torres didn’t play. As we have seen, that’s not going to happen. Because the catcher has to be the automatic out at the bottom of the lineup, and Kiner-Falefa plays every day and bats eighth, Hicks could bat seventh if Torres were on the bench. But Torres is rarely on the bench.

Torres had the walk-off home run against the Rangers on Sunday nd then went 0-for-6 with a walk the next two days. That’s kind of who Torres is. He will have big moments like he did with the pinch-hit sacrifice fly on Opening Day, the walk-off single against Cleveland, the three-RBI game in Toronto and the walk-off home run on Sunday, and everything in between will be unplayable.

Torres’ batting line is down to .220/.258/.685 this season with four home runs. Not good. Not good at all.

7. I would be happy if either of these lineups were the Yankees’ “everyday” (since they don’t have an everyday lineup because someone needs a day off every day):

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Anthony Rizzo, 1B
Giancarlo Stanton
Josh Donaldson
Joey Gallo
Aaron Hicks
Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Automatic out

Aaron Judge
Anthony Rizzo
Giancarlo Stanton
Josh Donaldson
DJ LeMahieu
Joey Gallo
Aaron Hicks
Isiah Kiner-Falefa
Automatic out

I would even be OK with Donaldson leading off again. I’m just not OK with Hicks leading off.

8. Cortes took a no-hitter into the eight on Monday. In appreciation of Cortes, here is what I wrote about him in my praise of the lefty back in the April 25 Yankees Thoughts:

Here are some things I wrote and tweeted about Nestor Cortes in 2019:

I guess this is a throwaway game. Nestor Cortes is warming up. – May 19, 2019

When it was announced that Nestor Cortes would start (or open) for the Yankees on Tuesday and when the lineup against the Tigers was posted and DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Luke Voit weren’t in it, I shook my head in disbelief like Lee Trevino in Happy Gilmore. – Sept. 11, 2019

I have no idea how he’s survived a demotion in more than four months, but I guess good for him? He’s been a New York Yankee, making a major-league salary and traveling in luxury nearly all season, earning service time toward his future pension. Good for him. Bad for Yankees fans. – Sept. 16, 2019

Nestor Cortes being on the major league roster for as long as he has is more impressive than Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. – Sept. 28, 2019

There are more (many more), but you get the point. I didn’t like Cortes and he didn’t like pitching well.

The 2018 Orioles lost 115 games and they didn’t want Cortes, but the Yankees did. He somehow held a major-league roster spot for nearly the entire season on a Yankees team that won 103 games despite pitching to a 5.67 ERA and allowing 104 baserunners and 16 home runs in 66 2/3 innings. After the season he ended up pitching in Seattle in 2020, put 20 baserunners on and allowed six home runs in just 7 2/3 innings. For some unknown reason, the Yankees wanted him back for 2021, and thankfully they did.

Cortes was outstanding last season for the Yankees, both as a starter (14 starts) and reliever (eight appearances). This season he has been even better, allowing just two earned runs in a two-run home run and seven hits in 15 2/3 innings, while striking out 25. His pitch arsenal and unusual deliveries coupled with his results have made him the most enjoyable part of the season to date. With shades of El Duque, the four days between his starts feel like an eternity.

Cortes’ ERA+ in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 60, 79 and 29. Last season it was 150, and this season it’s at a comical 323. (For perspective, Mariano Rivera is the all-time ERA+ lead at 205.) He hasn’t just been good or great or outstanding in 2022, he’s been the best pitcher in the league. The same guy who was piggybacking Chad Green as an opener two years ago and allowing at least three earned runs in each relief appearance is currently the best pitcher in the league. Fucking crazy.

Right now, Cortes is one of six pitchers I would say are the current front-runners to start the All-Star Game for the AL at Dodger Stadium. Yes, fucking crazy.

9. What’s really crazy is the Yankees is the play of the rest of the division to date. The Blue Jays have a minus-10 run differential and have played three games better than their expected record. The Red Sox have lost five straight, are nine games below .500 and are two games back in the loss column of the ORIOLES! It might only be May 10, but you can pretty much count the Red Sox out on the division. They will eventually (but hopefully not) get rolling and be in contention for one of the three wild-card spots because just about every non-division winner will be in contention for those, but when you consider this math, you can consider the Red Sox eliminated from the division:

If the Yankees play .500 baseball for their remaining 134 games, they will win 87 games. The Red Sox have to go 77-56 now to win 87 games.

To win 90 games, the Yankees will need to go 70-64. The Red Sox would need to go 80-53.

To win 95 games, the Yankees will need to go 75-59. The Red Sox would need to go 85-48.

Yes, the division is over for the Red Sox.

That means what was expected to be a four-team race to most (I always considered it to be a three-team race with the regression that never came for the 2021 Red Sox coming for the 2022 Red Sox), is now truly a three-team race.

10. The Yankees play one of the two teams beginning tonight against Toronto in what is a weird two-game series in which the Yankees will miss both Manhoah and Gausman, and will get a chance to avenge their sad offensive performance against Kikuchi on Tuesday and face Jose Berrios, who they always seem to hit on Wednesday.

Every game is important, but games against the Blue Jays and Rays are extra important. The Blue Jays have been playing poorly, having lost two in a row to Cleveland, and the Yankees have a chance to create even more separation (currently five games in the loss column) between them and the Blue Jays over the next two days.

Beating up on the bad teams has allowed the Yankees to just need to play .500 against the good teams. But when you miss Manoah and Gausman in a two-game series, it’s hard not to think about playing more than .500 against the Blue Jays.

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The Yankees went to Toronto, allowed five runs and beat the Blue Jays in two of three, and had every chance to win all three games. If the week taught me anything it’s that if the Yankees stay healthy, there’s no reason to be worried about the Blue Jays.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Don’t get swept. That’s all I wanted from the Yankees in Toronto. Winning one of the three games would have been acceptable. Winning two of three would have been delightful. Winning all three seemed unfathomable.

Going into the series, I looked at the first game as even. Jordan Montgomery is a better starting pitcher than Ross Stripling, but Stripling has had success against the Yankees and Montgomery as a left-hander isn’t an ideal matchup for the right-handed-heavy Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays would have a distinct advantage in the second game with Alek Manoah going against Jameson Taillon. I fear Manoah against the Yankees more than I fear any other pitcher in the league against them. That’s how good he has been against them in his young career. And Taillon is the Yankees’ starter I trust the least.

The Yankees would have an advantage in the third game with Nestor Cortes (who shut out the Blue Jays over 4 1/3 innings in April) going against Yusei Kikuchi (who the Yankees went into the game having a combined 1.078 OPS as a team in 83 plate appearances).

2. I have crushed Gleyber Torres this season (and last), and rightfully so. He’s hasn’t been good, and his playing time has forced the Yankees to make less-than-optimal lineups.

That’s not me complaining or whining. I understand the Yankees have now won 12 of their last 14 games. I understand they are in first place on May 5. I want them to be in first place in October 5, which is the last day of the regular season. Continuing to play Torres regularly doesn’t give them the best chance to do that.

In the series opener, Torres was the Yankees’ offense, driving in all three Yankees runs in the 3-2 win. His two-run home run gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead and his go-ahead RBI single in the ninth gave the Yankees a late lead they would hold. It was Torres’ best game since Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS. It doesn’t mean he has unlocked his 2018-19 ability or that he’s ever going to return to being that player. It just means that if given everyday at-bats, he will eventually have a game like he did on Monday. And if continued to be given everyday at-bats, he will be more of like what he was on Tuesday and Thursday (0-for-5).

Torres is hitting .222/.256/.417 this season. He hasn’t been good. Monday doesn’t change that.

3. The Yankees put together an 11-game winning streak by mostly outhitting and outscoring Aaron Boone, which is the only way for them to consistently win. When Boone gets his hands on a close game, he does his best to ruin his team’s chance, and that was the case in the Yankees’ one-run win on Monday.

The second time Montgomery went through the Blue Jays’ order, they scored two runs off him to erase the Yankees’ 2-0 lead. Tied at 2, once Montgomery was able to get through the 8 and 9 hitters a second time and retire George Springer in his third plate appearance to finish the fifth, I thought that would be it for Montgomery. It didn’t matter to me that his pitch count was only at 64. Montgomery a third time against Bo Bichette (who had doubled in his previous at-bat) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (who had lined out in his previous at-bat) would be a bad idea.

4. But there’s nothing Boone loves more than bad ideas. Boone had gotten Jonathan Loaisiga up and he was warm and ready to come into the game to start the sixth. Instead of giving Loaisiga a clean inning to work with against the heart of the Blue Jays’ order, Boone sent Montgomery back to the mound for the sixth to face Bichette in an attempt to steal outs in an incredibly important game and situation against the Yankees’ direct competition for the division. Bichette line the first pitch to right for a leadoff single.

Then Boone brought Loaisiga in. Rather than have the dominant right-handed reliever get a clean inning with six straight right-handed bats in the order, he tried to irresponsibly sneak Montgomery past Bichette and Guerrero a third time. Thankfully, Loaisiga got through the inning and Boone’s latest poor decision to cost the Yankees the game.

5. The Aaron Judge home run off Manoah was awesome. I think it was as big of a regular-season home run as Judge has ever and will ever hit. Given the score, the inning, the opponent and the pitcher, it’s hard to top. Judge is having the best year of his career when he needs to the most, after turning down a seven-year, $230 million extension. He leads the league in home runs (nine) and total bases (60), and is hitting .293/.356/.652. For as good as he has been, I think he can be better. His on-base percentage is 29 points below his career number. In terms of Judge’s peak ability, I don’t think we have even seen it yet this season. That’s frightening.

6. Tuesday was Jameson Taillon’s best start as a Yankee. (I still have him fifth on my rotation depth chart, but he was excellent in Toronto.) It wasn’t his longest start. He didn’t record a career high in strikeouts. But he matched Manoah, an impressive feat, and that was enough to give the Yankees a chance to win once the Blue Jays bullpen got involved.

7. When the Blue Jays brought Yimi Garcia into a 2-2 game for the ninth on Monday, I felt good about the Yankees winning. Garcia isn’t good. As the husband of a Dodgers fan, I watched all of Garcia’s Dodgers career and watched him piss away countless games. Anyone who watched him pitch ineffectively with the Astros in the playoffs against the White Sox and Red Sox knows what I’m talking about. When Garcia came into the game, Kay remarked the Blue Jays look at him “as a second closer” with Jordan Romano. If the Blue Jays trust Garcia like that and think of him as highly as that, the Yankees’ chance of winning the AL East drastically improve.

The Blue Jays’ bullpen isn’t very good overall. We saw that on Tuesday night when they let a 1-1 game turn into a laugher with the Yankees scoring eight runs over the final three innings. Romano is really the only Blue Jays reliever I’m scared of and he nearly blew Wednesday’s one-run lead for the Yankees and kept their winning streak going.

8. When completely healthy, I think the lineups are close to equal and the rotations are close to equal. (I actually think the Yankees have a better lineup and rotation than the Blue Jays, but that just might be my fandom.) The biggest difference between the two teams is the bullpen, where the Yankees have an advantage over the entire majors. There’s no bullpen in the majors that could use Loaisiga, Miguel Castro, Clay Holmes and Chad Green to close out for innings one night, go to Wandy Peralta, Castro again and Lucas Luetge the next night, and Michael King and Holmes again the following night and pitch 11 scoreless innings. The Yankees won two of three in Toronto and never even used Aroldis Chapman. The Blue Jays scored five runs in the three games. If I learned anything this week, the only thing keeping the Yankees from winning the AL East is health.

9. If the Yankees weren’t going to lose a game started by Manoah, when would they lose? Certainly not on Wednesday with Kikuchi starting, who the Yankees have owned as much as any pitcher, possibly ever. But as John Sterling often says, “You can’t predict baseball.” And you couldn’t predict what would happen in the series finale. If you could I wouldn’t have hammered the Yankees’ money line the night before the game and then again minutes before first pitch.

For a team to have an OPS of 1.078 against a pitcher, that pitcher allowing one run on three hits and a walk over six innings is the last thing you think would happen. But that’s exactly what happened as the Yankees reverted into the pre-winning streak Yankees and left everyone on base. The Yankees hit into an inning-ending double play in the first. They couldn’t advance a leadoff walk in the fourth. They couldn’t score a leadoff double (from Kyle Higashioka of all people!) in the sixth, as they failed to get Higashioka in from second with no outs and from third with one out. They stranded two in the seventh and another two in the ninth. They lost 2-1 in the game of the series they had the biggest pitching advantage, and their 11-game winning streak came to an end.

10. The Yankees can start a new winning streak this weekend with the last-place Rangers coming to the Bronx. The Yankees have beat up on bad teams this season (12-3 against the Orioles, Tigers, Guardians and Royals), and the Rangers are a bad team, who will face Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery,

The Yankees can’t let this 11-game winning streak be a blip in a season of mixed results, like their 13-game winning streak of 2021 was. They need to continue to build on their AL East lead and take advantage of the rather easy schedule they have in May, like they did in April, because June’s schedule isn’t as favorable.

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The Yankees swept the Royals to extend their winning streak to nine straight. They have won 11 of 12 and sit alone in first place in the American League and in all of baseball. It’s been a beautiful two weeks.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Eleven of the 13 last days have been glorious. I have been in a happy, cheerful mood, and I have slept well even with a 19-month-old and two-week-old and overall life has been fantastic. That’s because the Yankees have won nine straight and 11 of 12. Those other two days in the last 13? One was an off day following the debacle in Baltimore and the other was when the Yankees were shut out by the Tigers in Detroit.

The Yankees just completed their third straight sweep of at least three games of the season. They didn’t sweep a series of at least three games for the third time until June 15-17 last year. They are also 10 games above .500, a mark they didn’t reach last season until August 5 last year, following their 108th game. The 2022 Yankees have done their job. They have played well against good teams (4-3 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays), and have beaten up on the bad teams (12-3 against the Orioles, Tigers, Guardians and Royals). They have done exactly what the Yankees are supposed to do.

2. The most encouraging part of the first 14 percent of 2022 has been the Yankees’ ability to be in every game. Here are their six losses:

Lost 4-3 to the Red Sox (left 13 of 16 baserunners on)
Lost 3-0 to the Blue Jays
Lost 6-4 to the Blue Jays (had tying run at the plate in the eighth and ninth)
Lost 2-1 in 11 innings to the Orioles
Lost 5-0 to the Orioles (game was 0-0 in the bottom of the eighth)
Lost 3-0 to the Tigers (game was 1-0 entering the bottom of the eighth)

The Yankees’ most lopsided loss of the season was the 3-0 loss to Alek Manoah and the Blue Jays on April 11. When you have played 14 percent of your season and your most lopsided loss is a three-run defeat to the favorite to win the AL with their best starter on the mound, well, you’re doing something right. The Yankees have either won or had a chance to win every game of the season. It’s remarkable.

3. This weekend against the Royals went as it should have: the Yankees beat up on another bad team. It’s been a while since the Yankees took care of business against the league’s worst, but they have now done so for three straight series, sweeping the Guardians, Orioles and Royals.

Four batters into the series opener against left-hander Kris Bubic, the Yankees had doubled, lined out and hit back-to-back home runs. With one out in the top of the first they had a 3-0 lead, and it seemed like the rest of the game would be a formality. Nestor Cortes didn’t have his best stuff and the defense played like they were putting a few back in the dugout, and entering the seventh, the Yankees led just 3-2 before blowing the game open with four in the eighth and five in the ninth.

Every starter except for Tim Locastro (why does he unnecessarily dive and jump on every fly ball hit to him?) had a hit and six starters drove in runs, including Kyle Higashioka who hit a three-run, bases-clearing double on ground ball down the third-base line. Despite producing just his second extra-base hit of the season and quadrupling his RBI total from one to four, Higashioka wasn’t in the lineup on Saturday. Why? Because Gerrit Cole was starting.

4. It’s ironic that Gary Sanchez is no longer a Yankee because Cole made Higashioka his personal catcher and now Higashioka is no longer Cole’s personal catcher. (What happened to all that stuff about growing up playing together and being comfortable and used to each other?)

After Cole’s clunker in Detroit, I tweeted:

Kyle Higashioka should be worried. Not only does he suck, but Gerrit Cole is running out of excuses for why he sucks, and eventually scapegoating Higashioka and requesting to pitch to Jose Trevino is coming.

Sure enough, Jose Trevino was catching Cole’s very next start against the Guardians. And after Cole dominated (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K), there was no chance Higashioka was catching Cole again. So there was Trevino again on Saturday behind the plate against the Royals, and there was Cole dominating again (6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K).

Cole was going to pitch well against the Guardians or Royals regardless of who was behind the plate. The Guardians have one hitter to fear and at most two others that you’re a little worried about. The Royals have the worse offense in the majors. It didn’t matter that Trevino was there, and it wouldn’t have mattered if Higashioka was there, just like it never mattered that Higashioka was there over Sanchez. The whole idea of a personal catcher is outrageous, and that’s proven by Cole needing a second personal catcher in as many years.

When Trevino caught Cole the first time, Aaron Boone said it was just something he wanted to try, as if he had any amount of say in the decision to who catches Cole. Cole picks who he throws to. But there was Boone again saying on Saturday not to read into Trevino catching Cole again. Considering Cole threw to Higashioka in all three of his 2020 postseason starts, threw to him in every 2021 start outside of Opening Day and when Higashioka had COVID and threw to him his first three starts of 2022, yeah, we’re all reading into it. It’s been read. Trevino is going to catch Higashioka from here on out.

And that’s a good thing. Because Trevino is a better player than Higashioka. Quite possibly every player in Major League Baseball is a better player than Higashioka. I mean he has a .386 OPS for fuck’s sake. He doesn’t hit. He leads the league with three passed balls. He doesn’t do anything well. His whole purpose was supposed to be that he had some magical influence on Cole, as if Cole wasn’t already great and arguably the best pitcher in the world without him. (Reminder: the Yankees’ last two seasons ended with Cole starting and Higashioka catching.) Now that he’s not catching Cole, he has no purpose being on the Yankees.

5. I have already written and said many times that Gleyber Torres also shouldn’t be a Yankee. But he is and he’s going to continue to be. For as long as he is, can he not bat fifth? Can the Yankees stop rewarding and promoting mediocre players within the lineup?

Going back to when the 11 wins in the last 12 games started in Detroit, Torres has started eight of the 12 games. Seven of those eight starts have come at second base, which means seven times in the last 12 games, the Yankees purposely move a multiple Gold Glove-winning second baseman in DJ LeMahieu off the position to play Torres. No one will ever know how much that bothers me because I can’t describe it in a way that does it justice. And when you willingly play someone who’s as bad a defender as Torres is and who has as low of a Baseball IQ as Torres does, you get plays like the one one on Saturday when Torres thought he could outrun Bobby Witt Jr. in a rundown.

Torres’ bat has been better of late, but it’s still not good. Going back to the Detroit series, he’s hitting .281/.294/.763 and is now at .222/.261/.397 on the season. Neither is impressive and the overall slash line is horrible.

Unfortunately, Torres is going to continue to play as the Yankees continue to not want to admit his 2018-19 success will never be replicated and that player no longer exists. Unless the juiced baseball comes back, this is who Torres is: a free-swinging, low-on-base player with little power who’s also a bad defender. But get him as many at-bats as possible!

6. It might be good to get Josh Donaldson as many at-bats as possible and to stop sitting a player who is owed $48 million between this season and next. Donaldson had 12 career plate appearances against Friday’s starter Bubic (the most of any Yankee) with a 1.242 OPS, and yet, he didn’t play.

Donaldson has not started three games already this season. The Yankees have played 22 games and he has only started 13 at third base. The Yankees traded for Donaldson and took on his remaining salary to play him in the field 59 percent of the time? What?

We saw how Giancarlo Stanton’s production took a hit when he became a full-time designated hitter and what happened when he went back to playing the outfield regularly: he was back to hitting like an MVP. Donaldson has a .777 OPS when he plays third and a .487 OPS when he’s the DH. Play him regularly and play him at third like he’s supposed to.

7. Neither Cortes (5 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) or Luis Severino (5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR) had their best stuff in their starts in Kansas City and the Yankees won both games. Cortes’ stuff wasn’t that far off and his line was more a product of the Yankees’ defense. But Severino had to grind through each inning of his start, and still managed to get through five, while keeping the Royals at four runs. His ability to keep it right there gave the Yankees a chance to come back.

I still think he should have been out of the game after the first two batters reached in the fourth, and he should have definitely been out after he was allowed to finish the fourth, regardless of him pitching a scoreless fifth. Severino missed essentially all of 2019, did miss all of 2020, and missed essentially all of 2021 for various injuries. The last thing the Yankees need is him throwing around 30 high-stress pitches in the fourth inning of the 22nd game of the season when they have an extended bullpen for roster expansion and when they have Clarke Schmidt ready to go, who hadn’t pitched in 13 days. Irresponsible managing from Boone.

Schmidt pitched a scoreless sixth for his first appearance since April 19, the night Cole got rocked by the Tigers. After the game, Schmidt was sent down (as was Miguel Andujar despite a two-hit day) because of the roster losing two spots. The decision to send Schmidt down made sense. He’s the Yankees’ best pitching “prospect” and their most important depth pitching piece. When the Yankees need a starter at some point, you want it to be Schmidt. Having him sit in the bullpen for two weeks going unused and pitching sporadically isn’t in the best interest of the team. (Unfortunately for him, it is in the best interest of his bank account and his service time clock.) He will be back at some point.

8. I will never not think Aaron Judge made the wrong decision by turning down the more-than-fair, seven-year, $230 million offer from the Yankees. Even if he were able to replicate his 2017 rookie season, $230 million still might be the best offer he gets. Given his age, injury history and what he would need to do to top that offer, the chance of doing so would be as likely as Aaron Hicks playing 140 games in a season. And even with his early-season production, given his age and injury history, its still unlikely.

But so far Judge has done everything he can to put himself in position to improve that $230 million offer from the Yankees or improve what another team might value him at. After a slow start, he’s up to .300/.364/.663 with eight home runs. Maybe the Yankees will increase their offer after the season with a career year from Judge, or maybe Judge will be another Robinson Cano (who was designated for assignment by the Mets on Monday) and end up playing somewhere else in 2022. If he keeps this level of production up, some team will pay him more his late-30s decline.

9. The mid-30s, post-juiced baseball decline of LeMahieu was premature. I refrained from ever getting on LeMahieu during his down 2021 because of how good he was in 2019 and 2020. I’m loyal, unlike many Yankees fans who crushed him daily, while he played through the season with a hernia that forced him to miss the one-game playoff and would have forced him to miss the entire postseason if the Yankees had won the one-game playoff. That injury required surgery and now resolved, LeMahieu looks like his 2019 and 2020 self even with the non-juiced baseballs.

After starting the season hitting in the middle of he order, LeMahieu has regained his leadoff status and is hitting .299/.372/.442 on the year. He has a 141 OPS+ and seven extra-base hits after having 35 all of last year. Pre-injury LeMahieu is back.

10. Yankees-Blue Jays is also back as the Yankees head to Toronto for the first time this season and as a completely-vaccinated team, the Yankees won’t be leaving anyone behind in the U.S. to watch the games from afar.

Unfortunately, for the Yankees, both Cole and Severino won’t pitch in the series as it will be Jordan Montgomery (I don’t feel great about him facing the righty-heavy Blue Jays), Jameson Taillon (I don’t feel great about him ever) and Cortes (here’s to him shutting down the Blue Jays like he did in April). Fortunately, for the Yankees, they will get to face Ross Stripling and Yusei Kikuchi sandwiched around Alek Manoah, who dominates them. No Jose Berrios and No Kevin Gausman.

It’s a rather even matchup from a starting pitching perspective, and because the Yankees’ bullpen is an advantage over every other team in the majors, they will need their offense to show up against a Blue Jays team that is seven games over .500 with just a plus-1 run differential.

I don’t expect the Yankees’ sweep streak to continue in Toronto. They just can’t be on the other end of one.

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The Yankees went 6-0 on their homestand, have won eight of nine and have the best record in the American League. It’s been a good last week to be a Yankees fan.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. What a difference a week makes. A week ago, the Yankees were getting shut out for the third time in 13 games to start the season, losing to the Tigers and missing their second chance in two tries to sweep a series in 2022. It was an all-too-familiar performance from a Yankees offense that failed to finish off series with sweeps in 2021 and left countless winnable games on the table. The Yankees had gone an unacceptable 3-3 on their road trip to Baltimore and Detroit and everything about the team looked and smelled like the 2021 team.

The Yankees returned home to beat the Guardians last Friday, and on Saturday, after blowing a one-run, eighth-inning lead, it looked like the Yankees were headed to leaving yet another winnable game on the table. But after their ninth-inning comeback to walk off the Guardians on Saturday afternoon, the Yankees have looked like a completely different team. If the Yankees get to where they want to go this season, somewhere they haven’t been in going on 13 years, I think we will look back at Saturday, April 23 as the win that turned the season.

2. The Yankees don’t deserve praise or special treatment for winning six straight against the Guardians (who will likely finish around .500 this season), or the Orioles (who will likely finish as the worst team in the American League this season). The Yankees simply did their job in winning eight of nine against the Tigers, Guardians and Orioles, but I guess they could use some praise for doing their job since it’s something these Yankees haven’t done in a long time.

Last season, the Yankees’ inability to beat up on bad teams is what ruined their chances at winning the division, what forced them into the one-game playoff and what forced the one-game playoff to be played at Fenway Park. The 2021 Yankees went 25-23 against the Orioles, Indians, Tigers, Mets, Nationals and Angels, including a paltry 11-8 against an Orioles team that went 1-18 against the Rays.

The Yankees scored 27 runs over the last three days against the Orioles. They scored double-digit runs in three of their last four games. Last year, the Yankees scored double-digit runs six times. The Yankees’ 37 runs over the last four games surpassed their 35 runs scored in the previous 12 games. Nothing can get an offense going like Orioles pitching, which makes it all the more amazing that the Yankees lost two of three to the Orioles two weeks ago and scored just six measly runs in 29 innings at Camden Yards of all places.

3. It’s hard to fathom how the Yankees truly believed an all-right-handed lineup would be best for a team that plays half of its games at Yankee Stadium. After seeing Anthony Rizzo hit three home runs on Tuesday night, taking full advantage of the short porch in right, it made me happy to see Rizzo having such an impressive start to this season after posting his worst statistical season in 2021 since his rookie year in 2013. It also infuriated me as I couldn’t help but think back to all the times Brian Cashman spoke to the media and tried to sell everyone on the idea of the New York Yankees having no left-handed power in their lineup, and the only left-handed presence of the last few years being Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner, Rougned Odor, Mike Ford and Didi Gregorius. They really thought they could win like that. A team that is focused on optimizing every possible advantage (except at manager) with high-end nutritionists, renowned strength trainers and sleep specialists, who determine the best possible time for the team to depart for road games, the Yankees purposely constructed a team the last few seasons with comical left-handed bats. Thankfully, they admitted their mistake at last year’s trade deadline and brought in Rizzo and Joey Gallo, and then brought Rizzo back. (They didn’t have to bring Gallo back as he was under contract for 2022).

Yes, I wanted Freddie Freeman over Rizzo, as did anyone who’s not related to Rizzo, but so far Rizzo has exceeded expectations and I’m ecstatic that what could have been considered the start of the downfall of his career last year may have just been one down year for him.

4. On Tuesday, Luis Severino had a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings and the Yankees had a 6-0 lead. I thought the Yankees were on their way to their second straight laugher. Instead, the Yankees ended up needing to use Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga and Aroldis Chapman in a game in which they had two different six-run leads.

He eventually left the game in the seventh with this line: 6 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. What was looking like his best start of the young season ended up being his worst. But through four stars, he’s averaging a strikeout per inning with a 3.32 ERA. For a guy who made only five starts over the previous three-and-a-half years, Severino has been really good.

He eventually left the game in the seventh with this line: 6 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR. What was looking like his best start of the young season ended up being his worst. But through four stars, he’s averaging a strikeout per inning with a 3.32 ERA. For a guy who made only five starts over the previous three-and-a-half years, Severino has been really good.

Jordan Montgomery had another good start (5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR) with both of the runs he allowed coming on a sixth-inning, game-tying home run. Jameson Taillon was could get out of the fifth inning in his start (4.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K), putting nine baserunners on and leaving with the Yankees trailing.

It was the Yankees’ worst starting pitching series this season, and even so, the starters pitched to a 4.41 ERA, which isn’t great, but it’s not horrible. With this offense (or at least the offense we have seen of late), a 4.41 starters’ ERA over a full season would still get the Yankees into the postseason.

5. Here’s my current level of trust with the rotation (scale of 1-10):

Gerrit Cole: 7.9
Against bad teams it’s somewhere around a 9.6. Against the Rays, Blue Jays or Red Sox, it’s in the 3s.

Luis Severino: 7.7
As long as he’s healthy, the last time he wasn’t a superb front-end starter was in 2016.

Nestor Cortes: 6.8
The most enjoyable of the five to watch, I feel good when he’s on the mound. (2019 me can’t believe I wrote that.)

Jordan Montgomery: 5.3
I’m always waiting for him to allow the crooked number after cruising for three or four innings (like he did again on Wednesday).

Jameson Taillon: 4.1
He reminds me too much of Phil Hughes to ever feel truly good and confident with him. There always seems to be traffic (hat tip, Aaron Boone!) on the bases when he’s on the mound and he rarely ever gives the team adequate length.

6. It was the worst series for the bullpen as well. It was the first time the bullpen has been hit all season and for it to happen against the Orioles was odd. The line: 9.2 IP, 12 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 15 K, 2 HR, 6.51 ERA, 1.758 WHIP. It wasn’t good, but thankfully, it didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter because the offense showed up, and the best part about scoring 27 runs in three games is Boone was completely taken out of the series from a bullpen management standpoint. Scoring consistently is Yankees’ best (and only chance) to win over the long haul because it makes all of Boone’s decisions moot. He can’t ruin games by getting his hands on the game since there’s no illogical, nonsensical decision that can match up with the kind of offensive production. When the Yankees can outhit and outscore Boone, it makes winning that much more fun and enjoyable.

7. The only enjoyable part of the offense has been Josh Donaldson. Aaron Judge now has five home runs and a .944 OPS. Giancarlo Stanton just went 5-for-11 with two walks. DJ LeMahieu is hitting .313 with an .858 OPS and a 12-game hitting streak. Rizzo has a league-leading eight home runs. Hicks has a .377 OBP. Gallo finally homered and homered twice in the series. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is hitting .298. Even Gleyber Torres has six RBIs, had the big sacrifice fly on Opening Day and the walkoff single against the Guardians. Josh Donaldson needs to join the party.

Donaldson had the walkoff hit on Opening Day and the momentary go-ahead home run last Saturday against the Guardians, but overall his plate appearances have been painful to watch. The power hasn’t been there (.348 SLG), getting on base hasn’t been there (.312 OBP), and he’s chasing bad pitches and getting himself out, something I never saw him do while playing against the Yankees. Maybe his elite playing days are done and he’s finally washed up or maybe he’s just in a season-opening slump. All I know is he hasn’t been hitting into bad luck. He’s just not been hitting.

8. After the Guardians series, I wrote the following about Stanton:

I’m not worried about Stanton. I know who he is as a player, and he could homer four times in the next six games. At some point he’s going to do something exactly like that. But with nearly the entire lineup slumping prior to Sunday, which was the first time the Yankees scored six runs this season without the automatic runner), it would be nice if that power and home run barrage arrived this week.

Stanton went 5-for-11 with a home run, four RBIs and two walks in the series. The home run came on Wednesday, and when Stanton homers, they usually come in bunches. Because he didn’t homer on Thursday, I’m thinking the Royals should be worried about this weekend.

9. The Royals should be worried because we haven’t seen the Yankees be this good against bad teams since 2019. That Yankees team went 17-2 against the Orioles and 50-12 against the Orioles, Royals, Mariners, Angels, Giants and Red Sox: all bad teams that season. That Yankees team was the best of the teams from this core, winning 103 games and the team’s only division title since 2012. It was made possible by beating up on the bad teams.

The Royals are a bad team. They aren’t bad like Orioles or Reds bad since they do have a future and a plan, something the Orioles haven’t had for the last few years and something the Reds clearly don’t have now. But they are bad in the sense that they’re still a few years away and their current talent level and ability doesn’t match that of the Yankees on paper and shouldn’t on the field either.

10. After this weekend in Kansas City, the consecutive cupcake schedule of Detroit, Cleveland Baltimore and Kansas City is over. In May, the Yankees will play the Blue Jays five times, the White Sox seven times, the Rays four times and will start a three-game series with the Angels on the last day of the month. They will have games against the Orioles and Rangers sprinkled in, but the Yankee don’t have another stretch of games like the one they’re currently in against mediocre to awful teams.

The Yankees have done their job. Even including the debacle in Baltimore two weeks ago, they have gone 9-3 in these 12 games. They have gotten fat in term of wins and now have the best record in the AL and are a 1/2 game ahead of the Blue Jays, two games up on the Rays and 5 1/2 games up on the Red Sox. They have mostly won the games they are supposed to win and have put the pressure on their division competition to do the same when they play the weak part of their schedules.

It’s been a good week to be a Yankees. No. It’s been a great week to be a Yankees fan.

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After losing two out of of three to the Orioles, the Yankees went to Detroit and took two of three against the Tigers and then swept the Guardians in the Bronx. The Yankees are finally winning like the Yankees are supposed to.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. That’s more like it. That’s what the New York Yankees are supposed to do. They’re supposed to beat (and in this case sweep) average and below-average teams. They’re supposed to win games started by their “ace” and they’re supposed to pad the win column against the league’s mediocrity.

On Sunday, following the Yankees’ win on Twitter, in a game in which they scored six runs for the first time without the automatic runner all season, I received the following mentions:

Any comment on the Yankees’ game today? Or Only when they lose?

And this:

Dude. You’re awfully quiet when the Yankees win.

I’m always willing to comment on the Yankees, and no, I wasn’t quiet on Sunday. I was maybe more quiet than other days because it was Sunday and the 19-month-old was running wild and the 10-day-old needed to be fed just about every other inning, but I wasn’t quiet. I watched the Yankees game in its entirety, kept track of nearly every other game for gambling purposes and kept two kids under two years of age alive.

Everything I write in blogs, say on podcasts or tweet is based on fact and my observations of on-field performance. I have been called negative and pessimistic, but I’m neither. I’m a realist. And here’s some real news: the Yankees haven’t won a championship in going on 13 years and have won once since 2001. They have underachieved many times for the last two decades, have created inadequate rosters, underspent when they could have put themselves over the top, have hired and extended the wrong manager and have generally half-assed their way to getting their next championship. It has resulted in zero championships.

I want the Yankees to win. Every day. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. But what has happened these last few years has been hard to watch, knowing how much time and money I invest into an organization that hasn’t equally invested in their fans. If the way I write, talk or tweet about the team is upsetting, it’s likely because you’re an enormous homer who thinks the Yankees can do no wrong and should be praised even when they’re not meeting expectations. And that’s exactly what this core has done since 2018 and what this organization has done since 2009.

Everyone has their own way of being a fan. There’s no such thing as being a good fan or a bad fan, just like there’s no such thing as Aaron Hicks driving in a runner from third with less than two outs. If you’re a fan who believes the Yankees are always acting in the best interest of the on-field product, great. If you’re a fan who thinks Brian Cashman is batting 1.000 in his career in trade and free-agent signings, awesome. If you’re a fan who watches a few innings here and there and waits to be locked in until the postseason, wonderful. If you’re a fan who thinks everyone should be benched and fired, superb. If you’re a fan who hates analytics and thinks batting average and RBIs and pitcher wins and losses matter, good for you. If you’re a fan who needs to have Baseball Savant open during each game and would rather their team lead the league in wRC+ than actual wins, that’s cool too. Again, there’s no such thing as a good fan or a bad, and however you want to consume this team or any team is fine. In the end, all Major League Baseball fans are irrationally tied to a group of millionaires (who likely share contrasting views to you on the world, economics, politics, vaccines and life) playing a game no fan has control over. So who cares how you root or enjoy or hate-watch your team? The whole concept of being a fan at its core is ridiculous. I know at its core the whole idea of being a Yankees fan is ridiculous. Yet, it still bothers me to my core when they lose.

I realize it’s not healthy for the result of a baseball game to determine my mood and general well-being on a daily basis for six or seven months, and then have the team’s handling of the offseason affect those two things the other months. It’s ridiculous. It’s silly. It’s illogical. It’s unhealthy. But it’s who I am.

For me as a fan, I expect the Yankees to be great. That’s how I consume them. It might be unreasonable, but I grew up on them being great and believe they should still be. My tone in my writing, my words and my tweets is based on the foundation of wanting them to win. Winning the division isn’t good enough. Winning a postseason round isn’t good enough. Winning the American League pennant isn’t good enough. Reaching the World Series isn’t good enough. Winning the World Series is the only thing that’s good enough and this current team’s window to do that is being held up a stack of unread books.

2. This weekend, these Yankees were great for a change. But they don’t deserve special treatment or adoration because they swept a mediocre-at-best Guardians team that has the fourth-lowest payroll in the majors at home. They did their job. That’s what the Yankees are supposed to. They’re not going to get some unearned congratulatory commentary from me like I think some Twitter users were expecting. They did what they were supposed to do, a week after losing a series to the worst team in the AL.

3. And that’s what Gerrit Cole is supposed to do. He’s supposed to dominate bad lineups and the Guardians have a bad lineup. The Tigers also have a bad lineup, which is why I was so critical of him after his last start. It wasn’t just one bad start from Cole, and it wasn’t just three bad starts to the season. It was a trend that date back to the beginning of September and a span of nine bad starts, including the one-game playoff. The version of Cole that pitched on Sunday is the version I expect nearly every start from him. He’s also pissed away two (I will give him a pass on the Blue Jays), and his personal season is now 12 percent over.

4. After last week’s 1 2/3 disastrous innings from Cole, I tweeted:

Kyle Higashioka should be worried. Not only does he suck, but Gerrit Cole is running out of excuses for why he sucks, and eventually scapegoating Higashioka and requesting to pitch to Jose Trevino is coming.

Sure enough, there was Trevino in the lineup on Sunday. It was the first time, when healthy, Higashioka didn’t catch Cole since Opening Day 2021. The only other time Higashioka didn’t catch him was July 2021 when Higashioka had COVID and Gary Sanchez caught him in a Yankees win.

Boone said having Trevino catch over Higashioka was “just something he wanted to do.” There is absolutely no truth to Boone making the decision to have Trevino catch Cole over Higashioka. The fact that Higashioka caught Cole for nearly all of 2020 and all of 2021 is because Cole wanted Higashioka to catch him. Every single thing Cole does is based on routine and being a creature of habit, as we saw on Opening Day when he freaked out over the pregame ceremonies throwing off his day by four minutes. Do you think someone who has that concerned with each second of the day he has to pitch is going to let Boone decide who catches him after Higashioka has caught him for nearly every start of his as a Yankee? If you believe that, you probably think the Yankees made the right decision protecting Nick Nelson and Brooks Kriske from the Rule 5 draft instead of Garrett Whitlock.

If Trevino isn’t injured or sick (knock on all the wood) when Cole pitches next, he will undoubtedly be catching him. Trevino is the better catcher and the better player than Higashioka, and if Trevino has now taken Higashioka’s one purpose away (catching Cole) then he has no purpose on the team anymore. Boone chose Higashioka over Sanchez by pairing him with Cole and playing him in the team’s biggest games over the last two years. That forced Brian Cashman to trade Sanchez before he hits free agency after this season. Not even three full weeks into the season, the trade was pointless.

5. Here are some things I wrote and tweeted about Nestor Cortes in 2019:

I guess this is a throwaway game. Nestor Cortes is warming up. – May 19, 2019

When it was announced that Nestor Cortes would start (or open) for the Yankees on Tuesday and when the lineup against the Tigers was posted and DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Luke Voit weren’t in it, I shook my head in disbelief like Lee Trevino in Happy Gilmore. – Sept. 11, 2019

I have no idea how he’s survived a demotion in more than four months, but I guess good for him? He’s been a New York Yankee, making a major-league salary and traveling in luxury nearly all season, earning service time toward his future pension. Good for him. Bad for Yankees fans. – Sept. 16, 2019

Nestor Cortes being on the major league roster for as long as he has is more impressive than Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak. – Sept. 28, 2019

There are more (many more), but you get the point. I didn’t like Cortes and he didn’t like pitching well.

The 2018 Orioles lost 115 games and they didn’t want Cortes, but the Yankees did. He somehow held a major-league roster spot for nearly the entire season on a Yankees team that won 103 games despite pitching to a 5.67 ERA and allowing 104 baserunners and 16 home runs in 66 2/3 innings. After the season he ended up pitching in Seattle in 2020, put 20 baserunners on and allowed six home runs in just 7 2/3 innings. For some unknown reason, the Yankees wanted him back for 2021, and thankfully they did.

6. Cortes was outstanding last season for the Yankees, both as a starter (14 starts) and reliever (eight appearances). This season he has been even better, allowing just two earned runs in a two-run home run and seven hits in 15 2/3 innings, while striking out 25. His pitch arsenal and unusual deliveries coupled with his results have made him the most enjoyable part of the season to date. With shades of El Duque, the four days between his starts feel like an eternity.

Cortes’ ERA+ in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was 60, 79 and 29. Last season it was 150, and this season it’s at a comical 323. (For perspective, Mariano Rivera is the all-time ERA+ lead at 205.) He hasn’t just been good or great or outstanding in 2022, he’s been the best pitcher in the league. The same guy who was piggybacking Chad Green as an opener two years ago and allowing at least three earned runs in each relief appearance is currently the best pitcher in the league. Fucking crazy.

7. Aaron Judge’s extension rejection combined with his season-opening slump, Cole’s disappointing first three starts, Josh Donaldson potentially being washed up, the Boone lineup carousel and Joey Gallo’s inability to put the ball in play has all done Giancarlo Stanton a favor. It would be nice if the Yankees could have everyone being productive at the same time, but I know that’s unrealistic. I would take even one-third of their lineup being productive at the same time. But there will always be one or two, or (in the Yankees’ case) five or six guys not producing at a given time. At this given time, Stanton is one of those guys.

I called Brett Gardner “The Streak” throughout his career because there was no consistency in his game throughout the season. He could be an automatic out for two weeks and then the hardest out in baseball the next two. Stanton is very much like that.

Stanton homered in the first two games of the season and hasn’t since. When the Yankees play their next game on Tuesday, it will be 10 days since the last time he drove in a run, despite having played in every game other than Sunday’s since then. He’s hitting .203/.213/.322 and has struck out in 22 of his 59 plate appearances.

I’m not worried about Stanton. I know who he is as a player, and he could homer four times in the next six games. At some point he’s going to do something exactly like that. But with nearly the entire lineup slumping prior to Sunday, which was the first time the Yankees scored six runs this season without the automatic runner), it would be nice if that power and home run barrage arrived this week.

8. Earlier in the week, Gleyber Torres wasn’t good enough to be in the starting lineup, and rightfully so. Not playing Torres every day is one of the few things Boone has done right. But after his pinch-hit, game-winning single on Saturday, Torres was suddenly not only good enough to start, but to bat fifth.

Torres is a Boone favorite. Just like Higashioka and Hicks are. When you’re a Boone favorite, it only takes one game, or in this case one at-bat to get promoted, and it will take weeks now for Torres to be demoted. That’s how it goes for Boone favorites, and it went the opposite for non-favorites like Sanchez, Clint Frazier and Luke Voit, and all three are no longer Yankees.

9. The Yankees have played five series:

2-1 vs. Red Sox
2-2 vs. Blue Jays
1-2 at Orioles
2-1 at Tigers
3-0 vs. Guardians

Prior to the season-opening series, taking two out of three and winning the series against the Red Sox was acceptable, but not until the Sunday game happened in which the Yankees stranded 13 and lost by one run. Going 2-2 against the Blue Jays was acceptable. Losing two of three and scoring six runs in 29 innings at Camden Yards was completely unacceptable. Like the Red Sox series, taking two of three in Detroit would have been acceptable, but then the Yankees left every runner on third with less than two outs in the series finale and got shut out for the third time in 13 games. This past weekend, I would have been happy with a series win, but a sweep (something these Yankees failed to pull off too often last year and to date this season prior to Sunday) was more than I could have asked for.

The Yankees are 10-6 and that’s exactly where I had them being through 16 games. But to have received thee pitching they have and to have pissed away at least two golden opportunities against the Red Sox and Tigers is why it might seem like I’m not satisfied with their current state. And I’m not. I expect greatness out of them and sweeping the Guardians wasn’t just needed because of the series loss in Baltimore, it was needed to prove that this Yankees team can be capable of greatness. Great teams, championship teams, beat up on the average and below-average teams.

10. Hal Steinbrenner, Cashman and the Yankees want Yankees fans to think the 2021 Braves are the norm. It’s why Cashman specifically mentioned the Braves in each media setting this offseason. The Yankees want you to think just getting into the postseason is enough and then hoping the bounces go their way. It’s simply not true. The 2021 Braves are the anomaly. They won 87 games and went on a storied, magical run in October.

The 2020 Dodgers were the best team in the league and in the World Series for the third time in four years. The 2019 Nationals had Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg as their 1-2. The 2018 Red Sox won 108 games. The 2017 Astros won 101 games (and had quite the home-field advantage). The 2016 Cubs won 103 games. The 2015 Royals won 95 games and had been in the World Series the year before. The 2014 Giants had a core that was winning the their third championship in five seasons. The last puzzling World Series champion before 2021 was the 2006 Cardinals.

The Yankees shouldn’t want to be like the 2021 Braves. They should want to be like all of the other champions since 2006. Winning five of six against the Tigers and Guardians is what those teams would do. Continuing that level of play this week against the Orioles and Royals is also what they would do.

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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!