After a miserable weekend against the Blue Jays, the Yankees got just what they needed: three games against the Orioles. The Yankees beat up on the Orioles the way they always do, winning two laughers (7-0 and 7-2), but they weren’t able to pull off the sweep as they left nearly every baserunner they had on base in the series finale.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Aaron Judge is hurt. It took five games, and not even five full games for Judge to get hurt. So much for that new offseason workout regimen Eric Cressey implemented. So much for the yoga routine. Four games in right field and one as the designated hitter and Judge is already hurt and has already missed one game due to a potential injury.

On Wednesday, Aaron Boone described Judge as being “sore” on Tuesday. “With the off day tomorrow I don’t want to take any chances,” Boone said.

How does Boone know Judge is sore? Because Judge must have told him. Judge acts like he wants to play no matter what and will play thorugh anything, yet every time he is “sore” or banged up, the manager knows about it. I find that odd for someone who claims to want to be in the lineup every game.

Judge has a history of oblique injuries, which ended his 2016 season early and took two months of his 2019 season. When asked if it is his oblique again, Boone said it’s “general soreness in his side.” Is that not the definiton of an oblique injury? Now we wait. We wait and find out if it’s more than Boone and the Yankees have led on, which it almost always is. It wouldn’t surpise me if it is more and Judge is placed on the injured list or out for an extended period of time since that’s what I have been trained to think over the last few sesaons.

I don’t want Judge to be hurt, but it’s a good thing he is because ifhe was just being given a scheduled day off on Wednesday, I might have been forced to start to root against the Yankees. After giving Giancarlo Stanton the day off on Sunday and Aaron Hicks the day off on Tuesday, when I didn’t see Judge in Wednesday’s lineup, I freaked out. Judge had gone 5-for-8 with two home runs and five RBIs in the first two games of the series, and it would have been irresponsible and unacceptable to give him the day off. If he’s not truly injured or IL-bound and is just “sore” then it’s still pretty ridiculous he didn’t play. You would think Judge would play through anything these days after having missed 138 of a possible 390 games since 2018 and with his free agency looming after 2022. But nope, he’s the same old injury-prone guy. No offseason workout changes or training or medical staff hires can change that.

2. Boone’s early-season catching plans have worked to perfection for him. He had Gary Sanchez catch Gerrit Cole on Opening Day to hide the Cole-Sanchez relationship storyline to begin the season. Then he let Kyle Higashioka catch Cole’s second start, citing it as just a normal day off for Sanchez. But of all the games to give Sanchez a day off, Sanchez got the day off when Cole was starting, and what do you know, having that day off lines up Sanchez to have this coming Sunday afternoon off in Tampa as well. And guess who’s pitching this Sunday afternoon in Tampa, why none other than Cole. What a coincidence! Boone is going to have Higashioka catch Cole as much as possible, and he will cite games like Tuesday when Cole threw seven shutout innings as the reason why. Even though Higashioka’s start and those seven shutout innings came against the Orioles, who could lose 100 games again, and Sanchez’s came against the Blue Jays, who could win the AL East. This storyline isn’t going anywhere. Boone created a monster last season and he continues to feed it.

3. It’s bad enough Aaron Hicks bats third for the Yankees, but it was appalling when Brett Gardner batted third in the fifth game of the season. When Hicks returned the following night, Gardner was moved down to ninth. So Gardner is going to bath ninth when he plays, unless Hicks isn’t playing and then he’s going to bat third? How does that make any sense? It doesn’t. It’s just another nonsensical decision by Boone. There’s no rule stating a left-handed hitter has to bat third. There’s no rule stating one of the team’s weakest hitters has to bat third. It’s just what Boone chooses to do.

Here is a list of some No. 3 hitters in the majors. One of these names is not like the others. Can you figure out which one it is?

Mike Trout
Bryce Harper
Juan Soto
Christian Yelich
Manny Machado
Freddie Freeman
Jose Abreu
Nolan Arenado
Aaron Hicks

4. Hicks batting third (or Gardner batting third on Tuesday) isn’t an organizational decision. It’s a Boone decision. Here’s what Brian Cashman said at his end-of-the-season press conference this past October:

“In terms of the lineup and in-game strategies, those are the manager’s. It always has been and as long as I’m the general manager, it never will be different.”

Boone makes the lineup. Boone makes the calls to the bullpen. Boone gives the scheduled days off. It’s all Boone. There’s the idea Boone is a puppet and every move is made by Cashman and his team, but Cashman denied that at the same press conference this past October, saying:

“I know there’s that narrative about the manager being a puppet and none of that’s true. I’ve never ordered a manager to do anything specifically and Aaron would be able to testify to that as well as Joe Girardi and Joe Torre. They’ve never been directed at any time by me or our front office to do something they didn’t want to do.”

Cashman also said:

“Does he push back? The answer is yes. Not every manager has agreed with suggestions made, but every manager was allowed to plot their own course. I think there is a healthy debate that transpires and an all-in commitment once that decision is ultimately made.”

Maybe it’s time you stop letting him push back. There are thousands of people who can manage the Yankees and manage them as poorly as Boone. If Cashman wants his staff to tell Boone what to do, what is Boone going to do? Threaten to quit? Oh no! What would the Yankees ever do?!

The unnecessary rest only goes for position players though. On Wednesday, Chad Green entered the game in the 10th inning and was removed in the 11th inning. Green has already appeared in four of the Yankees’ six games this season and in three of his four appearances, he has been asked to pitch more than an inning. Good long-term plan by the manager who is supposedly so great at load management and keeping his guys fresh. Everyone except the elite bullpen arms the team will need to win the division and win in October.

5. Gleyber Torres’ defense is a problem. A huge problem. There shouldn’t be a sense of relief when a major league shortstop successfully converts a routine ground ball into an out, but that’s what it’s become with Torres at short. Forget making a difficult play, Torres can’t simply field ground balls hit right at him and throw accurately to first base. His defense was a significant problem for the Yankees last season, but the Yankees attributed it to the unique and odd circumstances of 2020. Well, nothing has changed for Torres. His inability to throw the baseball in the air to first base cost the Yankees the game on Wednesday night. Yes, the Yankees only scored two runs despite having 12 hits and two walks, but it was Torres’ 10th-inning error that allowed the go-ahead run to score. Any ball that is hit at him I assume is going to an end in either a fielding or throwing error. That can’t go on. Either he needs to immediately get better or a drastic change needs to be made.

It’s possible the Yankees could eventually change their defensive alignment. They gave Gio Urshela time at shortstop in spring training, and while he has barely played there in his career, Torres plays as though he has barely played there. There’s no chance Urshela is worse at shortstop than Torres is. It’s hard to envision any everyday major league shortstop being worse. Put Urshela at short, Torres back at second, where he had two unbelievable seasons in 2018 and 2019, move DJ LeMahieu over to third and pray Luke Voit comes back soon, so the Jay Bruce experiment can end.

6. Jordan Montgomery was great in his season debut: 6 IP, 4 H 0, R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7K. I was waiting for the crooked number to ruin his night at some point since that’s the way Montgomery’s starts seem to go. Four or five scoreless innings sandwiched around a three-run inning is usually the story with Montgomery. That never happened on Monday, and he shut out the Orioles for six innings, giving the bullpen a much-needed rest in the Yankees’ first easy win of the season. Through one turn in the rotation, Montgomery has been the Yankees at worst the Yankees’ second-best starter.

7. Jameson Taillon was good in his first star in 707 days following his second Tommy John surgery. Good, not great. If you heard Michael Kay and David Cone describe his performance on his way to the dugout, you would have thought he was getting pulled in the ninth inning, an out or two away from a complete-game shutout. Kay said, “Taillon gave the Yankees all they could have asked for.” All they could ask for? What?

Here’s Taillon’s line from his Yankees debut: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2 HR. I know the Yankees are trying to protect him and avoid using him like the family dining room, which only gets used on holidays and when company is over, but at some point they’re going to have to let him pitch and not fear him get injured.

The same goes for Corey Kluber. The Yankees can’t afford to have two of their five starters only going four and five innings at most each start, or the bullpen will get overused and overworked, and come October, it will be rundown and fatigued.

9. The Yankees needed to see the Orioles this week. After the awful season-opening weekend against the Blue Jays, the Yankees needed some easy wins and to start looking and playing like the Yankees. The Orioles will do that for you. The division is likely going to be won by whichever team beats up on the Orioles and Red Sox the most.

10. Now the Yankees are headed to Tampa on Friday for three games against the Rays — a team the Yankees have had enormous trouble beating in recent years — at the Trop — a place the Yankees never seem to win. I’m sure it’s going to be an intense, frustration-filled weekend in which my heart rate and blood pressure will both hit dangerous levels during the seventh, eighth and ninth games of a 162-game season. But these games are that important to the Yankees winning the division and avoiding the one-game playoff. After attending and sitting through three of those in 2015, 2017 and 2018, I never want to have to sit through one again.

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The Yankees dropped two out of three to the Blue Jays to open the 2021 season and they looked bad doing so. The same fears of Yankees fans that eliminated the team in the last four postseasons were on display all weekend at Yankee Stadium.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The last time we saw the Yankees play in October, they couldn’t hit elite starting pitching, couldn’t hit right-handed relief pitching and couldn’t drive in runners in scoring position, and so their season ended in the ALDS against the Rays. Well, the first three games of 2021 might as well have been a sixth, seventh and eighth game from that series because the Yankees performed like the same exact team, which wasn’t good enough to get out of the first round of the postseason. And why wouldn’t they? They are the same exact team with the same exact manager. Why would they expect different results. They shouldn’t.

2. Aaron Boone passed his first test of the season when he started Gary Sanchez on Opening Day and allowed him to catch Gerrit Cole. Sanchez was the Yankees’ best player on Opening Day, providing the only offense with a a two-run home, and also adding a single, important walk and threw out a would-be base stealer. Sanchez and Clint Frazier were the only two position players to do anything on Opening Day, and pretty much all weekend. The Yankees scored eight runs in three games against their direct competition for the division and Sanchez’s two home runs, the only two Yankees home runs this season, produced half of the team’s runs. It was a very bad weekend for fans who don’t like Sanchez, didn’t want the Yankees to tender him a contract for 2021 (as if that were ever an option) and want Kyle Higashioka to be the team’s starting catcher.

3. Boone passed his first test by starting Sanchez, but I knew his second test would come on Sunday, and I knew he wouln’t pass it. It would be the Yankees’ first time playing back-to-back games in 2021, and with five games in five days he would undoubtedly look to give regular everyday players a day off. Sure enough, there was Aaron Judge at designated hitter on Sunday, Clint Frazier in right field, Brett Gardner in left field and Giancarlo Stanton on the bench. Stanton entered Sunday having played 50 games in 24 months, an average of about two games per month over the last two calendar years. He played all 50 of those games as the DH. As a Yankee, Stanton has always gotten hurt running the bases. Well, he barely ran the bases on Thursday and Saturday. On Thursday, he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, so three times he walked from the dugout to the batter’s box, took a few swings and walked back to the dugout, never needing to run. On Saturday, he walked with two outs and never left first base, flew out, popped out, walked and eventually scored from second on a single and flew out. So in two games, Stanton had to run once, though he somehow needed a day off from being the DH.

4. Weeks ago, Boone said Aaron Hicks would be the No. 3 hitter. That doesn’t make it any better or make it OK. Hicks shouldn’t be batting third. I don’t care about some arbitrary timeline of stats for him. There’s no way with the other hitters on this team he should be batting third. There’s this idea he should lead off, and that’s even funnier than thinking Higashioka should play over Sanchez. (Why would the Yankees want to start every game with only two outs to work with in the first inning?) Hicks had an impressive weekend at the plate, going 1-for-12 with two walks and eight strikeouts. (He did drive in a run when he hit a ball to second base with the bases loaded and one out, trying his absolute best to end the inning with a double play, but the Blue Jays were unable to turn it.) Hicks was as bad as anyone could imaginably be in a three-game span, and his inability to make contact was magnified by the fact that he bats third, which he does because Boone is still trying to prove he’s the smartest baseball mind, even though his 2020 ALDS Game 2 strategy has forever taken him out of that conversation. There will be a time this season when Yankees fans say, “Remember when Hicks was batting third and Gio Urshela was batting sixth?” The same way Aaron Judge started 2017 batting eighth and remained there for most of his should-have-been MVP season and the same way DJ LeMahieu wasn’t even in the Opening Day starting lineup in 2019. Urshla was bad enough in the first two games of 2021 that Boone moved him down for the third game, so it looks like Urshela is on his way to permanently batting where he should: eighth or ninth. As for Hicks, his time to get moved down will come. For as bad as Hicks was this weekend, Aaron Judge was right there with him. Judge single-handedly lost Opening Day and finished the weekend going 3-for-14, leaving 11 runners on base. Judge’s free pass has an expiration date and it’s this season. He has been able to go about his business without criticism for the last three seasons because of what he did in 2017, but that was a long time ago now, and the last and only time he has played a full season.

5. Jay Bruce provided 25 percent of the Yankees’ offense in the series, blooping in a bases-loaded, two-run single on Saturday. If Luke Voit doesn’t hurt his knee at the end of spring training, Bruce isn’t a Yankee right now, which means the Yankees deemed him not as good or as valuable as Mike Tauchman or Tyler Wade. That didn’t stop Boone from batting Bruce fifth on Sunday. Yes, fifth. I thought Bruce might bat around fifth on Opening Day because of his past success against Hyun Jin Ryu (4-for-11 with two home runs), but he batted eighth on Opening Day. Boone waited to move him up until Sunday. He must have been impressed by that two-run bloop single.

6. Like Sanchez, Frazier is the one other position player Yankee you could say had a good weekend. Frazier went 4-for-9 with two doubles and two walks, and it’s not unrealistic to think by the end of the season he could be the Yankees’ best hitter. So there he was batting ninth on Opening Day, three spots behind Urshela and one spot behind Bruce. Yes, he would be the best 9-hitter in the league, however, he has no business batting in that spot. I know someone who would be great in that spot, and he plays center field for the Yankees.

7. In the three games, the Yankees faced right-handed relievers for 42 percent of the series. Here’s the line: 11.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 10 BB, 16 K, 2.31 ERA. Two of the runs came after the Yankees were able to load the bases with walks. The Yankees didn’t have trouble getting on base with 16 baserunners in those 11 2/3 innings, but like always, they had trouble getting those runners in. Making contact is the thing these Yankees are the worst at. And no one should preface anything about this weekend with “It’s three games” or “It’s April” because it’s not just three games and it’s not just April. The things we saw from the Yankees this weekend are what has eliminated them from the postseason the last four seasons, and that includes bad starting pitching.

8. It would be cool if Gerrit Cole started pitching like he did as an Astro. That would be fun. Because having to leave in the fifth and sixth inning of starts due to an elevated pitch count isn’t going to work out well when the rest of the rotation is expected to go five innings at most. Cole went 5 1/3 innings on Thursday, Corey Kluber went four innings on Saturday and Scumbag Domingo German went three innings on Sunday. The starters gave the Yankees 12 1/3 of 28 innings against the Blue Jays. The Yankees are already down Zack Britton and Justin Wilson. If the starters continue to do what they did this weekend, the Yankees will be down more than just those two, or worse, Chad Green and Darren O’Day won’t get hurt, they will just get fatigued and ineffective and continued to be used.

9. How about Scumbag German? You would think the Yankees dealt with someone like him because of his elite talent. Instead they kept a scumbag through suspension and public and internal backlash and that scumbag is barely a fifth starter. German lasted three innings in his first start since 2019 and allowed three earned runs and two home runs in those three innings, needing 68 pitches to get nine out. What a loser. To make matters worse, Boone made excuses for his performance in his postgame press conference, and even went as far to say “he looked sharp” early in the game. There wasn’t really an early for German since he was gone before the fourth, but in the first inning he did only allow on extra-base hit, so hats off to him!

10. Boone used the word “cold” several times to talk about his team after losing the series on Sunday. They weren’t cold. This is who they are. I’m sure they will beat up on the Orioles over the next three days (at least they better) because that’s what they do. Beat up on the league’s worst for six months (Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, Texas), struggle with the few good teams the play (Toronto, Tampa Bay, Houston, Oakland, White Sox) and then get to the playoffs and fold against elite pitching. I thought bringing the same team back in 2021 was a mistake. Cashman gave up on Sonny Gray after 2019, saying, “I don’t feel like we can go through the same exercise and expect different results,” and yet, the Yankees are going through the same exercise in 2021 as they did in 2020, and most of the team was here in 2019 and 2018 as well. So far, the results haven’t been different.

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There will be Yankees baseball this week. It might be on Friday instead of Thursday because of the weather, but there will be Yankees baseball this week.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The rotation is set. It’s poorly set, but it’s set. It will be Gerrit Cole, followed by Corey Kluber and Domingo German. Not only did the Yankees keep scumbag German through his actions, his suspension and the public backlash and criticism, but he’s now the No. 3 starter to open the season rather than the expected No. 5 starter! Yankees baseball!

The Yankees claim they want to bring Jameson Taillon along slowly, which makes no sense, considering he has barely pitched in two years and will be pitching on April 7 rather than April 4. A whole three-day difference! The Yankees are so ridiculous, it’s sickening. They truly believe they can prevent injuries, yet they set the all-time single-season record for players placed on the injured list in 2019 and followed that up with an injury-filled 2020 and have followed that up by losing Zack Britton, Justin Wilson and Luke Voit for the start of 2021.

2. The Yankees’ six-game rotation to open the season is:

Thursday, Apr. 1 vs. Toronto: Gerrit Cole
Saturday, Apr. 3 vs. Toronto : Corey Kluber
Sunday, Apr. 4 vs. Toronto: Domingo German
Monday, Apr. 5 vs. Baltimore: Jordan Montgomery
Tuesday, Apr. 6 vs. Baltimore: Gerrit Cole
Wednesday, Apr. 7 vs. Baltimore: Jameson Taillon

Every game against the Blue Jays and Rays is a big deal. They are the Yankees’ divisional competition. Games against them will be the difference between playing in a one-game playoff or not. Whether it’s April 4 or September 4, or Game 3 or Game 130 they should be treated the same. Unfortunately, that viewpoint isn’t shared by the team I root for.

3. “With Jamo, we feel like he’s in such a good spot physically,” Aaron Boone said. “We just want to be mindful of building these guys up properly.”

Boone rarely makes sense, and that answers as to why Taillon is pitching in the sixth game of the season makes no sense at all.

“I’m totally on board with it,” Taillon said. “We’ve discussed not putting a hard innings limit on me.”

Of course Taillon says he’s on board with it. What else is he going to say? “I completely disagree with the idiotic strategy my new team is implementing.” That’s what he should have said, but I don’t expect Taillon to go full J.A. Happ on us before he has even pitched a real game for his new team.

4. If Taillon doesn’t think there’s a hard innings limit on him, he must not be the brightest bulb. The Yankees have the hardest of innings limits on him, whether or not they have told him or will ever tell him. I mean they’re holding him back three days because they think that will make a difference in protecting a two-time Tommy John recipient. The only thing that can protect Taillon’s right elbow is to never throw a baseball. Like any pitcher, Taillon can get hurt any time he throws a baseball overhand. The strategy should be to get as much out of him as you can before he potentially breaks down again. Not try to pitch him the least amount possible.

5. Deivi Garcia lost the competition to be the fifth starter, though it was only a competition in name since he was never going to win it, no matter how well he pitched in spring training.

“We continue to be really excited about Deivi and the strides that he’s continued to make in his craft,” Boone said. “The message to him that I tried to convey was, ‘Stay ready, we’re going to need you. You’re going to be a big part of this. Make sure you’re handling your business down there as far as putting yourself in line to be the guy we go to.”

Boone is so excited about Garcia that he only wanted him to pitch the first inning of Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS before going to Happ to ruin the season. What Boone should have said was:

“The message to him that I tried to convey was, ‘Listen, it’s nothing you did, we kept German despite being a scumbag, so we have to have him on the major league roster or it will look even worse that we kept someone who did what German did.”

6. After losing Britton and Wilson, spring training wouldn’t have been complete without the Yankees losing an expected everyday starter before Opening Day. Voit will begin the season on the injured list after tearing the meniscus in his left knee and needing surgery. As of Saturday, Voit was expected to perform no baseball activities for three weeks and then rejoin the Yankees in May. That seems like a very generous timeline given the Yankees’ handling of injuries since the start of 2019.

Voit has been a sneaky injured player as a Yankee. All the attention (and rightfully so) goes to the injuries suffered by Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks, but Voit has also had his issues. In 2019, he got hurt unnecessarily going for two in London against the Red Sox and was hitting .280/.393/.509 at the time. He missed two weeks, came back for two-and-a-half weeks and then missed a month. For the last month of 2019, he hit .200/.319/.338 and was left off the postseason roster. Now he’s going to miss at least one month of this season and most likely closer to two (or even more) months.

7. The Voit injury opened the door for Jay Bruce to make the team and play first base every day. Bruce will now have at least a month of real games to prove he isn’t finished as a major leaguer. He will give the Yankees some lineup balance as a left-handed hitter and maybe the magic of putting on the pinstripes will do for Bruce what it has done for so many other former star players trying to save their career. I want Bruce and Dietrich on the team over Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen if Voit didn’t get hurt. There’s still a chance Wade won’t make the Opening Day roster though I think that chance is small. Like as small as Boone not batting Hicks third in the lineup.

8. With Voit out and Bruce in, this is the lineup I would use:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Gleyber Torres, SS
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Clint Frazier, LF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gary Sanchez, C
Jay Bruce, 1B
Gio Urshela, 3B

This is the lineup Boone will use:

DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Jay Bruce, 1B
Gleyber Torres, SS
Clint Frazier, LF
Gary Sanchez, C
Gio Urshela, 3B

9. Unfortunately, Hicks is going to bat third. Boone already said that weeks ago. The Yankees think Hicks is Bernie Williams, so he’s going to continue to be treated like he’s Number 51, and not a guy with a .734 career OPS. And it would be very Boone to bat Bruce ahead of Torres, Frazier and Sanchez. For Bruce to go from not making the team before Voit’s injury to batting ahead of those three is exactly the kind of decision Boone makes. We’re talking about the same manager who would use Miguel Andujar to pinch hit in the ninth inning of a game with the game on the line in 2020 and then send him down after the game, and the same manager who used Mike Ford as a pinch hitter in a postseason elimination game instead of Frazier or Sanchez. The same Ford who wasn’t good enough to be on the major league roster in September.

10. This is it. The last Yankees Thoughts of spring training. The next Yankees Thoughts will be a week from today after the Yankees have played their first three games and first series of 2021. The weather doesn’t look promising for Thursday, but if there’s Yankees baseball on Thursday, it will be 174 days since their 2020 season-ending loss to the Rays in Game 5 of the ALDS. I’m ready for what should be a seventh-month grind to begin. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each of the Yankees’ 52 regular-season series in 2021 and after each postseason game.

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Two weeks. That’s it. Two weeks until Opening Day.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. We are past the point of spring training baseball being exciting because it’s baseball. It’s time for the regular season to start. Two more weeks of games for the Yankees to potentially suffer more injuries isn’t ideal. I would be astonished if the Yankees went the rest of March without an injury. That’s just what I have come to expect for the third straight season marred by injuries.

2. There were three “competitions” coming into spring training. They were the fifth spot in the rotation, the last bench spot and the last bullpen spot. The Yankees have wanted Domingo German to win the fifth spot in the rotation, they have wanted Mike Tauchman to be the last man on the bench and they have wanted to give the last bullpen spot to either Michael King or Nick Nelson. With two weeks to go, there’s now some good clarity on the three roster battles.

3. The Yankees have gotten what they wanted entering spring training and that’s scumbag German pitching well, so they have a built-in excuse for sending Deivi Garcia down to begin the season. The Yankees were always going to put German in the rotation to start the season. They didn’t keep him around after his actions and they didn’t sit through his suspension and deal with the public criticism and backlash to not pitch him at the major league level. He has pitched very well in spring training, but I don’t know how anyone could be rooting for him to succeed. I want him to fail and fail miserably. I want him to give up six earned runs in the first inning of his starts and have the offense overcome it, so the team doesn’t lose. I don’t how anyone could think differently.

4. There might not only be one bench spot now. The Yankees played Gio Urshela at shortstop this week, and that means maybe they are thinking of not carrying Tyler Wade on the Opening Day roster. I’m all for this. Once upon a time I was a big Wade believer (2017-18) because the Yankees made him out to be their version of Ben Zobrist. The only difference being that Zobrist actually hit major league pitching. A great glove can only go so far, and when you have a career .575 OPS, that glove better be the best glove in the history of gloves. There has always been the idea Wade would hit with consistent playing time, but in his limited playing time, he hasn’t done nearly enough (since he hasn’t really done anything) to earn extended playing time. He’s been as close to an automatic out in the lineup as one can be in the majors and continue to be in the majors. He’s basically been the Yankees’ version of not having enough players for a co-ed softball game in Central Park in which the last spot in the order is then an automatic out.

5. The Yankees’ willingness to play Urshela at short is very bad news for Wade. The one thing Wade had going for him was that he was the team’s only option to play shortstop in the event of a Gleyber Torres day off or Torres injury (knocking on wood). If Urshela can play short than Wade has no business being on the team. No business at all. Give that roster spot to someone who can actually do something other than roll over a ground ball to the right side.

6. All along it’s been sort of a given that Wade would be on the bench with Kyle Higashioka and Brett Gardner. If the Yankees are seriously considering not carrying Wade, that means there are two bench spots available. To me, Mike Tauchman shouldn’t be one of those spots. He’s not good enough (he’s not good at all, outside of a six-week run in his entire career), and he’s a left-handed hitter who plays good defense. That sounds like Gardner (minus the ability to get the occasional big hit). Why have two Gardners on the team? It wouldn’t make sense to. Miguel Andujar is injured, so he’s out. Thairo Estrada could be a possibility, but he hasn’t done anything this spring to stand out. That leaves Derek Dietrich and Jay Bruce, and I think the Yankees are thinking about keeping them both.

7. Dietrich can play the outfield and the infield, while Bruce can play the outfield and first base. LeMahieu can play first, second and third. Torres can play short and second. Urshela can play third, second and short. Dietrich can play first, second, third and the corner outfields. Bruce can play the corner outfields and first. The Yankees are more than covered in the event of an emergency or injury. Dietrich and Bruce give the team legitimate major league bats when regulars get days off, and Aaron Boone will probably start giving days off in the third game of the season. (That wasn’t a joke. The third game will be the team’s first back-to-back and the second game of five game in five days.) No one wants to see Wade playing whenever Torres or LeMahieu need days off.

8. The Zack Britton injury opened an additional bullpen spot. The Yankees are going to have 13 position players and 13 pitchers. Five spots go to the rotation, leaving eight relievers. Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson are obvious, leaving four spots. Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa will get two of those spots, leaving two more. The final two spots come down to Michael King, Nick Nelson, Albert Abreu and Lucas Luetge. Whether or not Abreu has an option remaining will determine his roster fate. If he does, he goes to the alternate site for Opening Day. If he doesn’t, I think he makes the team. The Yankees paid Brian McCann $5.5 million to play for the Astros and beat them in Game 6 of the 2017 ALCS, and received Abreu in return. It would be nice if Abreu amounted to something.

9. I don’t want King on the Opening Day. He was awful last season in every role he appeared in and he should have to earn his way up in 2021. Nelson was also bad in 2020, outside of his first career appearance, but I liked him and his stuff much more than King. I want Luetge on the team. A 33-year-old, left-handed journeyman who last appeared in the majors in 2015 (he pitched in one game that season for Oakland) and who has struck out 13 in 6 1/3 scoreless innings this spring? Give me that guy.

10. This is the 26-man roster I would go into Opening Day with:

Gary Sanchez
Luke Voit
DJ LeMahieu
Gio Urshela
Gleyber Torres
Clint Frazier
Aaron Hicks
Aaron Judge
Giancarlo Stanton
Kyle Higashioka
Brett Gardner
Jay Bruce
Derek Dietrich
Gerrit Cole
Corey Kluber
Jameson Taillon
Jordan Montgomery
Deivi Garcia
Aroldis Chapman
Chad Green
Darren O’Day
Justin Wilson
Jonathan Loaisiga
Luis Cessa
Lucas Luetge
Nick Nelson

That’s the roster I would go with. In reality, you can remove Garcia for German, and if Abreu doesn’t have an option remaining, you can probably remove Nelson or Luetge for him. It still seems like the Yankees will take Wade and Tauchman over Dietrich and Bruce, and I won’t believe they aren’t going to until they don’t, but it would be a mistake to pick the two clearly lesser talented players.

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A week ago, I wrote about the Yankees needing to stay healthy for four more weeks until Opening Day. So much for that.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The biggest news to date in spring training isn’t good news, and that’s the elbow injury to Zack Britton, which requires surgery. Britton is the Yankees’ best reliever, and removing him from the bullpen weakens the Yankees’ biggest strength over the entire majors.

2. There was no way Britton reporting elbow soreness to the team was going to result in him getting an MRI and then picking up where he left off a few days later. An MRI on a 33-year-old who has thrown as hard as he has for as long as he has was always going to find something, and for Britton, who knew something was off enough to report it because he didn’t feel right, the MRI wasn’t going to come back clean. Even if the MRI showed nothing (which it was never going to), the Yankees were going to proceed with caution and shut down Britton for some amount of time anyway.

3. Without Britton, Chad Green becomes more important. As do both Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson. Everyone becomes more important, and that includes Jonathan Loaisiga and Luis Cessa, and even Nick Nelson and Michael King, and any other reliever Aaron Boone will inexplicably pitch in situations they don’t belong in.

4. The Yankees turned Adam Ottavino into O’Day and Wilson this offseason, but they should have kept Ottavino and signed O’Day and Wilson. The reason they didn’t is because of the imaginary salary cap and Hal Steinbrenner’s fear of paying a luxury tax. So Steinbrenner decided he would rather pay Ottavino to pitch for the Red Sox and potentially beat his team than pay a luxury tax to put together the best possible roster and try to win a championship for the first time in 12 years.

5. The Britton injury isn’t debilitating the way other injuries might be (and no, I’m not going to name them for fear of them happening), but it’s still not good. It could be the difference between being a one-game playoff team or having home-field advantage throughout the postseason. I would rather have Britton pitching in an important spot than any other Yankees reliever, and now for at least a few months he won’t be an option.

6. If Britton misses the first month of the season, that’s six games against Toronto and six games against Tampa Bay he won’t be available for. Immensely important games against the Yankees’ two division threats. Not to mention a pair of games against the Braves. If Britton misses two months, he’ll miss those games in addition to three games against the Astros, another four games against Tampa Bay, three games against the White Sox and another three games against Toronto. If he comes back at the end of June, he’ll miss another three games against Tampa Bay and another three games against Toronto. If he returns after the All-Star break, add in another three games against the Astros.

7. Enough is enough with the injuries. Enough was enough in 2019. In 2020, they lost Luis Severino in the first iteration of spring training and James Paxton had to undergo back surgery before spring training. Had the 2020 season started on time, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks would have missed roughly half the season because of injuries. Then once the season did start, not even a two-month, 60-game season was short enough for the Yankees to avoid injuries as they lost their starting catcher, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, right fielder, designated hitter, No. 2 starter, No. 3 starter and best reliever to the injured list at various points.

8. From the start of the 2019 season through the end of the 2020 season, here are the Yankees that have been placed on the injured list (not including anyone placed on the IL for COVID-19):

Jordan Montgomery (recovering from Tommy John surgery)
Didi Gregorius (recovering from Tommy John surgery)
Aaron Hicks (left lower back strain)
Luis Severino (right shoulder inflammation and Grade 2 lat strain)
Dellin Betances (right shoulder impingement)
Ben Heller (recovering from Tommy John surgery)
Miguel Andujar (right shoulder strain)
Giancarlo Stanton (left biceps strain)
CC Sabathia (rehab from cardiac surgery)
Troy Tulowitzki (left calf strain)
Greg Bird (left plantar fascia tear)
Aaron Judge (left oblique strain)
Clint Frazier (left ankle sprain)
James Paxton (left knee inflammation)
Jake Barrett (right elbow inflammation)
Domingo German (left hip flexor strain)
Kendrys Morales (left calf strain)
Cameron Maybin (left calf strain)
Giancarlo Stanton (right knee sprain)
Luke Voit (abdominal strain)
Gary Sanchez (left groin strain)
Brett Gardner (left knee inflammation)
Luke Voit (sports hernia)
David Hale (lumbar spine strain)
Edwin Encarnacion (right wrist fracture)
Aaron Hicks (right flexor strain)
Jonathan Holder (right shoulder inflammation)
Stephen Tarpley (left elbow impingement
Thairo Estrada (right hamstring strain)
Gio Urshela (left groin injury)
CC Sabathia (right knee inflammation)
Mike Tauchman (left calf strain)
Dellin Betances (partial tear of Achilles tendon)
Luis Severino (Tommy John surgery)
Masahiro Tanaka (concussion)
Tommy Kahnle (right UCL injury)
Kyle Higashioka (right oblique strain)
Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring strain)
Aaron Judge (right calf strain)
DJ LeMahieu (left thumb sprain)
Zack Britton (left hamstring strain)
James Paxton (left flexor strain)
Gleyber Torres (left hamstring strain)
Aaron Judge (right calf strain)
Gio Urshela (right elbow bone spur)
Ben Heller (right biceps nerve)

9. Are the Baseball Gods done evening things out from the Yankees’ 1996-2000 championship years? Four championships in five seasons and a fifth World Series appearance in 2001 was always going to have to be evened out, but hasn’t it by now? The 2002 ALDS loss to the Angels. Losing the final three games of the 2003 World Series. Blowing a 3-0 series lead in the 2004 ALCS. Gary Sheffield and Bubba Crosby crashing into each in Game 5 of the 2005 ALDS. The rainout in the 2006 ALDS. Chien-Ming Wang completely losing it in the 2007 ALDS. The 2008 injury bug. Losing four of the last five games of the 2010 ALCS. Stranding 11 baserunners in Game 5 of the 2011 ALDS. The 2012 ALCS sweep to the Tigers. The 2013 roster. The 2014 roster. Having to face Dallas Keuchel in the 2015 wild-card game. The 2016 disaster. Losing both chances to advance to the World Series in 2017. Getting embarrassed in the 2018 ALDS. Setting the all-time, single-season record for most players placed on the injured list in and losing four of the last five in the 2019 ALCS. The continuation of the injuries from the season before and Aaron Boone’s legendary pitching strategy in the 2020 ALDS. As Yankees fans, we get it, Baseball Gods. We get it. We were very fortunate for the run 1996-2000 run, and even the 1995-2012 run and then the 2017-present run, but it’s time to move on.

10. Three weeks from today is Opening Day. Three weeks. I’m excited about how close that is, but also petrified of how far away it is. That means three weeks of spring training games, batting practices, simulated games and bullpen sessions for more injuries to occur. The Yankees have already lost their top pitching prospect and top reliever in the first half of spring training, and there’s another half to go. Can the Yankees please get to Opening Day without anymore injuries? I know it’s a lot to ask, especially these last few seasons, but maybe it’s time the going-on-three-seasons injury bug moved on from the Yankees.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episodes every Monday and Thursday during the offseason.

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