Aaron Boone says his lineups will be different in 2021, but it’s hard to believe what the manager says at this point.
The Yankees have spent the first week of spring training talking about how much starting pitching depth the team has, even though one of their starting pitching options is now shut down for the next three to four weeks. Aaron Boone keeps talking about how Gary Sanchez will catch Gerrit Cole and that Clint Frazier will be the everyday left fielder over Brett Gardner, but it’s hard to know what to believe from the Yankees manager.
Frank Marco of Bronx Pinstripes joined me to talk about the first week of spring training, the lineup questions and injury concerns this season and what Yankees fans’ confidence level should be right now.
It’s been an eventful first week of spring training for the Yankees. A little more eventful than any Yankees fan should want. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
It’s been an eventful first week of spring training for the Yankees. A little more eventful than any Yankees fan should want.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.
1. It took six days for the Yankees to have their first injury of 2021. Six days. Even for the Yankees that’s ridiculous. Clarke Schmidt was shut down on Monday for the next three to four weeks with a tendon strain in his elbow. The same Schmidt who has previously undergone Tommy John surgery and has had elbow issues since that surgery. When asked how it happened, Schmidt said he was overthrowing in his bullpen session trying to make an impression on the coaching staff to earn a roster spot, likely the fifth spot in the rotation. So that awesome starting pitching depth Aaron Boone mentioned at his spring training-opening press conference and that others like Luis Severino and Aaron Judge have also cited this spring, well, it’s already down one arm.
2. Schmidt was likely seventh on the Yankees’ Opening Day starting pitching depth chart (and eighth if Severino were healthy), so it doesn’t impact the Yankees’ early-season plans … yet. They still have more than five weeks of bullpen sessions, pitcher’s fielding practice and exhibition games to get through unscathed without any of their other starters getting hurt, and that includes Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon who have barely pitched over the last two years because of their own injuries and surgeries. Right now, the Schmidt injury doesn’t hurt the Yankees overall, but that doesn’t mean it won’t before he’s able to return.
3. Judge spoke for the first time in 2021 and gave his annual “I hate to lose” quotes, and vowed to stay healthy this season. He was asked about Fernando Tatis’ 14-year, $340 million and if he had talked with the Yankees in the offseason about a potential long-term deal himself. He said no. Thankfully. It’s not that I don’t want Judge to be a Yankee for a long time, it’s that I need to see him prove he should be a Yankee for a long time. We all know his ability as one of the game’s top players when he plays, but over the last three seasons he hasn’t played much, missing about one-third of all regular-season games since the start of 2019. Judge discussed his offseason workout changes led by Eric Cressey, and maybe that’s what will finally keep Judge on the field for his first full season since 2017. If it’s not, I don’t know what will at this point.
4. On Wednesday, Boone said this about Giancarlo Stanton playing the outfield in 2021:
“I don’t want to be completely resigned to him just being a full-time DH. I think the more he can continue to stay athletic and be an option on defense, I don’t think it’s out of the question. Ultimately, it might be something that actually does help him stay more healthy.”
This is what Brian Cashman said at his end-of-the-season press conference after the Yankees lost to the Rays in October.
“Given the injuries that we’ve experienced with him thus far, I think a safe bet would be to focus with him at the DH level.”
Boone can say whatever he wants (which he does), whether it has any real traction is another thing. I would say the only way Stanton plays the outfield in 2021 is an emergency situation.
5. Brett Gardner is officially back, and that’s bad news for Clint Frazier. Boone has said a few times over this past week that Frazier is the team’s starting left fielder, and maybe he will be on Opening Day, but don’t think for a second Boone won’t inexplicably play Gardner over him. He did so in the team’s most recent games in October when he started Gardner over Frazier in left field in five of the seven playoff games. Hearing Boone say, “I expect Clint to be our left fielder and to be in that starting lineup,” holds no weight after Boone chose Gardner over Frazier and his .905 OPS in the postseason. Boone chose Mike Ford over Frazier as a pinch-hit option with the season on the line! So yeah, I will believe Frazier is the “everyday” left fielder when it happens every day.
6. The Yankees made the Justin Wilson signing official, reuniting the left-hander with the team that traded hi mto Detroit for Chad Green and Luis Cessa. To open a space for Wilson on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designated Greg Allen for assignment, who they had traded for earlier in the offseason. So for now, Mike Tauchman if the next in line to playing time after Gardner.
7. With Wilson back on the team, the Opening Day bullpen pecking order (if all are healthy) seems like it will be:
Aroldis Chapman Zack Britton Chad Green Darren O’Day Justin Wilson Jonathan Loaisiga Luis Cessa Nick Nelson/Michael King
8. That’s eight relievers. Boone says the Yankees would like to have 13 position players and 13 pitchers on their 26-man roster. Both Nelson and King or another reliever could be on the Opening Day roster and the Yankees could open the season with four starters because of the early-season off days, and call up a fifth starter once they need one. Let’s hope Nelson or King or another reliever in that spot or as the ninth bullpen option only sees a regular-season mound because the Yankees are winning by double digits.
9. I have a feeling the fifth starter spot is going to go to scumbag Domingo German rather than Deivi Garcia. I don’t think the Yankees have kept German all this time through his disturbing actions to not have him pitch for them. It’s a shame and it’s disappointing as a fan of the team that eight percent of the 26-man roster has been suspended for despicable behavior, and 15 percent of the pitching staff. The handling of the whole situation by the Yankees has been an embarrassment. Not as embarrassing as continuing to roster a scumbag like him, but pretty close. The same way Chapman should have never been a Yankee, German shouldn’t be one now.
10. The Yankees will play their first spring training game on Monday. I normally don’t care for any spring training game aside from the first inning of the first one, but I think this March will be different. After the winter weather in New York City for the last month and having only had 67 Yankees games in 2020 and having had no baseball or sports or live entertainment for more than four months nearly a year ago at this time, I welcome meaningless spring training games in 2021.
The Yankees don’t just need Luis Severino back with all of their starting pitching injury questions and concerns, they need Severino back in the way he talks about coming back: as the pitcher he was in the past.
A year ago this week, I was sick over the Yankees’ announcement that Luis Severino would need Tommy John surgery. The surgery meant the Yankees would be without him until sometime during the 2021 season, and now we’re almost at that sometime as Severino is expected to return in the coming months.
The next time Severino pitches in a game for the Yankees, it will be just the sixth time he has done so in more than two years. Since his 2018 ALDS Game 3 start, Severino has made just five starts, sandwiched between a shoulder injury and a lat injury for most of 2019 and his most recent elbow injury (suffered in 2019), which turned into needing Tommy John surgery (in 2020).
Severino is working his way back for a midseason return and is currently playing catch at 90 feet with that distance set to increase to 120 feet this week. From there, he will need to move to a mound and increase his velocity and arm strength, which will take a few months. A realistic return for him would be around the All-Star break in mid-July, but trying to put a return date on a Yankees injury is a foolish game to play, given the way the last two seasons have gone.
Severino spoke on Monday about where’s he at in his rehab and his eventual return to the Yankees.
On his rehab status. “Mentally and physically, I feel good. I hope to be back sooner [than summer], but that’s not something that I have an exact date. The most important thing is that I feel really good, and I’m just taking it day by day. We’re close to throwing bullpens, so well see how I feel and how the progress is going.”
On March 5, 2019, Severino was scratched from his first spring training start after saying he experienced a “pull” in his right arm. The following day, he was diagnosed with rotator cuff inflammation and was shut down for two weeks. The right-hander told the media it’s “nothing bad” and that he would be able to begin a throwing program after a two-week shutdown. A little over a month later in early April, he suffered a lat injury, and while rehabbing the lat injury in June, he suffered a setback.
What does that have to do with his current rehab? A lot, actually. Less than two years ago, Severino had an injury at virtually the same time on the calendar that he does right now, and that injury turned into a second injury, which turned into a setback, and he didn’t pitch in a game until September. Knowing Severino’s rather significant recent injury history, he needs to be brought along extra slowly this time. Forget his idea of “hoping to be back sooner than the summer.” Plan to bring him back after the All-Star break because even then, things might not go perfectly.
On the depth of the Yankees’ rotation. “Our rotation is going to be great, man. We’re going to have six, seven, eight guys that would be good pitchers on any team. I hope nothing happens to one of those guys, but if somebody goes down, we’ve got somebody else there.“
Severino spoke too soon, as Clarke Schmidt was shut down for the next three to four weeks following a tendon strain on Monday. It only took six days for the 2021 Yankees to suffer an injury, and it happend to their top pitching prospect, who has an elbow injury-riddled past.
As for the six, seven, eights guys, I’m guessing Severino is talking about himself (when healthy), Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon, Jordan Montgomery, Deivi Garcia and Schmidt. That’s seven. I’m not counting the scumbag, who’s inexplicably still on the team despite his own teammates openly questioning his place on the roster, or Jhoulys Chacin, who Aaron Boone continues to mention at every available opportunity. (This is all Boone setting up to giving Yankees fans a steady diet of Chacin this season in some role.)
I named seven starters. Severino isn’t still close to returning, so that means six. Schmidt is now down for the next month, so that leaves five. Five starters. The “depth” of the Yankees’ rotation is greatly exaggerated.
On how confident he is he’ll be his old self. “I’m sure that I’ll be back to what I was in the past. I feel pretty strong. When I get the chance to be back in New York, I’ll be myself again.“
The Yankees don’t just need Severino back with all of their starting pitching injury questions and concerns, they need Severino back in the way he talks about coming back: as the pitcher he was in the past.
If Severino is his old self in 2021, the Yankees have the best 1-2 punch in the American League, and arguably in all of baseball, with Cole and Severino. If the Yankees are able to get pre-2019 Kluber production from the new Yankee and keep Taillon healthy then I will be saved a lot of heartache, pain and frustration over the next (hopefully) eight months.
If the Yankees are able to hit on all of those things, it’s going to lead to a lot of wins this season. Unfortunately, they’re still a long way from getting any of it.
Not even a week into the season and the Yankees already have their first injury of 2021.
The Yankees set the all-time single-season record for most players placed on the injured list in 2019. Then in 2020, they lost Luis Severino and Tommy Kahnle to season-ending injuries and lost Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, Zack Britton to injuries throughout the season. Six days into the 2021 season and it looks like nothing has changed.
The good news is the Yankees now have an insurance policy on Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks. The bad news is Aaron Boone won’t hesitate to use Brett Gardner to put a dent into Clint Frazier’s playing time.
For the first time since the end of the 2018 season, I wanted the Yankees to re-sign Brett Gardner. I thought the team should move on from the longest-tenured Yankee in the two offseasons prior to this past one, but because of the inevitable injuries to Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks, the frightening idea of Mike Tauchman or Greg Allen becoming everyday players on the Yankees when the Aarons make their annual trips to the injured list and the Yankees’ self-imposed salary cap, Gardner became a necessity.
The Yankees finally came to terms on a new deal to bring back the last holdover from the other side of River Ave. and the last holdover from the 2009 championship team. The good news is the Yankees have an insurance policy on the Aarons. The bad news is Aaron Boone won’t hesitate to use Gardner to put a dent into Clint Frazier’s playing time and plate appearances.
Last week, on the first day of spring training, Boone was asked if he sees Frazier as the starting left fielder for the Yankees. Here’s what he said:
“I do. Clint has obviously come a long way in every aspect of his game and certainly earned his place last year when obviously nothing was given to him. He had to earn everything really the last couple of years… Last year really proved he was ready to grab an everyday role on this team.”
The last time the Yankees played, Frazier wasn’t the team’s starting left fielder. Despite posting a .905 OPS, single-handedly carrying the offense when Judge and Giancarlo Stanton once again missed extended time and when Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres couldn’t hit, and improving his defense to the point he was named a Gold Glove finalist, Frazier rode the bench for both games against Cleveland and the last three games of the ALDS against Tampa Bay. Of the Yankees seven playoff games, Frazier started two of them as Boone started and played Gardner over him. So Frazier “proved he was ready to grab an everyday role with the team” so well last year that he wasn’t an everyday palyer in the postseason.
The last time the Yankees played Frazier wasn’t the team’s starting left fielder, so how did he suddenly earn the job now? Were there real, meaningful games over the last four months no one is aware of? And what happens when Gardner inevitably re-signs with the Yankees? Does Gardner continue to start in left field forever no matter how badly his skills erode and decline? How can someone go from not being the starting left fielder and not playing in October to earning the job by mid-February?
Boone’s right in that last year Frazier proved he was ready to grab an everyday role on this team. And then in the biggest games of the season, Boone didn’t play him. With the season on the line in Game 5 against the Rays, Boone chose to use Mike Ford to pinch hit for Kyle Higashioka over Frazier. The same Mike Ford who was sent to the alternate site ate the beginning of September for lack of performance. Ford wasn’t good enough to be a Yankee in September, but he was good enough to get pinch hit over Frazier in October.
I don’t believe Frazier will actually be the team’s “everyday” left fielder in 2021. I think he will play at that position more than any other Yankee this season, but not because he’s cemented as the “everyday” player for that position. If the Yankees were completely healthy, I still think Boone inexplicably sits Frazier against right-handed starting pitching and plays Gardner in left field those days. He did it in the 2020 postseason, so why wouldn’t he do it again in the 2021 regular season? Nothing has changed since then.
I wanted the Yankees to bring Gardner back, if he were to be used how he should be used: as the fourth outfielder. If he’s used instead of Frazier, I’ll regret ever wanting him back.
