1. It’s beginning to look a lot like last season, everywhere you go …
The Yankees can’t beat good teams, they can’t win one-run games, they can’t win road extra-inning games, they have a top-heavy lineup (because of course they do since they ran it back with the same lineup from last year), an untrustworthy bullpen and now their Opening Day starter could be lost for the season and more. I have written many times that the 2026 season is just a continuation of 2025 and it’s never been more true.
2. The title of this blog was going to be ‘Max Fried Is a Mess’ as the lefty struggled through yet another start pitching out of the stretch, but then Matt Blake got on the phone in the dugout after the third inning and you knew nothing was going to come from that. It was announced during the game that Fried exited with left elbow posterior discomfort, which will require imaging on Thursday. Sometime around 4 p.m. on Friday, it could be announced that Fried needs surgery.
3. The good news is we now know why Fried hasn’t looked like himself the last two starts and really for most of this season. (It was never the windup vs. the stretch.) The bad news is there’s a very good chance Fried is gone for this season and most of next season (if there is a next season). As I wrote after Tuesday’s game, the supposed rotation crunch would have a way of working itself out.
As Joe Torre would say, “These things take care of themselves,” and it’s possible that between now and Cole returning that someone else in the rotation goes down (knock on all the wood that that doesn’t happen).
I guess I didn’t knock on enough wood.
4. Wednesday’s 7-0 loss in Baltimore was as predictable as a getaway-day game at the end of a six-game road trip leading into a scheduled day off. Fried had nothing before exiting after three innings and the offense was lifeless. Most teams light up a starting pitcher they are seeing for the second time in 11 days, especially when they lit him up the first time. Not the Yankees. They allowed Kyle Bradish to throw six one-hit innings against them. The Yankees went 1-for-26 in the game with five walks and seven strikeouts. A truly pathetic effort.
5. Pathetic, but not unexpected. Six of the nine Yankees in the lineup on Wednesday boasted an OPS under .700. The three who didn’t were Ben Rice, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger and they combined to go 0-for-11 with a walk and three strikeouts. Because those three are the offense, when they don’t do anything, the Yankees don’t have a chance. They didn’t do anything on Wednesday and the Yankees didn’t have a chance.
6. Trent Grisham was back in the leadoff spot on Wednesday because why wouldn’t he be? Jazz Chisholm had the Yankees’ only hit in the game. Chisholm briefly went below a .200 average, but the fifth-inning double got him back above the Mendoza Line. Chisholm is 46 home runs and 39 stolen bases away from his 50/50 season. Remember the five minutes when it looked like Ryan McMahon may be coming out of his early-season slump? He went 1-for-18 with seven strikeouts on the six-game road trip. Spencer Jones had three plate appearances, walked twice and didn’t strike out. Progress? J.C. Escarra put up the latest 0-for day at catcher for the Yankees. I don’t know how the team thinks it can win a championship with the worst hitting catcher tandem in the majors.
7. And then there’s Anthony Volpe. Wednesday represented Anthony Volpe’s undeserved return to the lineup, and he responded by going 0-for-3 with a shallow flyout, a strikeout and a pop-up. The strikeout was magnificent. The Yankees trailed 3-0 and Volpe came up with two on and two out. Bradish threw him seven pitches and six of them were outside the zone, and inevitably, Volpe struck out swinging. The one pitch Bradish threw in the zone, Volpe took.
If only an 0-for-3 day at the plate was the worst part of Volpe’s 2026 debut. For the cherry on top, Volpe made an error at short in the eighth inning, booting a routine ground ball. Jose Caballero hadn’t made an error at shortstop since April 13 and then Volpe and Max Schuemann made errors at the position in back-to-back games.
Offensively, Volpe looked like a player who had a .565 OPS in Triple-A. Defensively, he looked like the same player with poor footwork and without the arm strength to make up for his fielding technique. He continues to not be a major-league shortstop (and likely not a major-league anything). At least Yankees fans don’t have to worry about Caballero losing his job because of this injury.
8. The only good to come from the loss was that the bullpen got a break as Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough ate the final six innings. All middle relievers got Wednesday off and will get Thursday off. That sets the Yankees up nicely for the weekend at Citi Field. With two days off and Cam Schlittler going on Friday, there is plenty of rest to be had for Brent Headrick, Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill and David Bednar.
9. I wish I felt better about this 27-17 team, but with Giancarlo Stanton not yet running, Caballero on the IL with a broken finger and Fried now headed for tests on his elbow, things are much different than they were when they left New York last Thursday. Six days ago, they were 14 games over .500, Volpe was in Triple-A, Fried was working on his command, Jasson Dominguez was getting a chance to bat cleanup and play left field and they were getting Carlos Rodon back. Then Dominguez sprained his shoulder, they got swept by the Brewers, Rodon got rocked in his return, Caballero broke his finger leading to the undeserved call-up for Volpe and Fried is injured. They have lost four games in the loss column to the Rays in the last six games.
10. There’s no better landing place for a team mired in a 1-5 run with a litany of injuries than the Mets. However, I’m now petrified that this banged-up, slumping, shitty version of the Yankees could get humiliated in Queens this weekend and jumpstart the Mets’ season. That can’t happen. I mean it totally could with the way the Yankees have played over the last six days, but it can’t in the sense that it would be demoralizing. I thought I would be able to spend Thursday’s day off relaxing with a night off from watching Grisham, Chisholm, McMahon, Volpe, Wells and Escarra play baseball, but I guess I will just spend it being worried about the possibility of losing to the Mets instead.
Last modified: May 13, 2026
