1. The lack of Thoughts over the last two weeks has been due to moving. You forget how much moving sucks until you do it, and when you have three kids, moving is about as fun as watching Camilo Doval pitch in a high-leverage situation or watching Jazz Chisholm bat with runners in scoring position.
Since the last Thoughts, the Yankees swept the Guardians (very good), took two of three from the Blue Jays in Toronto (great), took two of three from the White Sox (good) and then lost two of three to the Reds (not good). The Yankees are now 10-7 since Aaron Judge went on the injured list, which is much better than I expected, and they hold a one-game lead in the loss column over the Rays in the division.
2. The last four days, during which the Yankees went 1-3 against the White Sox and Reds and scored nine runs total, have made some Yankees fans feel like the inevitable June Swoon under Aaron Boone has arrived. I don’t think that’s the case. Am I scared of the Swoon coming at some point? Of course I am. How could you not be? But do I think these past four games are an indication of it? No, not yet. The Yankees still had a .500 homestand (3-3) and a winning road trip (5-1) before that. But if this is the Swoon, we will soon find out.
3. These are the probable starting pitchers over the next 10 days until the Yankees’ next scheduled day off:
Monday: Framber Valdez
Tuesday: Casey Mize
Wednesday: Tarik Skubal
Thursday: Connelly Early
Friday: Payton Tolle
Saturday: Jake Bennett
Sunday: Sonny Gray
Monday: Tarik Skubal
Tuesday: Troy Melton (opener)
Wednesday: Keider Montero
Bennett has 20 2/3 career innings to his name, Melton is an opener and Montero is inconsistent, but the others? Not great. If the Yankees are going to avoid the June Swoon, they are going to have to do more offensively than they did over the last four days, especially with the Rays playing seven games against the Royals during these 10 days.
4. Austin Wells returned to the lineup on Sunday, immediately committed catcher’s interference in the first inning and went 0-for-2 at the plate before being lifted for a pinch hitter. The Yankees and YES continue to talk about how good Wells is defensively and at handling the pitching staff, which is a nice way to say a player is a zero at the plate. Michael Kay mentioned on Sunday how good Wells would be as a player if he could just be league average offensively. League average? He’s currently 52 percent worse than league average. Sign me up for Wells being 20 percent worse than league average at this point. Wells hasn’t been league average from an OPS+ standpoint in two years.
5. Anthony Volpe started the month 4-for-30 with a .379 OPS against the Guardians, Red Sox and Blue Jays. Then the White Sox and Reds came to the Bronx and he went off, going 8-for-18 with a 1.176 OPS. Don’t let these last two series fool you into believing Volpe figured it out. The Yankees saw some atrocious pitching at home this past week and they won’t see any of that for the next three series. As I have written numerous times, it’s going to take Volpe performing at or above league average for the entire season for me to even consider believing he has figured it out.
6. Wells talked about how good Elmer Rodriguez looked on Sunday, aside from one pitch, and Rodriguez said the same about his performance. Except you can’t be good when you last four innings and allow three earned runs, even if they all came on one pitch. That’s rarely going to be good enough to win and when Chase Burns is the opposing starter it’s never going to be good enough.
7. Where would the Yankees be without Judge if Ben Rice weren’t doing what he’s doing? Rice and Yordan Alvarez are the only two players in the majors with an OPS of at least 1.000. The AL MVP is Alvarez’s to lose with Judge out for an extended period, but Rice is right there.
8. I guess where would they also be without Paul Goldschmidt. Since the last Thoughts two weeks ago, Goldschmidt has hit .327/.346/.633 with five home runs and 13 RBIs in 12 games. It’s been an absurd season for Goldschmidt who looked as washed as washed gets from the start of May last season through the end of last season.
9. Jasson Dominguez is hitting .286/.310/.500 with four extra-base hits in seven games since returning from the injured list. A few too many strikeouts, but he will clean that up, considering he’s only had 62 plate appearances this season. Take your time healing, Trent Grisham. I’m in no hurry to watch Grisham play every day again.
10. The Yankees are in Detroit for the next three days, and again, they will see Framber Valdez, Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal: the worst three Tigers starters you could possibly draw. The Tigers are a mess at 33-44, but those three starters aren’t. This series will be an important test for the Judge-less Yankees offense, considering the only elite-level starter they have seen since Judge went out was Burns and he dominated them outside of a Rice solo home run.
Last modified: Jul 10, 2026
