1. The Yankees had a 1-0 lead with the bases loaded and one out against former Yankee Luis Severino (who they have destroyed twice in two starts since leaving the organization) in the first inning on Wednesday night. It looked like the game could quickly become a laugher. It didn’t. The Yankees scored one more run in the inning and then only produced one more hit for the rest of the game in an eventual 3-2 loss to the Athletics.
2. It was a dismal offensive performance, but nothing uncommon to this team this season. Yes, the Yankees are 8-3 with the best record in the American League and tied for the best record in baseball, but as I have written many times in these Thoughts, when I write about the Yankees, it’s not simply based on the last game or the last week, it’s with the big picture in mind. And right now, the big-picture perspective for this offense is why the ‘Run It Back’ lineup construction kept me up many nights this offseason.
3. It’s not good that Amed Rosario hit as many home runs in three at-bats on Tuesday as Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm, Austin Wells, Ryan McMahon and Jose Caballero have combined for this season. I’m not worried about Bellinger or Stanton finding their power. I’m very worried about Chisholm’s mental state as an impending free agent and a player who says he’s chasing a 50/50 season. I’m very worried about Grisham who was paid $22 million because of one outlier season. I’m worried that the Yankees’ plan to hope Wells (and Anthony Volpe when he returns) could take the next step offensively isn’t working out and that the team’s internal belief they could be the ones to unlock McMahon as a hitter was a foolish task to take on.
4. McMahon isn’t just bad, he’s pretty much the worst hitter in baseball right now. There are 256 players in the majors with at least 30 plate appearances this season and McMahon ranks 255th in batting average, 255th in slugging percentage, 251st in OPS and 250th in strikeout percentage. (Stat provided by Katie Sharp.) McMahon is 2-for-the-season. Two! It’s not much better for the other guys at the bottom of the order either: Chisholm has eight hits, Caballero has six, Wells has five and J.C. Escarra has zero. ZERO! And yet, in the Yankees’ last two losses (on Sunday and Wednesday), Escarra was allowed to hit in the bottom of the ninth in one-run games. But Escarra aside, of all the automatic outs in the Yankees’ lineup, right now McMahon is the most automatic.
“If I knew, I don’t think I’d be in the slow start,” McMahon said after he went 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts on Wednesday. “I’m grinding. I’m not happy about it.”
I’m not mad at McMahon for being unable to hit because that’s who he has always been. He didn’t ask to be traded to the Yankees. He doesn’t put himself in the lineup every day. He has come to the plate 4,042 times in the regular season over his decade-long career and is a .238 hitter, who has been nine percent worse than league average during that time. He’s never been able to hit, so while he’s been worse this season than at any other point in his career, he’s not going to suddenly figure it out and become even an average hitter. At some point he will do better than he is now as the worst hitter in baseball, but his ceiling is that of a below-league-average hitter.
What I am mad about is that he will be given a frustratingly-long leash because he’s a veteran, he’s making $16 million this season and the Yankees are stubborn about personnel choices that make their trade and free-agent choices look bad. Rosario could start hitting like Judge when he plays (the MVP version of Judge, not the version of Judge we have seen this year) and it wouldn’t matter. McMahon is going to play. Even though I thought Boone would bench Rosario after his two-homer game for McMahon on Wednesday, even Boone knew he couldn’t do that. So instead, he benched Caballero and put McMahon right back in there to do nothing.
This isn’t an “It’s early!” or “It’s only been 11 games!” case either. You can use that for explaining why Judge hasn’t looked like himself or why Stanton only has one home run. It’s not a valid reason for McMahon or the rest of the bottom of the order sucking. They have always sucked! This isn’t small-sample-size noise. This is who they are. The Yankees believed they could be better, and they aren’t.
5. The Yankees losing two of their last three and needing late-game rallies to avoid additional losses on Friday and Tuesday isn’t all on the offense. It’s on the starting pitching too. Ryan Weathers was bad (for the second time in as many Yankees starts) on Friday, Max Fried struggled against a weak Marlins offense on Sunday, Will Warren once again couldn’t give length on Wednesday and it took Cam Schlittler 84 pitches to get through five innings on Tuesday. The starters need to be better because over the last week their lack of length is forcing the Bullpen of Question Marks to be overworked and it’s showing. After pitching in multiple games in the World Baseball Classic and then being needed for nearly two 40-pitch saves in the last week, David Bednar is struggling to put away hitters. He’s been shaky this season and on Wednesday he allowed the A’s to break the 2-2 tie in the ninth.
“I was able to get ahead of guys, but I wasn’t able to put them away,” Bednar said. “It can’t happen.”
6. There is very little trust in the bullpen right now. I don’t trust Bednar because he’s been overworked over the last month. I don’t trust Camilo Doval because he’s been untrustworthy since the moment he became a Yankee. I don’t trust Fernando Cruz because he could strike out the side on nine pitches or walk the bases loaded on 12. I trust Tim Hill the most and Brent Headrick the second most. That’s not a great place to be.
7. It’s also on the defense. The Yankees will tell you Escarra could start for a lot of other teams in the league even though he can’t. Yes, he’s so good that the Yankees were OK with sending him down for a lot of last season and going with Rice as their backup catcher. He’s so good that he’s hitless this season and takes swings like he’s blindfolded. On Wednesday, not only did he put another 0-for, but he was unable to block a Warren breaking ball in the dirt that led to the A’s tying the game.
Rice, who has looked much better in the field this season, looked like his old self on Wednesday. He booted a routine ground ball, couldn’t pick a ball that any major-league first baseman should be able to pick and also dropped a pickoff throw with the runner caught leaving early.
Add in the couple of miscues from Caballero at short so far, McMahon’s new habit of throwing every ball in the dirt to first and Chisholm’s nonchalant play last Friday (which he negated with his amazing diving catch on Wednesday) and you have the type of defensive baseball the Yankees have always played during the Boone era.
8. Yes, the Yankees are 8-3. Yes, they are still waiting for Judge to really get going and for Stanton to start hitting the ball over the wall. Yes, they are getting closer to having Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole in the rotation. But there are still a lot of flaws on this team. Flaws that existed last season, weren’t addressed in the offseason and haven’t gotten better this season. Even when Judge and Stanton get going (and hopefully Grisham and Chisholm too), the bottom of the order is still going to be a problem. Even when Rodon and Cole come back, the trustworthy options in the bullpen still won’t exist. Again, it’s not early and it’s not only 11 games because when you run it back with the same team from one year to the next, one year to the next becomes a continuation, not something new.
9. The Yankees will face their first left-handed starter on Thursday since last Tuesday in Seattle. That means the righty-heavy lineup will be used. Boone didn’t come close to using the best possible lineup I provided on Wednesday to face Severino, but here’s the best possible lineup to go against Jeffery Springs on Thursday.
Amed Rosario, 3B
Aaron Judge, RF
Cody Bellinger, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
Randal Grichuk, LF
Jazz Chisholm, 2B
Jose Caballero, SS
Austin Wells, C
(In reality, Boone will use Goldschmidt to lead off instead of Rosario.)
10. Weathers gets the ball for the third time as a Yankee. He has done nothing to prove he should keep his rotation spot once Rodon is ready, and I don’t have high expectations for him on Thursday. I don’t have any expectations for him as a hard-thrower who has no idea where the ball is going when it leaves his hand. It’s going to be cold again like it was in his start on Friday, which clearly rattled him, and the A’s have a lineup that can make you pay if you’re not careful. It’s going to be a tough rubber game to win before the Yankees head to Tampa.
Last modified: Apr 9, 2026
