The Athletic | Chris Kirschner ($): Giancarlo Stanton officially made his season debut yesterday, batting fifth as the designated hitter against the Angels. With Stanton up, the Yankees DFA’d Pablo Reyes to make room on the roster. But the real question is what kind of impact Stanton will have on the team’s offense overall and also playing time for someone like Ben Rice who had the most plate appearances at DH. Aaron Boone has hinted at Rice getting some games in at catcher, though a platoon with Paul Goldschmidt at first could also be in the cards.
MLB.com | Bill Ladson: The Yankees are known for their traditions, but one of their best ones is a fairly new one. Yesterday, the Yankees kicked off their 16th edition of their annual HOPE Week. To kick off this year’s HOPE Week, the Yankees honored Love, Nana. Love, Nana was founded in 2020 by Joan Hyland, and it has helped thousands of families that are in the initial stages of parenthood receive essential resources.
Athlon Sports | Kristie Ackert: With Reyes being DFA’d, the Yankees have quietly been preparing Oswald Peraza to potentially play in the outfield, should the need arise. Boone does seem aware of the problems with playing guys out of position, so this is just an emergency contingency plan for now. “It’ll be rare,” Boone said. “But it’s a legit possibility.”
MLB.com | Thomas Harrigan: In the first update of All-Star Game voting, it should come as no surprise that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are the leading vote getters in each of their leagues, respectively. Judge actually is the MLB-leader in votes and could become the first Yankee since Alex Rodriguez in 2007-08 to repeat that feat. Although with Ohtani returning to the mound yesterday, let’s see if Judge can hang on to his lead.
Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, and Ben Rice are all also in the Top 5 of their positions, with Goldy slightly leading Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the top first base spot and Rice in position to possibly advance to Phase 2 as well. Not to discount him, but Cody Bellinger is about 5,000 votes shy of Javier Baez for the fifth spot in outfield voting. He’s closer to a potential Phase 2 berth than Chisholm, Volpe, or Wells.
MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: It was reported last week that Jake Cousins suffered a setback during his rehab stint and now we have final confirmation on what happened to him. Cousins will undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday and will miss the remainder of this season and at least the first half of 2026 as well, Aaron Boone told reporters yesterday. While the news is disheartening, it shouldn’t be a total shock considering he’s had arm issues all year and last week it was reported he felt “some stuff” in his elbow.