Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
OLDY MOLDY asks: Will they take 6 to 8 weeks off again this summer? Or will the guys coming off the injured list keep them at the current pace?
It’s a fair fear to have, as the Yankees have seen two of their strongest teams in this era — the 2022 and 2024 rosters — both burst out of the gates with incredible starts only to endure stretches where they looked like they went into games expecting to lose. It was shocking to watch the first time and unfathomable the second, but my bit of optimism that this team won’t have the same fate is that in both cases they were sunk by offenses that struggled to find production outside of one or two hot bats during those stretches.
This year, Aaron Judge’s otherworldly performance has been buoyed by a roster turning out it’s deepest lineup in years: Ben Rice and Paul Goldscmidt have been hot from the start, Trent Grisham was playing like an All-Star in April before cooling down to a solid starter in May, Cody Bellinger’s bat has become red hot to compensate, and Jasson Domínguez and Anthony Volpe are both finding their footing. There’s no easy stretch of the Yankee lineup where you count on an automatic out, barring a bench player stepping in to give the starters some rest.
On top of that, while the rotation outside of Max Fried initially looked worrisome, that has rebounded as well. Carlos Rodón is living up to his expectation as a No. 2 starter, Will Warren is showing real-time improvements to lock down his rotation spot, and Clarke Schmidt is rounding into form as he gets more starts underneath him. Ryan Yarbrough has even done yeoman’s work stepping into a starter’s role in place of the injured Marcus Stroman, and is doing his part to keep the bullpen from burning every fifth day. That bullpen has been the biggest question mark so far, with several blown games costing New York an even bigger lead than they could’ve held as the season approaches the one-third mark. Overall though, this is the recipe for a team that consistently grows their lead in the standings over time rather than jumping out in front before stumbling over their feet for a good minute or two.
Hector H. Hernandez asks: When Stanton comes back, will there be enough ABs to go around for everyone else? Should the Yanks consider trying out Rice at 3B to solve the roster crunch? They have the biggest loss column lead of all division leaders. Certainly now would be a better time for experimentation than later in the season.
Aaron Boone is dealing with one of the best problems a manager can have: finding playing time for too many successful players. It is a problem to figure out though, namely because the positional versatility of the players in question isn’t very compatible — Rice has been thriving at DH, but Stanton is exclusively a DH at this point in his career, while Goldschmidt is excelling at the position Rice spent the majority of his time playing last season. Rice is also a catcher and could find some more time working with the pitching staff, but even with Austin Wells not exactly mashing at the plate he’s elite crouched behind it.
Third base has been the open casting call spot this season, and with Oswaldo Cabrera out it’s been vacated again, but the team insists that Rice isn’t going to be an answer there. On top of that, they have a further infield question brewing with Jazz Chisholm Jr. nearing a return while DJ LeMahieu has returned to the second base spot in his absence. Both players are second basemen by nature, though both were converted to third by the organization at different points and are tepidly willing to go back. Which one ends up where, and how does the Rice scenario play out?
My assumption is that of the two infielders, LeMahieu will return to third base because the team prioritized giving Chisholm the second base reps in spring training when everyone was healthy. Rice probably won’t start games at third for a while, but could be getting taught the position to open up the possibility of shifting him there later in the summer, especially as a countermeasure against further injuries which are bound to pop up at some point. Rice loses the most immediately with Stanton’s return, but everyone else will take a partial hit to ensure that he still sees consistent time in the lineup, and Stanton himself will likely sit for a game or two intermittently so that he doesn’t get worn down immediately.
Injury or catastrophic collapse is the only way I could see Luke Weaver leaving the closer’s spot at this point, he’s been too dominant ever since putting on the pinstripes to be doubted by now. Should the worst-case scenario happen though, Williams would 100 percent be the man who steps back into the role, both because of his prior experience as a top-tier closer and also because he’s rounding back into form after a shaky start to his Yankees career.
Williams is a traditional slow starter, which didn’t bode well under the brightest lights and most critical market, but underneath his gaudy 6.50 ERA lies signs that he can and is already turning things around — a 2.69 FIP overall and a 41.9 strikeout percentage in May against a 9.7 walk percentage is very promising. The Airbender may not be picking up the lion’s share of the saves for the Yankees, but he’ll be a part of the solution late in games going forward.