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.
BetweenthePinstripes asks: Is this team playoff bound?
Boy, how crazy it would’ve been to consider this question a month or two ago. Even anticipating the possibility of getting challenged for the division title, I don’t think anyone could’ve seen this prolonged slide last long enough to plummet New York to the bottom of the playoff picture. Now they’re fending for their lives with the Guardians and Rangers a mere 1.5 games away from taking their ticket away, and the division crown feels miles away at a 6.5 game gap.
Is there reason to be optimistic about the team pulling out of their tailspin? Sure, they have all of the talent to play like the team that got out to the seven-game lead by late May, and they inarguably improved themselves since then by overhauling the bullpen and ditching DJ LeMahieu for Ryan McMahon alongside some bench moves. Is it realistic? That’s a harder question to answer these days, because they find novel ways to trip over their own feet every time they take the field it seems. On paper they should still be more than capable of holding onto one of the Wild Card spots, even if it isn’t the top slot. The only thing holding them back is well and truly themselves, and for a team that has been dreadful as long as they’ve been elite it feels like a total coin toss which one will win out down the stretch. I’ll remain resolute that they do wind up playing October baseball, but I’m hardly confident about it right now.
Don H. asks: David Bednar seems to have the unflappable demeanor the Yanks have lacked since Mariano Rivera retired. He has the multi-inning “Goose Gossage” feel with upper 90s heater, nasty “fall off the table” slider, and sweeping curve that has nearly a 20 mph difference from the fastball. He also appears to have the Rivera “ice water in his veins” approach to closing. I think he should be the main closer. You agree?
It’s a little rushed to make Mariano comparisons for a guy that’s made three appearances for New York, but I get the enthusiasm. He does indeed embody a Goose Gossage type of reliever, and he even became the first Yankee pitcher to get five or more outs and record them all via strikeout since Gossage did so back in 1982. It was a statement performance, and it came at perhaps the most dire point of the season, which adds a lot of weight to his standing in the circle of trust going forward. Aaron Boone has to pivot away from Devin Williams for the second time this season, and barring injury this time it looks like it’ll be for good. Luke Weaver was the obvious pick to promote the first time, but he’s had his own struggles since returning from the injured list and now Bednar is in the picture alongside Camilo Doval, and all three have experience as closers.
Weaver had an incredible track record entering this season, but wound up moving down a slot to serve as both a setup man and a bit of a firehose arm for Boone to deploy. I imagine the Yankees would like to keep him in that role, especially with the confidence that Bednar also has a deeper tank than most relievers and can go for a second inning if needed. That means that in a pinch, the Yankees could deploy their top three to cover a full four innings with confidence, something that might come up more often than not in the postseason given this pitching staff’s inability to go deep into games. Throw in Fernando Cruz once he’s fully healthy, and there may finally be stability in a bullpen that has seen as many wildfires in their own ranks as they’ve put out on the basepaths. Boone may not lock in a hard order just yet to give his new players some time to adjust, but Bednar should have the inside track among the group to get the lion’s share of save opportunities.
jws85 asks: Explain how adding seven players from losing attitude teams will improve the Yankees, who have a current “loser’s attitude.”
Well, losing attitude teams are the overwhelming majority of who is selling at the deadline, so it’s not like they had much of a choice when looking for upgrades. The Dodgers or Tigers aren’t just giving up what they’ve got going to swap parts with the Yankees for funsies, after all. That being said, good players exist on bad teams and often rise above the performance they were giving for a team going nowhere. Do the Yankees have problems? Sure, a lot of them. But they’re in the hunt, and that reinvigorated motivation for the deadline acquisitions can be infectious for the rest of the locker room if they let it be. It’s on them as a team to figure out whatever is spiraling them downward, but fresh faces sought out on purpose with the talent to make a difference is never going to hurt.