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<\/p>\nST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 It\u2019s no longer a dark and dingy circus tent. It\u2019s now bright and welcoming like a Ringling Bros. show.<\/p>\n
The New York Yankees are back at Tropicana Field for the first time since 2024 after the Tampa Bay Rays played their 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Multiple Yankees players and staff members remarked on the brightness inside a stadium that opposing players would always complain about because of how difficult it could sometimes be to see inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it looks really good,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.<\/p>\n
But the Yankees did not look good Friday. They lost 5-3 to the Rays as the offense continued to flail at the plate. Their batting average has dropped to an appalling .199 through the first 13 games, and they\u2019re continuing to fall short when they need hits in critical spots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any concern,\u201d Ben Rice said. \u201cWe got the team that can take us to where we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the Yankees on Friday.<\/p>\n
Luis Gil looked more of the same, and that\u2019s not a good thing<\/p>\n
A second-inning at-bat against Taylor Walls told the entire story of Luis Gil\u2019s season debut Friday.<\/p>\n
Since Walls made his MLB debut in 2021, there are only three hitters who are worse in the batter\u2019s box than Tampa\u2019s shortstop: Austin Hedges, Nick Allen and Mart\u00edn Maldonado. That means when Walls is hitting, it should be a crime to give him a free base. But that\u2019s what Gil did in the second inning.<\/p>\n
A 10-pitch at-bat led to Walls\u2019 getting plunked in the leg. The worst part? Gil was ahead 0-2 in the count, and he could not put him away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the one that got away from him,\u201d Boone said.<\/p>\n
Gil went from having a go-to put-away pitch with his fastball in 2024 to not having one at all last season. In his first start in 2026, it was more of the same from 2025. It\u2019s a problem, and it\u2019s unclear how it will be fixed. Gil\u2019s biggest issue continues to be his lack of command. That was the case in spring training, in his lone start in the minors to begin the season and his start Friday. He had three walks, a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch across four innings. In the first inning, he got two outs in nine pitches and ended up throwing 32 by the time he walked back to the dugout. He was ahead of Jonathan Aranda 1-2 before walking him and then hung a slider to Yandy D\u00edaz for a two-run home run.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we just needed to do a little better job of being closer to the zone when we had the leverage,\u201d catcher Austin Wells said of Gil.<\/p>\n
Gil was one of MLB\u2019s best strikeout arms in 2024, but his fastball velocity has dipped since then, and the effectiveness of his secondary pitches has also decreased. It\u2019s not as simple as just converting him into a reliever when Carlos Rod\u00f3n and Gerrit Cole return to the rotation. Relievers still have to know where they\u2019re throwing the baseball, and for the past year now, Gil can\u2019t hit his spots.<\/p>\n
The clock is ticking on Gil\u2019s future as a starter for the Yankees, and time is quickly running out. He needs to figure it out fast.<\/p>\n
Anthony Volpe\u2019s job to lose<\/p>\n
Anthony Volpe is ready to begin the biggest step of his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery. He will travel back to New York with the Yankees on Sunday and be examined by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad on Monday. If all goes well with Volpe\u2019s examination, he could start a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset as soon as Tuesday. It\u2019s expected Volpe will require a full spring training\u2019s worth of games (roughly 55 at-bats) before he\u2019s ready for his season debut.<\/p>\n
This is a big year for Volpe. For the first time in his career, the Yankees have an adequate shortstop on the roster who could push him for playing time, Jos\u00e9 Caballero, but Caballero has done nothing through 13 games to indicate he should remain the starting shortstop when Volpe returns to the big leagues. Entering Saturday\u2019s game, Caballero\u2019s OPS was .336, and his defense at shortstop, particularly his throws, has looked shaky.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Anthony Volpe started 154 games at shortstop in 2025, including seven postseason games. (Mark Blinch \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Friday he expects Volpe to reclaim his starting shortstop job once he completes his rehab assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been the plan, but ultimately it\u2019ll be the manager\u2019s call,\u201d Cashman said.<\/p>\n
Volpe has yet to post an OPS over .666 in his major-league career, and his defense took a significant step back in 2025. Another season of underwhelming production, and the noise around his future as the starting shortstop will only grow.<\/p>\n
Yankees offense is struggling with ABS<\/p>\n
The Yankees\u2019 batters have lost the most Automated Ball-Strike challenges in MLB. They\u2019ve lost 11 of their past 13, including two in Friday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
In the fourth inning with no runners on base, Jazz Chisholm Jr. challenged a strike call in an 0-0 count and lost. Caballero followed Chisholm in the fifth inning and challenged a strike call with no runners on in an 0-0 count. Boone has said numerous times he wants his team to have a deep understanding of leverage, and these challenges were the opposite. The only time challenging these pitches would make sense is if the call is so egregious it\u2019s guaranteed to be overturned.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot very good ones,\u201d Boone said of the challenges. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be ebbs and flows of that. We\u2019re going to be aggressive at certain times, and that\u2019s razor-thin calls sometimes. There are going to be weeks where it\u2019s not great. There are going to be weeks where you\u2019re killing it. I think there\u2019s going to be a lot of that, especially when you\u2019re talking about razor-thin calls. Probably not great challenges there.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve already seen how not having challenges late in games could cost the Yankees more opportunities to win. In Sunday\u2019s game against the Miami Marlins, multiple calls in the ninth inning would have been overturned if the Yankees had challenges remaining. Instead, the Yankees lost by one run with runners on first and second base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way we\u2019re going to learn is if we fail sometimes,\u201d said Ben Rice, who hit a pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning. \u201cSo those failures we\u2019ve had so far in terms of understanding what the strike zone is for each guy are going to help us make the adjustments when it starts to matter even more later in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n