June 20th, 2025: Angels Series, Stanton, Rice, Bullpen, Mailbag

Earlier this week the Lakers were sold to Mark Walter, lead owner of the Dodgers, for $10 billion. He’s not even getting the arena. It’s $10 billion just for the team. It’s the most ever paid for a sports franchise by nearly $4 billion (the Celtics sold for $6.1 billion in March). Very few sports franchises compare to the Lakers in terms of brand recognition, revenue potential, etc. The Yankees are one of them. If the Steinbrenners ever sell, which Hal insists they will not, they’ll fetch north of $10 billion. Potentially well north. The Lakers deal gives us a pretty good idea what the Yankees are worth right now. Let’s hope Walter goes full John Henry and uses his baseball money to fund the other sports franchise he owns, eh? Let’s get to today’s post.

1. Weekday thoughts. A time will come when we can all sit back and laugh about this week. Probably soon too. You know how it goes with this game. One week you score 39 runs in five games (the Yankees did that from June 6-11), the next you score nine runs in five games (this week). It is annoying the Yankees are starting to follow the same script as last few years though:

1. Great start
2. Sluggish summer (you are here)
3. Rally to finish strong
4. Beat an AL Central team(s) in the postseason
5. Get eliminated

It is a long, long season. Right now that sounds like a threat, but the offense’s disappearing act won’t last forever. Hopefully those seven runs and the win Thursday are a sign things are turning. There are peaks and valleys and this is one of the deepest valleys I can remember. The pitching has been pretty great. Those guys are blameless. Anyway, here are a few thoughts on the last few days.

The offense is offensive

I hoped Tuesday would be the low point. The Yankees were shut out for the third straight game, the first time they’ve done that since Sept. 22-24, 2016, and they got shut down by late career Kyle Hendricks. I mean really shut down: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K. It was his first nine-strikeout game since 2020. Hendricks has a 4.84 ERA (4.60 FIP) in over 600 innings since 2021. Good grief, Yankees.

Getting shut down by Hendricks prompted the Yankees to call a players-only meeting after the loss. Everyone downplayed it and called it a “discussion," not a "meeting," the next day. Why? I don't know. The players got together and talked about stuff. They admitted it. Whether it rose to the level of a “meeting” seems like a matter of semantics. The Yankees are being fussy for some reason. Just call it a meeting. Who cares?

"(We discussed) remembering who we are and continuing to stick with our approach." Cody Bellinger said (video). "... There's always a certain point where it's not necessarily going your way, and you feel it. You feel extra pressure to get the job done. At the end of the day, it's the same. We had good conversations."

The Yankees finally scored a run Wednesday. Two in fact, but they also allowed Jack Kochanowicz to set a new career high with eight strikeouts. 74 pitchers had enough innings to qualify for the ERA title going into the series. Kochanowicz ranked 74th in ERA (5.53), 74th in FIP (5.62), and 66th in strikeout rate (15.8%). Then he struck out eight and held the Yankees to two hits and two runs in 5.1 innings. 

(Hendricks ranked 73rd in ERA, 72nd in FIP, and 73rd in K% going into the series. The Yankees got shut down by the two worst starting pitchers in baseball on back-to-back days this week.)

The scoreless streak was finally snapped at 30 innings when Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a solo homer in the second inning Wednesday. It is the team’s fifth longest scoreless streak since the Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913:

1. 1960: 36 innings
2. 1968: 34 innings
3. 2016: 33 innings
4. 1929: 32 innings
5. 2025: 30 innings

(The Highlanders had a 37-inning scoreless streak in 1908. That’s technically the franchise record.)

To me, the most insane thing about the scoreless streak is not the lack of runs. It’s that in only two of those 30 innings did the Yankees have a runner reach third base. That was the automatic runner in the 10th and 11th innings Monday. The Yankees went 28 consecutive innings in regulation without a runner making it as far as third base. There wasn’t even the threat of a run scoring in most of those 30 innings.

Aaron Judge is in his first slump of the season: 4-for-31 (.129) with 18 strikeouts in his last 10 games, including four three-strikeout games. It’s felt like he’s started every at-bat in an 0-2 count this last week. I don’t even think teams have been pitching him all that tough. Judge is just missing pitches, and I don’t mean damn, he just missed that and it’s lazy fly ball instead of a homer. I mean missing as in whiffs. 

Judge is chasing a lot lately (28.3% in June, which is high for him), and, frankly, he’s been chasing a lot the last few weeks, even before this slump began. Here are Judge’s highest chase rate months since he leveled up and became this in 2022:

1. June 2025: 28.3%
2. May 2025: 26.3%
3. April 2022: 24.7%
4. July 2022: 24.3%
5. June 2022: 24.0%

These last seven weeks or so have been the most chase happy Judge has been in years. And, just so it’s clear, the league average is 27.9% chases. We’re talking about Judge going from an elite chase rate (20.4% from 2022-24) to league average-ish. He’s not up there hacking at everything at an alarming rate. For Judge though, an average chase rate is high, and he’s been there for two months now. A cause for concern? A blip? I dunno. It’s not like Judge slumped in May (235 wRC+).

"It's just the inevitable ebbs and flows of it," Aaron Boone said about Judge after Tuesday’s game (video). "Probably has left the zone a little more than he normally does. No one more capable of getting right back on track than him."

Judge was going to slump at some point. It happens to even the greatest players (Shohei Ohtani had a 10-for-72 stretch last summer). The problem is the Yankees have failed spectacularly around Judge. When the star slumps, it’s on his teammates to pick up the slack, and no one did that during the six-game losing streak. Here are the numbers for the seven days prior to Thursday’s win. You can survive one or two guys doing this, maybe even three, but all of them at the same time?

The Yankees went 72 innings – 72 innings! – without a home run from someone other than Judge before Chisholm’s dinger Wednesday. That dated all the way back to Wells’ nine-pitch at-bat/three-run homer last Tuesday in Kansas City. Also, the Yankees are 3-for-8 stealing bases in the last seven games with several monumentally stupid baserunning mistakes, though I suppose that’s par for the course for this team. This is as deep of a team-wide offensive slump as I can remember.

I will close with some positives. The Yankees allowed 2, 4, 2, 1, 4, and 3 runs during the six-game losing streak. That is not the stuff six-game losing streaks are made of. The pitching has been tremendous and the Yankees were one swing away in every loss. 16 runs is the fewest a team has allowed in a six-game losing streak since the Braves in September 1988. The Yankees last did it in 1916. Some great pitching got wasted, but the great pitching is there, and the Yankees were in every game. They didn’t get run out of the building six times.

Also, while the AL East lead has been whittled down to three in the loss column over the Rays and Blue Jays, the Yankees are still in first place. The Rays (20-8 in their last 28 games) and Blue Jays (14-6 in their last 20 games) have been scorching hot, the Yankees forgot how to hit for a week, and they’re still in first place. This is why winning games early in the season is important. You give yourself a cushion for the summer slump. I wish they hadn’t exhausted that cushion before the end of June, but the Yankees haven’t gotten buried in the standings.

(The Yankees and Mets had losing streaks of at least five games at the same time for the first time since 1996 this week. Good omen?)

Those early season outlier performances (Goldschmidt, Grisham, Rice, etc.) have gone away and other players (Bellinger, Volpe, Wells, etc.) haven’t done enough to pick up the slack. This week was a perfect storm of offensive suckiness. Add in a slumping Judge and, well, you get shut out for 30 straight innings. The Yankees are better than this and it’ll fully turn soon. The six-game losing streak was wretched baseball though. The sum of my fears for the offense coming into 2025.

Stanton returns (and Rice starts at catcher)

Is it good that the Yankees’ best hitter this week was the guy who missed 70 games with tennis elbows* (plural)? Stanton returned Monday and is 4-for-12 with a double in three games plus one pinch-hitting appearance. No homers yet, but those will come. It’s only 12 at-bats, though I’m relieved Stanton looks like himself at the plate and not like someone who hasn’t seen game action in six months. 

* I think I found the problem: Stanton needs baseball elbows, not tennis elbows.

Boone hinted at starting Rice behind the plate when Stanton returned, and Rice got his first career start at catcher Wednesday night. I thought it was a bit curious they paired Rice with Ryan Yarbrough, who could use a good pitch-framer who steals strikes on the edges, but whatever. It worked out. Rice looked okay behind the plate? Threw out a runner, didn’t have any egregious framing mistakes, and the one ball that got by him had more to do with it being a 50-footer than Rice screwing up. It went fine, I thought.

Now that we know the Yankees are comfortable starting Rice behind the plate, there is no need to carry J.C. Escarra on the roster. There are three catchers on the roster and they all hit left-handed. What are we doing here? Build a functional roster, please. Don’t just accumulate the players you project to have the highest WAR. The pieces need to fit together. That’s kinda the whole point of the bench. The margins of the roster have been so bad at times the last few years. 

The Yankees don’t need another lefty hitting catcher/first baseman. Send Escarra to Triple-A and call up, uh, Everson Pereira? The 32.7 K% and 20.3% swinging strike rate isn’t good (it’s really bad, actually), but he is hitting .250/.342/.488 (119 wRC+) in Scranton, and would have a role as a righty outfield platoon bat. Bryan De La Cruz could also fill that role, though he’s hitting .226/.283/.348 (69 wRC) with the RailRiders. Pablo Reyes caught the DFA to clear a roster spot for Stanton. Maybe bring him back? I dunno.

I’m not sure who would be the best option to replace Escarra given the in-house options. I just know that, with Rice now trusted enough behind the plate to start at catcher, Escarra doesn’t really have a role, and the Yankees can better use that roster spot. I’m very glad Stanton is back. I’m glad Rice is making progress at catcher too. That opens a few doors for the Yankees, including using Escarra’s roster spot in a different way. I wonder how long the three lefty hitting catchers thing will last.

Brubaker, De Los Santos, and a quick roster note(s)

The Yankees had some bullpen turnover this week. Nothing that will change the high leverage outlook or anything. Just some last two spots in the bullpen shuffling. Here are the week’s roster moves:

• JT Brubaker activated off the 60-day injured list.

• Scott Effross optioned to make room for Brubaker.

• Yerry De Los Santos placed on the 15-day injured list with elbow discomfort.

• Jayvien Sandridge called up to replace De Los Santos before Thursday's game.

• Sandridge was then optioned down following Thursday's game.

• Oswaldo Cabrera moved to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot for Sandridge.

Brubaker exists! Well, I think he does. I can’t confirm that because he hasn’t gotten into a game yet. He exists enough to take a roster spot though. Brubaker hasn’t appeared in a big league game since 2022 because of Tommy John surgery and setbacks. A comebacker broke a few ribs in Spring Training. Brubaker got stretched out to 70 pitches during his rehab assignment, so he’s a long man/spot starter for now.

De Los Santos had a 1.80 ERA (3.56 FIP) in 20 innings and was solid primarily in a “keep his team in the game” multi-inning role. He’s going for an MRI and all that. Sandridge, 26, was a minor league contract guy in the offseason. He got to collect a day of big league pay and now gets access to the MLBPA's health care plan for life. Good for him. Sandridge was just a one-day stopgap with Luke Weaver coming off the injured list later today.

Roster housekeeping time: Brubaker and Stanton came off the 60-day injured list, Reyes was DFAed, Sandridge was added to the 40-man roster, and Cabrera was placed on the 60-day injured list. The 40-man is currently full with four players on the 60-day injured list (Cabrera, Gerrit Cole, Jake Cousins, Luis Gil). Only Gil is coming back this season. The Yankees have several easily DFA-able types in Scranton (Bryan De La Cruz, CJ Alexander, Braden Shewmake, etc.) whenever they need a 40-man spot next. So, that’s where they sit.

Miscellany

I had never thought of the concept of unclutch defense until Volpe came along. He’s the worst high leverage defender I’ve ever seen. Between the game-losing error Wednesday, getting thrown out trying to steal third in extra innings in Boston, and making the final out with the tying run on base (twice), Volpe had the most visible “you screwed up” moments of the losing streak. It’s not all on him. Not even close. The bad moments kept finding him though … Clarke Schmidt (7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K on Monday) and Will Warren (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 11 K on Tuesday) were so good this week. Warren got tagged for three runs on two RBI ground ball singles that deflected off an infielder's glove, which can happen when you’re playing a DH at second and a second baseman at third … Six walks in 5.2 innings since coming off the injured list for Fernando Cruz. He walked eight in 23.2 innings before the injury. Cruz has run high walk rates in the past (11.4% from 2022-24), though he hasn’t looked quite as crisp since the injury. Boone keeps using him as the fireman who comes in with men on base, so Cruz has to right the ship ASAP … An 8-minute rain delay has to be some kinda record. They put the tarp on the field and took it right off. Can’t ever remember seeing that. Rough, rough game for the umpires Thursday. Bad calls on the field and with the tarp (the first time) … And finally, the two HOPE Week kids, Carmine and Vincent Gagliano, were pretty good in the booth Thursday! They were locked in on the game and didn’t go off on any tangents. What a concept. Send them on West Coast trips instead of John Flaherty and Jeff Nelson.

Injury updates

Weaver (hamstring) threw 20-ish pitches in two innings of live BP Tuesday. The Sandridge demotion all but confirms Weaver will be activated today. That would be two weeks and five days since the injury. It was reported he would miss 4-6 weeks, though that was never stated by the Yankees. Either way, it’ll be good to have WeaveDog back (does Devin Williams remain the closer? hmmm) … Gil (lat) will face hitters for the first time Saturday. That’s a pretty big step in the rehab process even if he is still weeks away. Good news … Marcus Stroman (knee) made his third Double-A rehab start Wednesday: 3.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 4 K on 55 pitches. He does not have to be activated until July 11th, but we’re in any day now territory. If there’s an injury or the Yankees need a long reliever, Stroman could be activated. For now, he remains on rehab … And finally, it will indeed be Tommy John surgery for Kirk Cousins’ cousin Jake Cousins. The decision has been made. He might’ve had it already. See you next year, Jake. Maybe. I dunno how the offseason will play out.

Up next

Three games with the Orioles and then a quick three-game trip to Cincinnati. The Yankees are 8-11 within the AL East this year and they have not won a division series since taking two of three from the Blue Jays from April 25-27. They are 2-4 in six AL East series and 0-4 in their last four. Gotta change that. Here’s what’s coming up this weekend:

• Friday vs. Orioles: LHP Max Fried vs. RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (7pm ET on YES, MLB)

• Saturday vs. Orioles: RHP Clarke Schmidt vs. RHP Zach Eflin (1pm ET on YES)

• Sunday vs. Orioles: RHP Will Warren vs. RHP Dean Kremer (11:30am ET on Roku)

• Monday at Reds: TBA vs. TBA (7pm ET on YES)

Here is MLB’s how-to page for the Roku game. You can watch for free even if you don’t have Roku, most easily through MLBtv. This is the Yankees’ only Roku game of 2025, thankfully. Monday’s TBAs line up to be Yarbrough and lefty Nick Lodolo, by the way. The Cincinnati trip is the Yankees’ second-to-last road trip before the All-Star break. That happened fast.

The Orioles are 17-14 since firing manager Brandon Hyde a month ago. The pitching has been better (despite blowing an 8-0 lead Wednesday), which means league average rather than the worst in the league, and the offense has begun playing up to its potential. They’re averaging 4.45 runs per game under interim manager Tony Mansolino. It was 3.70 under Hyde. The O’s are still in the AL East cellar. They have been playing better of late though. 

Also, just to follow up on the “why does the other team always have an off-day before they play the Yankees???” saga, the Orioles didn’t. They had a rain-delayed 7:45pm ET start in Tampa last night. They probably got into their hotel around, I dunno, 4am ET or so. That’s really not that late for a big leaguer, I guess. The O’s didn’t have an off-day yesterday though. May the fatigue show up on the field all weekend.

2. 2025 draft prospect: Nevada SS Tate Southisene. The 2025 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and the Yankees hold the No. 39 pick. Here are the draft prospects I’ve already profiled. Some are players the Yankees are reported to have interest in, some are players who fit the team’s M.O., and some are players I like for whatever reason. We’re covering a little of everything.

Baseball runs in the family for the Southisenes. Tate’s older brother Ty received an overslot $1M bonus as the Cubs’ fourth round pick last year, and Ty’s twin brother Tee plays at USC. Tate, Ty, and Tee? Reader, I don’t ask questions. I’m just here to write about players the Yankees might draft next month. Here’s where Southisene lands in the latest draft prospect rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 40

• ESPN (subs. req’d): No. 22

• FanGraphs: No. 29

• MLB Pipeline: No. 41

• Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 72

The brothers Southisene have been on the radar for years and Tate, 18, tore up showcase events last summer, and put himself in the first round mix. He was consistently one of the most impressive players in events that give the country’s top high schoolers a chance to strut their stuff. Here’s video and here is a chunk of MLB Pipeline’s free counting report:

While still not the tallest guy in the world, Southisene is a bigger, more physical version of his 5-foot-9 brother with the chance to have more offensive impact. Like Ty, he has outstanding bat control and makes a ton of contact from the right side of the plate. He’s very aggressive, exhibiting bat speed and strength, and the control he has is surprising given how big of a swing he generally takes. He might not be quite as good of a pure hitter as Ty, but he easily has more power … Southisene is a plus runner and his strength and athleticism make him a more natural shortstop than his older brother, with solid actions and enough arm. Some scouts like him in center field as much, if not more.

Baseball America says Southisene “generates high-end exit velocities for his age” and Law (subs. req’d) adds he “gets raves about his makeup from scouts.” Good exit velocities and good makeup are two boxes the Yankees always check with their first round position player draft picks. FanGraphs calls Southisene an “ultra-twitchy, multi-positional athlete” with a “rare combo of tools (and) athleticism.”

If you watched the video, you saw Southisene’s unusual setup at the plate. He starts with his hands at his waist before bringing them up and exploding forward. It is basically Marcell Ozuna’s swing. It doesn't pass the eye test, but it works for some players. The Yankees are not afraid to take unconventional swings with an early pick (see: Sweeney, Trey), but more than a few teams are, so Southisene could make his way down to No. 39.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. Rays owner Stu Sternberg is in “advanced talks” to sell the team to a group led by a Jacksonville real estate developer for $1.7 billion or so. There were reports Rob Manfred and the other owners were pushing Sternberg to sell after he backed out of a $1.3 billion stadium deal in March, and once that happens, it ends only one way. It’s not a done deal, the sale could fall through, but they’re working on it. Marc Topkin says the Rays are expected to stay in the Tampa area once the sale is complete. We’ll see. At the very least, I’m sure the new owners will happily threaten relocating the team to Jacksonville to get as much taxpayer money for a new ballpark as possible. Sternberg bought the Rays for $200M in 2004, pocketed revenue sharing money for two decades, and now he’s about to sell the team for $1.7 billion. Good work if you can get it.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Mike asks: I am going to guess you will already write about this, but any chance the Yankees could now trade the Giants for Devers? And is he good enough at third base to not make the DH logjam worse? I know it’s probably very unlikely but just thought I’d ask.

You know, that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. It would be very, very funny. The Red Sox trading Rafael Devers as far away as possible baseball-wise, only for the Giants to turn around and trade him back to the AL East. Obviously this won’t happen. The Giants are keeping him, they badly need the bat and they need a star too, so I assume they would politely decline any trade inquiries. 

Devers is a brutal defender at third base, and the Yankees need to keep DH open long-term for Aaron Judge, but Devers would make them way better in the short-term. He’d boost their World Series odds significantly this year and the next 2-3 years at least. Let’s say the Yankees get him today for Jasson Domínguez and some non-MLB pieces. They could run this lineup out there the rest of the year:

1. 2B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 3B Rafael Devers
4. 1B Paul Goldschmidt
5. LF Cody Bellinger
6. DH Giancarlo Stanton
7. CF Trent Grisham
8. SS Anthony Volpe
9. C Austin Wells

That lineup is a bit lefty heavy, but Devers is not an ordinary lefty, and Bellinger hits lefties well. Trade for a righty hitting outfielder to platoon with Grisham and fill Domínguez’s roster spot and we’re cooking with gas. The Giants flipping Devers to the Yankees didn’t even cross my mind. We all know it won’t happen, but man, it would be so funny.

Alessandro asks: Was listening to Baseball Insiders who referenced Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman saying that the Braves could/should listen to offers for Ozzie Albies. Is there any way they'd actually trade him? Is he someone the Yankees should go after?

At first glance I thought no way. Albies has the most team-friendly contract in the sport ($7M club options through 2027) and the Braves are not exactly loaded with middle infield depth. Nacho Alvarez is a nice prospect, but he’s probably shouldn't start for a contender. Even if we call this a lost season for the Braves, they have enough talent to run it back next year and contend, so of course they’ll keep Albies.

But! But Albies has been pretty bad this year (80 wRC+), and he’s had a 95 wRC+ or worse three times in the last four years. His approach is beginning to come apart, and it’s been three years since he rated as a plus defender. If the Braves think they need to shake up their core and think this is their last chance to get a haul for Albies before he completely collapses, maybe he really will become available. I need to squint a little, but I can see it.

Second base is a wasteland league-wide. I’m not sure more than 5-6 guys will get to +3 WAR at the position this season. Albies is only 28, the long-term track record is strong, and the contract is zero risk. It’s cheap and you can cut him loose after any season. The question is the asking price. Do the Braves market him as the +4 WAR guy signed to a bargain deal he was earlier in his career, and ask for your two best prospects? Or do they lower the ask a bit given the last few years?

Albies would be worth a deeper dive in a non-mailbag setting if the Braves do make him available. My quick answer right now is yes, the Yankees absolutely should inquire. Brian Cashman used the term “distressed asset” when he traded for Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher, good players coming off down years who were signed affordably, and that’s Albies. There are worse rolls of the dice, especially given the upcoming middle infield free agent classes (so, so bad).

Ray asks: Trent Grisham and Ben Rice have come back to Earth, which is proved bad for the lineup. Even with Stanton coming back, the Yankees need another bat, but they also need relief and starting pitching. How would you rank their needs going into the trade deadline and the likelihood they succeed at getting what they want?

I’ll get into the trade deadline (needs, targets, trade chips, etc.) more in depth in the coming weeks. For now, I would rank the Yankees’ needs like so:

1. Second or third baseman (preferably a righty hitting third baseman)
2. Starting pitcher (Gerrit Cole’s not coming back)
3. Righty reliever with a big fastball (not another 92-94 with a changeup/splitter guy)
4. Righty bench bat (an outfielder probably fits best)
5. Lefty reliever who can strike guys out (to complement Tim Hill)

Are the Yankees going to get all that? Almost certainly not, but I think those are their needs.  I don’t want to rely on DJ LeMahieu even a tiny little bit, and we’ve seen the downside of the offense this last week, so please, get an infielder/another bat. A starter feels like a must even with Luis Gil making progress in his rehab. You can’t trust lat strain guys. Those things can be season-killers. Nos. 3-5 are wants more than needs, though think they’re all important. I’m a fan, right? I want the Yankees to field the best possible team and I think they need these five things to do that.

It’s much harder to make a trade now because the third Wild Card spot keeps more teams in the race, and because so many GMs are risk-averse weenies. I’ve had people (not with the Yankees) tell me there are teams that flat out will not make a trade unless their analytical model grades it out as a win. I don’t think the Yankees are one of them. We may not agree with their decisions, but they try to win every year, and will pay to get the players they feel they need. There are teams though that will pass on trades that aren’t favorable enough. The concept of a win-win is going out the window. It’s hard to make a good trade.

A different Mike asks: I saw that CC’s son was at the draft combine. Any chance the Yankees draft him?

I was surprised to see Little C (Carsten Sabathia III) at the combine, which is typically reserved for the top 300-ish draft prospects. He’s a first baseman who hit .227/.328/.371 in 46 games in three years at Georgia Tech and Houston, and mostly rode the bench. Baseball America (subs. req’d) does not rank Sabathia among their top 500 draft prospects and 500 prospects is a lot of players. It’s almost a full draft class (615 players were drafted last year).

Back in the day, I would have said yes, absolutely the Yankees will draft Little C as a nod to Big C. The draft is only 20 rounds now though. You can’t waste a pick on a nepotism pick. Back when there were 50+ rounds, sure, you could take the former star player’s son or the GM’s nephew or whatever in the 40-something round, even if you had no intention of signing him. The Yankees probably won’t even sign Little C as an undrafted free agent because you’re only allowed 165 minor league contracts now (it used to be unlimited). Little C is not really a prospect. I would be very surprised if the Yankees select him.

Davis asks: And now for something completely different as I try and last through the current slump. The last few years it feels like the Yankees always are slumping during Hope week. It’s just a gut feeling. Any stats on won/loss record during Hope week?

Wasn’t it a thing early on that the Yankees always won during HOPE Week? I feel like that was a thing, but let’s see what the records say. HOPE Week launched in 2009 and the Yankees have a handy-dandy landing page where you can see all the honorees over the years. Here are their HOPE Week records:

• 2009: 5-0

• 2010: 3-2

• 2011: 2-2 with a rainout

• 2012: 3-2

• 2013: 3-2

• 2014: 4-0 with an off-day (they did HOPE Week stuff on the off-day)

• 2015: 3-2

• 2016: 5-0

• 2017: 3-2

• 2018: 3-1 with a rainout

• 2019: 5-0

• 2020: No HOPE Week (pandemic)

• 2021: 1-4

• 2022: 5-0

• 2023: 2-3

• 2024: 1-3 with an off-day (they did HOPE Week stuff on the off-day)

• 2025: 1-3 with one game remaining

The Yankees are 49-26 all-time during HOPE Week, which is a 106-win pace. That breaks down into 39-13 before the pandemic and 10-13 since the pandemic. The pandemic ruined a million things, including HOPE Week, or at least the Yankees’ ability to win during HOPE Week.

A different David asks: What's this I am hearing about dead baseballs again? 

There were several balls this week that looked gone off the bat, but stayed in the park, no? I thought this ball was going 500 feet when Cody Bellinger connected Monday. Things picked up Wednesday and Thursday, once the weather warmed up. Anyway, the ball is not “dead.” It’s not like we’re back in the low-scoring era of 2014, but it is not carrying as much as it has the last few years. MLB isn’t being cagey about it either. They acknowledged it a week or two ago.

“For the last several seasons, MLB has made drag information available to the public online, which is updated daily during the season,” a league spokesperson told Evan Drellich (subs. req’d). “We are aware of an increase in average drag this season and have provided information to the Major League Baseball Players Association on this issue as our experts continue to study any potential causes beyond normal variability in a product made by hand with natural materials. There has been no change to the manufacturing, storage or handling of baseballs this year, and all baseballs remain within specifications.”

Drag data is publicly available back to 2016. The higher the drag, the less the ball travels, and drag right now is higher than it has been the last several years. I wrote about the ball at CBS the other day. Here is a table from that post. These are the results on barrels (i.e. the best possible contact based on exit velocity and launch angle) over the last few seasons:

Barrels are traveling four fewer feet on average this year than last year, and seven fewer feet than two years ago. It’s important to note those are full season numbers. Homers and offense in general historically peak in July and August, when it’s nice and hot out, and we’re not there yet. Check back in two months and I bet barrels are traveling a little farther and getting better results as well.

Right now though, yes, the ball is not traveling as far as it did last year. MLB theorizes that the seams are higher and/or wider, increasing drag. A small change to the seams (a change that is still within the league’s specification ranges) can have a big impact on the ball’s behavior. The thing is though, offense is not down this season. It’s more or less right in line with 2024:

• 2024: .243/.312/.399 with 1.12 HR/G and 4.39 R/G

• 2025: .245/.316/.396 with 1.09 HR/G and 4.31 R/G

I gotta be honest, I have rocket ball/dead ball fatigue. I’m tired of talking about it after the last few years. It stinks we have no idea how the ball will play from one year to the next, but I’ll try to look at it as a positive. It adds to the mystery of the season. Keeps us on our toes, you know? The ball is not traveling as far as it did the last few seasons, it is a fact, but it hasn’t tanked offense. Whatever man. The ball is whatever it is.

Kany asks: The noise at Yankee Stadium AFTER LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE PITCH is insane. In some ways it’s even worse on TV. It’s a topic everywhere online, including from the Yankee beat writers. It is actually counterproductive when the stadium is loud and it’s a close game, at least in my opinion. This is a real world question: what can be done to get the message to Hal and the Yankees that they need to back off? I’m not saying it needs to be as quiet in between pitches like it was, say, in KC this week, but not every pitch and not so loud. Is Hal even aware? There have to be complaints from season ticket holders. It’s turning Yankee stadium into an unpleasant experience.

Oh, it’s horrible. Every game is a nonstop assault on the senses. It’s not just that the Yankees play music or a sound effect after every pitch, it’s loud as hell too. If you’re sitting underneath a speaker in the upper deck, it’s unbearable. “We’re trying to meet our young fans where they are. There’s an elaborate speaker setup in the ballpark. We didn’t install it to play Phil Collins elevator music,” Yankees media relations head Jason Zillo told Bob Klapisch recently. Do the youths really want this? Maybe they do and I’m out of touch.

I have no idea how the average fan can get through to the Yankees about the noise. Season ticket holders will have a better chance, but even then the Yankees are unlikely to act. This is the “too bad” era. If you don’t like a product or how a company operates, too bad. This is what you get. This is especially true with sports, where brand loyalty is so unique. If you’re unhappy Yankee Stadium is so loud, what are you going to do, stop watching? Be a Mets fan? Too bad. This is what you get.

The only language these people speak is money. When the money starts to dry up, only then will the Yankees change how they operate, and even then they’ll zero in on a million other things before stadium noise. Boycotting the Yankees is not realistic. For every fan who refuses to attend a game, there are 10 people lined up behind them to buy that ticket. I have no idea how the average fan can get through to the Yankees about the noise, but it sucks, and it actively takes away from my enjoyment of the game.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it