June 3rd, 2025: Dodgers Series, Chisholm, Cruz, Domínguez, Weaver, Pitching Staff, Homers, Volpe

On this date in 2003, George Steinbrenner named Derek Jeter the 11th captain in Yankees’ history, and the first since Don Mattingly. The timing was odd. It wasn’t just that it happened in the middle of the season, it happened with the Yankees in Cincinnati and in the middle of a nine-game road trip. They did not return home until June 10th, so a full week passed before Jeter could be announced to the Yankee Stadium crowd as team captain. As soon as the Yankees named Aaron Judge captain, the “he needs to win the World Series first like Jeter!” takes flew, but nah. Mattingly and Thurman Munson were named captain before they even played a postseason game. Jeter’s the outlier among recent Yankees’ captains, not Judge (or Mattingly or Munson). Anyway, let’s get to today’s post.

1. Weekend thoughts. Sign me up for a 6-3 West Coast trip every season. Just maybe leave out getting humbled by the team that beat the Yankees in last year’s World Series next time. The Yankees had a needed off-day Monday and 13 of their next 19 games are in the Bronx. Hopefully they can avoid a June swoon and pad the win-loss record a bit this month. Here are a few thoughts on the last few games.

Series salvaged in LA

Well, the good news is the Yankees still have not gotten swept this year. The Yankees, Mets, and Reds are the only teams that haven’t been swept yet. The weekend in Los Angeles went about as poorly as a series can go without getting swept. A disheartening blown lead behind the ace Friday and the Yankees’ worst blowout loss in six years* Saturday before Sunday’s series-salvaging win.

“This team has bounced back from whatever tough losses we’ve had. We’ve had a handful of them in the first couple of months,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch after Sunday’s win, and he's not wrong. “They played a really great game to give us a really good trip going back home.”

* The 18-2 loss Saturday was the Yankees’ largest margin of defeat since a 19-3 beatdown in Boston on July 25th, 2019. Boone hung Masahiro Tanaka out to dry (12 runs in 3.1 innings) and Gio Urshela played an inning in the outfield to get Aaron Judge off his feet.

The series started so great too! Judge hit a home run in the top of the first inning Friday, Shohei Ohtani responded with a leadoff homer in the bottom half, and off they went. Ohtani taking Max Fried deep (twice) sucked, but as a baseball fan, Judge and Ohtani trading blows is the good stuff. I want to see great players do great things and it gets no greater than those two. What a start to the series Friday.

Things went downhill not long after. Fried is allowed to have a bad start, and frankly he was overdue for one given how good he’s been this season, but damn man, did it have to come Friday? Then Tim Hill walked Michael Conforto (81 wRC+) with the bases loaded to push across the game-winning run. Groan. The offense bugged me more than Fried and Hill though. The story of Friday’s game:

• First 13 batters: 5 runs and 4 homers

• Last 27 batters: 5 baserunners and 0 runs

Tony Gonsolin gave up four homers in two innings plus one batter, and still outlasted Fried. The Yankees lost the World Series in part because they did not play a complete nine innings often enough. They take their foot off the gas, they let the Dodgers hang around, and it comes back to bite them. The Yankees had a 5-2 lead three innings into Friday’s game and got outscored 24-3 in the next 15 innings.

The Dodgers beat the Yankees so bad Saturday that broadcasters around the league talked about it Sunday. I flipped between Brewers/Phillies, Mets/Rockies, Cubs/Reds, and Mariners/Twins throughout the afternoon and every booth had a “did you see the Dodgers beat the Yankees 18-2?” conversation. They weren’t a bunch of “wow, the Dodgers look good” talks either. The Yankees were the butt of the joke.

Will Warren’s disaster start Saturday boiled down to too many mistakes in the zone and too many pitches way off the plate for easy takes. The rookie pitcher got his brains beat in by the defending champs and a great offense. News at 11. The offense, other than Judge, pretty much mailed it after falling behind 10-0 in the second inning. The at-bat quality, really dating back to the middle innings Friday, was just awful.

Do you know what that pitch plot is? Those are the pitches the Yankees took for called strikes Saturday. Maybe take a pass at a fastball in the middle of the zone? Do you need the pitcher/catcher to announce it’s coming first? How much easier do you want them to make it for you? I know it is more complex than this. Pitch sequencing matters. But good grief, did you watch some of those at-bats?

The response Sunday was impressive. It was the last game of a nine-game West Coast trip, the long flight home loomed, and it would have been easy to just look forward to the off-day Monday and take a beating. The Yankees instead roughed up Yoshinobu Yamamoto, forcing him to throw 96 pitches in 3.2 innings. It was the first time this season Yamamoto failed to complete five innings, let alone four.

“He’s a tough guy to face. He’s got really good command, good stuff,” Ben Rice, who walloped a massive dinger to dead center off Yamamoto (video), told Hoch. “I think just being aggressive to our zones helped us, and laying off some of those pitchers’ pitches early.”

The at-bats were so bad late Friday and all game Saturday. On Sunday, they were terrific. So good that I wondered if Yamamoto was tipping. The Yankees were on his splitter, which doesn’t necessarily mean connecting for damage. They took some good ones out of the zone and fouled off a bunch to extend at-bats. Yamamoto faced 21 batters and 11 saw at least five pitches. Six saw at least six pitches.

“After that mess of a game (Saturday), to come back like we did showed a lot,” DJ LeMahieu told Hoch after his four-hit game (!) (video) in the series finale Sunday.

I understand the sentiment, but there is way too much “the Yankees have no chance against the Dodgers in the World Series” going around after this weekend. First of all, the odds of a World Series rematch are tiny. That’s just the nature of the thing. But also, it’s June! Who knows what these teams will look like in October? If you don’t think the Yankees can beat the Dodgers in the postseason, I refer you to Knicks vs. Celtics this season.

To be sure though, it was not a good series for the Yankees, even with Sunday’s win. Some of their old bad habits resurfaced (sloppy defense, poor baserunning, weird Boone decisions, etc.) and the Dodgers have a mental advantage. I don’t mean the Yankees are mentally weak. I mean the Dodgers know they can beat the Yankees. That edge is a real thing. The Astros had it all those years. Until the Yankees beat the Dodgers, their ability to beat the Dodgers will be questioned. It is what it is.

All in all, a good West Coast trip with a not great weekend in Los Angeles. At least the Yankees won the last game Sunday. If you’re going to lose two of three, win the last one. It’ll make the flight home and the off-day a little more cheery. The Yankees have some roster holes and things we need to fix. We knew that already. The Dodgers’ series just reinforced it a bit more.

Chisholm and Cruz ready to return, Weaver (and Domínguez?) down

All indications are Fernando Cruz and Jazz Chisholm Jr. will return Tuesday. Cruz threw a 17-pitch live BP session Saturday and came through it well. Tuesday is the first day he’s eligible to be activated, so it will be the minimum 15 days on the injured list. Cruz had shoulder inflammation and received a cortisone shot a week or so ago, and that seems to have done the trick.

“I threw all my pitches for strikes, and the velocity was there. I wasn’t even trying to throw hard and the ball was coming out really good. I feel really healthy,” Cruz told Hoch about Saturday’s live BP. “… I think (going on the injured list) was worth it. The pain I was going through needed to be fixed. This time will make me even better, I think.”

Cruz was so good before his shoulder acted up (2.66 ERA, 2.49 FIP, 37.6 K%) and you can never have enough high leverage relievers. Jonathan Loáisiga gave up two solo homers Sunday and has had some trouble throwing strikes since returning, the latter of which is not uncommon for guys coming back from UCL surgery. Cruz’s return might allow the Yankees to scale back a bit on Loáisiga’s high leverage work until he really settles in.

As good as Cruz has been this year, Chisholm’s return is even more important, because good gravy have second and third base been dreadful lately. Jazz last played on April 29th. Look at what the second and third basemen have done since his last game. This includes LeMahieu’s four-game game Sunday:

• 2B: .209/.313/.314 (85 wRC+)

• 3B: .114/.212/.239 (29 wRC+)

• 2B + 3B: .161/.263/.276 (56 wRC+)

Chisholm is only one man, and he didn’t light the world on fire before getting hurt (.181/.304/.410 and 104 wRC+), but compared to the guys the Yankees have been running out there lately, he’s like peak Robbie Canó. The question is where will Jazz play? He played two of his three rehab games at third base (the other at DH), and it sounds like he’s going to man the hot corner when he returns.

"We’ll see. I want him to work over there this week in his (rehab) games over there. We’ll keep that flexibility and make a decision one way or the other,” Boone told Hoch about Chisholm’s position when he returns. “… In the end, I’m not even sure exactly how I want to go. It could be an evolving situation.”

The Chisholm/Anthony Volpe double play combination was magic defensively before Jazz got hurt. The Yankees haven’t had a double play combination that athletic and that good defensively in a long time, and I would hate to break it up. I’m also fine with Chisholm at third base in a vacuum. The second/third base situation is Jazz and a bunch of bad players. What difference does it make where the bad players are positioned?

This is not a vacuum though, and Chisholm at third is pretty clearly a “it allows us to keep DJ LeMahieu in the lineup” thing. LeMahieu is playing second because he no longer has the arm for third. He’s only been back a few games, but his hardest throw (this one) this year was 77.4 mph. The second base average is 79.3 mph. Last year his hardest throw at third base was 81.9 mph. The third base average is 85.5 mph.

Like it or not, the Yankees are very loyal to LeMahieu, and every so often he rewards them. He hit a home run against the Mets a few weeks ago, had a three-hit game in Colorado last weekend, and had four hits Sunday. LeMahieu is still hitting .239/.314/.326 (86 wRC+) overall, but when the competition is Oswald Peraza and Pablo Reyes and Jorbit Vivas, I guess I can understand sticking with LeMahieu, though I do think the Yankees are a better team with Chisholm at second.

Anyway, I was ready to lay out the likely roster moves for Chisholm and Cruz, but of course things took care of themselves. The whole “get a player back and lose someone else at the same time” thing has been in overdrive this year. Clarke Schmidt returned right when Marcus Stroman got hurt. LeMahieu came back right when Oswaldo Cabrera got hurt. Loáisiga came back right as Cruz got hurt. Come on man.

Jasson Domínguez exited Sunday’s game with a bruised left thumb after jamming it into second base on a successful steal. He says he’s fine, but we’ll see. He went for tests Monday. Later in Sunday's game, Luke Weaver felt something in his hamstring while warming up, so the Yankees shut him down. Weaver went for tests Monday and Jeff Passan says he could miss 4-6 weeks. Groan. We'll get official word from the Yankees on Domínguez and Weaver later today.

The Yankees optioned Yerry De Los Santos following Saturday's game and called up Carlos Carrasco in case they needed a long man. They didn't, and Carrasco was put on waivers Monday so he could go back to Triple-A. Technically, there is an open spot in the bullpen right now. I figure the bullpen roster moves later today will be:

• Weaver to the 15-day injured list.

• De Los Santos recalled (Weaver's injured list stint gets around the 15-day waiting period).

• Cruz activated (steps into Carrasco's roster spot).

I assume Boone will slot Devin Williams back into the closer's role, at least initially. They traded for him to be the closer and now they need a closer. Williams has had a tough time in the ninth inning this year but not so much earlier in the game. I hope this is the start of Devin's redemption arc as closer. If he struggles again, the Yankees will have to adjust.

Covering for El Marciano would be easy. Rice, Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, and Paul Goldschmidt would play every game instead of one of them (or Domínguez) having to sit each day. That's easy. The Weaver injury is a major bummer, but at least Chisholm and Cruz are coming back to soften the blow. I’m just tired of guys getting hurt right as other guys get healthy. The “it will take care of itself” thing has been taken to the extreme in 2025.

Miscellany

So does Ryan Yarbrough start Game 1 of the World Series, or do you hold him back for Game 3 so he could then start a potential Game 7? He was outstanding again Saturday: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 HR (video) on 93 pitches against the highest scoring offense in baseball. Also 17 swings and misses, the third highest total of his career. 31 times in 209 career games Yarbrough has gotten at least 12 whiffs. Three of the 31 are his last three starts … I know LeMahieu had four hits Sunday, but pinch-hitting him as the tying run against a lefty in the eighth inning Friday chapped me. Not because I didn’t think LeMahieu wouldn’t come through (I didn’t and he didn’t), but because the Yankees pinch-hit Jose Trevino with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of a World Series game the last time they played in Dodger Stadium. The Yankees didn’t have a righty bench bat last October and they still don’t this year. Annoying … I know I praised De Los Santos last week, but I wasn’t ready to see him in a one-run game coming off an off-day Friday. Geez. De Los Santos in a one-run game Friday and Williams/Weaver in a 13-run game Saturday sure was look, Boonie … And finally, just to put a bow on that crap game Saturday: Enrique Hernández became the first position player to pitch in a win against the Yankees. That excludes Ohtani, Babe Ruth, and a few other long ago players who dabbled in pitching while mostly hitting. The Yankees got beat so bad that the Dodgers let a position player get the final three outs. Let us never talk about that game again.

Injury updates

Luis Gil (lat) threw a 15-pitch bullpen Friday. It was his first time throwing off a mound as part of his rehab. He’ll do it again soon-ish and build up from there. At this point, the earliest Gil will return is around the All-Star break … Marcus Stroman (knee) threw two innings and 33 pitches of live BP Saturday. He has a ways to go to get built up, but it seems the knee is no longer so much of an issue that it is preventing him from moving forward with his rehab … Jake Cousins (flexor) will start a rehab assignment Tuesday. Figure 5-6 rehab games before being activated, at least. Cousins has an option left and can go to Triple-A … And finally, a Gerrit Cole (elbow) non-update. He is in the strengthening/increasing mobility phase of his rehab, and that’s all right now. The usual Tommy John surgery rehab schedule would have him starting to play catch in August, or thereabouts. 

Up next

The interminable West Coast trip is over, and unless the World Series takes the Yankees out west, the Yankees are done with the Pacific Time Zone in 2025. Thank goodness. I don’t bounce back from those late start times as well as I did when I was younger. Here’s what’s coming up this week:

• Tuesday vs. Guardians: LHP Carlos Rodón vs. RHP Tanner Bibee (7pm ET on YES, TBS)

• Wednesday vs. Guardians: RHP Clarke Schmidt vs. RHP Luis Ortiz (7pm ET on Amazon)

• Thursday vs. Guardians: LHP Max Fried vs. RHP Slade Cecconi (7pm ET on YES, MLBN)

The Guardians are the epitome of AL Central good. They’re riding great success in one-run games (8-4), extra-inning games (4-0), and against the White Sox (3-0) to a 32-26 record despite a -16 run differential. José Ramírez is a superstar, Steven Kwan is a pest, and they have some capital-D Dudes in the bullpen. Otherwise Cleveland isn’t the most imposing team in the league. That said, the Yankees lost two of three at Progressive Field in April, and you can’t take any team lightly in this game. Go win a series, Yankees.

2. Four things you may or may not know about the 2025 Yankees. We’re in June now and the season is more than one-third complete. Bad weekend against the Dodgers aside, the Yankees are really good because they've gotten a few best case scenario outcomes up and down the roster (Max Fried, Trent Grisham, Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice, etc.). They are 36-22 with a +98 run differential. If you care about BaseRuns, the under-the-hood numbers say the Yankees have been the best team in baseball by several games this year.

Now that a team off-day has finally landed on a convenient day for me, it’s time to empty out the notebook a bit, and look at a few things I found mildly interesting. Here are four things you may or may not know about this year’s Yankees.

The pitching staff is elite defensively

Alas and alack, Mark Simon beat me to this last week, but I’ve had it on my list for a while now, so I’m writing it anyway. Yankees’ pitchers, thanks largely (but not entirely) to Fried, have been a top flight defensive unit this season. Here are the best defensive positions heading into Monday's action (per Defensive Runs Saved):

1. Rays SS: +17 DRS
2. Blue Jays 2B: +13 DRS
3. Yankees P: +13 DRS
4. Braves 1B: +12 DRS
5. Several positions at +10 DRS

The next best defensive pitching staffs, the Giants and Orioles, are at +6 DRS. The Yankees are lapping the field in this department. Fried leads the way with +4 DRS, the best among all pitchers, which isn’t surprising. He’s a three-time Gold Glover and, when the Yankees signed him, I noted he’s like an extra infielder who helps himself by turning all those weak grounders he generates into outs.

Tim Hill (+3 DRS), Carlos Rodón (+2 DRS), Clarke Schmidt (+2 DRS), Ryan Yarbrough (+2 DRS), and Jonathan Loáisiga (+1 DRS) all rate as positive defenders in addition to Fried. Mark Leiter Jr. is at -1 DRS. Every other pitcher is holding serve at 0. So four of the five starters rate as plus defenders and are helping themselves defensively. Considering they throw the most innings, that’s a good thing. Same with Hill, who gets so many softly hit ground balls.

Good defensive pitchers are something you don’t think about a whole lot (at least I don’t) until you watch them snag choppers and ground balls on the regular. A pitcher making a clean, stress-free play to turn a batted ball into an out and to snuff out a potential rally is an underrated joy in this game. The Yankees, at least according to the numbers, have the game’s best defensive pitching staff by a freakin’ mile.

The Yankees have their lowest Guillen Number since 2016

Guillen Number being the percentage of runs scored on homers. It’s an old Baseball Prospectus creation named after Ozzie Guillen, whose mid-to-late 2000s White Sox teams were far more reliant on home runs than anyone seemed willing to acknowledge. The league average Guillen Number this season is 39.0%.

The Yankees have been at or near the top of the league in Guillen Number for years, and they are again this season, though they also have their lowest Guillen Number since 2016. You have to go back almost a decade for the last time the Yankees scored this low a percentage of their runs on homers. Here are the last five years:

• 2025: 44.8% (4th in MLB)

• 2024: 48.2% (2nd in MLB)

• 2023: 48.9% (2nd in MLB)

• 2022: 50.8% (1st in MLB)

• 2021: 47.5% (5th in MLB)

The 2016 Yankees placed 16th with a 40.1% Guillen Number. In related news, that team finished 22nd in runs scored, won 84 games, and missed the postseason. Home runs get you to heaven. And I should note the team’s Guillen Number was 43.9% before the Dodgers series, so the Yankees raised it almost a full percentage point in three games. They scored 14 runs in the series, nine on homers.

Heading into Monday, the Yankees were second in baseball with 95 homers, two fewer than the Dodgers, who’d played one more game. Lots of home runs are good. Lots of solo homers are less good, and no team has hit more solo homers than the Yankees this year. Here is the breakdown of Yankees’ dingers:

The Yankees hit a lot of home runs with men on base, but a relatively small percentage of their home runs have come with men on base, if that makes sense. The MLB average is 60% solo homers and 40% with men on. If the Yankees could get closer to that split, that would be swell.

I’m getting too deep into the weeds on homers here. The point I want to make is the Yankees have not scored this low a percentage of their runs on homers since 2016. The Yankees are third in runs scored per game. They’re scoring a ton of runs. The low Guillen Number means they’re scoring way more runs in other ways than we’re used to. Their .255/.352/.412 (114 wRC+) line with RISP reflects that.

Last week I mentioned the Yankees already have three games with 10 runs and no more than one homer this season. They had no such games last season and they haven’t had more than three in a season since 2010, when they had six. The Yankees have a little more speed and contact ability, and that lends itself to scoring runs on things other than homers. The low Guillen Number would be a bad thing if the Yankees weren’t also second in the league in homers and third in runs per game. It tells us this is a very diverse offense.

The Yankees have the second most starts on normal rest

This one surprised me. Yankees’ pitchers have made 25 starts on normal rest (i.e. four days of rest) this season, second most in baseball behind the Brewers. Here are starts on normal rest:

1. Brewers: 27
2. Yankees: 25
3. Royals: 25
…
MLB average: 17
…
28. Astros: 7
29. Mets: 6
30. Dodgers: 3

This surprised me because the Yankees have had a bunch of off-days these last few weeks and they do seem to take every opportunity to give their starters a little extra rest, such as starting Yarbrough on Sunday even though Rodón could have pitched on normal rest. That’s the catch here. Look at who is making those starts on normal rest:

• Will Warren: 6 of 12 starts on normal rest (50%)

• Max Fried: 5 of 12 (42%)

• Carlos Rodón: 5 of 12 (42%)

• Carlos Carrasco: 4 of 6 (68%)

• Clarke Schmidt: 3 of 9 (33%)

• Ryan Yarbrough: 2 of 4 (50%)

• Marcus Stroman: 0 of 3 (0%)

Fried and Rodón, the Yankees’ two most important starters and the only two guys you know with certainty will be in the postseason rotation (barring injury), have made fewer than half their starts on normal rest. Same with Schmidt, who got built up slowly in April after his Spring Training injuries. I mean, Carrasco has nearly as many normal rest starts as Fried/Rodon, and he got pulled from the rotation a month ago.

Schmidt’s a bit of a special case given his injuries, but with everyone other than Fried/Rodon, the Yankees are just kinda going with the flow. They haven’t eased up at all on Warren, a young pitcher in his first big league season. They might not have to either. Warren has a pretty good innings base underneath him. He’s at 52 innings this season and he threw at least 129 innings every year from 2022-24.

We’re in the extra rest era. Only 28% of starts league-wide have been made on normal rest this season. It was 37% as recently as 2022 and 47% a decade ago in 2015. The Cardinals used a six-man rotation in April. The Tigers have used one at times. The Dodgers essentially have one all the time, though their sixth starter is often a bullpen game or a minor league call up for a day rather than one set sixth starter who stays on the roster full-time. Teams give their starters extra rest more than ever these days.

I suspect the Yankees will ease up on Fried and Rodón later this year, just to make sure there’s enough gas in the tank come October. That could be when Luis Gil (or Stroman?) comes back, and/or if/when they add someone at the trade deadline. With no Gil and no Gerrit Cole, the Yankees have been up against it rotation-wise, which has led to what I suspect is more normal rest starts than they’d like. Don’t be surprised if this changes later this year, and guys get pushed back a day or two a little more frequently.

Volpe is third in total runners on base

Much has been made about Anthony Volpe’s impressive RBI total this season. He’s driven in 33 runs in 58 team games, which placed him 12th in the AL in RBI heading into Monday’s off-day. That puts Volpe on pace for a 92 RBI season and hey, that’s really great. Driving in runs is the name of the game.

RBI are the sport’s most context driven stat, however, and Volpe’s RBI total has more to do with the sheer number of RBI opportunities than it does him having a nose for driving in runners. Here are the hitters who have batted with the most runners on base this season:

1. Seiya Suzuki: 187 runners on base
2. Pete Alonso: 178
3. Anthony Volpe: 177
4. Nolan Arenado: 177
5. Elly De La Cruz: 176

It’s easy to understand why Volpe has hit with so many runners on base, right? He’s started 53 of 58 games in the fifth or sixth lineup spot, so right behind Aaron Judge (.485 OBP) and Paul Goldschmidt (.388 OBP). Remove plate appearances that end with home runs, and Judge still has a .440 OBP and Goldschmidt a .371 OBP. More than 37% of the time, at least one of those two are on base for Volpe.

Volpe is hitting .247/.306/.443 (107 wRC+) with men on base and .231/.299/.431 (100 wRC+) with runners in scoring position, which is good but not amazing. He’s driven in 29 of those 177 baserunners, or 16.4%. The league average is 13.9%, so Volpe’s better than average. He’s third in total runners on base but only 60th in percentage of runners driven in (min. 100 runners on base). There’s room for improvement here.

What this tells me is the Yankees need one more good hitter. The solution is not hope Volpe starts driving in a higher percentage of baserunners. The solution is get another middle of the order hitter, bump Volpe down further the batting order, and lengthen the lineup that way. Maybe Jazz Chisholm Jr. or Giancarlo Stanton can be that guy when they return. Trading for a third baseman would be ideal. 

(The Diamondbacks have been shockingly bad lately. They’re 28-31 overall and 2-9 in their last 11 games, and Corbin Burnes may have blown out his elbow Sunday. Shouldn’t be too long before we can start the Eugenio Suárez trade deadline watch.)

3. 2025 draft prospect: North Carolina HS IF/RHP Josh Hammond. 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.

Hammond’s father, Joey, played 11 seasons in the minors and is currently the head coach at High Point, so Josh grew up around the game. Last summer Hammond was considered a better prospect as a pitcher than as a hitter, but he wants to be an everyday player, and he hit enough this spring to convince everyone he can do it at the next level. Here’s where he slots into the latest draft prospect rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 44

• ESPN (subs. req’d): No. 18

• FanGraphs: Honorable mention

• MLB Pipeline: No. 30

• Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 37

Hammond is a big kid (6-foot-1 and 210 lbs.) who is committed to Wake Forest, where his father worked as an assistant coach before taking the top job at High Point. Here’s video and here are the relevant parts of MLB Pipeline’s free scouting report:

Hammond has at least plus raw power that plays to all fields and hits the ball exceptionally hard from the right side of the plate. His bat speed and strength should translate into 20-25 homers per season, perhaps more if he learns to lift balls in the air more consistently. While his pop stands out more than his pure hitting ability, he's making better swing decisions as he begins to leave pitching behind … Hammond had a thicker lower half when he pitched more often, but he has trimmed up his 6-foot-1 frame a bit and is now an average runner. The Wake Forest recruit won't play shortstop at the next level, but he has enough agility and plenty of arm strength to handle third base.

As a pitcher, Hammond has a low-90s fastball, a slider, and a changeup. Baseball America (subs. req’d) says it is “one of the best (three-pitch mixes) in the high school class,” and FanGraphs calls him “exciting raw material for a dev group to work with” on the pitching side. Pitching is a viable fallback plan. This isn’t a kid who also pitched in high school only because he’s just better than everyone else, and could.

Whichever team selects Hammond will do so because they love the raw power and think he can make big gains in pro ball once he focuses on hitting full-time, and while knowing they could always put him on the mound. Wake Forest is a great player development school. Hammond has the goods and could re-enter the draft as a potential top 10 pick if he goes to school and really finds himself as a position player.

4. Rapid fire thoughts. Tanner Scott told Gary Phillips the Yankees didn’t show serious interest in him over the winter. Can’t say I’m surprised. The Devin Williams trade was made a month before Scott signed, and the Dodgers gave Scott four years and $72M. I don’t see the Yankees going there for a reliever anytime soon. Scott’s first year with the Dodgers is not going great: 4.73 ERA (3.30 FIP) with four homers allowed already, more than he allowed in either of the two previous seasons (three each in 2023 and 2024). They recently demoted him out of the ninth inning … And finally, Jake Woodford and Dom Smith opted out of their minor league deals Sunday. Smith hit .255/.333/.448 (106 wRC+) with eight homers in 45 games with the RailRiders. (Maybe he’ll land back with the Red Sox?) Woodford had a 4.54 ERA (5.09 FIP) in 39.2 innings in Triple-A. He started for the RailRiders on Friday. I wonder if the Yankees would have added him to the roster to void the opt out, and called him up Sunday rather than Carlos Carrasco had the timing been better and he had been available to pitch that day? Oh well. Even with Woodford opting out and Carrasco in MLB, Scranton still has six Triple-A capable starters: Sean Boyle, Anthony DeSclafani, Erick Leal, Brandon Leibrandt, Zach Messinger, and Allan Winans. (Note: I said Triple-A caliber, not necessarily MLB caliber.)

(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 returns.)