May 30th, 2025: Angels Series, Yarbrough, Bullpen, Mailbag

The Yankees played their 54th game of the season Tuesday night, so the season is officially one-third plus one game complete. I give them an "A" for the season to date. They’re not perfect, no team is, but the Yankees are damn good, and I think pretty clearly the best team in the AL East. Here’s where the Yankees ranked heading into Thursday’s off-day:

• 3rd in runs scored per game

• 5th in runs allowed per game

• 1st in position player WAR

• 5th in starting pitcher WAR

• 4th in relief pitcher WAR

• 5th in defensive runs saved

• 1st in Aaron Judges

I pegged the Yankees as an 87-win team before the season. Playing at an 87-win pace the rest of the way would get them to 92 wins. Playing .500 ball the rest of the way gets them to 89 wins. Long way to go, but a third of the way into the season, things are going very well and the Yankees have put themselves in great position to win what looks like a sad sack division. Let's get into today’s post.

1. Weekday thoughts. The Yankees have their first (ever?) beard-related superstition. Brendan Kuty (subs. req’d) writes that Austin Wells and catching coach Tanner Swanson made a pact in Spring Training to only shave after the Yankees lose a series. With seven straight series wins in the bank, the beards stay, though they do get trimmed to comply with the current rules. I hope Wells and Swanson have their beards the rest of the season. Here are a few thoughts on the last few games.

A sweep in Anaheim

The offense is in a bit of a cold stretch, so the Yankees didn’t get their once-a-series blowout win, but they swept the Angels in Anaheim for the first time since 2018, and only the second time since 1994. Another 1-0 win Wednesday too. The Yankees have three 1-0 wins this season (all with J.C. Escarra behind the plate!). They had none last year and three from 2022-24 combined. Their last season with more than three 1-0 wins was 1976 (four). The franchise record is six 1-0 wins in 1968.

"I guess that’s what a sports fan feels like when you’re watching the games, you’re on the edge of your seat,” Clarke Schmidt, who threw six shutout innings Wednesday despite some early pitch count trouble, told Bryan Hoch about the 1-0 win. “We were in here cheering every pitch, every strike. It’s a lot of fun.”

The offense is in a cold stretch and, not coincidentally, so is Aaron Judge. He went 2-for-8 with four walks (two intentional) against the Angels, which isn’t horrible, though he is swinging through/fouling away a lot of pitches in the zone, and chasing a bit more too. Judge will be fine. He’s still hitting .391/.448/.739 (240 wRC+). He’s allowed to have a down week, but when it happens, scoring runs can be a challenge.

My biggest complaint about the offense right now is Judge hit third all three games in Anaheim, and was left standing on deck when the final out of the ninth inning was made in all three games. That’s three close games in which the best hitter in the world didn’t get that one extra at-bat in the ninth inning because he’s hitting lower in the order than he should. That can’t keep happening. Once is too many times.

The Yankees have to get Judge as many at-bats as possible. The more he’s at the plate, the better they’ll be, so put Judge in the No. 2 spot and leave him there. Juan Soto is not here anymore. There is no other elite bat to hit second. Hit Judge second, and if it means he has to hit back-to-back with Paul Goldschmidt against lefties, then so be it. Judge batting third potentially leaves too many Judge at-bats on the table.

Trent Grisham had a single and a double Wednesday but is in the middle of his first slump of the season. It was bound to happen eventually. He is 7-for-44 (.159) with two doubles in his last 13 games and his contact quality has gone in the tank. To this I say: yikes.

If the clock has struck midnight on Grisham, then so be it. The Yankees can say thank you for those great first six weeks and cut back on his playing time as part of the outfield/first base/DH rotation. Grisham was so good to start the season though, and the Yankees are playing very well overall. They can and should give him some runway and find out if this is just a slump, and see if he can get back on track. (But maybe move him down in the lineup for the time being.)

Otherwise the three starting pitchers were great against the Angels, the bullpen other than Devin Williams locked things down, and the Yankees had one of their better defensive series of the season. The Angels are pretty bad. I know they recently won eight straight and swept the Dodgers, but they’re bad, and good teams fatten up against bad teams. The Yankees did that this week. A good series all around.

New and improved: Ryan Yarbrough

Yarbrough is filling a Nestor Cortes-sized hole in my heart. He was great again Monday. Gave up a leadoff homer to Zach Neto, then retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced, and the two baserunners were a walk and an infield single. Yarbrough has a 3.06 ERA (4.31 FIP) and a 3.08 xERA in 35.1 innings overall, and a 2.25 ERA (3.87 FIP) in 20 innings across his four starts. 

“It’s fun to watch him pitch. He flips that sweeper up there like 68, 69, and it looks like a wiffle ball coming in there,” Aaron Boone told Gary Phillips. “… I look at him and think I wouldn’t have liked facing him. He’s tall. He’s kind of elbows, knees, and throwing everything at you in his delivery. There’s some deception to it. It’s obviously not overpowering, but it’s under what these guys are used to seeing.”

Once again, Yarbrough is baseball’s soft contact king. He had had lowest average exit velocity allowed from 2018-24 (by 1.1 mph), and among the 160 pitchers with at least 30 innings this year, Yarbrough has the lowest average exit velocity (84.1 mph), lowest hard-hit rate (24.5%), and third lowest barrel rate (4.3%). We’ve seen the Yankees on the other side of it. The guy is almost impossible to square up.

This year Yarbrough has added strikeouts to the weak contact. Seven on Monday and eight last time out against the Rangers. Yarbrough is running a career high 24.8 K% (it was 17.4 K% from 2021-24) and a career high 11.6% swinging strike rate (if you ignore 2020). He got strikeouts with five different pitch types Monday: changeup (three) plus cutter, four-seamer, sinker, and sweeper (one each). I mean:

• Changeup: 46.3% whiff rate (8th highest in MLB; min. 100 thrown)

• Sweeper: 37.1% whiff rate (11th highest in MLB; min. 100 thrown)

• Four-seamer: 31.6% whiff rate (30th highest in MLB; min. 50 thrown)

In a free edition of his newsletter earlier this week, Lance Brozdowski noted Yarbrough’s changeup this year “has 5” less vertical break (more drop) and 4” more arm-side movement at the same velocity (because) the Yankees have changed the orientation of the ball slightly in his hand.” The Yankees didn’t change Yarbrough’s changeup grip, they changed the position of the ball in his hand. From Brozdowski:

Brozdowski notes this is what the Yankees did with Carlos Rodón and Luke Weaver, among others. No wonder they keep bringing in changeup guys. Matt Blake & Co. know how to max them out. The Yankees are changeup specialists now. Yarbrough’s also getting more sweep on his sweeper than any point since 2019. It’s not blow-you-away stuff, but it kinda is? The strikeouts and weak contact don’t lie.

The Yankees signed Yarbrough to what has already proven to be a bargain $2M deal five days before Opening Day because it had become clear Schmidt would not be ready to start the season, and they just needed a body. Yarbrough said he signed with the Yankees because “I've heard a lot from the pitching side. What they've been able to do with guys. That was exciting and intriguing to me.” 

Yarbrough signed with the Yankees because they have a reputation for improving pitchers, and they helped him improve. With soft-tossers like him, there’s always that “it could fall apart at any moment” feeling, but Yarbrough has the goods. He’s always gotten weak contact and now he misses bats too. The tweaks the Yankees have made are a tangible reason to believe in the results. If not a low-3s ERA all year, then at least league average-ish, which is a fantastic outcome for a cheap late Spring Training pickup.

On the bullpen and Weaver’s workload

I don’t think we’ll have to worry about Boone being tempted to move Devin Williams back into the closer’s role. Williams closed out Tuesday’s win because Luke Weaver was unavailable, and he gave up a solo homer, three hits, three hard-hit balls, and a second run before pinch-hitter Logan O’Hoppe popped up a 3-0 pitch for the 27th out. O’Hoppe and DJ LeMahieu’s stretching skills bailed Williams out.

“I didn’t think (O’Hoppe would) be swinging there, to be honest. Kind of did me a favor,” Williams told Greg Beacham. “ … At the end of the day, we won. That’s all that matters.”

Williams had been so good in a setup role the last few weeks, including striking out 13 of 28 batters he faced in his eight outings prior to Tuesday, then he was all over the place in his return to the ninth inning. There just aren’t many competitive pitches here:

We’re two months into the season and Williams has been such a disappointment. Call it what it is. He was brought in to be a lockdown closer, a shutdown high leverage guy, and he hasn’t been that. He’s been that here and there, there have been a few outings that make you want to believe, but 17 runs allowed already ties his career high, and it’s not one or two bad games. There have been several meltdowns.

Of course, Williams had to close Tuesday because Weaver pitched Monday even though a) the Yankees had a four-run lead, b) he’d pitched four times in the previous six days, and c) he had to work hard to get the final three outs Sunday. He put two runners on base and needed 25 pitches to get three outs Monday, and looked gassed. Five appearances in seven days will do that to a reliever.

“I was a little in between. Going with him tonight, knowing you’re going to be down with him (Tuesday),” Boone told Greg Joyce about using Weaver. “A little concerned if I go to (Ian Hamilton) or something there, and then I have to get Weave up too, I’m really short (Tuesday). I just felt like with a four-run lead, knowing I might have to get him up if somebody gets on base, I just felt like I had to go to Weave there.”

First of all, ouch, Hamilton catching strays. Second of all, the manager not trusting any of his other relievers to get three outs before allowing four runs (or turning it into a save situation) seems bad. I get it, you have to win the game in front of you, but you do have to manage the bigger picture in May. Weaver worked pretty hard against the Rangers, Rockies, and Angels. Was that really necessary?

The Yankees were able to give Weaver the night off Wednesday – shoutout to Hamilton, Tim Hill, Mark Leiter Jr., and J.C. Escarra’s framing skills for nailing down that 1-0 win – so he’ll have had three straight days off going into Friday’s opener against the Dodgers. Other than Williams in the ninth inning and a few other hiccups along the way, the bullpen has been so good this year, and especially lately. The season numbers:

• ERA: 3.25 (5th in MLB)

• FIP: 3.27 (4th)

• K%: 26.6% (3rd)

• BB%: 10.5% (22nd)

• HR/9: 0.70 (7th)

• WPA: +2.06 (8th)

• WAR: +2.5 (4th)

Few too many walks, and I wish they had a guy who could come in and throw 100 mph by hitters, but the bullpen has been really good overall, Williams’ meltdowns notwithstanding. Also, the Yankees’ bullpen has thrown the 18th most innings (194) and has the third fewest appearances with zero days’ rest (23). The workload is relatively light and distributed fairly evenly among the go-to high leverage guys.

Jonathan Loáisiga is back and Cruz will be soon, so maybe I shouldn’t freak out about Weaver’s workload. I know how this works. This week I’m freaking out about Boone using Weaver again Monday, and in a week I’ll be saying he needs to pitch just to get work. Monday did seem unnecessary though. Well, whatever. The bullpen and the pitching in general has been fantastic. Far better than I expected after Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil got hurt.

Miscellany

The league is not ready for bearded Carlos Rodón. He was again outstanding Tuesday night: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K (video) on 105 pitches. Yeah, the Angels stink, but that is exactly what you’re supposed to do against teams that stink. By Game Score, it was tied for Rodón’s best ever start as a Yankee. You know you’re having a charmed season when Rodón does this (video) …

… and doesn’t throw the ball into the dugout or get hurt, let alone get the out. You can count the number of hiccups this season on one hand. Rodón has been terrific. Major props to him for reinventing himself after a rough 2023 and a rough stretch in the middle of 2024 … Goldschmidt just keeps humming along, stacking multi-hits games. He was amazing in April (.356/.403/.475 and 152 wRC+) and has been even better in May (.333/.404/.524 and 163 wRC+). I was skeptical of the signing, I don’t think unreasonably, and I am happy to be wrong. Goldschmidt has been incredible and his contact quality is ticking up and beginning to match the output rather than the output coming down to match subpar contact quality (self-promotion: I wrote a thing about Goldschmidt at CBS) … Since Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s last game, Yankees’ second and third basemen are hitting a combined .141/.234/.256 (42 wRC+) in 178 plate appearances. It’s .144/.206/.267 (32 wRC+) in 98 plate appearances since Oswaldo Cabrera’s last game. I know Oswald Peraza hit what proved to be the game-winning homer Tuesday (video), but good gravy have second and third base been terrible. That is two black holes in the lineup every single game … I think I’m in on Yerry De Los Santos. Mid-90 sinker that has been up to 98.5 mph, and Monday night he threw three changeups (I think it’s a splitter? maybe YES will give us a close-up of his grip one of these days) and got three swings and misses. Funky little pitch, this is:

Maybe he’ll never be a true high leverage option or higher than fifth or sixth on the bullpen depth chart, but as an up/down guy, De Los Santos has pretty good stuff. He gives off “you look up in three months and surprise, he has a 2.35 ERA” vibes … And finally, I’m holding off on deeper Anthony Volpe analysis for another few weeks, but I do want to acknowledge that he’s been great lately, and he drove in a run(s) in all three games in Anaheim. Reality check: Volpe is hitting .246/.325/.442 (116 wRC+) through 55 team games. Through 55 team games last year, he was hitting .282/.355/.435 (127 wRC+). This is why I will refrain from any more in-depth Volpe analysis for a few more weeks. (I will note his under-the-hood numbers right now are better than they've been at any point in his career.)

Injury updates

Jazz Chisholm Jr. (oblique) started a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset on Thursday. He played third base (and didn't have a single ball hit his way). Jazz told Boone he’s all for it, and there’s no reason not to get him time at third. If nothing else, it opens the door for a second or third base addition at the deadline rather than being locked into a third baseman. More importantly, Chisholm is on a rehab assignment, and should be back within a few days … Giancarlo Stanton (elbows) has been in Tampa taking live at-bats this week. He’ll continue doing that for another week or so, then the Yankees will see where he’s at … Luis Gil (lat) is with the Yankees on the West Coast and could throw a bullpen at Dodger Stadium Friday. It would be his first time throwing off a mound as part of his rehab … Fernando Cruz (shoulder) threw a 20-pitch bullpen Wednesday and expects to throw live BP Saturday. He is eligible to return Tuesday. Seems like Cruz will be back then as long as Saturday goes well … A prospect injury of note, bad edition: Bryce Cunningham, last year’s second rounder and my No. 6 prospect, was placed on High-A Hudson Valley’s injured list earlier this week. Not sure what’s wrong with him or how long he’ll be sidelined, but he’s a pitcher, and pitchers get hurt. Cunningham was off to a really good start with the Renegades too (2.14 ERA and 3.43 FIP with 26.7 K% and 6.1 BB% in 42 innings). Pitchers, man … And finally, a prospect injury of note, good edition: Spencer Jones is back. He came off the Double-A Somerset injured list Thursday. Jones had been out since May 3rd with an intercostal strain. In his first at-bat back, Jones singled to drive in Chisholm (video). Here's to many more years of Jones driving in Jazz (just not in Double-A).

Up next

A World Series rematch at Dodger Stadium. Hopefully this weekend goes better than the last time the Yankees played in Chavez Ravine, not that winning this series would make up for last year. Here’s what’s coming up this weekend:

• Friday at Dodgers: LHP Max Fried vs. RHP Tony Gonsolin (10pm ET on Apple TV+)

• Saturday at Dodgers: RHP Will Warren vs. RHP Landon Knack (7pm ET on FOX)

• Sunday at Dodgers: TBA vs. RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7pm ET on ESPN)

• Monday: off-day

Three games, three national broadcasts, three different networks. Baseball as absolutely no one intended. We’re going to see Freddie Freeman’s Game 1 walk-off grand slam and the Game 5 errors no fewer than 4,000 times each. The good news is the Yankees are done with the West Coast after this weekend. After tonight, it’s four months of baseball with no starts later than 8pm ET (and only a handful of 8pm ET starts at that).

Sunday is Yarbrough’s spot, though the Yankees could also start Rodón on normal rest. This is probably a “if we need Yarbrough out of the bullpen Friday or Saturday, we’ll use him and start Rodón on Sunday, otherwise Yarbrough will start Sunday” situation. Rodón threw a season high 105 pitches Tuesday. I know this weekend feels like a big series, but if you can get Rodón a little extra rest, that would be ideal.

The Dodgers have been so-so the last few weeks (5-7 in their last 12 games) and their pitching staff, both starters and relievers, is downright mediocre. They have a team 4.09 ERA (4.07 FIP) this season and it’s 4.38 ERA (4.48 FIP) in May. The Dodgers have 14 (!) pitchers on the injured list, including Tyler Glasnow, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, Blake Treinen, and Kirby Yates. Yeesh.

Park of that is by design, the Dodgers load up on guys with top shelf stuff and accept increased injury risk to get it, and part of it is just pitchers being pitchers. Yamamoto has been unbelievable this year. He’s in the super early Cy Young conversation. Gonsolin and Knack are gettable though, as is the bullpen. With any luck, the offense will wake up this weekend, and the pitching will continue to be excellent.

2. 2025 draft prospect: Vanderbilt LHP JD Thompson. 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.

Thompson, 21, has been a mainstay in Vanderbilt’s rotation the last two years, and this season he owns a 4.06 ERA (3.30 FIP) with 31.4 K% and 8.3 BB% in 82 innings. I know a 4.06 ERA doesn’t jump off the page, but the SEC average is a 4.75 ERA this year, so Thompson has been well above average in his offensive environment. He’s struck out 30.4% of the batters he’s faced in three years as a Commodore.

For what it’s worth, Thompson has been his best against elite competition this year. He dominated top 10 ranked Georgia (8 IP, 1 R, 14 K) and Alabama (7 IP, 0 R, 11 K) in recent weeks, and pitched well against defending National Champion Tennessee (6 IP, 2 R, 6 K). Here’s where Thompson slots into the latest draft prospect rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 61

• ESPN (subs. req’d): No. 59

• FanGraphs: Honorable mention

• MLB Pipeline: No. 67

• Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 47

Thompson pitched well in limited action in the Cape Cod League last summer (14 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 3 BB, 18 K), a wood bat league that features the best college players in the country. It is a proving ground for draft prospects. Here’s video and here’s a snippet of MLB Pipeline’s free scouting report:

Though Thompson's fastball camps at 90-93 mph and tops out at 95, it ranks near the top of college baseball in terms of getting strikes, chases and swings and misses both inside and outside of the strike zone. His heater features significant induced vertical break, and he also can command it to both sides of the plate. His second-best offering is a 77-81 mph sweeping slider that he uses primarily against lefties and can back-foot versus righties.

Thompson also can miss bats with his mid-70s curveball and low-80s changeup with mild fade but has more difficulty landing them for strikes. He has little effort in his delivery and repeats it well, so he could develop above-average control. He comes with a high floor as a No. 4 starter and might be better than that if his fastball continues to thrive at the next level.

The Yankees love Vanderbilt players (Bryce Cunningham, Greysen Carter, Spencer Jones) and Vanderbilt commits (George Lombard Jr., Anthony Volpe). It stands to reason Thompson is on their radar, though the scouting reports suggest his stuff is a notch below the pitchers they usually take in the early rounds of the draft. The Yankees go for big stuff, even if it comes with iffy control and injury risk.

College lefties with strong track records are always popular on draft day. The Yankees have the No. 39 pick and then don’t pick again until No. 103, so if they want Thompson, they will have to take him at No. 39. No chance he’s on the board at No. 103 (or No. 39, for that matter). I wrote Thompson up because of the Vanderbilt thing. The Yankees typically go for bigger stuff though, at least in the early rounds. Not sure about their interest level.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees offered Orlando Arcia a minor league contract after he was released by the Braves (May 25th) and before he signed an MLB deal with the Rockies (May 26th). They are considering all options for righty infield bats, eh? Arcia lost his job to Nick Allen (!) this year and he’s hit .224/.278/.365 (75 wRC+) in 999 plate appearances since Braves fans stuffed the ballot box and voted him into the All-Star Game as a starter in 2023. Arcia is not good, but neither is Pablo Reyes, and there’s no harm in floating a minor league deal. Over the weekend Bob Nightengale reported the Yankees want a righty hitting third baseman and I swear, I thought it was a report from November that the algorithm decided to barf into my feed this week. Look at it this way: If the Yankees didn’t leave one glaring roster need unaddressed each offseason, what would we talk about all summer? 

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Kevin asks: What about a Jasson Dominguez for Jordan Lawlar swap? 

I think it would be a fair trade value-wise. It’s 5.5 years of Domínguez for 5.5-6 years of Lawlar, depending when exactly you call him up. They’re roughly the same age (Lawlar is five months younger) and have been consensus top 25-ish prospects the last few years. Value-wise, I think it matches up well. I just don’t think the Diamondbacks would trade an infielder for an outfielder right now. They’re overstuffed with outfielders (Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Alek Thomas in MLB with Jorge Barrosa and Jake McCarthy in Triple-A) and have infield openings on the horizon. Eugenio Suárez will be a free agent after the season, and there’s been speculation Arizona will move Ketel Marte from second to first soon as they try to avoid the nagging leg injuries he deals with every year. Lawlar had a very rough big league stint this year (0-for-22 with 9 K), but he’s talented, and would fill a position of need. I think Domínguez for Lawlar would make sense for the Yankees and is fair in terms of value, but the D’Backs wouldn’t do it given their infield/outfield situation.

Jacob asks: Oswald Peraza. Is there any hope he can be an average MLB hitter? What do the underlying metrics say about him? Just feel like there’s maybe more pop in his bat given that the Yankees held on to him instead of Corey Seager in 2021.

Jacob sent this question in before Peraza’s home run Tuesday, not that that changes much. The slash line is very bad (.160/.236/.333 and 60 wRC+) and the underlying stuff isn’t all that promising. The exit velocity and hard-hit ability is below average, he chases a lot, and swings and misses too much. Peraza’s 17.6% swinging strike rate is 12th highest among the 329 players with at least 80 plate appearances. That just doesn't work when it comes with poor contact quality. The glove is good and there is prospect pedigree. It could be that Peraza is the kinda guy who needs 1,000 plate appearances to find his way at the big league level. The Yankees can’t really wait on that though. The clock is ticking on Aaron Judge’s (and Max Fried’s) prime. Maybe Peraza will figure things out down the road. What I can tell you now is his batting line is not bad luck. The plate discipline, contact skills, and exit velocity are lacking.

Jeremy asks: Knowing the Yankees are in desperate need of a right-handed hitter, I've looked over some outfield and 3B names on basement dwellers. The Orioles have "The Ramons" (Urias and Laureano). Pirates have Ke'Bryan Hayes... could Bryan Reynolds be a target? His avg is way down and he has 5 years left on his deal but could be a change of scenery guy. Curious about your thoughts.

Urías is the guy to focus on here. I loved Hayes a few years ago, but he's gone backwards as a hitter, and Reynolds is a “don’t give a good but not great player a long-term deal” cautionary tale. I wanted him during his team control years and not a second longer. Laureano is out with an ankle injury right now and hasn’t hit this season, though he did very well against lefties last year. We can circle back whenever he gets back on the field.

There’s a chance Urías, 30, will be the best third baseman on the market at the deadline. He’s hitting .283/.343/.375 (108 wRC+) as an everyday guy this year after being a platoon player/part-timer the last few years. Here are his 2023-25 splits:

• vs. RHP: .262/.326/.383 (103 wRC+)

• vs. LHP: .271/.336/.416 (115 wRC+)

• vs. ALL: .264/.329/.392 (106 wRC+)

The contact quality (exit velocity, etc.) is average-ish and so are the contact rates. Urías can pick at it at the hot corner (and second base!) too. The numbers have been up and down over the years but the eye test says he’s very good and has a knack for highlight reel plays. The baserunning isn’t great. For all intents and purposes, Urías is a 7-8-9 bat with solid defense. Not sexy, but he’d help the Yankees.

Also, Urías would remain under team control next season as an arbitration-eligible player. He’s making $3.15M this year and would likely be in the $5M range next year. With the upcoming free agent class being what it is (bad), Urías might be the best shot at adding an average-ish second/third baseman over the next 20 months or so. Is he better than Oswald Peraza? Yes. That’s the bar the Yankees have to clear.

The Orioles are very bad, shockingly bad really, and if they sell, I assume Urías would be one of the first guys they put out there because their infield is set moving forward (Jordan Westburg at third, Gunnar Henderson at short, Jackson Holliday at second). There might even be a bidding war for him. The Blue Jays, Brewers, Guardians, and Royals all stand out as infield needy teams that could use a Urías type.

The Reds traded the equivalent of two lower minors Grade C prospects (Mike Sirota and the No. 41 draft pick) for two postseasons of Gavin Lux. Is that the price for two postseasons of Urías? It might be given what figures to be a lack of quality infielders on the trade market. Urías could definitely help the Yankees, who need a third baseman and a righty bat. He’s not an impact guy, but he would be an upgrade.

Daniel asks: The Yankees want a right handed third baseman and there don't seem to be many (good) potential options on the market. I can't believe I'm asking this, but should they consider an IKF reunion? The Pirates are bad, he can play third and back up shortstop (which may be necessary with a bench of Grisham/Dominguez, Rice/Stanton, Escarra, and I guess DJ), and he's currently sitting on a 100 wrc+.

I’m sure Isiah Kiner-Falefa will be available. The Pirates stink and he’s a rental, and they would probably love to unload the remainder of his $7.5M salary. He’s having a solid enough season at the plate (.297/.343/.381 and 102 wRC+), though Pittsburgh is stubbornly playing him at shortstop, where he is again mistake prone. I see Pirates fans complaining constantly about the bobbles and short-hop throws (sound familiar)?

It’s funny because, if Kiner-Falefa had never been a Yankee, I’d say yeah, he makes sense at third base if no one better is available. He’s better than Pablo Reyes and is a competent bottom of the order guy with contact skills and speed. But we’ve been through this once already, right? Do we want to go through it again? Maybe it’s worth it if no better third basemen become available. I will put Kiner-Falefa in the maybe pile. Let’s call him a good Plan B or C if nothing better shakes loose.

George asks: Please tell me that the time is near for the Yanks to part ways with LeMahieu. When Jazz comes back, that should be the end. He's back to his anemic BA and Peraza or Vivas can more than handle 3rd. Open up the roster spot. He has nothing left.

DJ LeMahieu hit a home run against the Mets and had a three-hit game against the Rockies, otherwise it's been the same DJ LeMahieu as the last few years. Ton of ground balls (57.1%). more swings and misses than ever (24.4 K% and 11.0% swinging strikes), and a lot of early count swings (hunting fastballs?) and quick at-bats (3.37 pitches per plate appearance). LeMahieu has looked surprisingly good defensively at second base. I figured his days up the middle were over. The bat just ain’t there anymore though.

Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas have been so bad that keeping LeMahieu is fine for now, but these are roster spots the Yankees should try to upgrade. LeMahieu is a beloved teammate and cutting him will be an unpopular move, but that’s the way it goes. The Dodgers cut their two longest tenured position players earlier this month (Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor) because they determined they had nothing left to offer on the field. If the defending World Series champs can do that, so can the Yankees. It was worth seeing what LeMahieu looked like given the third base situation. The nicest thing we can say is the early returns are not promising.

Mike asks: Should the Yankees have kept Carlos Narvaez? He’s been great for Boston and a righty backup catcher would pair well with Wells.

Yeah, the two left-handed hitting catchers thing is clunky, and Narváez would have fit very well as a righty complement to Wells. He’s hitting .289/.357/.465 (130 wRC+) with five homers this year because he’s taking full advantage of Fenway Park as a righty who pulls the ball in the air a ton …

• Home: .338/.420/.597 (178 wRC+) 

• Road: .257/.307/.357 (91 wRC+)

… and that’s not something he would not benefit from at Yankee Stadium. Narváez’s defense has been great (+7 DRS already), which is a) a bit surprising only because I didn’t realize he was this good defensively, and b) not all that surprising because it seems like every catcher who comes through the Yankees is better defensively than advertised. Between the bat and the glove, Narváez has really been great for the Red Sox. Imagine where they’d be without him, Garrett Crochet, and Alex Bregman (before he got hurt)?

The Yankees didn’t give Narváez away. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz is having a great season (2.74 ERA and 3.16 FIP with 26.6 K% and 11.9 BB%) and might be the best pitching prospect in the system, but he is in High-A, and won’t help the Yankees for a year or two. They traded a player (to a division rival) who would have had a clear role with the MLB team for a High-A prospect. Perhaps the Yankees got too cute.

I could have sworn I wrote at the time that I was surprised the Yankees traded Narváez and Jose Trevino, their two upper level righty hitting catchers, but I can’t find it now. I’m not sure Narváez is actually this good, his results and contact quality don’t align, though you needn’t try hard to see how he could have helped the Yankees this season, certainly more than Rodriguez-Cruz. The Yankees might like a do over on this one. J.C. Escarra is a swell guy and a great story, but that only goes so far.

Michael asks: Let's assume there is a point in the summer where all pitchers are healthy, with the exception of Cole, and no one has pitched themselves off of the roster. The easy decision is to cut Stroman, right? Other than the fact that he used to be good and that he's highly paid, he provides no actual value. On top of that, he can be a distraction when he's unhappy, which he almost certainly would be as the 7/8 starter or last man out of the bullpen.

The “everyone except Gerrit Cole is healthy” rotation would be Max Fried, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, and Will Warren. If you want Ryan Yarbrough over Schmidt or Warren, okay, I get it, but that would be my starting five. The seven bullpen locks are then:

• Closer: RHP Luke Weaver

• Setup: RHP Fernando Cruz, LHP Jonathan Loáisiga 

• Middle: LHP Tim Hill, RHP Mark Leiter Jr., RHP Devin Williams

• Long: LHP Ryan Yarbrough

That leaves one bullpen spot for JT Brubaker, Jake Cousins, Yerry De Los Santos, Ian Hamilton, Brent Headrick, and Marcus Stroman (and Clayton Beeter and Scott Effross). Does Cousins get the last spot because he was so good late last year and would bring needed velocity? Does Hamilton keep it? I dunno. Brubaker and Stroman can not be sent to the minors, remember. The others can.

To answer the question, yeah, I think Stroman would be the odd man out. You’d hate to cut rotation depth, but I’m not sure Stroman really is rotation depth at this point in his career, and he doesn’t have the kind of stuff that would jump a notch in the bullpen. This is purely hypothetical, there is no chance every pitcher other than Cole will be healthy at the same time, though it is hard to see how Stroman fits. You know what that means, right? He’s going to make 10 starts in August and September.

Dmitry asks: Not a Yankee question per se, but what is going on with Juan Soto?? Statcast Numbers down across the board. Was there something different about his time in the Bronx or is this just bad luck? If he was a Yankee with this numbers, he would be tied with Jazz Chisolm for 8th(!!) in WAR!

Between the Subway Series and watching the Mets while waiting for the Yankees to start their West Coast games, I’ve watched more Soto at-bats these last 2-3 weeks than I did the entire season up to this point.

Soto is definitely frustrated (he smashed his bat after swinging through a pitch in the zone this past weekend) and he just looks out of sorts. He struck out three times in his first three at-bats against Garrett Crochet last week, saw 10 total pitches, and swung at two of them. Like, what is going on here? Crochet is a very tough draw left-on-left, but that looks nothing like the hitter we watched last season.

The under-the-hood stuff remains excellent, though it is down a tick from last season. Down a tick as in “he should be a top 20 hitter rather than a top five hitter.” Soto is massively underperforming his Statcast expected stats (xSLG, etc.) …

… which suggests it’s only a matter of time until he gets going. But we are almost in June, right? The guy is hitting .225/.352/.393 (113 wRC+), which is not bad, but the Mets didn’t give him $765M expecting Mike Yastrzemski production. We watched Soto last year. Could you imagine that player hitting this poorly (relatively speaking) for two months? It seems unthinkable.

Soto’s an incredible hitter and I’m sure he’ll be fine, though this has gone on much longer than I expected, and you can see it wearing on him. He was so alive and energetic last year. Now he’s just going through it. And ultimately, this ain’t my problem. The Yankees are playing very well and I don’t have to write about an underperforming superstar. Soto will be fine eventually. Until he is, the schadenfreude will continue.

Steve asks: How does Ohtani work with trying to rehab as a pitcher? No chance he can do a minor league rehab assignment as a mlb player, right? Also, this movement on this pitch is absurd. Are the dodgers just gonna throw him into it?

The Dodgers have already said Shohei Ohtani will stay with the team and do his pitching rehab work in simulated games rather than go out on a minor league rehab assignment. That’s what he did with the Angels the first time he had his UCL repaired. I’m not even sure how a rehab assignment would work. Can Ohtani be an active MLB hitter and a rehabbing pitcher? No, right? He’s not on the injured list. Then again, MLB has literally rewritten the rules a few times for Ohtani, so I’m sure they’d allow him to pitch in rehab games while hitting for the big league Dodgers. But yeah, he’s going to stay with the MLB team and build up in simulated games. They’re taking it very slow with him. I don’t think we’ll see Ohtani back on the mound until after the All-Star break.

(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.)