March 31st, 2025: Opening Sweep, Torpedo Bats, RailRiders

The Yankees have swept their first series of the season for the first time since, well, last year. Before that, they hadn’t swept their opening series since 2003, and this is the first time the Yankees have swept an opening series of at least three games in back-to-back seasons, if you can believe that. Lots of franchise firsts this weekend, eh? Not complaining. Here is Tuesday’s post on Monday since it’s an off-day, and because I don’t want to wait around to hit publish after that very fun series against the Brewers.

1. Weekend thoughts. Three games. It took three games for a team to intentionally walk Aaron Judge with the bases empty this season. The Brewers did it in the third inning Sunday and it was the first intentional walk in the month of March in baseball history. Jazz Chisholm Jr. immediately followed with a short porch homer (video). B-e-a-utiful. Jazz added another homer later in the game (video). He’s a first ballot entry into the Hall of Fun As Hell. Here are a few thoughts on the weekend.

Back-to-back-to-back and belly-to-Belli-to-belly

Nestor Cortes is one of my all-time favorites and I greatly appreciate his continued contributions to the Yankees. Three homers on three pitches to begin the game Saturday (video) and five homers in two innings plus one batter. Nestor’s previous career high was three homers allowed. To put this another way, Cortes faced 17 batters Saturday, and 10 of the 17 either walked or hit a home run. Nasty, Nestor.

“It was just like, ‘bang bang bang,’ and we were up three,” Cody Bellinger told Bryan Hoch. “This was exciting. We love the lineup, we love the depth, we love the guys we’ve got in this locker room.”

Games like Saturday’s, a 20-9 win with a historic number of home runs, create a million different stats and fun facts, then the Yankees went and scored another 12 runs Sunday. 36 runs in the first three games is the third most in history behind the 1954 Cubs (40 runs) and 1978 Brewers (41). The Yankees had never scored more than 34 runs in their first three games. They scored 34 in 1932 and 1950, two World Series title years. Good omen. I’m gonna go through things bit by bit. Sound good? Let’s go.

- The Yankees had never hit back-to-back-to-back home runs to start a game before Saturday. That's one of those things that would make me say "nah, this is too far out there" for my Bold Predictions. Three former MVPs did it too (Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger, Aaron Judge in that order). You think Jazz wanted to make it four straight homers?

Three homers on three pitches to begin a game had not been done since MLB started tracking pitch count data in 1988. The Yankees hit four homers in the first inning overall. They somehow had never done that before in franchise history. At one point the Yankees had seven homers and six outs. Seven homers and six outs! They became the first team in history to hit seven homers in the first three innings of a game.

- Goldschmidt, hitting leadoff against a lefty, hit the first home run by a Yankees’ first baseman since DJ LeMahieu’s grand slam in Philadelphia last July 31st. James Smyth says the 67-game first base home run drought (postseason included) is the second longest ever by the Yankees, behind a 74-game drought spanning 1942-43. A first baseman with power. What a concept!

I didn’t love sticking with Goldschmidt in the leadoff spot against Aaron Civale on Sunday, even with Civale’s (slight) reverse splits, but it all worked out. I just hope this doesn't turn into a "it worked for two games in March, so he have to stick with it until July" thing. Goldschmidt against righties is not so good at this point in his career, Sunday excluded. Keep scoring a dozen runs a game and won't complain though.

- Austin Wells added the Yankees’ fourth homer later in that first inning against Cortes (video). That is notable because, last season, Wells did not hit a single home run against a lefty. He didn’t even record his first extra-base hit against lefty until Sept. 17th. It’s early, I know, but since Day 1 of Spring Training the arrow has been pointing up on Wells.

- Thursday (Wells) and Saturday (Goldschmidt) were the first time the Yankees hit leadoff homers in back-to-back games since Brett Gardner did it on July 29th and 30th in 2014. The 2025 Yankees are the second team in the last 50 years to hit leadoff homers in the first two games of the season. Ian Kinsler did it for the Rangers in 2011. Wells and Anthony Volpe both went deep Thursday and Saturday and I thought maybe it had been a while since two Yankees hit homers in each of the first two games of the season, but nope. Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton did it in 2022.

- Five bullet points in, I will finally get to Judge, who had his third career three-homer game Saturday (video). I guess he’s got the whole “he’s opening his hips too early” thing ironed out, eh? Three three-homer games is tied with Joe DiMaggio, Alex Rodriguez, and Babe Ruth for second most in Yankees history. Only Lou Gehrig (four) as more. Judge came this close to hitting a fourth home run, and instead had to settle for a double off the wall:

Judge had another chance to hit a fourth homer later in the game, but lined out to left. He was what, three feet away from a fourth homer on the double? Then he would have had a chance to hit a fifth home run in his last at-bat. There have been 16 four-homer games. Only two players have ever stepped to the plate with a chance to hit a fifth homer: Gehrig and Mike Cameron. Judge was not far from joining them. That double was one good wind gust away from going over the fence. Alas.

"Working on a couple things, and hopefully these things continue to give us good results," Judge told Gary Phillips after Sunday's win. "I wanted to try to have a better March and April than I did last season. So I did some stuff throughout Spring Training, but I think the biggest thing is just this offense. Every time I walk up, there's guys on base."

- The Yankees finished with a franchise record nine home runs Saturday (video). The previous record was eight homers, done most recently on July 31st, 2007 against the White Sox. Seven different Yankees hit a home run Saturday, tied for the most in a game in team history with that 2007 White Sox game. Only three times in baseball history has a team hit nine home runs in a game. Here’s the list:

1. Blue Jays: 10 HR vs. Orioles on Sept. 14th, 1987
t-2. Reds: 9 HR vs. Phillies on Sept. 4th, 1999
t-2. Yankees: 9 HR vs. Brewers on March 20th, 2025

Aaron Boone hit the first of those nine homers for the Reds. Those 10 Blue Jays homers put an end to Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive innings streak. He played 8,243 straight innings from 1982-87 before the O’s got him off his feet late in that blowout. Then you have Judge’s three home runs in the other nine-homer game. Nine homers! Suzyn Waldman joked with Dave Sims that he didn’t see that many homers in a week when he was broadcasting in Seattle.

- The Yankees scored 20 runs Saturday for the first time since Sept. 15th, 2020 against the Blue Jays. I thought that was Kyle Higashioka’s three-homer game, but no, that was the next day, when the Yankees scored only 13 runs. Slackers. Saturday was the first time the Yankees scored 20 runs with fans in the stands since Aug. 30th, 2015 in Atlanta, and the first time they did it with fans in the stands at Yankee Stadium since Aug. 25th, 2011 against the Athletics. That was the three grand slam game. The Yankees have 10 20-run games this century. No other team has more than six and four teams (Cardinals, Pirates, Rays, Tigers) have zero.

- On the other side of the coin, the Yankees won a game while allowing nine runs for the first time since July 23rd, 2019 in Minnesota. You remember that game. That was the Air Hicks catch game. From the late 1970s until 2014, the Yankees used to win 1-2 games a year when allowing nine runs. They’ve done it only four times since then. Not sure what to make of that. Is there anything to it? It probably has to do with the Yankees improving their run prevention more than anything. They don’t allow nine runs all that often. (Only 132 times since 2015, sixth fewest in baseball.)

- The Yankees hit 15 home runs in the three-game series. That ties the 2006 Tigers for the most in the first three games of the season and shatters the previous franchise record (nine in 2011). Last season’s Yankees did not hit their 15th homer until Game 13. The 15 homers are tied for their third most ever in any three-game span. The team record is 19 (!) back in 2020, which included that 20-run game. Expert opinion: The Yankees won’t have to sweat the pitching injuries if they continue to average one home run every 8.3 plate appearances.

- Did the short porch play a role in the big home run day Saturday? Not really. Statcast says six of the nine homers would have been out in all 30 parks, and another would have been out in 29 parks. All 13 homers Saturday and Sunday would have been out in at least 10 parks. The average distance on those 13 home runs was 398 feet. Last year, the average MLB homer was … 398 feet. (The average at Yankee Stadium was 394 feet because of the short porch.)

Goldschmidt looked great this weekend. Chisholm looked great. Judge is amazing. Ben Rice is hammering everything to the pull side. Oswaldo Cabrera’s got a couple hits against lefties. As a team the Yankees are running a 16.9 K% (fourth lowest) and a 28.6 GB% (lowest). They’re making contact and hitting everything in the air, hence the dingers. The Yankees heard all of us (or me, anyway) saying we’re concerned about the offense and said you idiots, you absolute morons. 

In all seriousness, it is one series and I don’t want to make too much of it (it is a long season), but man, what a series. You couldn’t ask for a better start. Even last year in Houston, the Yankees had to come back to win the first three games. They trailed for a total of three plate appearances in the Brewers series. It was total domination, especially Saturday and Sunday. This was one of those series that makes you think the Yankees can win it all. How fun. 

About those new bats

Early during Saturday’s home run barrage, the YES Network showed Chisholm and Volpe using new bats that, essentially, had the barrel further down near the label. Bellinger is using a less exaggerated version of this bat model (and spoke to Gary Phillips about it) and I think Goldschmidt and Wells are using it too. Judge confirmed he is not. “What I did the past couple of seasons speaks for itself,” he said.

How much did the new bats contribute to the nine-homer day? It’s hard to say. Impossible to say, really. There are a million different variables in play. It was a warm day, the Yankees faced a pitcher they know well, four of the nine came off two pitchers making their MLB debuts, Judge did Judge things, etc. Here’s what the new bat looks like:

“You see the shape of Chisholm’s bat?” Michael Kay said during Saturday's broadcast. “The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe, and every single ball it seemed like he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel, so they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label, so the harder part of the bat is going to actually strike the ball. It’ll allow you to wait a little bit longer.”

Former Yankee Kevin Smith explained that they call the new bat design the “torpedo.” We have all this bat-tracking data now and we know exactly where on the bat each hitter makes contact, so the Yankees redistributed the weight to match the hitter. Pretty simple, right? Chisholm’s and Volpe’s and whoever else’s bat is optimized for their swing.

“‘You’re going up with a weapon that can be better,’ Lenny would say,” Smith wrote (Lenny is Aaron Leanhardt, the analyst who pushed for torpedo bats). “‘Your just misses could be clips, your clips could be flares, and your flares could (be) barrels.’ And it was true, it’s fractions of an inch on the barrel differentiating these outcomes.”

Rule 3.02(a) says the “bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length.” The rulebook sets a maximum barrel size without specifying where the barrel must be set on the bat, and apparently most hitters aren’t even close to the maximum barrel size. The Yankees didn’t make the barrel larger. They just moved it.

Inevitably, the other 29 fanbases cried that the bats must be illegal. “It’s the Yankees, so they’ll let it slide,” Brewers reliever Trevor Megill told Dan Martin (subs. req’d) on Sunday. It must be the magic bats! MLB must investigate! How else could the Yankees hit so many home runs? *Brewers throw 90 mph nothingballs over the plate for two days*

“My old ass will tell you this for sure: It ain’t the wand, it’s the magician," Brewers manager Pat Murphy told Phillips about the torpedo bats following Sunday's game.

The bats aren’t hidden. They’re out there for everyone to see. Bats, gloves, cleats, every piece of equipment has evolved over time. Did people think players were still using the same bats Babe Ruth did or something? This is simply the next step in the evolution. Deep down, people aren’t mad the Yankees are doing it. They’re mad their team didn’t do it first.

Players around the league came out of the woodwork talking about torpedo bats Sunday. Rhys Hoskins ordered a few. Junior Caminero has one. Nico Hoerner too. Davis Schneider has them. Cedric Mullins said he was introduced to them in Spring Training. It seems like a bunch of players have had torpedo bats and either used them and no one noticed, or didn't use them and didn't want to talk about them until the Yankees started mashing taters.

This is fascinating stuff to me and it’s one of those things that makes you wonder why teams didn’t jump on it sooner, kinda like infield shifts not becoming popular until the 2010s. Pitchers have enough advantages. I’m in favor of just about anything that swings the pendulum back toward the hitters. Give it two years and I bet every team except the Rockies will be using torpedo bats.

Miscellany

Good thing the Yankees scored 20 runs Saturday because good grief what a terrible defensive game. Five errors, plus several other misplays that weren’t scored errors. Like last season, so many of the defensive mistakes are just carelessness, not a lack of skill. I don’t want to repeat “the Yankees must clean up the sloppiness” every post for the umpteenth straight year … The defense did him no favors and the Brewers didn’t smack him around (81.4 mph average exit velocity), but Max Fried was not sharp in his Yankees’ debut: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 HB on 94 pitches. His pitch locations:

Elevated sinkers are a thing, though Fried was trying to dot them down around the knees, and kept missing up. CC Sabathia got blasted in his first start as a Yankee (4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 BB, 0 K). I’m going to give Fried a mulligan and be thankful the offense picked him up, and hope he performs better next time out … Three runs in five-ish innings is a serviceable Marcus Stroman start these days. He got short-porched on the Jake Bauers two-run homer, which is a thing that’s going to happen in Yankee Stadium, otherwise Stroman did well enough to keep the Brewers in check. The Yankees will take the reins off soon and let their starters pitch a little deeper into games … Oswald Peraza hit the ninth of the nine homers Saturday (video) and maybe that earns him more playing time, but he didn’t start Sunday. Three games into the season, all he’s done is pinch-hit with a 12-run lead and a nine-run lead. It seems Peraza is just a body, not someone the Yankees intend to play much … And finally, Jasson Domínguez was pulled for defense in the eighth inning Thursday, DHed on Saturday, and pulled for defense in the seventh inning Sunday. The Yankees say they trust him and believe he’s a good defender. Their actions say otherwise. They’re not even giving him much of a chance to grow into left field and prove them wrong. Pretty much the only complaint I have about the series. Giving Domínguez no rope defensively and all those dopey defensive mistakes Saturday.

Injury updates

Clarke Schmidt (shoulder) was scheduled to pitch Monday. He’s still in Tampa. Assuming Monday went well, I bet we see Schmidt start a rehab assignment with Low-A Tampa this coming weekend … Stanton (elbows, calf) has progressed to hitting in the cage. He’s no longer limited to dry swings … Ian Hamilton (illness) gave up two runs in two-thirds of an inning in a Triple-A rehab game Saturday. He’s expected back next Tuesday, the first day he’s eligible to be activated off the injured list.

Up next

Another off-day, then the season-opening homestand concludes with three games against the Diamondbacks. Here is what’s coming up this week:

• Monday: off-day

• Tuesday vs. D’Backs: RHP Will Warren vs. RHP Corbin Burnes (7pm ET on YES, TBS)

• Wednesday vs. D’Backs: LHP Carlos Rodón vs. RHP Zac Gallen (7pm ET on Amazon Prime)

• Thursday vs. D’Backs: RHP Carlos Carrasco vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (7pm ET on YES)

Burnes will make his D’Backs debut at Yankee Stadium as their No. 5 starter. They waited too long to pick an Opening Day starter, and when manager Torey Lovullo went to Burnes about it two weeks ago, Burnes told him he didn’t want to disrupt his throwing schedule. So he’s the No. 5 starter and Gallen got Game 1. The Yankees were gonna see Burnes this series anyway. It’ll just be Tuesday instead of Wednesday or Thursday.

“That was probably a technical error on my part,” Lovullo told Steve Gilbert about Burnes being the No. 5 starter. “I’ll take the responsibility for that. Corbin is a very routine-oriented player, and I had yet to understand that until recently. He’s got a process, and I respect that and I blame myself for not getting to know him. Corbin is that important to me and this organization that I wanted to listen to him. He made it loud and clear that through that partnership this is what was most important to him.”

Carrasco came out of the bullpen Saturday and threw two innings and 40 pitches in the blowout. All these early off-days gave the Yankees flexibility with their rotation. Saturday was the perfect opportunity to get Carrasco work (essentially his usual between-starts bullpen) and save some relievers for Sunday without throwing the rotation out of whack. Rodón will be on extra rest Wednesday and so will Fried and Stroman when they start Friday and Saturday in Pittsburgh. Everything worked out nicely.

2. The Triple-A season begins. The Yankees opened their season Thursday and Triple-A Scranton did the same one day later. The Triple-A season has begun and the RailRiders are 1-2 one weekend into the new season. Double-A Somerset, High-A Hudson Valley, and Low-A Tampa start their seasons this Friday. The rookie Florida Complex League is a few weeks away.

MLB Pipeline’s affiliates page is the best place to keep tabs on the minors throughout the season. It is just the box scores, no analysis, but it is every game at every level presented neatly one on page. Can’t beat it as a one-stop shop for daily minor league updates. With that throat-clearing out of the way, here is Triple-A Scranton's Opening Day roster:

• Top 30 Prospects: Pereira (No. 18), Reyzelman (No. 20), Vivas (No. 24)

• Not Top 30 Prospects: none

• Prospects to Know: none

• Fallen Prospects: Messinger

Let’s start with who’s not on the RailRiders roster: OF Spencer Jones. The Yankees are starting him back with Double-A Somerset (I assume), which is where I think he belongs. Last year’s .259/.336/.452 (124 wRC+) line wasn’t bad, but the 36.8 K% and 18.0% swinging strike rate point to a hitter who isn’t ready to move up to the highest level of the minors. A few more weeks in Double-A will do Jones good.

I’m also a bit surprised RHP Trystan Vrieling is not on Scranton’s roster. He threw 147.1 innings with a 4.58 ERA (3.73 FIP) in Somerset last season and his ERA was that high only because of an ugly two-start stretch in June when he was working through a dead arm phase. Give a few weeks and I’m sure Vrieling will be in Scranton. Injuries, promotions, whatever. He (and Jones) will be up soon enough.

Otherwise the Triple-A roster is heavy on veterans with MLB time. I count 15 guys who’ve played in the big leagues: Brewer, Castro, De Los Santos, Ellis, Hartlieb, Jackson, Leibrandt, Moore, Pereira, Rodríguez, Rojas, Shewmake, Velazquez, Winans, and Zastryzny. Hernández and Vivas also got called up for a few days without appearing in an MLB game. It’s a veteran, experienced Triple-A roster.

Messinger and Reyzelman are the only real prospects on Scranton’s pitching staff, and Pereira and Vivas are the most interesting position players. Munguia too. He slashed .372/.400/.488 in Spring Training and didn’t swing and miss until the middle of March, and is 5-for-13 (.385) with two doubles early in the Triple-A season. Munguia is definitely gonna be the “why aren’t they calling him up???” guy this year. I can feel it in my bones.

Scranton started Leibrandt, Boyle, and Barclay in that order over the weekend. Winans was originally scheduled to start Sunday, but was scratched. Not sure why. Messinger and Leal are listed as Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s starters. Ian Hamilton is expected back as soon as he’s eligible to come off the injured list (next Tuesday). That likely means Brent Headrick will go down, at which point he could slot into the Triple-A rotation. Then again, his velocity has spiked so much that it might be a sign the bullpen is where he belongs. I dunno.

Pereira played five innings in left field Friday, DHed on Saturday, then played seven innings in left field Sunday as he continues building up following UCL surgery. Also, the development list is essentially a taxi squad, if you’re wondering. Those came about in 2021 and allow minor league teams to carry extra players. They’re not eligible to play while on the development list, but they work out and travel with the team and all that. The development list is useful when a pitcher needs a breather or a little pitch design work on the side.

Injured prospects

The worst announcement day of the year is when minor league Opening Day injured list assignments are revealed because surprise, this prospect you were excited about is hurt. There’s a bunch of those every year. RHP Michael Arias, one of my Prospects to Know, and OF Brennen Davis, a former top 100 guy, are on the Triple-A 7-day injured list. The 7-day thing is a decent sign they are expected back fairly soon.

Here are the notable prospects the Yankees put on the minor league 60-day injured list to begin the new season:

• Catchers: none

• Infielders: Enmanuel Tejada

• Outfielders: none

• Righties: Carson Coleman, Justin Lange, Jordarlin Mendoza, Luis Serna, Kevin Stevens

• Lefties: Henry Lalane, Brock Selvidge, Ben Shields

Lalane, Selvidge, and Shields were my No. 10, 14, and 26 prospects, respectively. Rough. Rough rough rough. Lalane had shoulder trouble throughout last year and a biceps issue ended Selvidge’s 2024 season in early July. No idea if the same injuries have them on the shelf now, or if it’s something new. Not sure what’s wrong with Shields either. I was really excited about him. Thought he might help the Yankees this year. Sigh.

Tejeda is still working his way back from a knee injury he suffered when he stumbled through first base last July. Coleman hasn’t pitched since 2022 because of Tommy John surgery and setbacks. Lange is the prospect the Yankees got in the Luke Voit trade with the Padres. He missed 2024 with shoulder trouble. Mendoza had Tommy John last June. Not sure what’s up with Serna and Stevens, but they both have lengthy injury histories (Stevens has already torn his UCL three times).

The good news is a 60-day injured list assignment means the Yankees expect these players back at some point this year. There’s also a full season injured list in the minors and if you’re on that, your season is over. You can’t even play in a rehab game. RHP Chase Hampton, RHP Brian Hendry, RHP Thatcher Hurd, and RHP Alex Mauricio are on the full season injured list. Hampton and Hurd had Tommy John this spring. I think Hendry and Mauricio did as well, but I don’t know that for sure.

Teams get 165 minor league roster spots these days and players on the 60-day and full season injured list do not count against the 165 limit. You can not have more than 15 players on the 60-day injured list at a time though (in the minors, I mean, not MLB), but there is no limit to the full season injured list. The 165-player limit forces teams to manage their minor league injured list spots, which is kinda silly, but it is what it is.

The Lalane, Selvidge, and Shields injuries are the big ones. Lalane might be the highest upside pitcher in the system, and he’ll now miss a big chunk of the season for a second straight year. That ain’t good. Selvidge and Shields had a chance to help the Yankees this year, even if only as up/down arms, and now they’ll be on the shelf until at least June. Pitchers, man. They’ll break (your heart).

Later roster moves

Looking specifically at Scranton’s roster, the Yankees re-signed Burt and Rojas last month. Burt was a 28th round pick in 2018. He became a minor league free agent in November and is back now. Can’t hit, but is a great defensive utility guy. Rojas, 32, is a journeyman Quad-A type. He played 67 games with the RailRiders last year and hit .243/.346/.536 (123 wRC+). Rojas is just a body for the roster.

Another signing: IF Jake Gatewood. I think he’s starting in Somerset. Gatewood, 29, was the No. 41 pick in the 2014 draft by the Brewers. He played in an independent league last summer and has power but strikes out too much. I remember Gatewood from the 2013 Home Run Derby. They bring out high school kids during commercial breaks and let them swing away with metal bats. Gatewood was hitting balls into the third deck at Citi Field. Even the big leaguers were like damn, who’s this? 

The end of Spring Training always brings a bunch of releases as teams get their 165-player limit in order. The Yankees released three notable former prospects, among others:

• OF Elijah Dunham: I had him as a Top 30 Prospect as recently as 2023. He didn’t hit in Triple-A that year and stalled out in Double-A last season.

• RHP Ryan Harvey: 11th round pick in 2022. College reliever with a live arm the Yankees tried as a starter. He was hurt and ineffective the last two years.

• RHP Osiel Rodriguez: Got a $600,000 bonus back in 2018. Shiny ERAs, but his stuff backed up and he was in the bullpen by 2021. So it goes.

The Double-A, High-A, and Low-A rosters will be announced later this week. Probably Friday morning, a few hours before their first games. For as much turnover as we see at the Major League level, it’s even busier in the minors. Minor league teams average something like 75 transactions a year between injuries, promotions, demotions, and all that. Baseball, it's almost all the way back.

(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.)