August 19th, 2024: Tigers Series, Bullpen, Soto, Volpe

I need to correct something I posted earlier this month. I misread the postseason schedule and there is an off-day between Games 4 and 5 of the ALDS. The ALDS schedule is Game 1, off-day, Game 2, off-day, Game 3, Game 4, off-day, Game 5. Three off-days in a best-of-five seems excessive. Lots of built-in rest for the bullpen though, plus you can start your Game 1 starter on normal rest in Game 4, and your Game 2 starter on normal rest in Game 5. Only need three starters in ALDS this year. Anyway, my bad about the mistake. Here now is Tuesday morning’s post Monday afternoon. I figured I’d run it now because it’s an off-day and because I’m still annoyed by the weekend, and I’m sure you all are too.

1. Weekend thoughts. Going 3-3 against the historically bad White Sox and a Tigers team that is 10 years into a rebuild is an unacceptably bad road trip. The Yankees scored 20 runs in six games and nine of them came in a two-inning span last Wednesday. They scored five runs in three games against Detroit on a sac fly, two solo homers, a wild pitch, and the automatic runner in extras. That's just not good enough. Here's a rant and few thoughts on the Tigers series.

A series loss in Detroit (and Williamsport)

Fifteen games into this supposedly easy August schedule – the Yankees have not played a team with a winning record this month – the Yankees are 8-7 and have been outscored by two runs. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge had the audacity to have a quiet series against the Tigers (3-for-22 with a homer) and the Yankees couldn’t muster anything resembling a rally. Nothing that qualified as sustained offense.

The Yankees have scored two runs in their last 20 innings and they needed the automatic runner in the tenth inning Sunday to score one of those. They had a runner make it as far as third base in four of those 20 innings. Get shut down by Tarik Skubal? Okay, I can understand that. He's the best pitcher in baseball right now. But Keider Montero? Nope. I'm not tipping my cap with this offense anymore. The infield is an abomination. This is 1B + 2B + SS + 3B combined:

• AVG: .236 (24th in MLB)

• OBP: .298 (26th)

• SLG: .366 (24th)

• wRC+: 88 (24th)

• HR: 54 (19th)

The Yankees have gotten only +2.6 WAR from those four positions combined because Anthony Volpe is the only plus defender and baserunner in that unit. Gleyber Torres is a slap hitter now. His power is gone at age 27. Volpe is a dud at the plate. There’s no chance this is who the Yankees thought he’d be 1,100 plate appearances into his career. DJ LeMahieu is old and has beyond his point of usefulness. Ben Rice stopped hitting after the three-homer game and third base has been a wasteland for four years now.

The Jazz Chisholm Jr. injury has taken a bite out of the infield. It was a bad luck injury. Shit happens. But also, when you only add one bat at the trade deadline, your offense goes right back to what it was before the deadline (i.e. extremely top heavy) when that one bat suffers a bad luck injury. The Yankees didn’t do anything about first base, theoretically an easy position to upgrade (or at least easy to acquire a body to stand there), nor did they add a righty bat to platoon with Alex Verdugo.

But I guess Jasson Domínguez is that righty bat? For one day, anyway. I didn’t realize teams get a 27th man for showcase games (Little League Classic, Field of Dreams, etc.). The Yankees called up El Marciano as the 27th man and put him in left field and batted him fifth Sunday. He’s good enough to bat fifth against the AL Cy Young favorite but not good enough to be on the roster full-time, apparently. Aren't those two conflicting ideas? I feel like both can’t be true at the same time, but that’s the 2024 Yankees for you.

(This is not the first time the Yankees have done something like this! On May 13th, 2016 the Yankees called up Gary Sánchez for one day to be an extra righty bat against peak Chris Sale. Gary went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and Sale threw a one-run complete game. Sánchez went back down the next day. He was called up for good that August.)

Domínguez had a terrible game Sunday, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and double clutching on the throw home on the walk-off single. As bad as he was, I don’t put that loss on Domínguez. Even if he throws the runner out at the plate, the Tigers have a man on second with one out, and the ineffective Mark Leiter Jr. is on the mound. Jasson just parachuted in for a day to get the full 2024 Yankees experience. Domínguez had a bad day. I think putting that loss on him ignores the rest of the game/series.

Anyway, Leiter’s put 22 runners on base in 8.1 innings as a Yankee – it’s a .381/.458/.595 opponent’s line in those 8.1 innings – and he hasn’t had a single 1-2-3 in pinstripes. I liked the trade at the time because Leiter has a high strikeout rate and limits hard contact, but I overlooked just how little margin of error a guy who scrapes 92 mph with his fastball has in this league. He can’t pitch high leverage innings. Not anytime soon, anyway. That fastball isn’t equipped for the late innings of close games in a division race. (You’d think the Yankees would have a good trade deadline one of these years just by random chance, but nope.)

Of course, Leiter would not have been in Sunday’s game had Clay Holmes not blown the save in the ninth inning. It was his league-leading tenth blown save this season and the ninth in his last 22 save chances. Holmes is the embodiment of the 2024 Yankees. The stats and the underlying numbers say he’s good (really good in fact), but when you watch him, he’s not good. He's the perfect 2024 Yankee. It’s a .295/.348/.418 opponent's line in Holmes' last 30 innings.

And yet, Holmes will remain the closer. Aaron Boone said so after Sunday’s game – “He’s the guy,” Boone told Bryan Hoch – which is stupefying*. I’m generally a Holmes defender. He’s caught some bad breaks in those 10 blown saves. One was in extra innings with the automatic runner, three were in the eighth inning when he was asked to get 4-5 outs and clean up someone else’s mess, and one was that awful game in Baltimore when Volpe and Verdugo forgot how to play defense. It’s not like Holmes comes in and gives up homers** and teams are banging the ball around the yard, you know?

* I typed “stupidifying” first and I like that word better. 

** A thing I stumbled upon: Luke Weaver has allowed more homers this year (nine) than Holmes has in parts of four seasons as a Yankee (eight).

At some point though, it’s just not working, and you have to try something else. I feel like nine blown saves in 22 chances is that point. And what makes it so stupidifying is that the Yankees have removed Holmes from the closer’s role in the past! They’ve done it each of the last two years when he struggled, right around this time of year too. They bumped him down the depth chart, used someone else to close for a bit, then put Holmes back in the ninth inning when he got right. Why is that off the table now?

I’m not really sure who should close instead of Holmes but it doesn’t have to be one guy, right? It could be Weaver, Tommy Kahnle, Jake Cousins, even Michael Tonkin or Tim Hill depending on the matchups. I think Holmes is the most talented pitcher in the bullpen – he has the most velocity, a 40% whiff rate on his slider(s), the lowest walk rate other than Hill, he never gives up homers, and his track record of being good is more than five minutes long – but when you cough up this many leads, it’s okay to try someone else. The Yankees know this. They’ve done it before. Now it’s off the table for some reason.

This team is so stubborn. They won’t take Holmes out of the closer’s role. They run Verdugo out there on an everyday basis even though he’s been one of the worst players in baseball the last three months. They refuse to move Soto and Judge up to the 1-2 spots (in either order) and instead jam every bad hitter they have into the leadoff spot. They’ve decided this is how things will be because this is how we drew it up, and they do not deviate. That’s a bad way to operate. Adjust or get left behind.

Despite their best efforts these last few weeks, the Yankees are right there with the Orioles in the AL East. Baltimore keeps leaving the door open and the Yankees are like no thanks, you go ahead. The offense is very top heavy and there are some bullpen issues to work through, and at this point, it is what it is. There’s not much the Yankees can do to improve their roster. The guys they have now have to be better. What a bad road trip and an especially bad weekend. Splitting six games with the White Sox and Tigers is awful.

Miscellany

One more thing on Domínguez: El Marciano started in left with Judge in center. I think that says more about Judge not being 100% uncomfortable in left field than it does the Yankees considering Judge the better defensive center fielder. Judge has played left a few times this season and was surprisingly shaky … Marcus Stroman was great Sunday: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K (video). It was the first time in a long time it felt like he was in control of a start and not just surviving. Carlos Rodón, meanwhile, needed 90 pitches to get 10 outs against one of the lowest scoring teams in baseball the day before. The Yankees are not allowed to get a good start in back-to-back games, I guess … Why was Oswaldo Cabrera not bunting in the tenth inning Sunday? The Yankees had a runner on first with no outs and their best chance to score was getting Soto to the plate. You’re bunting to stay out of the double play as much as you are to move the runner up. Instead, Cabrera swung away, hit into a double play, and Soto was left on deck when the inning ended. I’m not a big bunting guy and I know Oswaldo’s swung the bat well the last few weeks, but come on man. That’s like Baseball 101 there … What was with Volpe running over to catch a pop up near third base Friday night (video)? Just let the third baseman who’s already camped under the ball catch it. Volpe dropping the ball didn’t come back to bite the Yankees, they stranded both runners that inning, but it did drive home the absurdity of him rushing over to make a play that wasn’t his to make … Oswald Peraza returned to the big leagues over the weekend and went 1-for-5 with a homer (video) in two starts at third base. This will never happen in a million years, but if Peraza shows any kinda steady production at the plate, he should start getting the occasional start at short over Volpe … Jose Trevino has started two of three games since coming off the injured list. The first was a Gerrit Cole start and Trevino is Cole’s personal catcher. The second was against Skubal, an extremely tough lefty. The Yankees are tentatively scheduled to see six lefty starters in the next nine games, including four in a row next week. That’s really gonna test the “Austin Wells is still going to play a lot when Trevino returns” thing Boone promised … And finally, Trey Sweeney made his MLB debut Friday night and picked up an infield single for his first big league hit (video). If you’re reading this, you know the Yankees drafted Sweeney in the 2021 first round, then traded him to the Dodgers for Victor González and Jorbit Vivas. Los Angeles then sent him to the Tigers in the Jack Flaherty trade. Sweeney and Wells hugged it out before Friday’s game:

Sweeney and Wells were teammates at several stops in the minors. Pretty cool that Sweeney got to make his MLB debut against the team that drafted him, and a bunch of his pals were there with him. He went 1-for-7 with four strikeouts over the weekend. Thanks for taking it easy on the Yankees, Trey. I was expecting a big revenge game at some point.

Injury updates and roster moves

Chisholm (elbow) was examined by multiple doctors and it was recommended he rest and rehab his injury, not have surgery. He’s already begun defensive workouts and could swing a bat as soon. The injury is to his left elbow, his non-throwing elbow and his back arm when hitting. All UCL injuries are bad, but a UCL injury to a hitter’s non-dominant arm is the least bad UCL injury. As soon as the doctors clear him to swing a bat, Chisholm should be in the lineup. He’s the only infielder on this team capable of hitting a ball to the warning track, and that’s only a slight exaggeration … Clarke Schmidt (lat) and Ian Hamilton (lat) threw live BPs as scheduled this past weekend. We should get word on what’s next for Schmidt (and Hamilton) on Tuesday … Jon Berti (calf) has been cleared for full baseball activities. No word when he’ll start a rehab assignment, but the Yankees kinda need him with Chisholm hurt and the rest of the infield being so unproductive … Tim Mayza was called up to replace Will Warren after Wednesday's spot start and looked like Tim Mayza in his Yankees debut Saturday. Gave up a triple to a righty (but escaped thanks to a nifty play at the plate), got a second pitch ground out from a lefty, and struck out Javy Baez on three pitches. Maybe he’ll be something, maybe he won’t. Too early to say … The White Sox claimed Enyel De Los Santos off waivers over the weekend. He gave up seven runs in 1.2 innings in Chicago last week, and I guess the White Sox were so impressed that they claimed him. The claim saves the Yankees about $863,000 between salary and luxury tax … And finally, I’m going to link to Randy Miller’s article about Verdugo being allergic to the material in his batting gloves, and his hands aching all the time. The Yankees sent him to allergists and everything. How much is this contributing to his poor season? Beats me, but it’s easy to understand how achy hands could lead to poor offensive production. If Verdugo’s hands hurt and he can’t perform, then he should go on the injured list. Even if the Yankees don’t want to call up Domínguez and put him in the lineup full-time, Trent Grisham has outperformed Verdugo for three months now.

Up next

The Yankees are back home in the Bronx, where they are only 32-27 this year (41-25 on the road). They’re 11-19 in their last 30 home games. The Yankees have 22 home games remaining and need to do a better job taking care of business in the Bronx. Here’s what’s coming up this week:

• Tuesday vs. Guardians: RHP Luis Gil vs. LHP Matt Boyd (7pm ET on YES)

• Wednesday vs. Guardians: LHP Nestor Cortes vs. TBA (7pm ET on Amazon)

• Thursday vs. Guardians: RHP Gerrit Cole vs. RHP Gavin Williams (1pm ET on YES, MLBN)

I’m not sure why the Guardians have TBA listed for Wednesday. That’s Alex Cobb’s spot and he pitched well last time out (5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K), and I can’t find anything about a recent injury or extra rest or anything. Maybe they’re considering pairing him with an opener? I have no idea. We’ll see.

Like every team near the top of the standings, the Guardians have gone through a rough patch the last few weeks. They started 51-26 and are 21-26 since, which isn’t a disaster, but is a 47-game stretch of not great baseball. Cleveland’s offense was great the first few months and the bullpen was lights out. The last few weeks they’ve had trouble scoring, and the bullpen seems overworked. The splits:

Offense during 51-26 start: .244/.320/.408 (106 wRC+) and 4.96 runs per game
Offense since 51-26 start: .228/.287/.377 (86 wRC+) and 3.85 runs per game

Bullpen during 51-26 start: 2.32 ERA (2.87 FIP) and 19.7 K-BB%
Bullpen since 51-26 start: 3.20 ERA (3.78 FIP) and 15.5 K-BB%

Five (!) Guardians have made at least 57 relief appearances and rank in the top 15 in games pitched. Holmes leads the Yankees with 51 relief appearances. Weaver has 47, Tonkin has 42 (including his time with the Mets and Twins), and no one else on the roster has more than 36. The Guardians lean on their bullpen arms an awful lot. The Yankees take a more measured approach to their reliever usage. I’m not sure either approach is right or wrong. More than one way to go about it, you know?

The Yankees took two of three in Cleveland in April and need to win two of three this week to clinch the tiebreaker. It’s entirely possible these two teams will finish with the same record and then meet in the postseason, in which case the tiebreaker will decide home field advantage. The Yankees may have a better record on the road than at home, but I still want them in Yankee Stadium as much as possible in October.

If the Yankees lose two of three this week, the season series will finish tied 3-3. The season series is the first tiebreaker. The second is record within your division, and the Guardians (21-17 vs. AL Central) have the Yankees (22-23 vs. AL East) beat there. Cleveland still has more games to play against the White Sox too. Just win the series this week and lock in the tiebreaker over the Guardians, mmmkay?

2. Five things you may or may not know about the 2024 Yankees. The draft and the trade deadline have passed, so it’s time for another edition of everyone’s favorite (?) feature. Here are a few things you may or may not know about the 2024 Yankees.

The Yankees lead the league in pitches per start

This surprised me when I stumbled upon it the other day. Yankees pitchers are averaging 93 pitches per start this season, the most in baseball. The Astros (90), Mets (90), Orioles (90), and Royals (91) are the only other teams averaging 90 pitches per start. The league average is 86 pitches per start, up from 85 from 2021-23. The last year the league averaged 90 pitches per start was 2017 (92).

The Yankees have an MLB low 10 starts with fewer than 80 pitches (the Orioles are next with 13). You can drop those 10 starts into four buckets:

• Guys getting rocked: 5 times

• Taking what you got from Cody Poteet and running: 2 times

• Guys not being fully stretched the first time through the rotation in March: 2 times

• Gerrit Cole getting stretched out after coming off the injured list: 1 time 

Cole missed the start of the season and Clarke Schmidt has missed most of the summer, but all things considered, the Yankees have been fortunate with the health of their rotation. They’ve used only eight starters this year, the second fewest in baseball behind the Mariners (seven), and they’re one of only two teams with four starters who’ve made at least 23 starts each (Seattle is the other).

In addition to having the fewest starts with fewer than 80 pitches, the Yankees have the sixth most starts between 80-99 pitches and the fourth most between 100-119 pitches. Their season high is 110 pitches and it’s pretty recent: Carlos Rodón’s five-walk scoreless start against the Rangers last weekend. Rodón has five of the team’s eight highest pitch counts this season. Who figured he would be the staff workhorse?

The Yankees have loosened the reins a bit the third time through the order. They rank 16th in batters faced the third and fourth time through, up from 26th last year, and that’s with Cole not pitching a full season. Last year Cole had 34% of their batters faced the third and fourth time through. This year he has only 8%. Long story short, the Yankees let their starters pitch deep into the game. About as deep as any team.

The Yankees are top three in inherited runners

Not inherited runners scored or stranded, just the number of inherited runners. Only the Rangers have left more runners on base for the next pitcher than the Yankees. Here is the inherited runners leaderboard:

1. Rangers: 230
2. Yankees: 215
3. White Sox: 215
4. Padres: 197
5. Rockies: 191

This kinda ties into the last point. The Yankees get more pitches from their starters than any other team, and oftentimes that means Aaron Boone goes batter-to-batter when the starter is near the end of the line. Guys wind up exiting mid-inning after a hitter reaches base. The Yankees have stranded 66% of their inherited runners, which is more or less league average (67%), but it is a lot of inherited runners.

That up there is the top of the inherited runners leaderboard. Here’s the bottom:

30. Phillies: 104
29. Astros: 105
28. Braves: 114
27: Dodgers: 131
26. Twins: 140

Seems not great that the Yankees are alongside the Rockies, White Sox, and 2024 Rangers while a bunch of really good and really smart teams are on the other end of the leaderboard, no? It’s not really fair to get on Boone for this. Joe Girardi went batter-to-batter all the time, so either Boone and Girardi are alike in how they manage their starters, or it’s an organizational thing. Probably the latter, but it could be the former.

I’ve been beating this drum for years: Give relievers clean innings whenever possible. I understand it’s not always possible. Sometimes a starter unexpectedly runs into trouble and sometimes you need to squeeze as many pitches out of a guy as you can, but a lot of times it’s just getting greedy and trying to steal outs with a pitcher near the end of his leash. He puts a guy or two on base, then a reliever comes in with traffic. Giving relievers a clean inning best sets them up for success. The Yankees should do it more often.

The bullpen has below average fastball velocity

I alluded to this last week: The Yankees have a soft-tossing bullpen, relatively speaking. The bullpen’s average fastball velocity is 94.2 mph, a bit below the 94.4 mph league average. That’s four-seamers and sinkers combined. The Yankees rank 20th among the 30 teams in average bullpen fastball velocity. Here are the numbers on the bullpen:

• Average four-seamer: 94.4 mph (MLB RP average: 94.8 mph)

• Average sinker: 93.9 mph (MLB RP average: 93.8 mph)

• Average four-seamer/sinker: 94.2 mph (MLB RP average: 94.4 mph)

• Max fastball velocity: 99.9 mph (MLB RP average: 101.4 mph as a team, not per pitcher)

(The Yankees are one of seven teams to not get a legit 100 mph pitch from a reliever this season. A pitch that was recorded at 100.0 mph or better, I mean. Not 99.9 mph rounded up.)

Fifteen of the 21 fastest pitches thrown by a Yankees reliever this year were thrown by Nick Burdi, who has thrown 9.2 big league innings around hip injuries and a demotion to Triple-A. Clay Holmes has the other six. Know who threw the fastest pitch by a Yankees reliever other than Burdi or Holmes? It was Jonathan Loáisiga, who threw four innings before blowing out his elbow way back in April.

Tim Mayza was called up Friday and he hasn’t contributed much to the bullpen’s underwhelming velocity. The other seven relievers are the guys the Yankees want in the bullpen, for all intents and purposes. They're the bullpen they settled on at the trade deadline. Here are those seven relievers and the average velocities of their primary fastballs:

1. Clay Holmes: 96.5 mph (sinker)
2. Luke Weaver: 95.5 mph (four-seamer)
3. Jake Cousins: 95.1 mph (sinker)
4. Tommy Kahnle: 94.3 mph (four-seamer)
5. Michael Tonkin: 93.4 mph (four-seamer)
6. Mark Leiter Jr.: 91.9 mph (sinker)
7. Tim Hill: 88.7 mph (sinker)

Let’s be real, a reliever sitting 95 mph doesn’t jump off the page anymore. We see those guys every single night. Like those signs that say you have to be this tall to ride the roller coaster? You have to throw 95 mph just to get noticed as a reliever, and the Yankees currently only have three guys in their bullpen averaging 95 mph even if you round up. It’s a bullpen with below average velocity. It is.

Velocity is not everything but it’s not nothing either. Velocity equals margin of error – it’s less time for the hitter to react (both to fastballs and breaking balls) – and the Yankees’ bullpen as constructed does not have a big margin of error. It’s too late to do anything about it now. This offseason though, there needs to be a bullpen overhaul. You can’t win in this game without velocity in the late innings. Well, no, you can. It’s just more difficult that way.

Soto doesn’t hit with men on base often

This is not great. Juan Soto has batted with 289 runners on base this season, 56th most in baseball, and he’s hit with a runner on base in 39.5% of his plate appearances. The league average is 43.1%. Look at where Soto ranks among Yankees in terms of having ducks on the pond:

Total runners on base
1. Aaron Judge: 369
2. Alex Verdugo: 345
3. Anthony Volpe: 301
4. Juan Soto: 289
5. Gleyber Torres: 287
6. Giancarlo Stanton: 232
7. Austin Wells: 216 (no one else over 182)

Plate appearances with runners on base (min. 200 PA for the season)
1. Austin Wells: 50.7%
2. Aaron Judge: 50.5%
3. Giancarlo Stanton: 46.6%
4. DJ LeMahieu: 46.3%
5. Alex Verdugo: 46.0%
6. Oswaldo Cabrera: 45.3%
7. Anthony Rizzo: 41.9%
8. Gleyber Torres: 39.9%
9. Juan Soto: 39.5%

Soto has hit with the bases empty more than 60% of the time this season. Chalk that up to Yankees’ leadoff hitters hitting a ghastly .230/.283/.361 (81 wRC+). They rank 29th in OBP and 28th in wRC+ among the 30 teams. Yankees leadoff hitters have been among the worst in baseball. The 8-9 hitters hitting .228/.302/.359 (88 wRC+) isn’t helping either. The 8-9-1 spots, the three spots tasked with setting the table for Soto and Judge, have a combined .295 OBP in over 1,500 plate appearances.

Soto is hitting .326/.436/.607 (189 wRC+) with men on base and he’s driven in 53 of those 289 baserunners, or 18.3%. The league average is 14.4%. That’s the 11th highest rate among hitters with 500 plate appearances (Judge is tenth at 18.4%). Soto is money in the bank. I’m not sure what more the Yankees could expect from him. The guy is doing everything asked of him and more. They’re not putting enough runners on base for him.

I suppose the good news is Judge ranks second in baseball with those 369 runners on base (Willy Adames is first with 373), and there have been runners on base in more than half of his plate appearances. Thank Soto and his .432 OBP for that. Soto (and Judge) are going above and beyond. The rest of the lineup has not much of the year. Soto hitting with this few runners on base, relatively speaking, is really bad. The Yankees need more traffic in front of him.

(Once again I will say the Yankees should hit Soto and Judge 1-2 instead of jamming every bad hitter they have into the leadoff spot, and hoping it’ll work. Soto then Judge or Judge then Soto, either works. It has been 125 games. It’s time to accept you don’t have a leadoff hitter, and should move Soto and Judge up in the lineup and get them the most at-bats possible.)

Volpe leads MLB in outs made

Offensively, not defensively, so this is a bad thing. Volpe has made 402 outs this season, the most in baseball. Ezequiel Tovar is second with 394. Volpe plays every single day – he also leads MLB in defensive innings (1,105.1) – and he has a .297 OBP, so yeah, that equals a lot of outs. (Verdugo dropped out of the top 10 in outs made when he sat out Sunday’s game, so yay?)

The outs made leaderboard is similar to the earned runs allowed leaderboard in that there are good players among the league leaders. If you’re bad and you allow a lot of runs, you get demoted or DFAed or whatever. Good pitchers are among the earned runs allowed leaders because they throw the most innings, and in many cases have a track record that buys them time to work through any struggles.

Volpe and Tovar are the top two in outs made, and Marcus Semien is third. Francisco Lindor is fourth. Lindor’s been top six in outs made five of the last eight years! Semien is always among the league leaders in outs made because he hits leadoff, he never misses a game, and he’s a SLG over OBP guy. Inevitably, the players who play the most are among the league leaders in outs made, and Volpe plays a lot.

Derek Jeter is the last Yankee to lead the league in outs made (515 in 2010). He was tied with Juan Pierre. The last Yankee to finish with sole possession of the league lead in outs made was Horace Clark (542 in 1970). Is Volpe going to be the first to do it since Clark? I hope not, making outs is bad, but with 37 games remaining in the season, he’s certainly in the running.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. The Yankees did not get a chance to claim Amed Rosario. He went to the Reds, who were higher up on the waiver list. The waiver order is the reverse order of the standings and it’s gonna be hard for the Yankees to get anyone worthwhile. They should still claim any half-decent first baseman or infielder who hits the wire. They’re getting subpar production all around the infield and maybe someone slips through the cracks … And finally, the 2025 Spring Training schedule was announced last week. The Yankees will play their first Grapefruit League game on Friday, Feb. 21st, at home against the Rays. They’ll go on the road to play the Orioles in Spring Breakout, the second annual prospects showcase game, on Saturday, March 15th. The final Grapefruit League game is scheduled for Monday, March 24th, then the Yankees will have two off-days before Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. Doesn’t seem like they’re gonna go anywhere to play an exhibition game after leaving Florida like they’ve done the last few years (Mexico City in 2024, Nationals Park in 2023, etc.), though there’s still time for that to change. Pitchers and catchers usually report 10 days before the spring game, so figure Tuesday, Feb. 11th, for that. Anyway, there’s the 2025 Spring Training schedule if you’re already sick of 2024.

(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.)