April 1st, 2024: Soto, Cabrera, Bullpen, Beeter, Judge, Rodón, Stroman, Schmidt, RailRiders

Did the new “Name that Yankee” feature replace YES trivia? I hope not. I’m all for new games, this is the entertainment business after all, but trivia is more up my alley. Give me both, YES! Name that Yankee and trivia. Anyway, here is Tuesday morning’s post Monday morning. I’m running this a day early because the very fun Astros series is over, and I can’t say I feel like staying up until after tonight’s series opener against the Diamondbacks to wrap up this post. It’s too early in the season for West Coast night games, schedule-makers.

1. Weekend thoughts. The Yankees are 4-0 for the first time since 2003 and I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying start to the season. A four-game sweep in Houston with Juan Soto and Oswaldo Cabrera driving the bus? With three of the four wins being comebacks and the fourth tied entering the ninth inning? Thrilling wins for the Yankees and crushing losses for the Astros. The crowd’s boos warmed my heart.

“You don’t really play playoff games in March, but this was a big time series and a big time sweep,” Clarke Schmidt told Pete Caldera. “Just kind of letting them know, letting everybody else know, we’re here.”

The Yankees have already clinched the season series against the Astros. That means they hold the tiebreaker, so if these two teams finish tied for a Wild Card spot in a few months, the Yankees are in and the Astros are out. Chances are it won’t happen, but still, it’s one less thing we have to worry about. This was more than a hot start and a morale booster. That series had legit postseason implications.

Also, the Yankees have more wins (seven) at Minute Maid Park than the Astros (five) since last Sept. 1st. The Yankees swept Jasson Domínguez’s debut series last year, remember. Since Sept. 1st, the Astros are 5-16 at home, postseason included. They’re 7-24 in their last 31 home games. They’ve just stopped winning in Houston. They blamed the batter’s eye last year, but it didn’t seem to hurt the opposing teams.

Anyway, I know better than to read too much into the first four games of the season, but damn, was that fun or what? My heart raced entirely too much for the first series of the regular season. I enjoyed the hell out of that sweep. Here now are a few thoughts on the last few games.

The Chosen Juan

Juan Soto is a great player and I knew that, I’ve watched him plenty over the years, but I don’t think I fully appreciated how great he is until I watched him every single day. He is a transformational presence. When he makes an out, I’m surprised, and he seems to be at the center of every good thing that happens. Soto was right in the middle of Thursday’s, Friday’s, Saturday’s, and Sunday’s win.

“You feel good when he’s up there,” Alex Verdugo told Caldera. “You feel really good.”

The Soto vs. Josh Hader at-bat Sunday was incredible. Hader is as good a reliever as there is in this game, it was left-on-left, and Soto battled him for seven pitches. Called strike, ball, ball, called strike, ball, foul, go-ahead single (video). Opponents hit .077/.195/.092 with a 60.7% strikeout rate in two-strike counts against Hader last season, yet it felt like Soto had him right where he wanted him the entire at-bat.

“We all know what he likes and how good he is,” Soto told Gary Phillips about Hader. “But definitely when you’re in there, there’s no mercy. I know and I like you. You were my teammate (with the Padres), but when we’re in there, there’s no friends no more.”

Know what was neat about the four wins? They happened in different ways. Thursday the Astros walked a bunch of batters (and hit one) and gave the Yankees an opening. Friday the Yankees took advantage of a bunch of dopey errors – I’m used to seeing the Astros do that to the Yankees, not the other way around! – and Saturday they started blasting. Three homers in the span of eight batters to turn the game around. B-e-a-utiful.

The roles reversed Sunday and the Yankees let a lead get away in the middle innings, but it was tied going into the ninth, and shoutout to Gleyber Torres for setting up that rally. He poked a two-out single to right and stole second – the camera cut to second base for the throw and Gleyber was already standing on the bag, he got a great jump – and then Soto brought him home. Four wins four different ways.

Soto commands at-bats in a way I don’t remember many hitters being able to do (including Aaron Judge), and it almost seems like he’s rubbing off on other players. Granted, there are many new faces in the lineup and new hitting coaches, but even the guys who were here last year (Oswaldo Cabrera and Anthony Volpe, specifically) are battling and grinding through at-bats in a way they didn’t last season. It’s refreshing.

Case in point: Volpe going from 0-2 to a walk against Ryan Pressly on Thursday, and Austin Wells going from 0-2 to a walk against Bryan Abreu on Saturday. That immediately preceded Cabrera’s game-tying homer. Abreu held hitters to a .069/.127/.086 line with a 63.5% strikeout rate after getting ahead 0-2 last year, and only four batters managed to work a walk. Then Wells did it Saturday.

Judge (2-for-16) and Torres (2-for-15) haven’t gotten going yet (plus Gerrit Cole’s hurt) and the Yankees still managed to sweep four games in Houston. Winning when those two didn’t contribute is a thing that just didn’t happen last year. Shut them down and you shut the Yankees down. The Yankees have more lineup length now, a more tenacious approach, and Soto is at the center of it. What a player, man.

"That's the kind of start I wanted," Soto told Kristie Rieken about his .529/.600/.765 (289 wRC+) line. "I grinded really hard this offseason and in Spring Training to be successful in the beginning of the season."

Waldo Pipp

Game-tying home run Thursday (video), four-hit game Friday (video), and a game-tying home run Saturday (video). The Yankees have a new starting third baseman. Sorry DJ and Jon, it’s Oswaldo’s job now. I have said it many times the last 18 months or so: I badly want Cabrera to be good because he’s so fun, and he has been both good and fun in these first four games. 

“I’m so happy for it,” Cabrera told Bryan Hoch after Friday’s win. “We’ve been working during Spring Training on good at-bats, and I’ve felt good for a couple of games. It’s just two games. We’ve got too many games, so I’ve just got to keep working on that.”

Cabrera’s +0.55 win probability added is third highest in baseball behind Soto (+0.77) and Mookie Betts (+0.86), who’s had an outrageous start to 2024 (.500/.621/1.136 and 313 wRC+!). If DJ LeMahieu didn't foul that ball into his foot a few weeks ago, the Yankees might be 1-3 right now instead of 4-0. Cabrera was in the middle of all three comeback wins and he’s been so impactful that it’s hard to think LeMahieu would have been better.

A few ago Chris Kirschner (subs. req’d) wrote a story about Soto’s influence on Cabrera and it boils down to Cabrera watching Soto take batting practice, and saying “I’m gonna try that.” An oversimplification, of course, but that’s more or less what happened. Cabrera saw Soto focus on low line drives, took the same approach, and he finished the spring very well. Now he’s started the season very well too.

I have no idea how long this will last – a 35.3% strikeout rate and .625 BABIP screams “not long” – but what Cabrera’s done is in the bank. Also, the Yankees need it to continue. LeMahieu has a non-displaced fracture in his foot, the Yankees announced the other day, so his timetable is unclear. He’ll go for follow up tests in two weeks and they’ll see how he’s healing. LeMahieu’s not coming back anytime soon.

Cabrera was a central figure in the Yankees winning their first three games (less so in the fourth win). He didn’t just tag along for the ride, and there’s no taking those wins away when his BABIP regresses or whatever. The good version of Oswaldo is such a blast and I hope these first few games and the late spring hot streak are a sign he’s found his game. Way to go, Waldo.

(Cabrera hit left-on-left multiple times over the weekend. He hit right-handed against Framber Valdez on Thursday, then he hit lefty against Parker Mushinski on Saturday (singled in two runs) and against Hader both Saturday and Sunday (two strikeouts). Cabrera’s said he sees velocity better as a lefty, so that plays into the left-on-left decisions, but Hader is pretty much the last guy I’d want to face left-on-left lol.)

The bullpen battle

When the Astros signed Hader, they built what looked like – and what still might be – the most imposing late-inning bullpen trio in the game. Abreu’s outstanding, Pressly’s ball moves so much it looks like a video game with the sliders turned up, and Hader is Hader. Those three are going to nail down an awful lot of wins for Houston this season. And the Yankees beat all three of them this weekend. To wit:

THURSDAY: With the score tied in the seventh inning, the Yankees loaded the bases against Pressly, and Verdugo drove in the game-winning run with a sac fly. Pressly got the loss.

SATURDAY: Abreu entered with a two-run lead in the seventh, then surrendered the game-tying home run to Cabrera and the game-winning homer to Soto (video). Abreu got the loss.

SUNDAY: The Astros brought in Hader with the score tied in the ninth, then Torres and Soto did their thing and won the game. Hader got the loss.

The Astros have three legitimate bullpen aces and the Yankees hung an L on each one of them this weekend. The Yankees will need to do more damage against starters at some point, they can’t continue to play from behind as often as they did in Houston, but for this one series, they wore down the opposing starter and beat the bullpen. That’s good old school 1990s dynasty era Yankees baseball right there.

As for the Yankees and their bullpen, I mean, what more could you want from those guys? Cardiac Clay Holmes was in full effect this weekend – maybe the Yankees need a Proven Closer who won’t allow runs, like Josh Hader? – but he did ultimately record the 27th out all three times he pitched. The two bullpens:

Per Yankees Stats, those 15.1 scoreless innings are the second most to begin a season in franchise history, behind only the 1942 team (20.1 scoreless innings). Baseball was much different back then. It took the Yankees nine games to get to 15.1 bullpen innings in 1942. It took them four in 2024. The Yankees had to lean on their bullpen a lot – A LOT – these first four games, and those guys answered the bell. Great weekend for the bullpen.

I’m not really sure what’s going on with the Astros and their lack of bullpen depth. There’s been something of an anti-analytics crusade in the organization since Jeff Bagwell was promoted to senior advisor and got in owner Jim Crane’s ear. Maybe that’s showing up in their weak middle relief? Then again, the Yankees beat Abreu, Pressly, and Hader. Nothing anti-analytics about those three and their usage this weekend. Whatever. Not my monkey, not my circus.

(I was gonna write something about the Yankees capitalizing on Abreu’s two-game suspension for throwing at Adolis García last postseason by beating up on Houston’s middle relief Thursday and Friday, but they beat Abreu on Saturday too, so maybe the suspension didn’t matter? I reckon it did. Abreu’s really freaking good and you don’t have to try hard to see how he could’ve made a difference Thursday and/or Friday.)

Beeter debuts, gets demoted

Clayton Beeter, my No. 15 prospect, made his big league debut Friday night and had a three-pitch inning even while allowing a hit (shoutout to Yordan Alvarez’s baserunning). As best I can tell, Beeter had the Yankees’ first three-pitch inning since Mariano Rivera did it against the Cardinals on June 15th, 2003. I can’t imagine many pitchers have had a three-pitch inning in their MLB debut. Beeter might be the first!

“I think I broke more of a sweat from getting warm in the bullpen than the game,” Beeter told Phillips.

Beeter is from Fort Worth, so he had friends and family in the stands for his debut – “My mom was crying and just very happy for me,” he told Phillips – but alas, modern roster construction meant he was sent to Triple-A the next day so the Yankees could bring up a fresh long reliever. Even after a three-pitch outing, the Yankees weren’t comfortable asking Beeter to pitch back-to-back days if they needed length.

“Really just being thin down there (after using five relievers Friday) and him being a starting pitcher, some of his history (with injuries), just not wanting to put him in a bad situation if something happened where we had to do something early and we’re really thin and don’t have real length,” Aaron Boone told Greg Joyce about sending Beeter down. “The reality is – and he felt good (Saturday) – we could probably throw him out there. But when you’re not built for that, it concerns me.”

Down went Beeter and up came Tanner Tully, who threw 4.1 innings of one-run ball in the first Mexico City game and was scheduled to start Sunday for Triple-A Scranton. Tully hasn’t gotten into a game yet and, no offense to him, I hope we don’t see him in a game unless the Yankees have a big lead and he’s soaking up low leverage innings. That’s really all he is, the last guy in the bullpen. The reliever you don’t want to use.

Because of the 15-day rule, 40-man roster pitchers can’t be called up until next Thursday (unless there's an injury), so the Yankees couldn’t call up Ron Marinaccio or Yoendrys Gómez or one of the Codys (Morris and Poteet) to replace Beeter. It had to be a non-40-man roster pitcher, hence Tully. Tully has options remaining, so he can easily go back to Triple-A. The out of options Dennis Santana could not. The Yankees aren’t ready to go with Santana yet.

Nick Ramirez was DFAed to clear a 40-man roster spot for Tully and that surprised me a bit only because he was optionable depth. Ramirez was superficially good last year (2.66 ERA and 2.94 FIP) and does a good job limiting hard contact, but he turns 35 in August and he doesn’t miss bats, and he allowed 10 of 17 inherited runners to score last year. Ramirez is what he is. A serviceable up-and-down bullpener.

Because he’s optionable and left-handed, I bet Ramirez gets claimed on waivers. Every team is hoarding pitching depth (especially early in the season) and I’m sure some team out there has the 40-man roster flexibility to claim Ramirez and stash him in Triple-A. Maybe that means the Yankees can trade him? Even if only for cash. That’s better than losing Ramirez on waivers. Eh, whatever. We’ll see.

Also, DFAing Ramirez rather than putting Oswald Peraza on the 60-day injured list tells us the Yankees expect Peraza back sometime before May 28th, which seems notable now that we know LeMahieu has a fracture. Peraza was shut down for 6-8 weeks three weeks ago, putting him on track to return in early or mid May. Guess Peraza’s doing okay if he avoided the 60-day injured list. Anyway, congrats to Beeter on the ultra-efficient MLB debut. He’ll be back soon enough.

Miscellany

Judge got 10 at-bats the final 2.5 weeks of Spring Training and it shows. His timing is off – he fouled away a few center cut pitches in Houston, including popping up a 3-0 meatball in his first at-bat Sunday (video) – and there’s nothing the Yankees can do other than wait. Can’t sit him and can’t drop him in the lineup, because the next at-bat might be the one Judge snaps out of it and hits a ball off the scoreboard. He’ll come around soon enough (then again, I saw Judge grimacing a few times over the weekend, so I’m guessing the abdominal isn’t 100%) … In the second inning Sunday, Giancarlo Stanton doubled to Minute Maid Park’s small left field, then advanced to third on Verdugo’s medium fly ball to center (video). Last year that’s a single and Stanton never advances beyond first base. The more slimmed down version of Giancarlo runs much better – to be clear, that means he’s now a well-below-average runner rather than arguably the worst runner in the sport – and it created a run there. Jose Trevino poked a bloop to right and Jon Singleton couldn’t make the over the shoulder catch. That was an example of Stanton’s new physique adding real on-field value … The state of Carlos Rodón is such that there wasn’t much to be encouraged about Friday night, but credit to him for not melting down, and holding the Astros to one run in four innings plus one batter. The Astros left the door open for the Yankees by not tacking on against Rodón. He put two runners on base in each of his four full innings, and got only seven whiffs on 31 swings against his fastball (22.5%). Here are Rodón’s fastball whiff rates:

• 2021-22: 28.7% (best in MLB)

• 2023: 21.7% (MLB average: 22.2%)

• 2024 spring: 18.3%

It’s one start against a tough lineup and I don’t want to make too much of it, but Rodón looked more like last year’s Rodón than the 2021-22 version. Just gotta hope the new cutter takes (he threw it 15 times Friday) and that he’ll be more effective moving forward. The Yankees need him (for what it’s worth, Rodón is near the top of the league in Stuff+ early on) … Typical Marcus Stroman start Saturday. His defense betrayed him – all three runs were unearned thanks to three errors, including one by Stroman himself – otherwise it was six workmanlike innings and good enough to win. Play proper defense behind him and Stroman pitches into the seventh. With Cole out, it’s on Stroman to be the rotation stabilizer every fifth day, and he did well to get through six innings despite iffy defense behind him Saturday … Letting Schmidt face the top of the lineup a third time Sunday was a bad idea given last year’s numbers:

• 1st time: .245/.306/.383 (.301 wOBA) with 26.7 K% and 6.6 BB%

• 2nd time: .269/.323/.492 (.346 wOBA) with 18.6 K% and 6.7 BB%

• 3rd time: .327/.387/.523 (.390 wOBA) with 15.1 K% and 6.7 BB%

You also can’t manage every game like it’s the postseason, and if you want Schmidt to ever develop into anything more than a two times through the order pitcher, you have to let him go through the lineup a third time once in a while. It was March 31st and the bullpen was used heavily the first three games, and Schmidt had thrown only 68 pitches entering the sixth inning. That’s not a bad time to try to extend him … Verdugo was diving and sliding all over the place in Houston, including on the final play of the series (video). He missed a few dives, but you know what? Last year those balls drop in untouched because the Yankees were playing infielders in left field. The difference in range in left field has been noticeable … And finally, the Mexico City trip has claimed its first victim: Volpe was scratched from Sunday’s lineup with an upset stomach. Supposedly a few others who made the trip (including some of the beat writers!) have been dealing with it as well. It’ll pass soon enough. Feel better soon, Tony.

Up next

Gonna add an Up Next here because why not? I can’t promise this’ll be an every post thing throughout the season, but I’ll do it when I’m up for it/remember to do it. Here’s what the Yankees have coming up between now and Friday’s post:

• Monday at D’Backs: RHP Luis Gil vs. RHP Ryne Nelson (9:40pm ET)

• Tuesday at D’Backs: LHP Nestor Cortes vs. RHP Zac Gallen (9:40pm ET)

• Wednesday at D’Backs: LHP Carlos Rodón vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (3:40pm ET)

• Thursday: off-day

Arizona took three of four from the very bad Rockies in their first series of the season. That series included a franchise-record 14-run inning on Opening Day. Nelson is in the rotation temporarily while the D’Backs wait for Jordan Montgomery to get game ready and Eduardo Rodriguez to get over his lat strain. Nelson has been home run prone in his career (1.44 HR/9), so that’s a thing to watch.

2. Triple-A season begins. The Yankees opened their season last Thursday and Triple-A Scranton began their season one day later. OF Greg Allen started the Triple-A season with a leadoff home run against top Blue Jays prospect LHP Ricky Tiedemann (video). It was the first at-bat of the minor league season, at any level. Alas and alack, RHP Will Warren got tagged for five runs that game. He got two outs. Ouch. The offense did pick him up though. Scranton won on Opening Day.

The RailRiders are 2-1 and IF Caleb Durbin has been the star early on. He’s 4-for-12 (.333) with two doubles, two walks, and one strikeout through three games. Double-A Somerset, High-A Hudson Valley, and Low-A Tampa begin their seasons this Friday. Their rosters haven’t been announced yet. We’ll tackle them when they do. For now, here is the Triple-A Scranton roster (which has already changed), plus a few minor league injury and roster updates.

Triple-A Scranton Opening Day roster

Top 30 Prospects: RHP Will Warren (No. 4), RHP Everson Pereira (No. 13), RHP Yoendrys Gómez (No. 16), RHP Cody Morris (No. 28)

With RHP Clayton Beeter and RHP Luis Gil in the big leagues, Scranton’s rotation to start the season was set to be Warren, Poteet, Tully, Barclay, and Gómez in that order. Then Tully got called up Saturday, so Morris started a bullpen in his place Sunday. Monday is the universal off-day in the minors, so no one was at risk of getting overworked. Beeter will presumably step into Tully’s rotation spot.

(RHP Yorlin Calderon was added to Scranton’s roster to replace Ramirez, who was DFAed when Tully got called up. Calderon has eight career innings at High-A and had never pitched above that level until allowing one earned run in 3.1 innings for the RailRiders on Sunday. Nice Triple-A debut for him.) 

Two things surprise me about an otherwise straightforward RailRiders roster. First, no C/1B Ben Rice. He will start the season back with Double-A Somerset. Rice, my No. 11 prospect, was arguably the best hitter in the minors last year, slashing .324/.434/.615 (183 wRC+) with 20 homers in 332 plate appearances. That includes a .327/.401/.648 (182 wRC+) line with 16 homers in 222 Double-A plate appearances.

Even with C Ben Rortvedt traded, the Yankees are pretty well-stocked behind the plate, though neither Breaux nor Torrens should stand in Rice’s way. Same with Groshans and Rojas. They’re in line to get first base and DH at-bats. I’m surprised the 25-year-old Rice is not in Triple-A and I have to think the Yankees are eyeing a quick promotion. Maybe Torrens has an opt out coming up that’ll clear a spot?

And second, Durbin is in Triple-A despite missing two months with an injury last season, and getting only 194 plate appearances with Double-A Somerset. He was very good with the Patriots, hitting .291/.361/.440 (122 wRC+) with more walks (6.2%) than strikeouts (4.6%), but still, not even 200 plate appearances at the level. Although he turned 24 in February, this is a pretty quick climb up the ladder for Durbin.

It sure seems like Durbin is an organizational favorite. He played a lot this spring – Durbin was 13th on the team in Grapefruit League plate appearances, ahead of guys like Allen, Pereira, and Rojas – and they stuck him in left field during Spring Breakout. That was an entirely new position. Also, Aaron Boone and bench coach Brad Ausmus praised Durbin to Gary Phillips a few weeks ago. The Yankees must love the kid.

I had Durbin as a Prospect to Know, not a Top 30 Prospect, and it kinda seems like the Yankees have him ranked higher internally. He has to go on the 40-man roster after the season. Could we see Durbin later this year? It’ll depend on his performance (he’s started very well, obviously) and whether the Yankees need an infielder, but yeah, maybe. I’m surprised Durbin is in Triple-A and Rice is not.

Gonzalez, Vivas out with orbital fractures

OF Oscar Gonzalez and IF Jorbit Vivas are both out indefinitely with orbital fractures (does that mean Vivas has a Jorbital fracture? too soon?). Gonzalez took that nasty foul ball to the face in Mexico City (video). Vivas got hit in the face with something during last Monday’s workout in Tampa. Injured on the last day of Spring Training? That’s rough. It’s unclear how long they’ll be sidelined, but I imagine it’ll be a while.

“Vivas is resting comfortably in Tampa. He will see the ophthalmologist (Thursday) and then see another couple specialists on Friday,” Aaron Boone told Ben Krimmel last week. “Oscar is out of the hospital in Mexico resting. He's scheduled I believe to see the ophthalmologist tomorrow, and potentially fly back to Tampa this weekend.”

Gonzalez, 26, had a sneaky good spring, hitting .326/.367/.522 in 49 plate appearances. The Yankees got him on waivers from the Guardians in December and then put him through waivers in January, so he is not on the 40-man roster. Gonzalez is a nice little piece of Triple-A outfield depth and he figured to be a steady middle of the order presence for the RailRiders. Now there’s an opportunity for someone else.

As for Vivas, my No. 9 prospect had an uneven spring: .217/.419/.478 in 31 plate appearances. He got hit by four pitches, inflating his OBP, and after going 2-for-3 with two home runs to start the Grapefruit League season, Vivas went 3-for-20 with 10 strikeouts and no extra base hits the rest of the way. The Yankees put him at shortstop for a few innings after Oswald Peraza got hurt, though he played second mostly.

Vivas just turned 23 and he had a rough 26-game introduction to Triple-A late last year, and was expected to head back there this season. I didn’t think he had a chance to crack the Opening Day roster even after DJ LeMahieu’s injury. The Jon Berti trade would’ve happened no matter what. Vivas is a developing young player who needs Triple-A reps, and now those Triple-A reps are on hold because of the injury.

This is Jorbit’s final minor league option year. It’s big leagues or waivers next year, so yeah, losing Triple-A time to the injury could be costly for his development. This is his last chance to play in the minors without roster shenanigans. Perhaps Vivas will qualify for a fourth option? Players who start the year on the injured list (Vivas is on the Triple-A injured list, officially) and spend fewer than 90 days on the active roster supposedly get one, but who knows.

First things first: Vivas and Gonzalez have to recover and get healthy. Anything near the eye is so scary. I hope they’re doing well and recover soon. We can worry about Jorbit’s development and roster status later. Right now, the only healthy 40-man roster position players in the minors are OF Everson Pereira, C Carlos Narváez, and C Agustin Ramirez. That’s it. No healthy spare 40-man infielders at the moment.

(Perhaps Durbin would be in Double-A had Vivas not gotten hurt? That’s possible.)

Hampton has sprained UCL

RHP Chase Hampton, my No. 5 prospect, has a sprained elbow ligament, according to Gary Phillips. That explains why Hampton made just one Grapefruit League appearance on Feb. 27th, then disappeared. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection two weeks ago and his shutdown period is 4-6 weeks from the date of the injection, so Hampton still has another 2-4 weeks to go. 

“There’s gonna be some downtime. I don’t know what the level of concern is for him coming back in a couple of weeks or if it’s longer than that,” Matt Blake told Phillips. “... It sounded like he was having a hard time when he went down to the minor league side (after being reassigned on March 3rd), but I haven’t really followed up on it just because we’ve been running around in circles.”

The concern is Hampton will need Tommy John surgery after attempting to rehab his injury. Shohei Ohtani is among the pitchers who needed his elbow rebuilt after trying a PRP injection. Masahiro Tanaka avoided surgery after his PRP injection though. So did Aaron Nola back in 2016. Orioles righty Kyle Bradish is going through the same thing as Hampton right now. He had his PRP injection in January and recently started a throwing program.

A study conducted by Dr. James Andrews and others in 2021 found that the worse the tear – a sprain is by definition a tear – the lower the odds the PRP therapy works. Did we really need a study for that? Guess so. How significant is Hampton’s tear? Well, it’s significant enough to require a PRP injection but not significant to require immediate Tommy John surgery. That’s all we know right now.

For now, Hampton will be shut down another 2-4 weeks, and the best case scenario is everything checks out, and he can begin building up from there. A careful 6-8 week build up means we’re not going to see him in games until late May at the earliest, and I would hammer the over. Hampton was likely to begin the season back with Double-A Somerset, though a quick promotion to Triple-A could’ve been in the cards.

Hampton was unlikely to help the Yankees this season. If anything, he would have been a late season call up, perhaps as a reliever. Really, Hampton was most likely to help the 2024 Yankees as a trade chip at the deadline, and now the injury cuts into that. Injured players get traded all the time, but the injury does take a bite out of Hampton’s trade value. What a bummer. Get well soon, Chase.

Yankees acquire Cousins

The Yankees already have a Ramirez replacement. They acquired RHP Jake Cousins from the White Sox for cash Sunday evening. He’s not on the 40-man roster. Chicago gave him a minor league deal over the winter and apparently had no room for him in their Triple-A bullpen. Cousins has big league time and an option remaining, so he can be shuttled in the event he finds himself on the 40-man roster at some point.

Cousins, 29, threw 52.2 innings as an up-and-down arm with the Brewers from 2021-23, posting a 3.08 ERA (4.12 FIP) with 31.4% strikeouts and 50.4% grounders. And also 16.2% walks. You’re not going to believe this, but Cousins is a sinker/slider pitcher. Can’t believe the Yankees wanted him. He’s thrown his slider almost 60% in his various big league stints. This looks very righty specialist-y to me:

If you care about such things, Cousins and Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins are, well, cousins. Anyway, the Brewers signed Cousins as a minor league free agent a few years back and the Astros claimed him off waivers last year, and when two smart teams like the Brewers and Astros go after a random bullpen arm, it leads to believe there’s something there. Those teams typically know what they’re doing.

Ramirez was DFAed when the Yankees called up Tully over the weekend, and they have quickly replaced Ramirez with a younger depth reliever. Like I said in my bold predictions, so many randos will make their way through the bullpen throughout the season. Cousins will probably be one of them later this year. So long, Nick. Welcome, Jake. One weekend in and the Triple-A pitching staff already has a new look.

(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.)