July 28th, 2022: Trade Rumors, Stanton, Mailbag

The Yankees have gone from a 116-win pace to 6-10 in their last 15 games and 15-15 in their last 29 games. 10 of those 15 losses have been by no more than two runs, so they’re in just about every game, but all those comebacks the Yankees were mounting earlier this season are now falling short (or, more annoyingly, they tie the game late and lose anyway). Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the last few games, so I’m going to skip the weekday thoughts and get straight to the trade deadline stuff. Here’s what I wrote about the Andrew Benintendi trade and here is Friday morning's post Thursday night because I don't want any of this to wind up in the Content Graveyard if there's another late night trade.

1. Trade deadline rumors. The trade deadline is 6pm ET this coming Tuesday. Roughly 116 hours from the time this hits your inbox for the Yankees to improve a team that has played .500 ball the last five weeks and has some glaring roster weaknesses even after adding Andrew Benintendi. Here are the latest deadline rumblings.

Yankees still on on Castillo, Montas

To the surprise of no one, the Yankees remain in on Reds righty Luis Castillo and Athletics righty Frankie Montas, reports Jon Heyman. This is old news, though I guess it’s good to know the Yankees haven’t dropped out of the race. Andy Martino says the Yankees talked to the A’s about Montas back in Spring Training, so they’ve been trying to get him for a few months now.

Montas missed two starts (but never went on the injured list) with shoulder inflammation earlier this month and he’s looked good in his two starts back, allowing two earned runs in eight innings while working on a pitch count as he builds back up. There was no significant dip in velocity in his two starts back. Montas looked like Montas, which is good news.

I prefer Castillo to Montas but they’re both great, and this could be a “whichever one requires the least painful trade package” situation. Both guys are in demand, so the trade will hurt either way. One might be a little less painful than the other though, and I would guess it’s Montas given the recent shoulder issue. Teams will use that to try to knock down the asking price.

The Benintendi trade figures to take the Yankees out of the mix for Juan Soto, freeing them up to trade their top prospects for other players. Castillo makes way too much sense and anything less at this point will be a letdown. So, the Yankees are still in on Castillo and Montas. I’d be happy with either and the Yankees really need to walk away with at least one given the state of the pitching staff.

(Buster Olney says there is “some speculation in the industry” the Reds will keep Castillo. That sounds like standard pre-deadline posturing to me. Castillo is under control next season and the Reds have leverage as a result. They’re using it.)

Tigers listening on Skubal

Year 6 of the rebuild has gone off the rails and the Tigers are now listening on “just about everyone,” including lefty Tarik Skubal, reports Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d). Detroit has nothing to offer on the position player side (assuming Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson are off-limits), though a few of their bullpen arms are interesting. Andrew Chafin, Michael Fulmer, etc.

Skubal, 25, started the season very well but has hit the skids lately, allowing 33 runs in 47 innings in his last nine starts. He has a 3.67 ERA (2.98 FIP) with 24.7% strikeouts, 6.6% walks, and 46.6% ground balls in 112.2 innings this year. There's a lot to work with here. Skubal has a mid-90s sinker, a low-80s changeup with a whiff rate approaching 50%, and an upper-90s slider with below-average movement. He screams “teach me the sweeper!” Here’s video.

The Tigers are good at developing pitchers in the minors (Skubal was a ninth rounder in 2018 who had a breakout season in 2019) but they’ve had trouble finishing guys off at the big league level. Fulmer stalled out, Matt Boyd stalled out, Daniel Norris stalled out, etc. Get Skubal with a team that knows what its doing and he has a chance to really become something. Lefties with mid-90s gas and two secondary pitches are always worth a call.

Skubal is under team control through 2026, so he’s a very long-term buy, and very few similar pitchers have been traded in recent years. The most relevant benchmark might be Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero (there was other stuff involved). That was five years of Pineda for a consensus top 10 prospect in baseball. So … Anthony Volpe for Skubal? That in the ballpark?

The Yankees aren’t doing that and I have to note Tigers GM Al Avila is a terrible trader. I wrote a thing at CBS a few weeks ago looking into Detroit’s problems and their single biggest issue is the total lack of impact from their seller trades. They got very, very little when they sold off their veterans. I’m stealing from myself here:

• JD Martinez to Diamondbacks: Traded for infielders Sergio Alcantara, Dawel Lugo, and Jose King. King is still in Single-A and Alcantara and Lugo are both out of the organization.
• Justin Verlander to Astros: Traded for righty Franklin Perez, outfielder Daz Cameron, and catcher Jake Rogers. Perez has missed a lot of time with injuries and Cameron and Rogers have had minimal MLB impact.
• Justin Upton to Angels: Traded for righties Grayson Long and Elvin Rodriguez. Long retired in 2019 and Rodriguez has allowed 29 runs in 26 innings this year, his first taste of the big leagues.
• Alex Avila and Justin Wilson to Cubs: Traded for infielders Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes. Paredes was traded for Austin Meadows this spring and Candelario is still with the Tigers.
• Nick Castellanos to Cubs: Traded for righties Paul Richan and Alex Lange. Lange has turned into a quality reliever, though Richan is still in Single-A.

Those are the kinda missteps that can set a franchise back years. And the thing is every one of those trades was panned at the time too. It wasn’t like we broke down the trades, liked what the Tigers did, and it just didn’t work out. It was pretty clear the Tigers got hosed. I wouldn’t let Avila trade Skubal (or run my baseball operations), but he’s still there, and that means Skubal might be available in a lopsided deal.

(Remember when Avila wanted Gleyber Torres for Boyd? Or wanted the moon for post-Tommy John surgery Fulmer? He seems difficult to deal with, but if you manage to deal with him, you have a chance to walk away very happy.)

Skubal has some things to work on (picking up the sweeper isn’t a guarantee!) but he’s already pretty good as he is, and there’s room to improve. And he made adjustments in the minors to go from ninth rounder to top prospect. Skubal has shown aptitude, he has power stuff, he’s missed bats and gotten grounders. I’m in. Go get him, Yankees.

(Word is the Mariners are trying hard for Skubal and the Tigers want close to MLB ready bats in return, which makes sense given their lineup situation. The Yankees could offer Oswald Peraza and Estevan Florial, but the Tigers are so bad at these rebuilding trades that maybe they’d take Oswaldo Cabrera and Josh Breaux instead.)

Yankees in on Quintana

According to Robert Murray, the Yankees are among the teams with interest in Pirates lefty Jose Quintana. Another possible early-2010s farm system reunion, eh? Quintana spent 2008-11 in the Yankees system and broke out with High-A Tampa in 2011, but they didn’t think he was worth a 40-man roster spot, so he became a minor league free agent and signed with the White Sox. Then Quintana threw 136.1 innings with +2.3 WAR for Chicago in 2012. Bad screw up there.

Anyway, Quintana is not the difference-making starter the Yankees need, but he is a solid innings guy for the back of the rotation. He basically never misses a start and has a 3.70 ERA (3.26 FIP) in 97.1 innings this season. The Pirates have Quintana throwing more changeups than ever (about 25%, up from 10% earlier in his career) and he’s cut down a bit on the hard contact allowed.

The red flag is the 0.65 HR/9 (7.4% HR/FB). This is a guy who had a 1.25 HR/9 (14.6% HR/FB) in over 400 innings from 2018-21. Quintana’s ground ball rate is the same as ever (around 45%). Did he suddenly halve his true talent home run rate this year, or is this just a 97.1-inning blip in a year where the ball has been kinda weird, especially the first few weeks of the season?

Even with home run rate regression likely on the way, Quintana can help a contender as a back-end guy. I wouldn’t want him starting Game 2 or 3 in the postseason, but he’s better than Domingo German, and would help the Yankees ease up on Cortes and Jameson Taillon and everyone else down the stretch. As a depth addition, sure, why not. As the rotation addition, no. Please do better.

Ideally you’d get Quintana for two 40-man roster bubble guys a la Andrew Heaney, but Quintana has been much better this year than Heaney was with the Angels last year, and there seems to be a bigger market for Quintana too. You’ll have to outbid other teams to get him, so maybe instead of two 40-man bubble guys it’s one legit prospect and a second piece. I dunno. I’m sure Quintana will be moved in the coming days and we’ll learn the exact price.

Robertson on the radar

The Yankees have interest in two-time former Yankee David Robertson, reports Joel Sherman. The Cubs are already holding Robertson out of games to avoid an injury before the deadline, so yeah, he’s very available and he’s getting traded. I wrote about Robertson earlier this month. Do I need to say more? Even at 37, he’s a great high leverage option and would be an overqualified Mike King replacement, albeit without the ability to go 2-3 innings. Bring him home, Yankees.

Yankees talked Merrifield

The Yankees talked to the Royals about Whit Merrifield at some point, according to Jim Bowden (subs. req’d). Merrifield was among the 10 Royals who couldn’t travel to Toronto two weeks ago, though he did suggest he would consider getting vaccinated for a postseason-bound team. Not gonna lie, that gave me a chuckle.

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure what the Yankees would do with Merrifield, unless they consider him a viable option in center field. He’s played fewer than 50 innings in center the last two years and fewer than 350 innings in center the last four years. Merrifield has never played shortstop at the MLB level either. For all intents and purposes he’s a second baseman and right fielder.

There’s also this: Merrifield took a .242/.293/.347 (79 wRC+) line into Thursday’s game. He’s a high contact guy (14.8% strikeouts) who steals bases (15-for-18 this year) but he has no power (five homers). Do the Yankees really need another low power guy? I appreciate the emphasis on contact, but they might be zagging a little too hard after all those years of zigging.

Merrifield will play the entire season at age 33 and this is textbook aging curve stuff:

The Royals restructured Merrifield’s contract in April and he’s making $7M this year with another $6.75M due next year (he’s already triggered his full $4M in escalators for 2023). There’s also an $18M mutual option for 2024 with a $500,000 buyout, so, all-in, it’s something like $9.5M for 1.5 years of Merrifield. That’s not gonna break the bank or anything, but what purpose does he serve?

Merrifield is a declining 33-year-old righty hitter who can’t play short and probably shouldn’t play center, and is owed a decent chunk of change through next year. Maybe I’m just a big dumb idiot and I’m missing something obvious, but what’s the appeal? Merrifield as a bench guy in 2023? No harm in calling and talking about a player. I just don’t see the fit.

2. Stanton injured. Serial injury downplayer Aaron Boone is at it again. Giancarlo Stanton did not start Saturday or Sunday in Baltimore (he pinch-hit Saturday), and the manager said it was just to give Stanton a rest because he didn’t really have an All-Star break. Stanton admitted to being “beat up a little bit,” but Boone essentially labeled it exhaustion.

“There’s no injury stuff going on other than he was a little exhausted going into the break, and coming out I sensed that a little bit,” Boone told Kristie Ackert on Sunday. “Really it’s just my call saying I think it’s wise we take a couple of days right now and get him to where (he’s) the wrecking machine that he is, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use him today.”

Sure enough, Stanton landed on the injured list with left Achilles tendinitis Tuesday. He woke up sore Monday and requested an MRI, which showed no structural damage. Just tendinitis. The injured list stint was backdated to Sunday, so Stanton could be activated as early as Tuesday, but the Yankees say his time frame is in the 2-3 week range. Exhaustion, eh?

“We’re hoping it’s a minor thing. 2-3 weeks. It could be shorter,” Boone told Dan Martin. “We’ll see where we’re at a week from now. We hope it’s a short stint that turns into something, from a timing standpoint, that serves him and us well and refreshes him for down the stretch.”

Stanton has played more games in the outfield (38) than at DH (37) this season, and nearly as many games in the outfield this year as the last three years combined (39). In possibly related news, Stanton missed 10 days with a calf injury in May and will now miss 2-3 weeks with an Achilles injury. Given their past behavior, this seems like the kinda thing that could result in the Yankees cutting back on Stanton’s outfield time, at least for the rest of 2022.

“Not really,” Boone told Martin when asked whether the injury will change Stanton’s outfield workload. “I don’t look at it like that at this point. I still maintain that playing the outfield serves him well, too. He avoids other things because it keeps him more active and athletic.”

Stanton never got going at the plate between injured list stints, hitting .167/.277/.471 (110 wRC+) with 13 homers in 45 games. Assuming the 2-3 week timetable is correct, he’ll have about six weeks to get locked in at the plate before the postseason. It should (hopefully) be plenty of time. Giancarlo can go from ice cold to molten hot in like three at-bats. Either way, this long a layoff figures to require a minor league rehab assignment. It’s fine.

As for the playing time distribution without Stanton, it shouldn’t change much. The Yankees lost one everyday player (Stanton) and brought in another everyday player (Andrew Benintendi). Joey Gallo has started only four of the last 10 games. He’s a bench player and won’t be here much longer, so while Benintendi is replacing him, he's not really "replacing" him. Gallo already had his playing taken away.

Three different players have taken a spin at DH since Stanton last started a game: Anthony Rizzo (Saturday), Aaron Judge (Sunday), Gleyber Torres (Tuesday), Rizzo (Wednesday), and Judge (Thursday). I’m sure Matt Carpenter will get more time at DH now too. So yeah, the Yankees are going with a full-fledged DH rotation while Stanton is sidelined. Makes sense.

I’m not sure what more there is to say about Stanton’s injury. It stinks and I’m annoyed “a little exhausted” turned into 2-3 weeks on the shelf with an Achilles issue, but it’s not a devastating injury because the Yankees are up big in the AL East. And also because Benintendi softens the blow. Still, I’d rather have Stanton healthy and working to get his stroke back. So it goes.

“If we were in a playoff situation right now, it’s probably something that he’d grind through,” Boone told Bryan Hoch. “It’s not something that’s debilitating him right now. I think over the last week or 10 days, he just felt normal wear and tear, potentially how you feel this time of year sometimes.”

3. Rapid fire thoughts. The Red Sox recently agreed to a 10-year, $170M jersey advertising patch deal with MassMutual, according to Terry Lefton. Performance escalators could stretch it to $200M (Lefton adds the Padres are getting $9M a year in their ad patch deal with Motorola). Because this is a new revenue stream, everyone is still kinda figuring out the market, and it sounds like the two New York teams could come in over $20M per year. Given what the Red Sox received and what the Lakers get ($20M a year for their jersey ad patches), yeah, the Yankees should be north of $20M a year when it’s all said and done. Jersey ad patches will make their debut next season. Expect payrolls to rise accordingly (lol) … Earlier this week Randy Levine said the YES Network will launch an in-market streaming service soon, according to Andrew Marchand. That means you’ll be able to watch the Yankees in their home market without cable. NESN launched their own streaming service earlier this year and it runs $30 a month, so figure that’s the ballpark price for the YES service. These days you need like five different services to watch every game, but most are on YES, and soon we’ll have an option to bypass cable. Good news … And finally, Marchand reports Brendan Burke, television voice of the Islanders (he also does national NHL broadcasts), is the leading candidate to be John Sterling’s successor. Ryan Ruocco was also in the mix but apparently has too much on his plate already with YES and ESPN. Burke did a few road games for WFAN earlier this month and could pull double duty (Islanders television and Yankees radio) similar to Howie Rose all those years. Nothing is final, but signs point to Burke. Marchand says it would likely be a transition rather than a straight up replacement, perhaps with the 84-year-old Sterling doing home games and some road games initially, and Burke gradually increasing his workload. I have no opinion of Burke, though I admit I will miss Sterling. He’s not for everyone but he’s the voice of the Yankees for generations of fans.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Eric asks: I was curious about Anthony Rizzo's xBA because I can't remember watching a player who gets more hard contact with such poor results. He does in fact turn out to be a hard luck guy, coming in at #221 out of 256 qualifying players for xBA (.224/.261/-0.037) but it turns out he is not the worst on the team. Stanton gets that honor, with (.218/.277/-0.059), and is #250(!) in baseball. Is xBA something that averages out over a year, or several years? Or is it consistent with some players? If the latter is true, what are the reasons for a higher or lower xBA? Similarly with xSLG, where many of the best hitters reside in the bottom 50, including Judge, Alvarez, Freeman, Ohtani, Acuna, etc, (as well as old frustrating friend G Sanchez and new maddening friend J Gallo).

Eric sent in two good questions and I’m going to answer them one by one. Starting with this question, Statcast’s expected stats (xBA, xSLG, xwOBA) are calculated using exit velocity and launch angle, and in some cases (i.e. weakly hit grounders) sprint speed. There is no directional component and that’s a big problem because we know outcomes are different when the hitter pulls the ball, goes the other way, etc.

As an example, here are the average MLB numbers on batted balls with a 95-100 mph exit velocity and a 15-20° launch angle (basically a well-struck line drive, here’s an example):

• Pulled: .632 AVG and .967 SLG (.499 xBA and .740 xSLG)
• Up the middle: .477 AVG and .685 SLG (.496 xBA and .738 xSLG)
• Opposite: .392 AVG and .627 SLG (.483 xBA and .721 xSLG)

The actual results are much different because again, direction matters. Watch this game for five minutes and you know that. The expected stats are basically the same though. The differences in xBA and xSLG to each field in my example are the result of the batted ball distribution within my arbitrary exit velocity and launch angle ranges (they could be bunched at the higher end of the range, etc.). By and large though, xBA and xSLG are the same to all three fields.

Because there is no directional component, xBA and xSLG have limited usefulness. They tend to stabilize quickly within a season and also remain stable across several years because a player’s ability to make hard contact and elevate the ball doesn’t vary much. Or, rather, it doesn’t vary as much as direction (hitters typically pull the ball more as they age), defensive positioning (always evolving), and defenders actually catching the ball (sometimes it’s just dumb luck).

Rizzo is a pull hitter. We’ve all seen him serve singles to left field, sure, but he pulls roughly half his batted balls nowadays, and his actual AVG has been a good bit below his xBA the last few years because of it. When a hitter pulls the ball as much as Rizzo, opposing teams can more easily position their defenders accordingly, and that cuts into his actual AVG but not his xBA, because he’s still hitting the ball hard. He’s just hitting it at well-positioned defenders.

As a quick and dirty “here’s how well this guy is hitting the ball” measure, xBA and xSLG work fine. They don’t work as “this guy should be hitting this” stats, which unfortunately is how they’re presented in too many cases (I’m guilty of it). The lack of a directional component is a big flaw and limits how much we should rely on xBA and xAVG. Now for Eric’s second question …

While I was looking that up, I saw that Rizzo has the worst defensive WAR in baseball, at -1. How can he have a worse dWAR than JD Martinez, who doesn't even play a position? I also see that Yordan Alvarez, occasional left fielder, has a better dWAR than Aaron Judge, who has now played more games at CF than any other position. Also worse than Alvarez--Christian Yelich? Alex Bregman?? I'm clearly not understanding the concept and was hoping you could clarify.

Just ignore defensive stats for first basemen. They still haven’t figured out the position. This year 24 players have played at least 60 games at first base and 21 have negative defensive WAR. I can buy there being more poor defenders at first than other positions because sometimes just throw guys there, but there’s no way that many guys are sub-replacement level defenders at first.

So much of a first baseman’s defensive responsibility is at the bag. They usually aren’t asked to range to get a ball or make a competitive throw, whereas that’s pretty much all the other non-catcher positions do. Hawk-Eye, the radar system that has powered Statcast since 2020, tracks limb movements and could help figure out first base defense. It can tell us not just who is good at scoops and receiving throws, but who has good footwork and things like that.

As for the outfield, Yordan Alvarez is at -0.2 dWAR and Aaron Judge is at -0.3 dWAR. That is not a meaningful difference. It is well within WAR’s error bars. Alvarez hasn’t even played 400 innings in the outfield, so that’s a small sample, plus defensive stats struggle with guys who bounce between positions, as Judge has with right and center fields.

I know this is an unsatisfying answer, but it’s the best I have. Never take defensive stats at face value. They aren’t nearly as precise as they look and they require hundreds of innings to be reliable. Use them directionally (this guy is a good defender, that guy is terrible, etc.) and that’s about it. Defensive stats have gotten better, but there’s still a long way to go to measure defense accurately. Right now, they’re just estimates that get you in the ballpark.

Rich asks: I know, I know. Another Soto question. Everyone is saying you can't have both Judge and Soto. Because Soto is under control until the end of the 2024 season, could you offer Judge an 8 year contract with hugely inflated value over the next 2 years so that it tails off in time for what would be the start of a Soto contract?

Yes, though it would not matter for luxury tax purposes. The luxury tax payroll is calculated using the average annual value of every contract, so front-loading (or back-loading) doesn’t change anything. That said, front-loading (or back-loading) does impact the real money that is paid out.

For argument’s sake, let’s say Judge and the Yankees agree to a front-loaded seven-year contract worth $238M this offseason. The $34M average annual value/luxury tax hit would be the second richest ever for an outfielder behind Mike Trout ($35.5M). As for Soto, let’s assume he eventually signs a $45M a year extension for however many years. Here's a potential salary breakdown (Soto will be arbitration-eligible in 2023 and 2024):

We could play with the numbers so the actual salary stays relatively flat from 2023 straight through 2029, when Judge's deal expires. There’s a pretty significant luxury tax increase when Soto’s new extension kicks in though, and that’s unavoidable. Essentially what we’re doing is spreading some of the 2025-29 actual dollar pain across 2023-24 to make 2025-29 slightly less painful.

Would the Yankees do this? Nothing in their recent history suggests they would. Then again, nothing in their recent history suggests they would trade the top prospects required to get Soto, and if they do that, who’s to say they wouldn’t front-load a Judge extension to make the money work more favorably? Something tells me we’re not going to have to worry about this though.

Dan asks: Assuming Sevy comes back in the next few weeks, do you think the Yankees will pick up their $15m club option for next season?

Yes, I think so, as long as Luis Severino stays reasonably healthy once he returns from this lat injury. He doesn’t need to be an ace to be worth $15M. $15M buys you Jon Gray or Yusei Kikuchi in free agency, and you have to give them multiple years. As long as the lat injury doesn’t turn into something significant that cuts into next season, and Severino doesn’t suffer another serious arm injury, pick that option up. Look at it this way, if Severino was with another team and became a free agent, wouldn’t we want the Yankees to roll the dice on a one-year, $15M deal?

Michael asks: Knowing everything we know now, who should the Yankees have taken in the Rule 5 Draft before 2020?

Oh man, fun question. “Knowing everything we know now” means knowing the 2020 season would be shortened to 60 games by a global pandemic, and that those 60 games would be played with expanded rosters. A short season and extra roster spots? Those are the perfect conditions to carry a Rule 5 Draft player (minus the whole pandemic thing).

Here are the Dec. 2019 Rule 5 Draft results. It was a stinker of a Rule 5 Draft (Yohan Ramirez is the leader with +0.6 career WAR) though it’s possible the pandemic derailed development, if not likely. The great J.J. Cooper puts together a Rule 5 Draft preview every year. Looking at his 2019 preview (subs. req’d), here are a few players who were available that offseason and would have been nice picks knowing everything we know now.

RHP Joe Barlow, Rangers: Barlow is now the Texas closer with a 2.43 ERA in 59.1 big league innings. The underlying numbers are meh though: 3.89 FIP with 21.6% strikeouts, 8.6% walks, and 36.5% grounders. Barlow probably isn’t a trusted high leverage reliever on a contender, but the mid-90s fastball and upper-80s slider combo is MLB caliber.

RHP Phil Bickford, Brewers: Bickford debuted with the Brewers in 2020 and made his way to the Dodgers on waivers in 2021, and he had a 2.50 ERA (3.57 FIP) with 27.3% strikeouts and 53.8% grounders in 50.1 innings for them last year. This year has been a grind (20 runs in 32.2 innings), but there’s always room for a mid-90s fastball and mid-80s slider in the bullpen.

RHP Griffin Jax, Twins: Jax has found a home in the bullpen this year after getting smacked around as a starter last year. He’s thrown 47 innings with a 3.06 ERA (3.34 FIP) and very good peripherals: 26.9% strikeouts, 7.0% walks, and 50.8% grounders. Jax’s average fastball went from 92.7 mph as a starter to 95.2 as a reliever, and the whiff rate on his slider is over 40%. Some guys are just made for the bullpen. Jax is legit good, not just AL Central good.

1B/OF Connor Joe, Dodgers: Despite poor exit velocities, Joe has been a stathead fave because he makes a ton of contact and rarely chases out of the zone. He owns a .267/.360/.409 (106 wRC+) line in over 600 plate appearances since being called up by the Rockies last year. Not much power, but he gets on base and plays a solid left field. A steady role player.

The Yankees have not made a Rule 5 Draft pick since taking random Yankee Cesar Cabral and Brad Meyer in 2011, and they did not have an open 40-man roster spot at the time of the 2019 Rule 5 Draft, so they couldn’t have made a pick anyway. Chance Adams and Stephen Tarpley were the notable names on the 40-man chopping block at the time. Obviously it would be nice to have Jax now, but we don’t get to make roster decisions in hindsight. So it goes.

Brian asks: This is very random, but what is the point of official scorers having such wide discretion? In no world should the dropped ball by Gleyber in the outfield be ruled a double (video). The league office should just determine borderline plays.

Official scoring has gotten really bad, hasn’t it? So many hits are scored errors and errors are scored hits these days*. It’s not just home cooking either, where the batter on the home team is giving a hit on a ball that should be an error. Official scoring is just bad in general. (Someone made a compilation of Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s would-be errors that were scored hits.)

* Wild pitches and passed balls are really bad too. I’ll never find the video now but I remember a few years ago Kyle Higashioka set up for a pitch away to a lefty batter, and Aroldis Chapman threw a 100-something mph fastball in the other batter’s box. The hitter had to jump out of the way and it went to the backstop, yet it was called a passed ball because Higashioka got some glove on it. In what world is that the catcher’s fault?

There is an appeals process for scoring decisions and every once in a while we’ll hear about a scoring change days after the fact. The player or team must file the appeal with MLB within 72 hours of the end of the game, but there are so many weird scoring decisions these days that appealing them all is not feasible (or worth the trouble).

(Former Yankees prospect Tony Renda was awarded his first career MLB hit three days after the fact because of a scoring change.)

I stopped scoring games myself years ago (laziness, mostly) but I used to actually score them myself, and not just jot down the official scoring. If I thought a ball officially scored a hit should’ve been an error, I wrote down error, and vice versa. I don’t have my old scorebooks anymore, but I wonder how much different “my” player stats are from the official stats.

(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.)