May 27th, 2022: Carpenter, Trevino, Sears, Torres, Stanton, Bullpen, Mailbag

The Yankees have wrapped up the “easy” part of their early season schedule. Thursday night’s win in Tampa was the first game of a 29-game stretch in which the Yankees will play the Angels, Astros, Blue Jays, Twins, and Rays a combined 23 times (the other six games are against the Cubs and Tigers). Those five teams have a combined .600 winning percentage, or a 97-win pace. Given the injuries and the degree of difficulty, I think going 13-10 in those 23 games would qualify as a good outcome even though it will probably feel like the sky is falling (13-10 means they’d still be on pace for 107 wins!). One game at a time though. To today’s post.

1. Yankees sign Carpenter. The Rangers to Yankees pipeline is still flowing. On Thursday the Yankees signed longtime Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter to a Major League contract, and he was in the lineup a few hours later (0-for-2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch). He deal is worth $1M. Carpenter had been in Triple-A with Texas, and they granted him his release last week, after informing him he would not be called up to the big leagues.

"It happened fast and now I'm here and I couldn't be more excited about it,” Carpenter told ESPN. "We just had a quick conversation (and I told Aaron Boone) that I'm excited to put a uniform on and be part of the best team in baseball right now. I'm just fired up to be here. I'm going to hit the ground running."

Carpenter, 36, is four years removed from his last good MLB season. He hit .203/.325/.347 (87 wRC+) in almost 1,000 plate appearances with St. Louis from 2019-21, bottoming out at .169/.305/.275 (70 wRC+) last season. Carpenter was hitting .275/.379/.613 (140 wRC+) in Triple-A with the Rangers, but he was a big league vet in Triple-A, so who knows?

Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d) wrote about Carpenter’s offseason work a few weeks ago. Long story short, Carpenter reached out to Joey Votto, who had a great bounceback season at age 37 in 2021, and Votto directed him to the statheads at Marucci. He then took their data and worked with several private hitting coaches. From Rosenthal:

Marucci, applying concepts from golf, uses three measurements to calculate what a player’s maximum exit velocity should be under the specific conditions at the lab on the day he is tested. Lower-body strength is measured through a vertical jump, core strength through an overhead toss of an 8.8-pound medicine ball at the end of a sit-up, upper-body strength from a chest pass of the medicine ball from a sitting position.

Carpenter said he was above major-league average across the board in all three measurements. But when it came to the analysis of his swing, he was considerably behind the other two major leaguers. The lab uses a dual force plate centered on the ground to measure a player’s vertical, horizontal and torque force when swinging, and a 3-D motion-capture system to assess different areas of his body.

“All the data was showing it,” Carpenter said. “It wasn’t necessarily a strength thing. It wasn’t aging. It was flat-out my swing had gotten out of sorts.”

Carpenter has always been a lefty pull hitter with a low ground ball rate (31.8% from 2019-21), ostensibly making him a natural fit for the short porch. His plate discipline is top notch too. Even from 2019-21, Carpenter had a 13.3% walk rate and a 20.0% chase rate. He still controls the strike zone and that’s half the battle. If the offseason work put some thump back in his bat, great!

Giancarlo Stanton is on the injured list and DJ LeMahieu is nursing a wrist issue (plus Josh Donaldson is still on the COVID list), and my guess is the Yankees see Carpenter as a bench bat and a part-time DH. He’s long been a defensive liability at first, second, and third bases, but he can play them. I fear this means Miguel Andujar won’t play much, but what else is new.

"He's someone who's been on our radar the last couple of months," Boone told ESPN. "We've been eyeing him for a while as a left-handed bat off the bench. Just a professional guy from the left side, and we feel he can help us."

If Carpenter works out, great. If not, the Yankees can back out of this move pretty easily (whether they actually back out at some point is another matter). I’m guessing this goes one of two ways: Carpenter inexplicably hits .260/.350/.500 or he’s gone by July 31st. Either way, this dude has random clutch home run written all over him.

2. Weekday thoughts. The 13-pitcher limit has been pushed back yet again. Earlier this week MLB and the MLBPA announced they’ve agreed to allow teams to continue carrying up to 14 pitchers until June 19th, so another three weeks. The 13-pitcher limit was supposed to begin Monday. I totally get protecting pitchers, but I feel like this is overkill? If your pitchers aren’t fully stretched out yet, that’s on you. Anyway, a few thoughts on the last few games.

The Jose Trevino Game

The Yankees hit their first skid of the season earlier this week and they needed someone to be a hero Tuesday night, and that someone was … Jose Trevino? Jose Trevino. Solo homer in the third, game-tying single in the seventh, walk-off single in the 11th (video). At +0.653 WPA, it is the second most impactful game by a Yankee in 2022, behind only Aaron Judge’s walk-off homer game (+0.778). It was an emotional night for the Yankees backstop.

“I just want to start by saying my thoughts and prayers are with everybody in Uvalde, Texas, tonight,” Trevino told Bryan Hoch after the game. “I know y’all saw some tears, and there’s a reason behind it. My dad was a huge Yankees fan. He would always put me in these scenarios (in the backyard). He always said, ‘Ninth inning, down one, you need a base hit to tie the game or win the game at Yankee Stadium.’”

Trevino grew up in Texas and his big night came a few hours after the shooting in Uvalde. It also came on what would have been his father’s 69th birthday. Jose’s father Joe passed away in 2013, and as Trevino rounded first base on the walk-off, he pointed to the sky and yelled “Papi!” over and over. Less Josh Donaldson nonsense, more this:

“From a young age, he never forced me to play baseball, but when I wanted to, he was always there,” Trevino told Hoch. “It’s just crazy that he would put me in that scenario. This goes back to me being traded over here. He always said, ‘I’m preparing you to be a Yankee,’ like, always always.”

Tuesday’s walk-off was Trevino’s second career walk-off hit. He also had one during his first week in the big leagues with the Rangers in 2018 (video). That walk-off hit came on Father’s Day – Trevino himself had become a father for the first time just a few days earlier – and just like Tuesday, it drove in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It would be a cheesy script for a movie, but it’s reality.

“He had watery eyes. It’s a great moment for him,” Kiner-Falefa told Hoch. “His (third) day in the big leagues, I was on second base and it was Father’s Day, and his hit was a walk-off single. For me to score the winning run again, same situation, bigger stage, it’s incredible. It’s something you can’t explain. He’s going to remember it for the rest of his life.”

Moving beyond Tuesday, Trevino's gotta be the starting catcher, right? He and Kyle Higashioka were on a 50/50 split prior to Higashioka’s COVID list stint (they’d each started 10 of the previous 20 games), but it’s probably time to give Trevino more run. Let’s ignore offense and assume neither will contribute much. Even in that case:

• Trevino ranks first among all catchers in Statcast framing and second in FanGraphs framing. Higashioka ranks 21st and 38th, respectively.
• The pitching staff has been more effective with Trevino (2.31 ERA and 2.81 FIP) than Higashioka (3.56 ERA and 3.19 FIP).
• Higashioka leads baseball in passed balls (I seem to remember passed balls being a Very Big Deal the last few years).
• Trevino is three years younger than Higashioka and thus more likely to be part of the future.

If the Yankees are going defense behind the plate – and they very clearly are – Trevino is the better option. That was true coming into the season and it’s true now. And hey, Higashioka might get on track with reduced playing time. He always did well enough as a backup, then sputtered when his playing time increased. Trevino as the starter could be a win-win.

I suspect the Yankees will continue the 50/50 split going forward. Either way, Trevino had his signature game Tuesday night. It was a very emotional night for him and, let’s be real here, the Yankees needed that win more than any 32-13 team should ever need a win. Good win and a great game for Jose. It’s impossible not to love that guy.

“You get to wear pinstripes, you have fun with it and you take advantage of it,” Trevino told Jake Seiner. “And even if you’re wearing them, you don’t get to wear them forever, so enjoy it while you have it.”

JP’s spot start

What a start for JP Sears. He was a real … *puts on shades* … craftsman out there. Despite throwing no more than 65 pitches in his six Triple-A outings, Sears got through five scoreless innings on 84 pitches Wednesday, and it was kinda like six scoreless innings because the infield defense gave the Orioles three extra outs. How did the Sears family feel about the defense?

Sears needed 50 pitches to get through the first two innings and 34 pitches to get through the next three. Three singles allowed (one that could have been an error and another that didn’t leave the infield) and two walks, with five strikeouts. Sears walked only two batters in 21.2 innings in Triple-A, but that’s Triple-A. I’m fine chalking up Wednesday’s walks to rookie jitters.

“I definitely felt more comfortable as I went,” Sears told Betelhem Ashame after his start. “It was one of those outings where I felt better each inning I was out there. It was definitely sharper each inning I was out there. Making some good pitches and getting some swings earlier in the count.”

I didn’t realize Sears has such a unique fastball. The YES Network had a good shot of his grip and it is a four-seam grip (across the seams rather than along the seams like a two-seamer) …

… and it has a flat vertical approach angle (the angle at which it crosses the plate) like a four-seamer, so it plays well up in the zone, and Sears did use it up in the zone a bunch Wednesday. But it also has run like a two-seamer? It’s not a straight four-seam fastball. The pitch has both four-seam and two-seam characteristics. It’s unusual and not in a bad way. It works for him.

“You see how good his fastball is, but I thought his secondary was really competitive too, both the slider and the changeup,” Aaron Boone told Ashame. “Got into some trouble a couple of times, sometimes not necessarily by his own doing, and he was able to make pitches. To give us five, shutting them down, and especially when he faced a little bit of adversity early, it was huge for us.”

A lefty with good velocity (touched 95 mph Wednesday) on a unique fastball as well as a quality slider and usable changeup is a nice little depth piece. Sears might be best as a once through the lineup reliever rather than a full-fledged starter, but we’ll see. The Yankees will use him in the way they deem most effective. Clearly though, Sears can help the big league club. He’s legit.

Unfortunately for Sears, five innings and 84 pitches meant he was sent back to Triple-A in favor of a fresh arm immediately following his start. I hate this part of the game, but it is part of the game. The Yankees only needed the spot start because of Sunday’s doubleheader. Given the bullpen injuries though, Sears could be back in a relief role fairly soon.

Gleyber’s adjustments

Tuesday’s two-homer game was Gleyber Torres’ first two-homer game since Aug. 22nd, 2019 in Oakland. Sounds like forever ago, and it is, though Torres only hit 12 homers from 2020-21. Not hitting two in one game those years isn’t the most surprising thing in the world. Gleyber hit his seventh homer in his 40th game this season. Last season he hit his seventh homer in his 108th game.

"It was a really exciting win for us. It was a really good game. Both teams are really good," Torres told Alex Butler after Tuesday’s game. "I'm getting better. I'm feeling good. Those homers put our team in position to wake up."

Gleyber’s two homers were legit bombs (video), not Little League park homers like his walk-off against Chris Woodward’s Rangers. His plate discipline has taken a step back this year (career low 5.2% walk rate and career high 31.3% chase rate), which is why he can’t get his OBP out of the 2s, but his hard-hit ability has returned. This is night and day (and welcome) (full-size image):

Torres has made a few subtle mechanical adjustments. Brendan Kuty notes “Torres has made an adjustment to his swing, essentially sitting on his back leg with a big leg kick that starts earlier than it used to.” That echoes what Tom Verducci wrote recently, that Gleyber “junked his incessant bat waggle, which led to timing issues and his front hip leaving too early last year. Now he sets the bat on his shoulder and doesn’t move it until the pitcher moves.”

Like I said, these are subtle adjustments, but we can kinda see them. Here are the before and after GIFs (full-size image):

I didn’t include it because the GIF would be too long and the file size too massive, but this year Gleyber casually waggles his bat until the pitcher comes set, then rests it on his shoulder until the pitcher begins his delivery. In the past he never stopped waggling it. Also, we can see him open his hips a split second later this year. Open up too soon and your lower half isn’t doing as much work, and there’s less power in the swing.

Those adjustments seem to have helped Torres rediscover his hard-hit ability. Is it coming at the cost of plate discipline? Eh, hard to say. Torres could be swinging more aggressively, leading to more chases and fewer walks. I believe there’s a happy medium. Even during his down 2020-21 seasons, Gleyber’s swing decisions were really good. He didn’t chase much and he didn’t swing and miss excessively. He just didn’t drive the ball at all. Marrying the 2020-21 swing decisions with the 2022 hard hit ability would be ideal.

In terms of power production (25-homer pace and .199 ISO), this is the kinda hitter Torres was expected to be during his prospect days. The 38-homer season wasn’t a total fluke (you don’t fluke into 38 dingers), but the rocket ball certainly had a hand in that. Now it’s just a matter of getting the AVG and OBP up into the .270 and .330+ range (or better!), respectively. Do that as a middle infielder, and Gleyber will really be cooking.

The current roster

Because there have been so many roster moves lately and because I no longer write about the Yankees every single day, I sometimes lose track of who’s on and who’s not on the roster. For the sake of having it all in one place, here is the current roster:

Donaldson could be activated any day and Locastro has been ramping up his rehab work. He is with the Yankees in Tampa and is working out at the minor league complex. Figure Andujar and a reliever (probably McKay because he’s optionable while Banuelos has to go through waivers) will be sent down whenever Donaldson and Locastro return. 

Garcia, Medina, and Sears are the only healthy 40-man roster pitchers in the minors and Deivi is having another disaster season, so forget him. I wouldn’t expect the Yankees to call Medina up from Double-A unless it’s an emergency. Realistically, Sears and McKay are the only shuttle-able pitchers on the 40-man roster at the moment (Banuelos is out of minor league options).

As always, the 40-man roster is tight. Banuelos and Carpenter took the two open spots and I assume Green will go on the 60-day injured list to clear a spot when Donaldson comes off the COVID list (Britton, German, Ridings, and Rortvedt are on the 60-day injured list already). If the Yankees are willing to pay him MLB salary, they could open another 40-man spot by calling up Gil and putting him on the 60-day injured list. That seems at least a little possible.

Anyway, that’s the big league roster right now. I kinda lost track of everyone given the injuries and COVID issues and roster moves. Donaldson and Locastro figure to return within the next few days. With any luck Chapman, Loaisiga, and Stanton won’t be too far behind.

Miscellany

Ho hum, another masterpiece from Yankees ace Nestor Cortes. He’s pitched into the eighth inning three times in his last four starts, and he has a 1.70 ERA (2.53 FIP) in 53 innings. Cortes is third among pitchers with +1.6 WAR. Forget the All-Star Game, is it too early to start a Nestor for Cy Young campaign? No. No it is not … Mike King is in his first little rut of the young season and I don’t think we’re anywhere near panic time yet. Two outings ago he went nine up, nine down with six strikeouts! His stuff was plenty good the last two games despite the poor results (five runs in 1.2 innings). King missed his spot a few times and got burned. It happens. Every reliever has a bad stretch or two during the season. I expect him to bounce back soon. I’ll worry if this is still going on in 2-3 weeks and not a moment sooner … Very nice outing for Ron Marinaccio the other night. He retired all six batters he faced, three via strikeout, and hitters missed with six of their eight swings against his changeup (video). That changeup is nasty. Because of injuries the bullpen is the land of opportunity right now, and an outing like that will earn Marinaccio more looks. I called him a “pretty excellent candidate to be the ‘come out of nowhere to get big outs’ guy this year” in my top 30 prospects post, and hopefully Wednesday’s game was the first step toward making me look smart. You can do it, Ron … Last, but certainly not least, hell yeah Banuelos. He was added to the roster Thursday and finally gets to wear pinstripes, a decade after he was the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect. "The dream was to pitch in the big leagues and pitch for the Yankees. It's been a long journey to make it here,” Banuelos said Wednesday (video). I don’t know how long he’ll stick around or how effective he’ll be, but damn, this is fun. Give ‘em hell, Manny.

3. Stanton’s ankle. Last season Giancarlo Stanton missed 11 days with a calf strain in May, then he stayed healthy the rest of the year and mashed. With any luck this current ankle injury will play out the same way. Stanton was placed on the injured list earlier this week with what the Yankees initially called a calf strain, then later clarified is actually ankle inflammation. Weird.

“Just feel like this is something that’s going to be short,” Aaron Boone told Brendan Kuty, adding there are no issues with Stanton’s Achilles. “Feel like we should knock it out and not mess with it and maybe it becomes something else. Hopefully he got out in front of it a little bit and hopefully it’s just the 10 days and he’s back.”

Given his history, any Stanton injury is worrisome, and it doesn’t help that the Yankees downplay every little physical issue with him. I’d rather ankle inflammation than a calf strain because calves are really tricky and can take a long time to heal (we got lucky last year’s calf injury was truly minor), but ankles can be problematic too. Fingers crossed, hope for the best, etc. etc.

Stanton had a great first series before falling into a two-week rut, then he went on month-long rampage that would’ve been the talk of the Yankees if not for Aaron Judge’s monster season. Giancarlo hit .337/.441/.652 (205 wRC+) with nine homers in his 25 games prior to going on the injured list. However long he’s out, the Yankees are gonna miss him. Stanton’s still a monster.

The Yankees have had nine players for the eight non-catcher starting spots all season, so they can stick with the remaining eight while Stanton is sidelined. Figure the regular starting lineup will look something like this for the time being:

1. DH DJ LeMahieu (obviously not the set DH, he’ll move around)
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Anthony Rizzo
4. 3B Josh Donaldson
5. 2B Gleyber Torres
6. LF Joey Gallo
7. SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa
8. Catchers
9. CF Aaron Hicks

Five infielders and three outfielders is a bit of a headache, because if the Yankees want to give Judge a DH day, one of the infielders has to sit and someone (Marwin Gonzalez?) has to come off the bench to play the outfield. It is what it is. The Matt Carpenter signing likely means Miguel Andujar’s time on the roster is limited, which doesn’t help the outfield situation.

This is gonna sound dumb after the last few days but the Yankees have cut down on injuries the last two years, particularly lower body soft tissue injuries. We aren’t seeing nearly as many hamstring and calf pulls. Ankle inflammation is in the same neighborhood, so hopefully this is just a blip. If it is long-term, well, the Yankees will figure it out. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that and Stanton makes it back soon after his 10 days are up.

4. The decimated bullpen. The Yankees went from being one of the healthiest teams in the league to losing half their bullpen in a week. Chad Green and Luis Gil blew out their elbows last week and need Tommy John surgery, and earlier this week Aroldis Chapman (Achilles) and Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder) joined them on the injured list. The current bullpen:

• Top Tier: RHP Clay Holmes, RHP Mike King
• Second Tier: RHP Miguel Castro, LHP Lucas Luetge, LHP Wandy Peralta
• The Kids: RHP Ron Marinaccio, RHP Clarke Schmidt
• Others: LHP Manny Banuelos, RHP David McKay

A few weeks ago I said this was the best and deepest bullpen the Yankees have had in quite a long time. Since then three high leverage guys got hurt (Chapman, Green, Loaisiga) as did arguably their No. 1 bullpen depth option (Gil). And that doesn’t include Zack Britton, who’s out until at least September. Things went south in a hurry.

“He’s gone through some tests in the last couple of days,” Aaron Boone told Zach Braziller about Loaisiga’s injury. “Similar to what he dealt with last year, probably not as severe. Just feels like it’s probably something that as a precaution we need to be smart here and take a couple of weeks and hopefully that’s all it is.”

Loaisiga signed with the Yankees in Feb. 2016 and he’s missed time with an arm injury every season since then except the 60-game pandemic season. He missed most of last September with a shoulder issue and was never quite right after that, so maybe it lingered? That would be bad seeing how that was eight months ago now.

The silver lining is the injury could explain Loaisiga’s ineffectiveness. And Chapman’s too, for that matter. Maybe they’ll come back in a few weeks good as new. Chapman’s done that in the past. He had a rough few weeks in the middle of 2018, missed a month with a knee issue, then was dominant upon his return. You never want anyone to get hurt, but if these are truly minor issues that explain their struggles this season, then that ain’t so bad, is it?

Also, the Chapman and Loaisiga (and Green and Gil) injuries create opportunities. Marinaccio answered the bell with two 1-2-3 innings with a two-run lead the other night. I’m sure Schmidt is going to get a longer look and I look forward to it. I mean, I’d rather the Yankees be fully healthy, but injuries happen. Kids like Marinaccio and Schmidt getting an opportunity is exciting to me.

“We’ve got guys that are very capable down there, and to go with what we’ve been getting with our starting pitching, we’ll be okay,” Boone said over the weekend. “It’ll create some opportunities for other people and some different roles. That’s going to come in the course of a season. It forces guys to step up, and we have people that have a chance to do that.”

I am curious to see how Boone deploys Holmes. Prior to the injuries he was the "faces the other team’s best hitters no matter the inning” guy, and Boone did use Holmes against the middle of the Orioles lineup in the eighth inning Tuesday. It was a tie game and he didn’t save his best reliever for a save situation that might have never come. I was 100% onboard with it.

Then, on Wednesday, Boone used Luetge and Castro against the 1-2-3-4 hitters in the eighth inning. That’s usually a Holmes spot. Maybe it boils down to a two-run lead vs. a tie game? The 2-0 lead gave the Yankees a little wiggle room Wednesday (Holmes then pitched the ninth). The tie game is the higher leverage situation. One run means a lot there, so Holmes pitched.

I don’t think (and don't want) Boone will slide Holmes into a traditional closer’s role. I think he’ll continue to use him in what he considers the game’s most important situation, which is easier said than done. If it means facing the 2-3-4 hitters in the eighth inning and someone else getting the save chance in the ninth, so be it. Using Holmes like that will be ripe for second guessing, but to Boone’s credit, he’s never shied away from second guessing. He does what he thinks is best and smooth talks to everyone later.

I’m also curious to see whether King’s usage changes. He’s never pitched back-to-back days (not once at any level in his career) and he’s only pitched with one day of rest four times (twice last September and twice this year). I didn’t like King pitching in Game 2 of a doubleheader after warming up in Game 1 a few weeks ago. He’d never done anything like that (his recent struggles started with that Game 2 outing, for what it’s worth). If he goes 2-3 innings, King will need rest, but can he do one inning on back-to-back days? We’re gonna find out soon, I think.

The Yankees bullpen went from so good and so deep that guys like Peralta and Schmidt sat unused for a week to thinned out real quick. That’s baseball. Pitchers get hurt. It’s what they do. You’re doing okay when you lose guys like Chapman, Green, and Loaisiga and can still run Holmes and King in there in high leverage spots. Castro and Peralta will be asked to do more, and this is a great opportunity for the kids. It’s your big chance, Clarke and Ron.

“You got to be able to weather the storm and have other guys step up in different situations,” Boone told Braziller. “Sometimes it’s in short spurts. Sometimes, it’s longer. That’s part of the grind of the 162-game season. We’re prepared to handle that, we look forward to handling that. The season doesn’t stop for anyone.”

5. 2022 draft prospect: Cal OF Dylan Beavers. The 2022 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and the Yankees hold the No. 25 pick. Here are the draft prospects we’ve already profiled. Some will be players the Yankees are reported to have interest in, some are players who fit the team’s M.O., and some are players I happen to like.

Beavers is a young college junior (21 until August) and he’s more tools than performance, not that his performance has been bad: .292/.429/.639 (148 wRC+) with 16 home runs and as many walks as strikeouts (49 each, or 18.9%) in 53 games this spring. Batting average isn’t everything, but a potential first round college bat hitting under .300 raises eyebrows.

Last summer Beavers went 7-for-30 (.233) against top competition in the wood bat Cape Cod League, though he struck out only six times (17.1% in a league with a 25.9% average strikeout rate), so it’s not like he was completely overmatched. He did struggle with Team USA as well, however. Here are his Beavers’ current draft rankings:

• Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 31
• FanGraphs: Ranked outside top 69
• Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 56
• MLB.com: No. 20

As a lanky and athletic 6-foot-4 outfielder with a handsy left-handed swing, Beavers has gotten a few Christian Yelich comps this spring, though that’s based more on how he looks than what he is expected to do at the next level (it’s unfair to expect anyone to be Yelich). Here’s some video and here’s a chunk of MLB.com’s free scouting report:

When Beavers is locked in, he’s the proverbial five-tool player. During the spring of 2021, he reminded some scouts of Christian Yelich as a left-handed hitter who makes good swing decisions and hard contact in the strike zone. But using a bit of an unorthodox setup with lower hand positioning, he does have some timing issues and there are some holes in his swing. He was tied up inside at times over the summer. He was streaky in the fall, though he did show some flashes of brilliance, especially getting to his easily plus raw power, something that continued this spring … Beavers is an above-average runner who has the chance to stay in center field, though his near-plus arm would work just fine in right. He hasn’t received a ton of instruction in terms of making adjustments mechanically at the plate, but there will be teams willing to look past the hit risk and bank on helping him tap into all of his tools at the next level.

Beavers is an exit velocity dude who averaged over 92 mph last spring and has been up to at least 108 mph this spring. Keith Law (subs. req’d) cautions Beavers has a “swing that leads to whiffs even in the zone,” and FanGraphs says he “struggles to keep his long levers on time and he tends to inside-out pitches he should pull.” There’s boom or bust potential here.

We know the Yankees love exit velocity and they tend to put a premium on performance on the Cape, but Beavers was there for eight games. Is that enough to say no thanks to the lefty power and seemingly plus swing decisions? Can the Yankees coach him up and close some of the holes in his swing? The answer to that question will determine their interest more than anything. Beavers definitely has upside though, and with it comes risk.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Joe asks: Have the Yankees been one of the best first inning teams in baseball over the last few years? Not only in scoring but just traffic in general? Feel like they constantly have guys on base even if they don’t always bring them home.

I think Joe might be the only one who feels this way. It was a thing for a bit last season that the Yankees weren’t scoring in the first inning, and their first inning numbers have been mediocre to bad the last few years. Their first inning ranks since Opening Day 2021:

• Runs: 97 (25th in MLB)
• Home runs: 30 (19th)
• AVG: .247 (18th)
• OBP: .334 (13th)
• SLG: .410 (21st)
• wRC+: 111 (13th)

Middle of the pack at best across the board. The first inning is historically the highest scoring inning because it is the only inning the team’s best players are guaranteed to hit, which means Aaron Judge for the Yankees, and also Giancarlo Stanton more often than not (Stanton has 128 first inning plate appearances in 173 starts since Opening Day 2021).

Ranking 13th in OBP lends some credence to Joe’s observation that the Yankees generally put guys on base in the first inning, though 13th isn’t great, and being 21st in SLG is shockingly bad given the number of Judge and Stanton at-bats. Those two have taken 36% of the Yankees' first inning plate appearances since last Opening Day. Judge and Stanton hit that much and yet the Yankees have still been so middling in the first inning? Huh.

So I’m sorry to say no, the Yankees have not been one of the best first inning teams the last few years. They’re well behind powerhouses like the Dodgers (138 wRC+) and Giants (129 wRC+), and are closer to the Brewers (110 wRC+) and Mariners (109 wRC+). The Yankees should – should – be better than they have been in the first inning given the talent on the roster.

Rob asks: Do you get upset when Yankee prospects wind up doing better for other teams? I'm thinking Thairo Estrada, Giovanny Gallegos, JP Feyereisen, Garret Whitlock... I know teams can't predict the future but it sucks when the future is better for different team.

Nah. Every single team has a player who got away, and really several players who got away. You will drive yourself crazy thinking about it. Teams are going to let players leave who go on to contribute elsewhere. It’s unavoidable. The Dodgers let Yordan Alvarez get away. The Rays let Jake Cronenworth get away. Josh Hader was an Oriole, Ty France was a Padre, Pablo Lopez was a Mariner, Patrick Sandoval was an Astro, on and on we could go.

Keep in mind everything – I mean the player’s entire career path – changes when a player goes to a new team. He works with different coaches, has different teammates, lives in a different city, etc. Does Clay Holmes become Clay freaking Holmes if the Pirates trade him to, say, the Blue Jays? Maybe, but this is pretty much the best case scenario, right? Hard to think he’d be the same player with another team. This also applies to the Yankees keeping Garrett Whitlock. Does Whitlock turn into this with the Yankees? More likely no than yes.

It’s never fun when you watch a player who could help you leave and contribute elsewhere, but it’s the nature of the beast. Unless there’s a very obvious misevaluation (like the Pirates straight up not knowing that they had with Holmes), I try not to dwell on it. You’ll drive yourself mad and it won’t accomplish anything.

Chris asks: In regard to the 13 pitcher rule, what are the qualifications for a "pitcher" and "hitter"? Could the Yankees just pick a blowout and let a pitcher play right field for an inning to grandfather him in as a "hitter" for the season?

We haven’t actually seen it yet, the 13-pitcher limit has been in the works for years, and it requires teams to designate every player on the roster as either a pitcher or position player. Players designated as position players can only pitch in extra innings, or when the score is separated by at least six runs. That prevents the Yankees from, say, listing Clarke Schmidt as an outfielder, and using him as a pitcher anyway.

There is also a two-way player designation. Two-way players count as position players, so the Angels can carry 13 pitchers plus Shohei Ohtani. To qualify as a two-way player, the player must pitch at least 20 MLB innings and have at least three plate appearances in 20 MLB games. So giving a pitcher one inning in the outfield in a blowout isn’t enough to qualify him as a two-way player, and buy an extra pitcher spot.

The 13-pitcher limit is coming eventually (right?) and teams are pretty good at finding loopholes, and they might find one here. Probably will. For now, there are rules in place designed to prevent gaming the system, and buying an extra pitcher spot by letting a pitcher hit or play the field once in a blue moon, and thus qualify as a position player.

Russ asks: What do you think about giving a pitchcom to the home plate umpire? Seems to me they could call a better strike zone if they were able to anticipate the pitch action.

I like it! I guess the risk is the batter might hear the pitch call from the umpire’s receiver, but that seems fixable. Umpires have a hard job and they are the best in the world at what they do. They are not perfect, goodness are they not perfect, but they’re great at their jobs overall. Anything we can do to make their lives easier and make the game more fair and accurate, I’m for it. At minimum, I don’t see how it would make their jobs more difficult. Let’s do it. Good idea, Russ.

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