RAB Thoughts

May 24th, 2022: Donaldson, Offense, Bullpen, Green, Gil

Added 2022-05-24 12:01:02 +0000 UTC

Roger Angell, the greatest ballwriter to ever live, passed away Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 101. If you’re only going to read one thing today, read Angell’s 1975 profile on Steve Blass. Just a masterclass in combining serious reporting with sensitivity. Now let’s get to today’s post.

1. Weekend thoughts. Banner weekend for the Yankees, eh? They went full 2021 Yankees for a few days there. The offense no-showed during the doubleheader, multiple relievers melted down, they made dopey mistakes on the bases, lost to the Orioles, and got dunked on after a benches-clearing incident. I can’t remember the last time the Yankees walked away from a war of words without looking like chumps. A few thoughts on the last few days.

Donaldson vs. Anderson

As you no doubt know, Josh Donaldson continued his feud with White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson over the weekend. The two first got into it following a hard tag at third base last week in Chicago, then they got into it again Saturday. Donaldson admitted he called Anderson “Jackie,” a reference to a quote Anderson made in a 2019 Stephanie Apstein article. Here’s the quote:

“I kind of feel like today’s Jackie Robinson,” he says. “That’s huge to say. But it’s cool, man, because he changed the game, and I feel like I’m getting to a point to where I need to change the game.”

Anderson’s quote has been passed around without context the last few days. The article is about Anderson feeling isolated as a Black man in a predominantly white sport. All Donaldson’s comment did was reinforce that isolation. The best case scenario is Donaldson is a moron who for some reason is fixated on a three-year-old article. The worst case is much, much uglier.

Donaldson gave the token “I’m sorry he got offended” apology and said he only “joked around” with Anderson, but joking around is between friends, and these two aren’t friends. Donaldson used Robinson’s name to belittle Anderson repeatedly over a number of years. Robinson is one of the most important figures in American history and reducing his name to an insult is shameful.

"It's a tough one given the history, especially the series in Chicago and the little bit of beef between Anderson and him," Aaron Judge told Dan Martin about Donaldson's comments to Anderson. "Anderson is one of the best shortstops in the game and is a big part of MLB and how we can grow the game."

Donaldson said he’s willing to meet face to face with Anderson to apologize, but a) Donaldson has a history of misrepresenting face to face meetings with White Sox players, and b) Anderson doesn’t owe him anything. As far as we know the White Sox left town without the two meeting. If the Yankees and White Sox see each other again this year, it will be in the postseason.

MLB investigated the incident (the league interviewed Anderson several times and Donaldson at least once) and Donaldson has been suspended one game. He’s appealing and is eligible to play until the appeal is heard (he can’t serve the suspension while on the COVID list). Here’s what MLB discipline czar Michael Hill said in the league’s statement:

“MLB has completed the process of speaking to the individuals involved in this incident. There is no dispute over what was said on the field. Regardless of Mr. Donaldson's intent, the comment he directed toward Mr. Anderson was disrespectful and in poor judgment, particularly when viewed in the context of their prior interactions. In addition, Mr. Donaldson’s remark was a contributing factor in a bench-clearing incident between the teams, and warrants discipline.”

Donaldson has never been all that likable and he’s rubbed opposing players the wrong way for a long time. It’s one thing to call Gerrit Cole out for using sticky stuff. That is 100% fair game in my opinion. There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed though, and no matter what Anderson said in an article three years ago, using Robinson’s name to mock someone is beyond that line. I’d like to think that is common sense, but I guess not.

“I understand that Josh has been very forthcoming with the history of it, the context of it,” Aaron Boone told Peter Botte over the weekend. “I don’t believe there was any malicious intent with that regard. This is just somewhere in my opinion he should not be going.”

The amazing, disappearing offense

The Yankees scored one run in Sunday’s doubleheader. It was the first time they scored no more than one run in a doubleheader since Sept. 2014 against the Orioles, and the first time they did it at home since Aug. 1991. They did it twice in a four-day span that month. The Tigers got them on Aug. 10th and the Royals on Aug. 13th, both at Yankee Stadium.

It won’t go into the history books, but the Yankees got hidden perfect game’d by Michael Kopech. He retired the final 13 Yankees he faced on May 15th and the first 17 Yankees he faced on May 22nd, so that’s 30 (!) consecutive Yankees retired across two starts. Good for him, bad for the Yankees. Monday night’s lineup had serious 2013-14 vibes:

1B Anthony Rizzo
RF Aaron Judge
DH Giancarlo Stanton
2B Gleyber Torres
SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa
LF Aaron Hicks
CF Estevan Florial
C Jose Trevino
3B Marwin Gonzalez

This is why you don’t punt offense for defense at multiple positions, by the way. Especially not when COVID still lingers as a threat to sideline multiple players at once. Donaldson, Joey Gallo, and Kyle Higashioka are all on the COVID list right now, and while Gallo hasn’t been good as a Yankee, he’s better than his replacement.

“(They are) more than just not feeling well. They feel sick. It’s not just allergies. They’re not available to play,” Boone told Bryan Hoch about the COVID trio. (For what it’s worth Donaldson’s, Gallo’s, and Higashioka’s lockers are all next to each other in the clubhouse.)

Judge is incredible. Two homers Monday night, five homers in his last seven games, 11 homers in his last 20 games, and 16 homers in his last 27 games. Rejecting that contract extension offer and then doing this is an all-time baller move. Judge couldn’t possibly do anything more for his team, offensively or defensively. He is the super early AL MVP favorite, and I don’t think it’s close.

It’s the rest of the offense that has been a problem lately. Every single run the Yankees scored in their last three games came on a Judge homer. Rizzo (.183/.289/.310 and 77 wRC+) and DJ LeMahieu (.211/.300/.310 and 88 wRC+) have been pretty bad in May, and with Rizzo slumping, there’s no lefty impact in the lineup. Stanton and Torres have been quiet the last few games too, which hasn’t helped.

Rob Brantly, who was called up Sunday to replace Higashioka, broke up Kopech’s perfect game with a double, and with that double Brantly accounts for 14% of all extra-base hits by Yankees catchers this season. Kiner-Falefa’s last extra-base hit was May 2nd*. Hicks has two extra-base hits (one double, one homer) all season. After the top guys, this lineup is punchless.

* Yeah, that ball was fair Monday night and should have been a double, but would saying he has one extra-base hit since May 2nd really be much better?

I don’t know how long Donaldson and Gallo will be sidelined, but there’s no reason not to play Miguel Andujar right now (he was called up to replace Donaldson). Florial needs to play as long as he’s around too. Gonzalez hasn’t been good and he has no future with the Yankees (he might not even last the season). Any at-bats he gets over Andujar and Florial are a wasted opportunity.

(How do you let Marwin take that at-bat Monday night representing the tying run in the ninth inning against a dude throwing 97-98 mph sinkers? lol)

The offense will be prone to cold spells because there’s just nothing at the bottom of the order. When Judge, Rizzo, Stanton, et al have a quiet night, no one will pick them up. The margins of the roster are too weak and must be improved at the trade deadline. For now, the non-Judge portion of the offense is in a rut. It is the biggest reason for this little three-game losing streak.

Bullpen problems

The cracks in the bullpen dam are starting to burst. Chad Green is done for the year and Luis Gil can’t replace him (more on them in a bit), Aroldis Chapman is dealing with an Achilles issue (why is he pitching in a tie game if he’s not 100%?), Jonathan Loaisiga still isn’t right, and Miguel Castro is Miguel Castro. He looks amazing one day and unrosterable the next.

Clay Holmes and Mike King were nowhere near the high leverage radar at this time last year and now they’re doing almost all the heavy lifting in the bullpen. The difference between those two and everyone else is stark:

The rest of the bullpen hasn’t been bad, though there’s certainly a big drop off between Holmes and King, and everyone else. In terms of shutdowns and meltdowns (i.e. relief appearances that swing win probability at least 6% in one direction or the other), Holmes and King are at 18 shutdowns and three meltdowns combined. Everyone else is at 33 and 18, respectively.

I would like to see two things happen with the bullpen. First, give Clarke Schmidt a look. I mean actually pitch the guy. Monday was his 36th day on the active big league roster and he’s made only five appearances. I get that he’s the long man and Boone doesn’t want to use him unless it’s a long man situation, but the rotation has been too good to wait around for a short start.

Schmidt has pitched well when he has pitched and he has the power stuff (and by all accounts the dogged competitiveness) to excel in a shorter relief role. It might not happen right away, but why can’t Schmidt be another King? It’s crazy to me a dude with as much talent as Schmidt is sitting unused while so many others struggle to get important outs, especially while he’s healthy. Schmidt hasn’t been healthy all that often. He is now. Might wanna use him, you know?

Green’s injury opens a bullpen spot, meaning when the 13-pitcher limit kicks in Monday, Schmidt can stick around. I would understand sending him to Triple-A to get stretched out as a starter, but there’s a chance to help the MLB team in relief, and learning how to get outs at the big league level regardless of role is valuable experience. It’s time to give Schmidt some of it. (Plus I feel pretty good about Hayden Wesneski being the next-in-line starting pitcher in Triple-A.)

And second, Wandy Peralta. What’s up with this? The guy was a fairly trusted reliever down the stretch last season and now he’s at the back of the bullpen. Monday night was Wandy’s first outing in four days, and his last four appearances before that came on eight, one, four, and four days rest. Wandy has pitched five times in May. Five! It’s not enough.

Peralta got burned by ground balls last night and I’m not holding that against him. Can’t blame a guy for not being not razor sharp when he’s used so infrequently. There’s a good (not amazing, but good) reliever in there somewhere, so use him. It’s not like taking innings away from Castro is going to be some grand misuse of resources. It’s fine. Try it.

The Yankees are pretty good at building bullpens and, if necessary, rebuilding them on the fly. It might be necessary this year. Green’s hurt, Chapman might be cooked, Loaisiga could be a one-year wonder (I don’t think he is but it’s possible). If they have to go out and get bullpen help, they will. Schmidt and Wandy (and Ron Marinaccio?) are worth a shot first. It’s time to try them.

“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 told Hoch about his bullpen. “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.”

Miscellany

Jameson Taillon and Luis Severino during the doubleheader: 14 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 12 K. The Yankees have gotten very good pitching all season, but damn, wasting two starts like that (on the same day no less) really stings. Gotta turn those in wins. Taillon’s sporting a 2.95 ERA (3.22 FIP) through eight starts. He’s been so good … A few weeks back I noted Giancarlo Stanton had only two walks in 74 plate appearances, or 2.7%. Since then Stanton’s walked 12 times in 92 plate appearances, or 13.0%. Good to know I can still fix things with my words. Stanton’s season 8.4% walk rate is still a bit below his 11.5% career average (10.9% last year), but it’s looking more normal now … And finally, JP Sears will make the spot start Wednesday, Boone confirmed. He’s been excellent in Triple-A (21.1 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 30 K) though he’s only stretched out to 65 pitches or so, so he won’t pitch deep into the game (maybe Schmidt will piggyback?). I assume Marinaccio will be sent down to clear a roster spot. As for what happens after the spot start, who knows. Hard to predict roster moves given the current COVID situation.

2. Two Tommy John surgeries. All things considered, the Yankees have stayed very healthy this year, though they did get slammed a bit over the last week. It was bound to happen at some point. Here is the latest on two injured Yankees.

Green headed for Tommy John surgery

This sucks. Chad Green will indeed have Tommy John surgery, ending his season and possibly his Yankees career. Green has been one of the best, most durable relievers in the game since being called up for good in 2017, and his reward is major arm injury five months before his best (only?) chance at a big free agent payday.

Here’s the reliever WAR leaderboard since Opening Day 2017:

Josh Hader: +11.6 WAR
Raisel Iglesias: +8.3 WAR
Liam Hendriks: +8.2 WAR
Chad Green: +8.0 WAR
Blake Treinen: +7.6 WAR

Green is the only one of those dudes (and the only reliever above +7.0 WAR since 2017) who did not spend a good chunk of time as a closer, and thus didn’t get the leverage boost. I know Green wasn’t what he was in the past this year, but he’s been really good for a really long time. He was the perfect modern reliever as a strikeout guy capable of pitching at any time and in any role.

“What Greenie means to this team, and what a great reliable player he’s been for us, it’s tough news,” Aaron Boone told Peter Botte over the weekend. “It’s usually something that pitchers are able to return from. I know he will. He’s an outstanding athlete that takes great care of himself and has a really good work ethic. I know that, in time, he’ll be fine. I expect him to pitch several more years at the level we’ve come to expect.”

The Yankees have now lost a Major League pitcher (i.e. someone expected to be a mainstay on the big league roster rather than an up and down guy) to Tommy John surgery every year but one since 2014. Here’s the list:

2022: Chad Green
2021: Zack Britton
2020: Tommy Kahnle (plus Luis Severino in Spring Training)
2019: none
2018: Jordan Montgomery
2017: Michael Pineda
2016: Nathan Eovaldi
2015: Chase Whitley
2014: Ivan Nova

The one year the Yankees didn’t have a pitcher Tommy John surgery was 2019, the year they set injured list records. Go figure. Anyway, the typical Tommy John surgery rehab timetable is 14-16 months these days, so there’s a chance Green could return to big league games next August or September. There’s also a chance he won’t see an MLB mound again until 2024. Rough.

Some team will sign Green to a 1+1 deal this offseason, like the Dodgers did with Kahnle*. He’ll get a low base salary for 2023, his rehab year, then a more representative salary in 2024, when he should be a full-go. It will also be his age 33 season. The earliest Green will get the chance to test free agency as a healthy player coming off a full year is 2024, when he’ll be almost 34.

* Kahnle’s deal paid him a $750,000 salary with a $550,000 signing bonus during his rehab year, so $1.3M total. His healthy year salary is $3.45M. Ryan Tepera got two years and $14M this past offseason and Trevor May got two years and $15.5M last offseason. Could a healthy Green have gotten something in that neighborhood? I think so.

Will the Yankees sign Green to that 1+1 deal? Eh, maybe. We’ve seen them do it before (David Aardsma, Octavio Dotel, random Yankee Jon Lieber), though it has been a while. In Hal Steinbrenner's austerity era, spending money (and a roster spot) on a player you know won’t contribute all year just isn’t something the Yankees seem willing to do. Odds are Green will wind up elsewhere.

Like I said before, Green these days isn’t what he was earlier in his career, but he was still a rock solid Major League reliever, and one who made the Yankees better. He was what, their fourth or fifth best reliever on paper? That’s pretty good. Losing Green is a blow to the Yankees and I hope he gets healthy and is still able to make some good money before the game is done with him.

Gil also headed for Tommy John surgery

Luis Gil also needs Tommy John surgery. You think Hal asked about a buy one, get 50% off discount? Probably. Gil got hurt during his Triple-A start last week. It was his first Triple-A start following his MLB spot start. The difference between the Triple-A injured list and MLB injured list is several hundred thousand dollars in salary, plus service time. Bad timing for Luis.

A healthy Gil would have been a candidate to fill Green’s vacated bullpen spot and I really like him as a potential high leverage reliever. I don’t think the control will ever be good enough to start, but Gil has the fastball and power stuff to really overwhelm hitters in short bursts. His first inning two weeks ago was as dominant as any inning any Yankees pitcher will throw in 2022 (video).

This is Gil’s final minor league option year and he’s already spent more than the 20 days in the minors needed to burn the option. So, when he’s ready to be activated next year, he has to go right on the MLB roster. The Yankees can (and will) send him on a 60-day minor league rehab assignment, but yeah, Gil’s losing his final year of proper minor league development. Sucks.

Also, Gil has already spent enough time in the minors this season to delay his free agency*, so whenever the Yankees need a 40-man spot, they can call him up and put him on the 60-day injured list, and it wouldn’t chop away a year of control. They’d have to pay him more in 2022, but it would be a drop in the bucket. Gil to the 60-day injured list could happen at some point.

* I don’t think the Yankees manipulated Gil’s service time. He legitimately needed more Triple-A time to work on his control (and work on his command, but control comes before command).

Given the current state of the bullpen, having Gil around as an option sure would have been nice. Pitchers get hurt though. It's what they do. Tommy John surgery isn't perfect but it has a high success rate, and Gil is still only 23. He's got a lot of career ahead of him. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road, and a year from now we're looking forward to him joining the bullpen and carving out a long-term.

3. 2022 draft prospect: Oregon State LHP Cooper Hjerpe. 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.

Hjerpe (pronounced “Jerpy”) has been the best pitcher in the country this spring, which a) is at least partially a product of so many other top college pitchers getting hurt, and b) isn’t the same thing as being the top college pitcher prospect. For example, Gerrit Cole was the best prospect in the 2011 draft even though Trevor Bauer, his teammate at UCLA, outpitched him.

This season Hjerpe owns a 2.36 ERA (1.93 FIP) with 135 strikeouts and 17 walks in 84 innings. That works out to a 41.0% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate. The tough to elevate Hjerpe has allowed eight home runs (two this year) in 173 career college innings, or 0.42 HR/9. That’s one homer every 21 innings or so. Here are Hjerpe’s’s current draft rankings:

Baseball America (subs. req’d): No. 48
FanGraphs: No. 61
Keith Law (subs. req’d): No. 62
MLB.com: No. 46

Hjerpe had a rough start at Arizona two weeks ago (4.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K) with a lot of top scouting executives in attendance, though he bounced back well last week (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K), and he’s popping up in first round mock drafts because he’s the rare healthy and performing college starter. Here’s video and here’s part of MLB.com’s free scouting report:

While Hjerpe doesn’t light up radar guns, he does have a full starter’s repertoire, a ton of deception and a huge competitive streak. His fastball will typically sit in the 91-93 mph range, occasionally touching a bit higher. It plays up because of a funky, cross-fire delivery that makes the ball hard for even right-handed hitters to pick up, and because he combines it with his breaking ball so well. It’s kind of a Laredo, coming from a low three-quarters slot, and Hjerpe can vary its shape. One is more of a slow sweeping curve, thrown in the mid-70s, and the other is tighter with more slider characteristics, thrown up around 80 mph. His average changeup features good fade and should be a weapon for him in the future.

Even with the funk in his delivery, Hjerpe tends to always finish online, leading to a belief that he’s going to throw more than enough strikes in the future, and he is fearless on the mound. His ceiling is a bit limited, but mid-rotation southpaws who perform well in big college conferences tend to do decently when the Draft comes around.

Keith Law (subs. req’d) recently noted Hjerpe will be a “darling of model-heavy teams with great Trackman data on his fastball and slider.” For the deep pitching nerds, FanGraphs adds his “fastball has a shallow vertical approach angle as well as an odd lateral one.” Hjerpe’s low arm slot …

… is unconventional, though unconventional deliveries don’t scare the Yankees. They’ve taken Clarke Schmidt, Matt Sauer, and T.J. Sikkema in the top three rounds in the last five years and all three went into the draft with delivery concerns. And, of course, all three have had injury issues in pro ball, so maybe the unconventional delivery thing isn’t some badge of honor.

There’s a strong case to be made Hjerpe is the best healthy college pitcher in the 2022 draft, and with 24 picks to be made before the Yankees go on the clock, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll come off the board before they pick. The top college arms rarely last long on draft day, though this is an unusual draft class because of the injuries, so who really knows?

I know this much: Hjerpe is an analytics darling, which is up the Yankees alley. Also, Hjerpe is said to be a big makeup guy, and that’s also something the Yankees value. That’s one reason they went for Schmidt despite his Tommy John surgery, because he’s a competitive guy who doesn’t scare easily. Hjerpe does check a lot of the boxes the Yankees prioritize.

4. Remembering a random Yankee: Brody Koerner. This week’s random Yankee is another request, and a player who likely never would have reached the big leagues without the pandemic, as messed up as that sounds. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Koerner grew up outside Washington DC and he was No. 500 on Baseball America’s top 500 prospects for the 2012 draft (subs. req’d). He was not drafted out of high school, however, so he followed through on his commitment to Virginia, where he had a 7.00 ERA in three years. That includes allowing 57 runs in 62 innings his draft year.

Despite the ugly numbers the Yankees saw enough in Koerner to make him their 17th round pick in 2015. His signing bonus was not reported, an indication it didn’t approach the $100,000 slot for picks after the 10th round. Koerner had surgery in May 2016 to repair a small fracture in his elbow, then, in 2017, he broke out with a 3.52 ERA in 107.1 innings split between High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton.

"We treated it like a bone chip," Koerner told Randy Miller about the elbow surgery. "It was a fracture. They just broke it off, then pulled it out and cleaned up the bone a little bit. I was shut down for six weeks, then began rehabbing."

In 2018 and 2019, Koerner was an organizational arm who split his time between the rotation and bullpen, and Double-A and Triple-A. He had a 4.89 ERA in 202.1 innings those two years. Koerner spent the 2020 pandemic season at home rather than at the alternate site, and in 2021, he threw 77 innings with a 3.39 ERA with Triple-A Scranton. He made 15 starts and 11 relief appearances.

Injuries and COVID decimated the Yankees pitching staff early in Aug. 2021. Domingo German was placed on the injured list with elbow inflammation on Aug. 1st, and two days later Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery were placed on the COVID list. To replace the arms, the Yankees called up Koerner, as well as Luis Gil and Stephen Ridings. It was the first MLB stint for all three.

Because of the recent bullpen workload, Aug. 3rd against the Orioles was essentially a punt game. The Yankees were using the three rookies no matter what because the regular big leaguers needed rest. Gil got the start and was fantastic, striking out six in six scoreless innings. Ridings then struck out three in a scoreless seventh. The offense built a 9-0 lead through four innings.

That paved the way for Koerner, then 27, to make his MLB debut in the late innings. His MLB debut did not start well – Koerner allowed a leadoff single to Cedric Mullins and a run-scoring double to Ryan Mountcastle – though he settled down and finished the game with just the one run allowed in two innings (video). That game was the first and still only time in American League history a team used at least three pitchers in a game, and every one made his MLB debut.

“It’s been a whirlwind to be honest with you. The last 24 hours have been crazy. It culminated with being able to pitch in Yankee Stadium. It’s a blessing from God for sure,” Koerner said after the game. “It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. That's what you dream of when you're a little kid when you start playing when you're five years old.”

Gil and Ridings were on the roster as COVID replacements, so they were sent back down soon thereafter (the Yankees manipulated the COVID list to avoid the 10-day rule with Gil and give themselves an extra roster spot between his starts). Koerner was a regular call up (Luke Voit was placed on the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man roster spot), which meant a) he got to stick around, and b) the Yankees weren’t worried about losing him on waivers when the time came to drop him from the roster (unlike Ridings).

Koerner was called up and made his debut on Aug. 3rd. He then sat in the bullpen and did not appear in another game until Aug. 20th, when he threw a scoreless ninth inning in a blowout win over the Twins (video). Koerner was sent down the next day and Estevan Florial was called up because Brett Gardner was banged up, and the Yankees needed the outfielder.

The Yankees dropped Koerner from the 40-man roster three days later and he went unclaimed on waivers, so he reported to Triple-A Scranton. Weirdly, the Yankees re-added Koerner to the 40-man roster on Oct. 3rd, then designated him for assignment on Oct. 5th. I have no idea why. Maybe it had to do with postseason eligibility? The Wild Card Game was Oct. 5th and Koerner was dropped from the roster before the game. I never got an explanation for this move. I dunno.

Koerner became a minor league free agent after last season and his Yankees (and MLB) career consists of one run on two hits and two walks in three innings spanning two appearances. He struck out one and hit a batter, so five of the 13 batters he faced reached base. Koerner has 24 days of service time, equaling $73,612.01 in salary at the league minimum ($570,500 in 2021). He never appeared on a Yankees prospect list of any length by any publication.

No team signed Koerner before or after the lockout this past offseason. He eventually signed with Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican League last month, allowed two runs in a five-inning start, then the White Sox signed him to a minor league contract. Koerner is currently with their Triple-A club. Chicago isn’t blessed with tremendous depth, so if he pitches well and they get hit with a few injuries, Koerner could find himself back in the big leagues.

5. Rapid fire thoughts. The Marlins beat righty Pablo Lopez in arbitration over the weekend. He’ll make $2.45M this year rather than the $3M he was seeking. I bring this up only to note Lopez has a 1.67 ERA (2.29 FIP) in eight starts and 46 innings this season, and he leads all pitchers with +2.2 WAR. If you want evidence 2022 performance will not factor into arbitration rulings this summer, that’s about as good as it gets. Aaron Judge’s hearing is set for June 22nd. I think there’s a decent chance the two sides work out a one-year agreement for 2022 and avoid a hearing (neither side wants one). A long-term deal though? Forget it. That’ll have to wait until the offseason.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)