January 25th, 2022: Voit, Abreu, Chaparro, Hicks, Winter Ball

10 years ago today Jorge Posada announced his retirement. Yes, it has really been 10 years. Posada was the second member of the Core Four to retire (Bernie Williams is the fifth member of the Core Four, I’m not going to ignore him just because a nickname rhymes) and he was a career .273/.374/.474 (121 OPS+) hitter in parts of 17 seasons. Among the 124 players with at least 1,000 games at catcher, Posada ranks sixth in OBP, ninth in SLG, and tenth in OPS+. I don’t think he belongs in the Hall of Fame, but I do think Posada deserved better than falling off the ballot his first year of eligibility. Monument Park and five World Series rings is a pretty great alternative to Cooperstown.

In other news, the 2022 Hall of Fame class will be announced later today and the ballot tracker suggests David Ortiz is the only one with a chance to get in this year. Alex Rodriguez is polling well under 50% in his first year of eligibility. Decent chance the BBWAA votes no one in for the second straight year. That would be a shame. Anyway, here is today’s post. Sorry it’s a little shorter than usual, but there’s just nothing going on. Everyone is scraping the bottom of the baseball content barrel right now.

1. The case for keeping Voit. The longer the lockout goes on, the more likely it is the Yankees regret sitting out the pre-lockout period of the offseason. Pitchers and catchers are supposed to report in three weeks and there’s only a small chance MLB and the MLBPA reach a deal in time for camp to open as scheduled. Spring Training will likely be delayed.

So, whenever MLB and the MLBPA reach a deal, there will be hurried finish to the offseason and a rush to start Spring Training. And when you have to rush to get things done, you don’t have as much time to explore the market, and you may miss out on good opportunities. The Yankees still have a lot to do this winter! They need a shortstop, a first baseman, pitching depth, on and on.

Technically the Yankees don’t need a first baseman. Luke Voit is a fine option at the position and my guess is we’d view him as a buy low candidate if he were on another team. He was hurt and ineffective at times last year, and the Yankees benched him late in the season – they struggled offensively and still Voit started only three of the last 16 games! – but he’s not bad.

The Yankees want to get more left-handed and better defensively, and Voit is pretty much their only righty swing-and-miss guy who is movable and easily replaceable. First base is an obvious spot to add a lefty bat with good defense. That said, keeping Voit is defensible. It’s not ideal from a roster construction standpoint, but it is defensible.

Personally, I think Voit is goner before Opening Day, but for the sake of being a full service blog, I’m going to make the argument for keeping Voit, or at least not trading him immediately after the lockout. Let’s dive in.

He’s good!

Occasionally great, even. At least offensively. Voit is a poor defender, but first base will forever be an offense-first position, and on one good knee Voit produced at a rate roughly on par with the league average first baseman in 2021 (111 wRC+ vs. 114 wRC+). He was much better than that the previous few years too. From the 2018 trade deadline (when Voit joined the Yankees) though 2020 (min. 800 PA):

1. Mike Trout: 179 wRC+
2. Christian Yelich: 161 wRC+
…
8. Aaron Judge: 145 wRC+
9. Freddie Freeman: 144 wRC+
10. Luke Voit: 144 wRC+

You don’t have to try too hard to see Voit bouncing back with a healthy knee in 2022. His contact quality didn’t suffer last season (career high barrel rate!) and the guy did hit 11 home runs in 241 plate appearances. That’s 27 homers per 600 plate appearances with a bad knee and a deadened ball (some of the time). I don’t think Voit completely forgot how to hit.

Six of the 10 postseason teams changed their first baseman in-season last year, either due to injury or poor performance. If the Yankees bring Voit back and he struggles or gets hurt, it wouldn’t be too difficult to find a replacement. They did it last year with Anthony Rizzo. You can always find a new first baseman. Why not see whether Voit can get back to his 2018-20 form before committing to one?

He’s cheaper than the alternatives

And that’s important to the austerity era Yankees. Freeman will require a long-term deal in the $25M+ a year range. Matt Olson’s projected arbitration number ($12M) is more than double Voit’s ($5.4M), plus you have to give up prospects to get him. Even re-signing Rizzo would cost what, $13M+ a year for two or three years? Maybe more? Voit is the most cost effective option.

Despite the league-wide obsession with ~efficiency~, the most cost effective option is not always the best option – the 2022 Yankees would undoubtedly be better with Freeman at first than Voit, salary be damned – but money drives decisions, and every dollar the Yankees spend on first base is a dollar they won’t (not can’t, won’t) spend elsewhere. Think of it like this:

• Option 1: Voit with an extra $10M or so to spend on a shortstop, pitching, etc.
• Option 2: Rizzo or Olson with $10M less to spend on a shortstop, pitching, etc.

Without knowing who the shortstop and pitching depth and everything else will be, it’s impossible to say whether Option 1 or Option 2 is better. And hell, if the Yankees are planning to cheap out with a stopgap shortstop anyway, what do the savings matter? I can’t imagine the savings we’re talking about here would make or break an Andrelton Simmons signing.

With the championship window nearly closed on this core, I am of the belief the Yankees should spend whatever it takes to give the team the best chance to win in 2022, and if that means a big outlay for Freeman or Olson, so be it. But if we’re talking Voit or Rizzo, or Voit or Carlos Santana, then yeah, the money can sway that decision. That doesn’t look like enough of an upgrade to me to use two or three times the money at a time when ownership is clamping down on payroll.

His trade value could increase

I’m not sure what Voit can fetch in a trade right now. The fact the Yankees did not non-tender him tells us they believe he has value either on their roster or in a trade, but a soon-to-be 31-year-old righty hitting first baseman with a bad glove and a troublesome knee (and a projected $5M+ price tag) is not exactly a hot commodity. Would you give up good prospects for that guy?

Carry Voit into the season and he could hit his way into more trade value. In this case increasing trade value could mean moving the needle from “very little” to just “a little,” but maybe Voit really goes off, and there’s a demand for first basemen. Perhaps we’d see a “my extra first baseman for your extra player at the position where I’m thin” swap in which two clubs deal from depth to cover for injuries. That seems not impossible.

Of course, the more Voit increases his trade value, the less the Yankees will want to trade him, because it means he’s doing something right. If Voit’s sitting on a .270/.370/.500 line on July 15th, are the Yankees really going to look to move him? Well, maybe! Who knows what the rest of the roster looks like, or the postseason race, etc. A lot will go into that decision.

Point is, trade Voit now and the Yankees don’t figure to get much. The Mike Tauchman return (a good role player and a fringe prospect) may be the best case scenario. Wait a few weeks though and maybe he’s more in demand, and the potential return goes from nothing to something. This shouldn’t be the driving force behind the first base decision, but it is something to consider.

There’s room on the bench

The four-man bench will include a backup catcher (Kyle Higashioka), a backup infielder (Jose Peraza?), and a backup outfielder (Brett Gardner?). That leaves one open spot to use on whatever the Yankees want. The Yankees could give it to Miguel Andujar, who is cheaper and more versatile (at least in theory) than Voit, or they could give it to Estevan Florial or Oswaldo Cabrera.

Or they could just give that last bench spot to Voit, and get him at-bats at first base and DH (when Giancarlo Stanton plays the outfield?). All it takes is one injury for the Yankees to be thankful they kept Voit. Stanton pulls a hamstring or the new first baseman feels a twinge in his wrist, and Voit goes from “where does he fit?” to “thank goodness we still have him!” real quick.

The Yankees went into last season with Gardner and Tauchman on the bench even though they were redundant as lefty hitting defense-first outfielders. As a result, Tauchman appeared in only 11 of the team’s first 21 games (five times as a pinch-runner). The Yankees quickly rectified the situation by trading Tauchman and recalling the more versatile Tyler Wade on April 27th.

Tauchman was on the trade block all Spring Training, you may remember, but the Yankees didn’t get an offer they liked, so they kept him, even into the season. And once something made sense, they pulled the trigger. Could they do the same with Voit? Carry him into the regular season as a poorly fitting bench piece until a worthwhile trade offer comes across their desk? It could be that, or trading him for pennies on the dollar.

Four years ago we all knew the Yankees would trade Sonny Gray. The Yankees took their sweet time and didn’t trade him until three weeks before Spring Training, and we all kinda started talking ourselves into “keeping Gray wouldn’t be bad” scenarios. The Yankees were never going to keep Gray though. We just needed something to talk about, they just needed time to find the right deal.

I don’t think the Voit situation is similar to the Gray situation. Gray was very obviously on the way out. Brian Cashman’s surprisingly candid comments made that clear. The Yankees did not play Voit down the stretch last year, but I’ve never gotten the sense they’re upset with him, or that they’ll move him just to move him. The sequence (trading Voit and replacing him) will have to make sense. Can it all be done in the truncated post-lockout portion of the offseason? Maybe. But don’t be surprised if it lingers into April, or even beyond.

2. Winter ball recap. The various winter leagues have either wrapped up or will soon wrap up their seasons. Not many Yankees played winter ball this year – Wandy Peralta quietly made 11 appearances in the Dominican Winter League (9.2 IP, 11 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 15 K, 1 HR) – though a few notables made appearances, so let’s run them down now.

Abreu on the bubble

Winter ball stats: 6 G, 24 IP, 23 H, 11 R, 6 ER, 10 BB, 11 K, 1 HR (2.25 ERA and 1.38 WHIP)

Now 26, Albert Abreu is entering a make or break season. With the Yankees, at least. He’s out of minor league options, so it’s MLB roster or waivers this year, and I can’t imagine Abreu would clear given his upper-90s arm. If he’s unable to stick with the Yankees, they’ll either trade him for a modest (or less than modest) return, or just take the L on waivers.

Abreu was not all that good in six winter ball starts this year. The shiny 2.25 ERA ignores the K/BB and all the baserunners in general. Last winter Abreu put 22 runners on base while striking out 23 in 19.1 innings. This year it was 33 baserunners and only 11 strikeouts in 24 innings. He went from a 29.4% strikeout rate last winter to 10.8% this winter. Yeesh. (Here’s the homer he allowed. Actual big leaguer Marcell Ozuna hit it.)

The Yankees turned Abreu into a sinker pitcher last summer and maybe he was a ground ball monster in winter ball (we don’t have reliable batted ball data for winter leagues), but there’s no level of ground ball ability that makes that K/BB encouraging, even in a 24-inning sample. A strong winter given his spot on the roster bubble would’ve been nice, but nope.

At the moment the Yankees have nine relievers for eight bullpen spots: Abreu, Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, Clay Holmes, Mike King, Jonathan Loaisiga, Lucas Luetge, Wandy Peralta, and Joely Rodriguez. They also have three up-and-down reliever types on the 40-man roster (Ron Marinaccio, Stephen Ridings, JP Sears), plus others like Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt.

Spring Training injuries could put a dent in that bullpen depth real quick, though it is an area of strength for the Yankees, and Abreu does not have a clear path to an Opening Day spot at the moment. Because of that, I think Abreu might be on the chopping block right now. He could be someone they look to flip soon rather than drag this out until the end of camp.

The Yankees currently have an open 40-man spot and it’ll go to a shortstop whenever the lockout ends. They could put Zack Britton on the 60-day injured list when Spring Training begins, but if they need a 40-man spot before camp, Abreu is presumably on the short list of candidates to go. Keeping him through camp is sensible in case there are injuries, but Abreu is replaceable.

And honestly, I’m not sure a good winter ball would have changed Abreu’s outlook. Maybe a good winter would have made him more desirable to other teams, but I’m not sure he could have gone from fringe bullpener to a no-doubt Opening Day roster guy. A good winter could have led to the Yankees keeping him around a little longer. Instead, Abreu didn’t give them much of a reason to think twice about him.

Chaparro’s breakout

Winter ball stats: 10 G, 8-for-32 (.250), 2 2B, 3 HR, 10 BB, 10 K (.250/.455/.594)

It’s been a busy fall/winter for Andres Chaparro. The 22-year-old went to the Arizona Fall League, where he hit .275/.363/.522 with eight doubles and three home runs in 20 games and 80 plate appearances, then he went home and played in 10 Venezuelan Winter League games, where he put up the numbers you see above. It was a productive few weeks.

During his AzFL stint, Chaparro smashed a 117.0 mph double (video), far and away the hardest hit ball recorded in the league in 2021 (next hardest was 113.2 mph). It was one of the 50 hardest hit balls in baseball last year, regardless of level*. I noted Chaparro was among the exit velocity leaders in Low-A when the AzFL assignments were announced, and he continued to show that hard-hit ability in the AzFL.

* It was the 46th hardest hit ball in baseball last year, to be exact. 25 of the 45 ahead of it belong to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

“He’s a strong guy. He took advantage of (the lost minor league season), adding weight,” former minor league hitting coordinator and new MLB hitting coach Dillon Lawson told Brendan Kuty (subs. req’d) about Chaparro earlier this month. “He’s always been someone – again, a lot of the same story where it’s a guy who made a ton of contact, especially on the fastball – he’s a guy where it’s tough to get a fastball by him. If he decides to swing at it, he most likely is going to connect with it.”

Chaparro started his career in 2016 and didn't made it to full season ball before the pandemic, hitting 17 home runs and slugging .357 in 213 games between rookie ball and the short season NY-Penn League from 2016-19. He spent 2020 at home and returned last year to hit .267/.381/.468 (130 wRC+) with 15 homers and good strikeout (21.5%) and walk (13.9%) rates in 101 games split between Low-A and High-A. Then he did the AzFL and winter ball thing.

The Yankees had a lot of good contact/meh power fringe prospects break out last year, including guys like Oswaldo Cabrera, Diego Castillo, and Hoy Jun Park. Castillo and Park were traded (for Clay Holmes) and Cabrera landed on the 40-man roster. Neither of those things happened to Chaparro. He’s still in the system as a non-40-man player and is Rule 5 Draft eligible (again).

Impressive exit velocity aside, I’m not sure Chaparro is a candidate to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft (assuming there is a Rule 5 Draft) because he hasn’t played above Single-A and doesn’t have a clear position. He’s a first and third base guy who isn’t all that good at third. Chaparro’s upside might be something like J.D. Davis, a righty bat who produces at the plate but is a liability in the field no matter where you put him. A good role player more than a building block.

Should Chaparro survive the Rule 5 Draft, he’ll move up to Double-A this coming season, and if he continues to hit there, he will quickly put himself on the trade chip/40-man roster radar. I don’t think Chaparro can headline a package in a significant trade, but as the second or third piece? Sure. That could work. Like Cabrera, Castillo, and Park, Chaparro was an afterthought at this time last year. Then he forced us to pay attention with his play all season and into winter ball.

Hicksie’s rehab

Winter ball stats: 12 G, 13-for-49 (.265), 4 2B, 1 HR, 4 BB, 10 K (.265/.321/.408)

Oh yeah, Aaron Hicks played winter ball to begin shaking off the rust following wrist surgery. Remember that? Feels like it was a lifetime ago, but it was only last month. I can’t tell whether time moves too slowly or too quickly during the lockout. Somehow feels like both?

Anyway, Hicks played two weeks in the Dominican Republic before going home for the holidays and he performed well considering a) he’s coming off wrist surgery and it was his first live action in seven months, and b) the Dominican Winter League average was a .235/.311/.326 batting line this year (yikes!). Here’s video of the homer, if you’re desperate to see a player you know.

The numbers really don’t mean much. Did Hicks make it through winter ball healthy? Does the wrist feel strong? That’s all that matters. By all accounts the wrist is good, and getting a few at-bats in actual games is a nice little offseason plus. It’s better than showing up to Spring Training in a few weeks having not seen live pitching since last May.

So, Hicks is healthy and ready to play, and barring a surprise post-lockout trade for a new center fielder, Hicks will go to camp as the starter. As long as he’s healthy, Hicks will get on base. He’s had at least a .365 OBP in his three healthy seasons with the Yankees (2017, 2018, 2020), but of course, staying healthy has been a challenge. All we can do is hope for the best at this point, since bringing in a new center fielder seems unlikely this late in the offseason.

“The biggest thing with Aaron right now is making sure he’s strong and healthy, in shape and ready to go. If that’s the case, we know we have a really good player,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch in November.

Miscellany

Luis Medina allowed two runs in 3.2 winter ball innings and I did some poking around, and the short stint was workload related. He didn’t get hurt or anything. Medina fell a little short of the workload target the Yankees set last year (around 110 innings), so he went and pitched in two games to get those innings. This sorta thing happens surprisingly often. Medina tore up winter ball last year (1.78 ERA with 39 strikeouts and 10 walks in 25.1 innings), when he went to get as many innings as possible following the lost minor league season … Rough winter ball stints for Miguel Andujar (5-for-31 in eight games) and Estevan Florial (4-for-24 in nine games). It’s barely more than a week’s worth of games for both, so who really cares, but it would have been nice to see both guys have some success after last regular season, particularly Florial. He’s going to Triple-A and will ride the shuttle in 2022. I have no idea what will happen with Andujar … And finally, the pitchers the Yankees sent to the AzFL were so bad lol. The combined pitching line for Blane Abeyta, Clay Aguilar, Harold Cortijo, Zach Greene, and Tanner Myatt: 42.2 IP, 52 H, 47 R, 41 ER, 38 BB, 34 K, 10 HR. Greene is the best prospect of the bunch (but still not someone you will see on any top 30 lists) and he was the only one to strike out more batters than he walked, and be respectable in general (7.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, 1 HR). Cortijo and Myatt missed most of 2021 with injuries, so I can understand them being rusty. Pitching was collectively terrible in the AzFL this year because the MLB parent clubs were worried about workloads after the short pandemic season (during which many minor leaguers didn’t play at all). In the final few weeks of the AzFL season teams played seven-inning games because they just didn’t have enough pitching to play a full game. But yeah, Yankees pitchers were awful in the AzFL. So awful it’s kinda funny.

3. Remembering a random Yankee: Dan Pasqua. By request, this week’s random Yankee was a three true outcomes hitter before being a three true outcomes hitter was cool. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Born in Yonkers and raised in Bergen County, Pasqua was drafted out of William Paterson by his hometown Yankees in the third round of the 1982 draft. He smashed 18 home runs in 64 games with rookie Paintsville and short season Oneonta in his pro debut, and 19 home runs in 131 games with High-A Fort Lauderdale in 1983.

Pasqua, a lefty hitting outfielder (and occasional first baseman), had a big season with Double-A Nashville in 1984, slugging 33 home runs with a .244/.374/.502 line in 136 games. He struck out 148 times, or 26.4% of his plate appearances, an almost unheard of rate at the time. He also walked 95 times, or 16.9%. Pasqua walked, struck out, or homered in 49.2% of his plate appearances that year. The Southern League average was 26.0%.

The Yankees moved Pasqua, then 23, up to Triple-A Columbus in 1985. He hit .327 with 11 home runs in 43 Triple-A games, then was called up to the big leagues on May 30th. Pasqua started in left field alongside Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield in his first MLB game, and he hit a solo homer against Angels righty Ron Romanick in his second at-bat. It was the game winner.

“He's going to be a superstar eventually,” manager Billy Martin told Gerald Eskenazi after the game.

Alas, Pasqua slipped into a 3-for-25 (.120) slump following his debut game, earning him a trip back to Triple-A in mid June. Pasqua went back to Columbus, brutalized Triple-A pitching, then was called back up in mid July. He slugged two home runs in his second game back. “I'm a lot more relaxed this time because I got a taste of it the first time, I know what to expect,” Pasqua told Murray Chass following the game.

More ups and downs followed. Pasqua went 8-for-36 (.222) following the two-homer game and was sent back to Triple-A in early August. He returned two weeks later and had his best game of the season on Aug. 25th, going 3-for-4 with a double and a homer in an 8-5 win over the Mariners in the Kingdome. Pasqua drove in four of the team’s eight runs.

“It's tough but I realize the role I'm playing on this team,” Pasqua told Michael Martinez about being in a platoon role. “I'm a left-handed hitter, and I'm only going to play when we're up against a right-hander. All you can do is keep your concentration when you're not playing, keep working on things and be ready once you get the call.”

The Yankees won 97 games in 1985 but finished two games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East, and missed the postseason. Pasqua started only two of the team’s final 20 games as they tried to chase down Toronto. He finished the season with a .210/.289/.426 (95 OPS+) line with nine homers in 60 MLB games. He also hit .321/.419/.599 with 18 homers in 78 Triple-A games.

George Steinbrenner’s M.O. at the time was trading young players for big name veterans, though he took a liking to Pasqua, so Pasqua remained despite a bevy of trade rumors that winter. The New York Times archives tell me Pasqua was rumored to be going to the White Sox for Tom Seaver, the Astros for Joe Niekro, the Giants for Mike Krukow, the Athletics for Don Sutton, and the Expos for Andre Dawson. The Yankees also passed on signing Kirk Gibson because they had Pasqua as a lefty hitting outfielder.

“Right now everybody's telling me I'm going to play left field against right-handers,” Pasqua told Chass in Spring Training 1986. “They saw me play last year so they know what I can do. I don't think a bad start in Spring Training would change their opinion.”

The plan going into 1986 was to platoon Pasqua with Gary Roenicke in left field, and Don Baylor with Ken Griffey Sr. at DH. Baylor was not happy with a reduced role, however, so much so that he requested a trade late in 1985. The Yankees sent him to the Red Sox (!) for lefty hitting DH Mike Easler at the end of camp. Henry Cotto, a righty hitter, outplayed Pasqua in camp, so the platoons became Cotto and Griffey in left, and Easler and Roenicke at DH.

“I can't worry about their moves. They're looking to get off to a real good start. They don't want a repeat of last year. I'm not going to help them,” Pasqua told Chass after going 5-for-50 (.100) with 16 strikeouts in Spring Training. “I don't want to go down. My goal in the winter was to never go back to the minors again, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to keep that goal. I know I'll be back.”

Pasqua started 1986 in Triple-A and hit .291/.451/.536 with six homers in 32 games. He returned to the big leagues in late May and wasn’t an everyday player, though he did play a fair amount the rest of the season. Pasqua went 4-for-7 with a double, three homers, and two walks in his first two starts back with the Yankees.

“The home run was just a great thrill,” Pasqua told Chass after taking former minor league teammate (and random Yankee) Eric Plunk deep in his first start. “It's great to be back here. Everybody knows I had the bad spring. I worked hard to get back here.”

Similar to 1985, Pasqua ran incredibly hot and cold in 1986. Look at the peaks and valleys following that two-game barrage immediately following his call up:

• Next 11 games: 6-for-30 (.200) with no homers
• Next 6 games: 8-for-17 (.471) with a homer
• Next 14 games: 6-for-31 (.194) with a homer
• Next 7 games: 9-for-18 (.500) with three homers
• Next 18 games: 10-for-45 (.222) with two homers
• Next 15 games: 18-for-50 (.360) with three homers

The Yankees eventually won 90 games in 1986, though they were eight games behind the first place Red Sox at midseason, prompting them to trade Griffey to the Braves for random Yankee Claudell Washington and shortstop Paul Zuvella. It was no secret Griffey wanted out (he reportedly requested a trade every year from 1983-86), and the Yankees finally granted his wish.

The Griffey trade did not open more playing time for Pasqua, however. At least not initially. The Yankees replaced the lefty hitting Griffey with the lefty hitting Washington, so Pasqua remained a part-time player. It wasn’t until Washington went down with a neck issue in August that Pasqua saw regular playing.

“They're not going to bring in a guy like Claudell just to sit him when he gets here, so I may be in the same situation I am now. What can I do?” Pasqua told the New York Times after the Griffey trade. “I'd like to be playing, but it's still early in my career and I have enough patience to wait.”

Once he got into the lineup regularly, Pasqua was quite productive, hitting .288/.399/.516 with 11 doubles and eight home runs in the team’s final 54 games. He started 41 of those games and finished the season with a .293/.399/.525 (151 OPS+) line in 332 plate appearances. Pasqua had 17 doubles and 16 homers with a manageable 23.5% strikeout rate.

The big finish earned Pasqua the left field job going into 1987 – the Athletics reportedly wanted him in an offseason trade for Jose Rijo, but were rebuffed – though Washington and Ron Kittle were around to push him. “He's not in a position like last year when he hadn't established himself. Danny just has to get himself ready for the season. He can't play himself off the final roster,” manager Lou Piniella told Martinez in Spring Training.

Pasqua couldn’t play himself off the Opening Day roster but he did eventually play his way back to Triple-A. He opened the season in a 7-for-56 (.125) skid, which meant more at-bats for Washington and Kittle. A mid May hot streak (7-for-26 with four homers) didn’t last. On the morning of June 1st, Pasqua was hitting .198/.333/.362 with six homers and a 27.0% strikeout rate.

“I've had some prolonged slumps in the minor leagues, but this is the first time I've had something like this in the Majors. But I'm not getting the chance to come out of it by playing every day. If I was playing and had 100 at-bats now, it would be a different story,” Pasqua told Martinez in early May. “I'm not complaining. I know what my role is. But you've got to feel good at the plate, and you can't do that when you're not in there.”

Eventually enough was enough, and the Yankees sent Pasqua back to the minors on June 25th. He was hitting .201/.330/.361 at the time and had struck out in 36 of his previous 100 plate appearances. “I haven't had any consistency. Whenever I thought I found something, the next day it was gone,” Pasqua told the New York Times following the demotion.

Pasqua went to Columbus, hit .341/.385/.624 with six homers in 23 games, then the Yankees called him back up in July. The streakiness returned as well. Pasqua had a cold streak (9-for-37 in 14 games) followed by a hot streak (10-for-30 with four homers in eight games) followed by another cold streak (9-for-42 in 16 games) followed by one last hot streak (13-for-40 with three homers in 15 games). He started 35 of the team’s 70 games after being recalled and finished the season with a .233/.319/.421 (96 OPS+) batting line in 362 plate appearances.

The Yankees started that 1987 season well and had a four-game lead on July 17th. They then went 32-39 in their final 71 games and finished in fourth place at 89-73. Pasqua wasn’t the reason the Yankees bombed out of first place, but he was certainly one of the reasons they had a disappointing year. After three years, he’d yet to solidify himself as a regular, and he wasn’t happy about his role.

“If I'm not going to play here, I want out,” Pasqua told Chass following Game 162 in 1987. “I'd love to be here next year and play, but if not, then I want to be somewhere else.”

In parts of three seasons with the Yankees, Pasqua hit .251/.344/.461 (116 OPS+) with 42 home runs in 275 games and 860 plate appearances (+3.0 WAR), which works out to 29 homers per 600 plate appearances. He also struck out 215 times (25.0%) and walked 103 times (11.8%). In 1987, the MLB averages were 17 homers per 600 plate appearances with 15.5% strikeouts and 8.9% walks. For better or worse, Pasqua was ahead of his time as a three true outcomes guy.

The Yankees made several changes following their second half collapse in 1987. Among other moves they traded for Don Slaught, Rafael Santana, and random Yankee Lee Guetterman, and signed Jack Clark, Jose Cruz, and John Candelaria. Cotto was traded away (for Guetterman) and Easler and Kittle were released. Pasqua was traded as well. The Nov. 12th deal:

• Yankees get: RHP Richard Dotson, RHP Scott Nielsen
• White Sox get: OF Dan Pasqua, LHP Steve Rosenberg, C Mark Salas

“If I'd gotten a chance, I'm sure they would've been happy with the results. I never felt any pressure when I was in the lineup. It was when I was out that I felt the pressure,” Pasqua told Martinez in Spring Training 1988. “... I asked for a chance for three years and it never happened. I'm with another club and I'm looking to the future.”

Pasqua spent parts of seven seasons on the South Side and was good but not amazing as a part-time corner outfielder, part-time first baseman, and part-time DH from 1988-91. He authored a .251/.333/.451 (119 OPS+) batting line in just over 1,600 plate appearances those four years. Pasqua averaged 23 homers per 600 plate appearances with a 19.1% strikeout rate and a 10.6% walk rate. It worked out to +7.8 WAR.

Knee trouble ended Pasqua’s career in 1994. He retired as a career .244/.330/.438 (112 OPS+) hitter with 117 homers in 3,000 plate appearances on the nose. More than one-third (36.5%, to be exact) of his career plate appearances ended in a walk, strikeout, or homer. The league average from 1985-94 was 25.9%. Like I said, ahead of his time.

(Dotson had a 5.13 ERA in 222.2 innings in a season and a half with the Yankees. Nielsen, Rosenberg, and Salas were role players who didn’t contribute much. Pasqua was the most productive player involved in that trade. He currently does community outreach work with the White Sox and signed a little over $7.5M in contracts as a player.)

4. Rapid fire thoughts. This is Day 55 of the lockout and MLB and the MLB held their second – second! – bargaining session yesterday. The players made a proposal and the two sides are going to meet again today. Progress? I think so. A deal was never going to be struck yesterday, though I hoped the two sides would at least inch closer to an agreement, and meeting on back-to-back days qualifies as inching closer in my book. Maury Brown had a good Twitter thread yesterday about the financial pressures the owners will face if regular season games are lost, including rebates still owed to the television networks for games lost to the pandemic two years ago. Maybe those massive television contracts will save baseball from itself? Whatever it takes to get a fair deal … And finally, a very important bullpen catcher update: former Athletics minor leaguer Collin Theroux is the Yankees’ new bullpen catcher, he revealed on Twitter. The Yankees lost Radley Haddad, their old bullpen catcher, to the Pirates a few weeks back. Here’s what I wrote at the time:

The Yankees recently lost bullpen catcher and coaching assistant Radley Haddad to the Pirates (his new title with Pittsburgh is Game Planning and Strategy Coach). I assume incumbent bullpen catcher Aaron Barnett will take on Haddad’s other responsibilities, and the Yankees will bring in someone else to fill Barnett’s second bullpen catcher spot.

Looks like that’s exactly what happened. Theroux, 27, was a 32nd round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2016, and he hit .159/.274/.317 in parts of six seasons in the A’s system. He got as high as Triple-A, albeit as an organizational plug-and-play catcher. Knowing the Yankees, I assume Theroux has analytic leanings, and they see this as a potential gateway to a larger coaching role down the road. So, like I said, a very important bullpen catcher update. Until the Yankees hire a new assistant hitting coach to replace Eric Chavez, news gets no bigger than this during the lockout.

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