September 21st, 2021: Cole, Severino, King, German, Volpe

Only 11 games remain in the 2021 regular season and the Yankees need to go 8-3 in those 11 games to reach 92 wins, the projected threshold for a Wild Card spot. Nine of those 11 games will be against the Blue Jays (in Toronto), Red Sox (in Boston), and Rays. The postseason has already started. The Yankees are playing for their season right now. They’re on pace to go 90-72 with 11 games to play. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Weekend thoughts. The Yankees are 8-15 since the 13-game winning streak (tied with the Orioles for the worst record in the AL) and they’ve lost series to the Angels, Orioles, Mets, and now Cleveland. Four non-contenders. And what a mess this weekend was. Great blowout win Friday! The Yankees needed that. Then outscored 22-4 in the next two games? In a desperate postseason race? What the hell.

"Even when you're getting your teeth kicked in, the fight is still there,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch following Sunday’s loss. “The compete is there. Now we've just got to get the production."

Good to know that getting your teeth kicked in by a mediocre team on back-to-back days during a postseason race is considered acceptable “fight” and “compete.” I can’t believe those words came out of Boone’s mouth. The manager has to do better. You can call your team out without embarrassing them -- Joe Torre was the master at that -- but Boone lacks that skill despite being billed as a great communicator.

The Yankees have spent the season saying don’t worry, tomorrow will be better, but tomorrow’s here dudes, and it ain’t better. Even last night’s win was unnecessarily stressful. Saying you can flip the switch and actually flipping the switch are very different things, and the blank stares in the dugout are a sign that reality is setting in. And this is the Yankees’ reality:

Two more games against the Rangers -- two games the Yankees have to win -- then three games apiece against the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Rays. The season will be decided in those 11 games. Here are a few thoughts on the last few games.

Cole’s clunker

Gerrit Cole took a huge bite out of the Yankees’ postseason hopes and his Cy Young candidacy on Sunday. It’s not entirely his fault the Yankees are more likely to miss the postseason than make it -- he’s literally the last guy on the roster I blame -- but damn dude, bad time for a clunker. As good as Cole has been this year, he’s had some stinkers at inopportune times. Four jump to mind:

• June 3rd vs. Rays: 5 R in 5 IP as the Yankees tried to clinch the series win
• June 27th at Red Sox: 6 R in 5 IP as the Yankees tried to avoid getting swept
• July 29th at Rays: 8 R in 5.1 IP as the Yankees tried to finish the sweep
• Sept. 29th vs. Cleveland: 7 R in 5.2 IP with the Yankees fighting for a Wild Card spot

Sunday’s loss was as deflating as it gets. The Yankees got creamed the day before but still had their ace on the mound with a chance to clinch the series win and at least keep pace in the Wild Card race. Instead, they were down 2-0 before they even came to bat, and Cole allowed a run in four of the six innings he threw a pitch. It was a colossal letdown.

“Just couldn’t get that third out and couldn’t get the ball off the bat, I guess,” Cole told Peter Botte about his start and getting booed off the mound. “... It’s September, it’s a crucial game, and that was too many runs to come back from. It’s a bad game, man. That’s New York. I came in here to win a series and put it out of reach, so yeah, definitely (I let everyone down).”

Cole definitely fell victim to some tough BABIP luck in the first inning -- those two poorly struck (51.2 mph and 82.3 mph) but well-placed ground balls were very annoying -- but not so much the rest of the game. The putaway pitch wasn’t really working (despite seven strikeouts) and Jose Ramirez and Roberto Perez launched no-doubt home runs.

For what it’s worth, Cole says his hamstring is a non-issue, though that’s two starts back from the injury and two starts when he didn’t look like himself. Cole was lights out before the injury (five runs and 41 strikeouts in 28.1 innings in five starts back from the COVID list), then he got hurt, and now he’s not so lights out anymore. It’s fair to wonder whether the hamstring’s 100%.

Last week I noted the Yankees probably need to go at least 10-5 in their last 15 games to make the postseason, and an unspoken part of that was winning every Cole start. He had three starts remaining at the time, turning 10-5 into a more palatable 7-5. The Yankees are 2-2 since I wrote that and they lost a Cole start by 10 runs, so yeah, things could be better.

The Cy Young race isn’t over but it kinda is now. Even with a subpar start last night, Robbie Ray leads the league in ERA (2.72), ERA+ (160), WHIP (1.033), strikeouts (238), and WAR (6.8). Ray and Cole each have two starts remaining and Cole is right behind Ray across the board, but Cole had a dud down the stretch and Ray didn’t, which might decide the race. So it goes.

More importantly, the Yankees dropped a game to a mediocre team with their ace on the mound Sunday, and “dropped” is putting it nicely. They got wrecked, and it can’t happen in his final two starts. Cole will face the Red Sox this weekend and the Blue Jays next week, the two teams the Yankees are competing with in the Wild Card race. Those games are the reason Cole gets the big bucks.

Severino returns

Welcome back, Luis Severino. He didn’t pitch last night because it was a close game and there is no sense in throwing him right into the fire, but Severino was activated. At least one of the four things I am hoping to see this month has come true. (DJ LeMahieu homered last week and doubled over the weekend, so an OBP > SLG season is probably out of reach now. Rats.)

“His last live outing was two (innings) and 35 (pitches), so we view him from anything from an inning in some situations to possibly two or three-inning scenarios that I think he’ll be able to handle,” Boone told Hoch yesterday. “... Whoever gives us the best chance in different situations. Sevy could be in those roles as well. They could be in a ton of different roles down there.”

Severino is on the active roster for the first time since the 2019 ALCS, and if he pitches today, it will be his first big league action in 708 days. Ideally the Yankees would build up a big lead (I know, I know) and let Severino make his return in a low leverage spot, just to get the adrenaline out of his system in a low stakes situation. After that, I say use him in high leverage spots.

Risky? Yes, but the Yankees are in a position now where they have to take some risks, and Severino gives you a chance at excellence. Either the offense has to pick up the slack or the Yankees will need someone else to chew up high leverage innings these last 11 games. We’ve been waiting for the former all year. The latter is more likely and Severino can help there.

Hopefully Severino pitches well and looks like the old Severino. If not, so be it. Guys don’t always dominate right away following Tommy John surgery (and two setbacks). At least then he’ll have gotten back and can go into the offseason feeling good about things. Severino coming in and giving the bullpen a lift would be a great story though, no? Let’s hope it happens.

"It's been long enough. Definitely be ready for any situation,” Severino told ESPN. "It will be like my first tenure here in 2015. It'll be the same emotion. But after I throw the first pitch, I think everything is going to come back like I used to be."

King as a reliever

Mike King as an air-it-out short reliever is pretty damn interesting, no? He’s been good since coming back from the injured list (one earned run and seven strikeouts in eight innings) and his sinker velocity was way, way up during his two-inning stint Friday. Look:

King threw his two fastest and five of his eight fastest pitches as a big leaguer Friday night. He is not coming back from an arm injury, remember. King got his middle finger caught between two weights while working out*. It’s not like he was out with an elbow or shoulder problem that could have potentially compromised the quality of his stuff. His arm is healthy and fresh.

* The Yankees officially called it a finger contusion, but given how much time King missed, there was probably a fracture in there, no? Otherwise that’s one hell of a bruise.

The Yankees used King as a starter/long reliever earlier this season out of necessity, and while he can be serviceable as a swingman, why settle for a serviceable swingman when there are hints at a potential difference-making short reliever? King’s changeup isn’t reliable enough to combat lefties …

• vs. RHB: .241/.311/.353 (.293 wOBA) with 20.3 K% and 6.8 BB%
• vs. LHB: .242/.349/.445 (.343 wOBA) with 23.8 K% and 11.9 BB%

… and while I think teams are too quick to shoehorn players into certain roles (i.e. players don’t get much of an opportunity to fix their weaknesses, like the Dodgers never letting Joc Pederson face lefties as a young player), in King’s case I’m not sure the juice is worth the squeeze. He’s always projected to be an okay starter. As a short reliever, maybe he can be something greater.

King’s velocity has been up lately and he also remade his breaking ball this season. In the past he threw an 80-ish mph curveball with close to true 12-to-6 break. That pitch has been put on the shelf, and now King throws a hard upper-80s slider that sweeps away from righties. Here’s a pretty great look at how King’s sinker and slider work together (GIF via Rob Friedman):

“In 2019, I got hurt, and then it was the whole process of trying to change the movement profile. I wanted it to be more horizontal, more sweepy,” King told David Laurila about his slider earlier this year. “... Having (Corey) Kluber on my team, I could talk to him about his grip, what his mentality is, what he’s trying to do at release. A big thing for me was, because I wanted to get that sweep and horizontal, I would get really rotational with my body to try to pull it sideways. He said that’s the opposite of what you want to do. He said to just let the grip do the work.”

So there you go, give Kluber some credit for King’s new slider. Point is, King has looked like a different animal in short relief these last few weeks. As a starter, he was okay, and you could see he had a chance to succeed in that role. As a short reliever, he’s been great, and having an impact right away. I’m pro-reliever King. If the Yankees want to give him another chance to start next year, fine, but this looks like a “some guys are just built for the bullpen” situation.

Making the infield defense worse

So the Yankees definitely made their infield defense worse by moving Gleyber Torres to second base, right? Gio Urshela is better than Torres at short, sure. That’s an upgrade. But Gleyber is still the same ol’ mistake prone Gleyber, only at a position that handles the ball more often ...

• NYY 2B: 3.85 chances per game (MLB average: 4.05 chances per game)
• NYY SS: 3.56 chances per game (MLB average: 3.84 chances per game)

… plus DJ LeMahieu keeps getting eaten up by hard-hit grounders (like this) and making poor throws (like this) at third base. Give LeMahieu some more time and I suspect he’ll settle in, but a) there’s not much time left in the season, and b) the Yankees can’t afford to wait around for LeMahieu to settle in. Every game -- every inning -- is crucial.

The Yankees have been losing because of their offense, not their defense. The Yankees have scored more than four runs only five times in their last 15 games and Torres is 13-for-41 (.317) in his last 11 games and hitting .288/.333/.439 (109 wRC+) since the All-Star break. That’s not great, but it’s not bad, and it’s more than Tyler Wade or Andrew Velazquez can provide. The pitching staff has a top five strikeout rate and a bottom 10 ground ball rate. Sacrificing infield defense for offense isn’t the end of the world.

When the Yankees moved Torres to second, I noted they were likely downgrading defensively at second and third to upgrade at short, and that’s pretty much exactly how it’s played out (in a tiny sample, of course). I think the best infield has Torres at short, LeMahieu at second, and Gio at third (with Gleyber being replaced defensively in the late innings). That gives you above-average defense at two positions (second and third) rather than just one but possibly zero. There’s no chance the Yankees will go back to that, but I think it’s their best alignment.

2. Roster moves coming. Once upon a time September roster moves were a non-issue thanks to 40-man active rosters. There was room for everyone. In the 28-man roster era, every call up and injured list activation requires a corresponding move, and the Yankees have a few moves on the horizon. Let’s go through them one by one.

Severino returns

As noted, Luis Severino rejoined the Yankees yesterday, and to make room on the roster, the team sent Clarke Schmidt down (clears 28-man spot) and released Sal Romano (clears 40-man spot). Kinda messed up that you can release players on the injured list, no? Romano was on the 10-day injured list with a finger injury after reaching for a ball with his pitching hand in Baltimore.

This is now the third time the Yankees have cut Romano loose this year, and the first two times he made his way back to the organization. I’m guessing it’ll happen again and he’ll sign a new minor league deal soon. Unless his finger injury is severe, however. In that case there’s no point in signing him. (The Yankees are still responsible for any rehab and whatnot.)

The 10-day rule means Schmidt won’t be eligible to return until next Thursday, when only four games will remain on the schedule. If we see him again, it’ll either be an injury (in which case he could return before the 10 days), or because the Yankees bomb out of the race and want to give him a look over, say, Andrew Heaney. So long, Tri-State Sal. See you again at some point, Clarke.

German’s return imminent

Severino returned yesterday and Domingo German could rejoin the Yankees today. He made two two-inning minor league rehab appearances with Triple-A Scranton (4 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 K) and will work out of the bullpen. I'm not sure there’s enough games remaining for German to pitch his way into the Circle of Trust™, so it’ll probably be lower leverage work.

“Domingo could be activated in the next day or two potentially,” Aaron Boone told Randy Miller yesterday. “He threw (two innings) in his game Saturday, so that might make him eligible (Tuesday). We’ll see.”

The roster move for German is simple: Estevan Florial goes back to Triple-A. He was brought up as an extra outfielder while Joey Gallo dealt with his neck issue, and now that Gallo’s okay, there’s no need for Florial. German is on the regular 10-day injured list, so no 40-man move is required. Another multi-inning arm for a worn out bullpen arrives soon, possibly today.

Loaisiga, Taillon progressing

Jonathan Loaisiga (shoulder) and Jameson Taillon (ankle) are making progress, though neither will rejoin the Yankees this week. Loaisiga is playing catch and pitching coach Matt Blake told Brendan Kuty he will continue doing so this week, then they’ll “give him another timeline as we get closer to Toronto and Tampa.” So Loaisiga’s still a week away from a timeline. Oof.

As for Taillon, he threw a bullpen session Saturday and went through fielding drills (an important step with an ankle injury), and could make a minor league rehab start this week. “There’s not too much season left, so the sooner the better for me. As soon as a spot lines up where we need a starter, I’d hope to slide in there,” Taillon told Dan Martin over the weekend.

The Yankees have an off-day Thursday, then a three-game series in Boston with Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, and Jordan Montgomery (i.e. their three best starters) lined up, then another off-day Monday. I don’t think they’ll mess with the rotation this weekend, so the earliest we’ll see Taillon is next week in Toronto. He would step into Luis Gil’s rotation spot (the Yankees don’t need their fifth starter again until next Saturday, so no rush here).

Loaisiga’s and Taillon’s returns are not imminent, so there’s no need to sweat the corresponding roster moves yet. In a perfect world where everyone is healthy, Albert Abreu would be the first to go down, then it should be time to cut Heaney. The Yankees wouldn’t need to make a 40-man move for either Loaisiga or Taillon, but they should take Heaney’s 28-man spot.

Andujar begins rehab assignment

Remember Miguel Andujar? He was pretty great once upon a time. Miggy Missiles has been out with a wrist issue (and a subsequent setback) since July 6th. He started a minor league rehab assignment over the weekend* and went 1-for-2 with a walk in his first game with Triple-A Scranton. He played left field.

* Triple-A isn't playing a postseason this year. They just extended the regular season until Oct. 3rd and will crown the team with the best record in the league the champion.

Rehab assignments for position players can last up to 20 days and my guess is the Yankees intend to keep Andujar on his rehab assignment right through the end of the season (Oct. 3rd). That gives him a chance to play (and prepare for a winter ball stint?), and if the Yankees need him at some point, he’d still be a phone call away. I think injuries are the only way we see Andujar in the Bronx again this year (the Yankees would need to make a 40-man move to activate him).

Frazier done for 2021

No surprise here, but Boone confirmed Clint Frazier is done for the year. "We're not going to see him here this year. He's seen so many specialists, trying to get to answers. Right now we just want him to get to a point where he's well and able to get back to playing full bore,” Boone told Max Goodman last week. The Yankees are being so vague about this. I hope Clint’s okay.

I’m pretty sure Frazier has played his final game as a Yankee. 40-man roster space will be tight over the winter and he seems like an obvious non-tender candidate. Maybe the Yankees can trade him and get something in return, but would you give up anything of value for Frazier given his vague health issues and the season he had? I wouldn’t. Worry about the offseason in the offseason. For now, Clint’s done for 2021.

3. Volpe’s power. The minor league regular seasons below Triple-A ended Sunday and Anthony Volpe just had the best season by a Yankees position player prospect in quite some time*. Not even Aaron Judge was this good in the minors. Volpe wasn’t quite as good with High-A Hudson Valley as he was with Low-A Tampa, but that’s nitpicking. He was incredible all year. Look at this:

(Jeff Goldklang, longtime owner of the Hudson Valley franchise, recently said he believes Volpe is the best player in Renegades history. Josh Hamilton and Evan Longoria are Volpe’s primary competition for that title dating back to Hudson Valley’s time as a NY Penn-League affiliate with the Rays. That’s some lofty praise from the team owner.)

Volpe, 20, finished third in OBP, second in SLG, and first in wRC+ (by six points!) among the 341 minor leaguers with at least 400 plate appearances this year. Only three minor leaguers had 25 homers and 25 steals, and Volpe had by far the lowest swinging strike rate (8.6%) of the three. The other two are Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (14.8%) and Brewers outfielder Joey Weimer (15.6%).

The power is what really stands out with Volpe this year. The AVG and OBP? Okay, I could’ve bought that coming into the season. Maybe a stretch on the OBP but it wasn’t completely crazy either. The stolen base total and success rate are partially inflated by the pro-base runner rules MLB is testing at the two Single-A levels. A 30-steal season is in no way surprising.

But 27 homers? I didn’t expect that at all. Look at Volpe’s 27th home run. The pitch was down and away, and Volpe was still able to reach out and blast it the other way to right-center. I mean, what the hell? Swings like that show the power is real. You can’t fake home runs like that. Here are the last five Yankees minor leaguers with at least 27 homers in a season:

• Dermis Garcia, 2021: 31**
• Anthony Volpe, 2021: 27
• Peter O’Brien, 2014: 33
• Jorge Vazquez, 2011: 32
• Shelley Duncan, 2009: 30

One of those things is not like the others. Volpe is by far the youngest of the group (Garcia and O’Brien had their seasons at 23, Duncan and Vazquez at 29) and he’s a well-rounded shortstop with defense, on-base skills, and speed. The other four were one-dimensional first base-only types who could hit the ball out of the park and that’s it. They contributed nothing else.

“Nobody evaluated him as an amateur and said this guy is going to hit 30 home runs,” scouting director Damon Oppenheimer recently told Sam Dykstra. “We thought he'd hit a lot of doubles because he hit balls hard. But we didn't see him as strong enough to hit a ton of home runs.”

After Mike Trout slipped through the cracks in the 2009 draft, teams increased their scouting presence in New Jersey (and the Northeast in general) because they didn’t want to miss out on the next future star from a cold weather state. Volpe isn’t Trout (Trout had a +10 WAR season at Volpe’s age), but maybe he’s similar as an underscouted stud from the Northeast?

Either way, I have Volpe as the Yankees top prospect over Jasson Dominguez right now. That’s not because Dominguez hasn’t been good. He has. I just think Volpe has similar upside at a premium position, and has already turned his talent into baseball skills. Dominguez is raw at 18, and he’s still learning to turn his natural gifts into usable baseball skills, if that makes sense.

Ultimately, Volpe over Dominguez or Dominguez over Volpe doesn’t matter. The Yankees have both in their system. Volpe’s breakout season landed him at No. 22 on Baseball America’s most recent top 100 prospects update (subs. req’d), ahead of every 2021 draftee, and he’s in position to start 2022 as a 21-year-old in Double-A despite losing 2020 to the pandemic. Incredible.

“Honestly, (the power) feels natural,” Volpe told Dykstra. “I never consciously thought to have more launch angle or stuff like that. I just feel like I can get to a lot more pitches, and when I'm hitting the ball hard -- and I've been hitting the ball a lot harder -- those balls that probably would have been doubles or singles in years past, a couple of those are going over the fence now.”

* The last Yankees position player prospect with a season this good was probably Greg Bird in 2013, when he hit .288/.428/.511 (170 wRC+) with 20 homers in 130 games as a 20-year-old with Low-A Charleston. Even then, Volpe was a much better prospect given the positional and all-around value.

** Shoutout to Dermis Garcia for his 31-homer season. He hit .210/.307/.486 (111 wRC+) with a 37.9% strikeout rate as a poor man’s Chris Gittens with Double-A Somerset.

4. Remembering a random Yankee: Darnell McDonald. This week’s random Yankee comes by request and is a player who had to cut his hair to play exactly four games with the Yankees. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

McDonald grew up in the Denver suburbs and was considered one of the best prospects in the 1997 draft class, but he slipped to the Orioles and the No. 26 pick because he was committed to play football at the University of Texas. Baltimore gave him a then-franchise record $1.9M bonus to turn pro. As best I can tell, McDonald received the fifth largest bonus that year:

1. RHP Matt Anderson, Tigers: $2.505M (No. 1 pick)
2. LHP Rick Ankiel, Cardinals: $2.5M (No. 72 pick but fell due to bonus demands)
3. LHP Ryan Anderson, Mariners: $2.175M (No. 19 pick but fell due to bonus demands)
4. 3B Troy Glaus, Angels: $2M (No. 3 pick, No. 2 pick J.D. Drew did not sign)
5. OF Darnell McDonald, Orioles: $1.9M (No. 26 pick but had leverage as a two-sport guy)

McDonald was so highly regarded that Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranked him as the No. 21 prospect in baseball going in 1998, just a few months after he was drafted. Ankiel was the only 1997 draftee ranked higher. Also, the O’s selected McDonald with the Yankees’ first round pick! They received that pick as compensation when the Yankees signed David Wells. Who knew?

Anyway, McDonald was unable to live up to the draft hype. He hit .242/.290/.331 in Double-A in 2000 and spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A (.257/.316/.369 in 342 games) before making his MLB debut as a 25-year-old September call up in 2004. McDonald went 5-for-32 (.156) in his cup of coffee, then was released after the season.

From 2004-09, McDonald was a journeyman who bounced from the Orioles to the (Devil) Rays to the Nationals to the Twins to the Reds. He appeared in only 51 big league games those years (four with the Twins in 2007 and 47 with the Reds in 2009) and was mostly a fifth outfielder type teams stashed in Triple-A. His draft pedigree kept getting him work.

The Red Sox signed McDonald to a minor league contract in Nov. 2009 and they called him up when Jacoby Ellsbury got hurt two weeks into the season. McDonald went deep in his first two games with the Red Sox, then settled in as a lefty mashing platoon guy the next two years:

• 2010-11 vs. LHP: .280/.347/.467 (119 wRC+) in 291 plate appearances
• 2010-11 vs. RHP: .233/.299/.365 (76 wRC+) in 247 plate appearances

Those two years were McDonald’s best stretch in the big leagues. He struggled early in 2012, even against lefties (9-for-42), and the Red Sox designated him for assignment on June 30th. Boston was overloaded with outfielders (those were the Ryan Kalish, Daniel Nava, Cody Ross, etc. years) and needed a roster spot to activate Josh Beckett off the injured list.

"(McDonald is) one of the guys you love to have here. He helped us win games defensively and offensively. He's a well-respected guy,” Red Sox then-manager Bobby Valentine told John Hickey after McDonald was cut loose. "With all the outfielders we have eventually coming back, his number eventually would have come. We decided to do it now."

Brett Gardner suffered what proved to be a season-ending elbow injury early in 2012 and that sent the Yankees into scramble mode in left field. Raul Ibanez saw most of the time out there, but Eduardo Nunez, Jayson Nix, and random Yankee DeWayne Wise also took turns in left. On July 4th, the Yankees claimed the 33-year-old McDonald off waivers from the Red Sox.

“When I came to the Red Sox, it was a dream come true. It was the same feeling when I came over here to be a part of this organization,” McDonald told David Waldstein. Then-manager Joe Girardi added: “He gives us a few more options and maybe we can DH him sometimes on a weekend like this.”

McDonald had dreadlocks with the Red Sox and had to cut his hair to comply with the Yankees’ archaic hair policy following the waiver claim. He tweeted out a photo of his dreadlocks following his haircut, and they were donated to a charity that makes wigs for cancer patients.

Coincidentally, McDonald’s first series with the Yankees came against his former club in Boston. He did not start the first game against Beckett (he replaced Ibanez for defense late), but he did start the second and third games of the series against lefties Franklin Morales and Felix Doubront. It did not go well for McDonald. His at-bats:

• Popped up in foul territory against Morales leading off an inning.
• Popped up in foul territory against Morales again (bases empty).
• Removed for a pinch-hitter against righty Justin Germano.
• Struck out against Doubront with a runner on third and one out.
• Struck out against Doubront leading off an inning.
• Removed for a pinch-hitter against righty Matt Albers.

Beyond the unproductive at-bats, McDonald nearly collided with Curtis Granderson in center field in his second start with the Yankees, allowing the ball to drop in and eventually a run to score. Here’s the video. “That really was probably our downfall,” Girardi told Waldstein about the ball dropping in to ignite Boston’s comeback rally.

Those were McDonald’s only two starts and at-bats with the Yankees. He sat on the bench a few days, replaced Ibanez for defense on July 13th, and that was it. The Yankees designated McDonald for assignment on July 17th to clear a roster spot for CC Sabathia, who returned from a minor groin injury. He spent 13 days on the active roster.

McDonald clears waivers and elected to remain with the Yankees as a non-40-man roster player in Triple-A. He didn’t hit with Scranton (.194/.298/.287 in 31 games) and became a free agent after the season. McDonald’s stint as a Red Sox sleeper agent with the Yankees consisted of four MLB games, four outs in four at-bats, one outfield misplay, and a bad month with Scranton.

The Cubs signed McDonald in Jan. 2013 and he spent most of the season in Triple-A, though he did get into 25 big league games and was quite good in limited time (.302/.351/.434). He failed to make the Cubs as a 35-year-old out of Spring Training in 2014, and rather than try to hook on with another team, McDonald took a job in Chicago’s front office.

“McDonald will contribute to all elements within the club’s player development and amateur scouting departments,” the Cubs said in a press release after hiring McDonald. “He will visit the club’s affiliates to work with the minor league players on and off the field, evaluate amateur players leading up to the draft and spend time around the major league club.”

McDonald retired as a career .250/.314/.397 hitter (.285/.353/.453 against lefties) in 854 plate appearances spread across seven big leagues. He is still with the Cubs (as best I can tell, anyway) and has held several roles over the years, including serving as Chicago’s mental skills coordinator during their 2016 World Series championship season.

5. Rapid fire thoughts. Any of the three games in the Cleveland series would’ve been a great opportunity to give a struggling pitcher time to work on things. At this point on the calendar though, I think Chad Green was better off resting those three days. He looks tired and his only problem is the long ball. It’s a big problem! But it’s not like he’s walking a ton of guys or giving up a lot of hits in general. Basically everything is the same with Green except a bunch of fly outs have turned into homers. I was fine with him not pitching over the weekend despite there being ample opportunity to work on things in low leverage situations (Green looked pretty good last night, so hooray rest)… And finally, Jasson Dominguez was the No. 17 pick (third round) in the Dominican Winter League rookie draft earlier this month. Giants prospect Marco Luciano was the No. 1 pick and apparently it was a surprise Dominguez was drafted so late. “We were not looking for prospects, we went out to look for players with immediate impact, but as the draft went on and in the round we were picking, it was a player that we could not pass up,” Leones del Escogido GM Jose Gomez told Angel Moreno about selecting Dominguez. This just means Leones controls Dominguez’s winter ball rights should he ever play winter ball. I’m not sure how it works these days, but I think the player’s MLB club has to consent to winter ball if he exceeded a certain number of plate appearances or innings during the regular season. I’m not sure Dominguez will play winter ball this year anyway. The DWL is crazy competitive and he’s not ready to help a team win yet. It’s not his time. Yankees minor league righties Luis Medina and Randy Vasquez were also picked in the DWL draft (Medina had to play winter ball in Puerto Rico last year because he wasn't eligible in the Dominican Republic yet).

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