September 10th, 2021: Cole, Taillon, Britton, Offense, Gil, Mailbag

I am wrong about stuff all the time -- all the time -- but I couldn’t be wrong about the Blue Jays being a headache down the stretch, huh? The Yankees didn’t hold a single lead in the series (first time they’ve done that in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium since 1924) and the score was tied for only five innings. And even if the Yankees had a lead at some point, how could you trust the bullpen to protect it? The Yankees are on pace to go 90-72 with 22 games remaining. Let's get to today’s thoughts as Sal Romano is asked to throw one of the most important innings of the season.

1. Cole’s hamstring. For a few minutes there it looked like we could drive the final nail in the coffin of the 2021 (and 2022?) Yankees. Gerrit Cole exited Tuesday’s start with what we now know was left hamstring tightness, but the way he clenched the ball (rather than look at his fingers for possible blisters) and the fact his final pitch was his slowest two-strike fastball of the season (two-strike fastballs tend to have higher velocity than other counts) had me thinking bad things. Fortunately, it’s just (“just”) his hamstring.

“I’m obviously disappointed about the outcome,” Cole told Dan Martin after Tuesday’s game. “I just want to reserve judgment and see how this thing reacts the next 24-36 hours. I guess maybe for my own mentality I just want to make sure I’m good or if I need a few extra days. I’m gonna definitely be as smart about it as I can, and trust my instincts. Hopefully I’ll be able to make the next one. We’ll see how it shakes out.”

The injury is to Cole’s left hamstring, his landing leg, and he explained he first felt it when he took too big a stride earlier in the game. He described it as the sorta thing that pops up a few times throughout the season, and said he came out of the game to avoid a more serious injury. Cole and the Yankees insist it’s minor and that he was removed as a precaution.

A hamstring injury is certainly preferably to an arm injury, though a hamstring should not be dismissed as a minor issue. The Yankees are fighting for their postseason lives and they need Cole back as soon as possible, but the last thing they want is Cole coming back too soon and a) reinjuring the hamstring, and/or b) changing his mechanics to protect the hamstring (something that could happen subconsciously) and hurting his arm.

Cole played catch yesterday and will throw a bullpen session either today or tomorrow. Depending how that goes, he could slot back into the rotation either Monday or Tuesday, the Yankees said. If he returns Tuesday, Cole could make four more regular season starts, but would have to start every fifth day (i.e. no extra rest at all) to line up for the Wild Card Game. Returning Monday would give them one day of wiggle room.

Needless to say, losing Cole for any more time beyond Monday or Tuesday would be really bad. He may only have (at most) four starts remaining this regular season, but Cole tends to save the bullpen on the days he pitches, so his value to the Yankees goes beyond the days he starts. Also, while anything can happen in one single game, not having Cole for the potential Wild Card Game would be bad, bad news.

As for some less important stuff, Cole’s injury puts a dent in his pursuit of Ron Guidry’s single season franchise strikeout record (248 in 1978). He’s sitting on 217 strikeouts with maybe four starts remaining. Cole needs to average 7.8 strikeouts per start to break Guidry’s record, and that’s only if he returns in time to make those four starts. He may miss one (or more?) now.

The Cy Young race is pretty close as well, and Tuesday’s subpar start combined with Cole maybe missing another start could be enough to put him behind Robbie Ray (and Lance Lynn). I guess we’ll see. In the grand scheme of things, Guidry’s strikeout record and the Cy Young aren’t all that important. Either (or both) would be cool, but they’re not imperative. Losing Cole in the middle of a postseason race is the far bigger concern.

Fingers crossed this hamstring issue truly is a minor thing. At this point in the season, Cole missing even one start could be the difference between a postseason spot and going home in three weeks. Getting Cole back might not be enough to get the Yankees to the postseason, but I don’t see any way they make the postseason without him.

2. Taillon’s ankle. Apparently Jameson Taillon tore a tendon in his right ankle at some point in his last start. He was placed on the 10-day injured list yesterday and is in the walking boot, but the Yankees say Taillon’s injury sounds worse than it seems. Given this team’s penchant for downplaying injuries, Taillon’s injury is probably so bad they’ll have to name the surgery after him.

“Am I confident? No,” Aaron Boone told Dan Martin when asked whether Taillon could only miss only one start, adding it’s all about pain tolerance. “But it sounds worse than it is. His body is gonna tell us how he is. There’s a chance he only misses one. It could be something that drags on.”

Taillon was the team’s only starter to make every start this season (who saw that coming?), and now he will be out until at least next Friday (the day he is eligible to return). Not sure there’s more to say at this point other than we have to hope Taillon’s injury truly is minor. If it is, great. If not, then the Yankees will have to figure something out. The upcoming rotation:

• Friday vs. Mets: Jordan Montgomery (announced)
• Saturday vs. Mets: Corey Kluber (announced)
• Sunday vs. Mets: TBA (announced)
• Monday vs. Twins: Maybe Gerrit Cole? Luis Gil lines up to pitch this day too
• Tuesday at Orioles: Cole or Gil?
• Wednesday at Orioles: Nestor Cortes lines up to pitch this day
• Thursday at Orioles: Back to Montgomery, presumably

Deivi Garcia is with the Yankees in New York, though he has not been activated. He is/was scheduled to start tonight for Triple-A Scranton. My guess is the Yankees are planning to start Andrew Heaney on Sunday (don’t get mad at me, I’m just telling you what I think the Yankees will do), but if they need him in relief between now and then, they’ll use him, then they’ll hope for the best with Garcia on Sunday. What else could it be?

“No, not necessarily,” Boone told Jordan Horrobin when asked whether Garcia will be activated this weekend. “Look, especially with what we’ve been through (with injuries) of late, anything’s possible, certainly. But no, not necessarily.”

Clarke Schmidt is the other possible spot starter candidate, and he’s a better option than Deivi right now given Garcia’s season to date. Schmidt will be available to pitch as soon as tomorrow and he threw 80 pitches in his last Triple-A start, so he’s pretty stretched out. Maybe they’ll go with Schmidt on Sunday rather than Garcia or Heaney? I guess we’ll find out.

Boone said Mike King will be activated today*, though he isn’t stretched out at all. He threw 21, 22, and 41 pitches in his three rehab appearances. Maybe you can get three innings out of King right now, but that’s about it. He’s more of a bullpen option than a spot starter option at the moment. Still, it’ll be good to have the pitching inventory with Cole and Taillon hurt.

* Jonathan Davis was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man roster spot for Sal Romano yesterday. The Yankees will need to clear a 40-man spot to activate King off the 60-day injured list today, and my guess is Romano gets the boot. That would also clear a 28-man roster spot. If it happens, Romano will have gone from Triple-A one day to pitching in a high leverage situation the next to getting dropped from the roster the day after that.

Hopefully Taillon’s ankle issue really is minor. He pitched well last time out (first inning homers aside), and if nothing else, it would be good to get him to finish the season healthy and on a high note. Given how long he’s spent rehabbing his elbow, Taillon doesn’t want to finish the year on the shelf with a dumb ankle problem with the finish line in sight. Get healthy, finish strong.

3. Britton’s elbow. Well, it turns out Zack Britton needed Tommy John surgery after all. He had surgery to remove a bone chip from his elbow Wednesday, and during that procedure the doctor determined Britton’s ligament was damaged enough that it needed to be repaired. For Britton, this season went about as poorly as possible. It gets no worse than this.

"They did a reconstruction and a repair," Aaron Boone told MLB.com. "He's still out in LA. He'll actually see Dr. ElAttrache again in another week or so to kind of get more of an updated timeline."

The typical Tommy John surgery rehab timetable is 14-18 months these days, and because the Yankees exercised Britton’s 2022 club option last year (per the terms of his contract), they will pay him $14M not to pitch next year. Maybe he makes it back in September because he’s a reliever who doesn’t need to get stretched out, but eh, that would really be pushing it.

From what I understand the Yankees insure most large contracts and Britton has had elbow problems in the past (2017 with the Orioles), so my guess is they’re covered and will recoup a decent chunk of that $14M. I honestly couldn’t care less about the money. The Steinbrenners will be able to put bread on the table with or without insurance on Britton’s deal.

The larger issue is the roster spot. 40-man roster space is always tight, and because Britton is signed next year, the Yankees will have to carry a dead 40-man spot all offseason. They can put him on the 60-day injured list as soon as pitchers and catchers report, but that doesn’t help with Rule 5 Draft protection in November, or a free agent signing in January.

Since he’s unlikely to pitch next season, would the Yankees release Britton to free up that roster spot (he gets paid either way)? I don’t think this will happen. For starters, releasing Britton would mean the Yankees get no insurance money (as I understand it), but I also think they’ll want to keep the door open in case he can return next year. It’s kinda silly, but teams do silly things.

Britton’s injury could prompt the Yankees to exercise their $3M club option for Joely Rodriguez, who is the same sorta high velocity ground ball lefty as Britton. It’s effectively a $2.5M decision given the $500,000 buyout, and hey, $2.5M ain’t bad. Rodriguez has been burned by some bad BABIP luck on grounders at times, but he’s generally been effective with the Yankees.

We can worry about the offseason in the offseason. For now, Britton’s injury doesn’t change anything for the 2021 Yankees (we knew he was done for the season when they put him on the 60-day injured list last week), but it does change things for the 2022 Yankees. Too bad. A healthy Britton in 2022 would’ve been nice. Get well soon, Zack.

4. Weekday thoughts. The Yankees are 2-10 since the 13-game winning streak and in the last 12 games they’ve combined all the worst parts of the first half Yankees: bad offense, starters not pitching deep into games, a leaky bullpen, managerial malpractice, the works. They’ve erased nearly all the progress made during the 13-game winning streak.

“We just had a horrible homestand,” Aaron Boone told Jordan Horrobin after last night's game. “It’s not okay. We’re pissed off about it. But we’ve been through this throughout the  season. We’re up against it again. And we look forward to going out and turn this around tomorrow.”

The Yankees have a Dead Team Walking vibe right now with their body language and the lack of energy in the dugout. They look like a defeated team -- far too many at-bats are not competitive and that contributes to the defeated team look -- like a team that expected to flip a switch at some point, and are now realizing it’s not going to happen.

In what was their most important series of the season (to date, anyway), the Yankees flat out did not show up. They were passive and intimidated, and I’m pretty sure I’d rather have a random number generator managing. From just last night:

• Sal Romano pitched in the seventh inning of a tie game.
• Andrew Heaney pitched period.
• Luke Voit didn’t pinch-hit for Tyler Wade representing the tying run in the seventh. 

Not even a week ago Boone said it is "incredibly frustrating that we didn’t put our best foot forward in the past couple of days." I honestly don't even know what to say about this guy anymore. A few other thoughts on the last few games.

Two-man army

If Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton don’t hit, the Yankees won’t score. That has been the case most of the year and especially lately. Those two are slumping (at the same time, groan) and the Yankees scored eight runs in the four games against the Blue Jays. They had four extra-base hits in the four games, and two of the four came in the final inning of the series, when the game was all but over.

Eight Yankees have batted at least 300 times this year. The OPS+ leaderboard among those eight players going into last night’s game:

1. Aaron Judge: 149
2. Giancarlo Stanton: 131
3. Gary Sanchez: 108
4. DJ LeMahieu: 98
5. Gio Urshela: 94
6. Rougned Odor: 88
7. Gleyber Torres: 86
8. Brett Gardner: 86

Yeesh. The Yankees are on track to have five players with a sub-100 OPS+ in at least 300 plate appearances for the first time since 2016 (no postseason). The last time before that was 2014 (no postseason). The last time before that? 2013 (no postseason). Not a good trend guys!

Anthony Rizzo has a 118 OPS+ as a Yankee, so he’s helped, but Joey Gallo absolutely has not (74 OPS+). The Yankees need Judge and Stanton to lead the offense, and when they get shut down, other guys haven’t picked up the slack often enough. The offense is so Judge and Stanton reliant. If the Yankees make the postseason, make ‘em co-MVPS.

The Yankees are 140 games into the season now and there’s not much they can do other than hope Judge and Stanton get going again, and stay hot through the end of the season. We’ve been waiting for everyone else to contribute all year, and other than a spurt here and there, it’s just not happening. Either Judge and Stanton put the Yankees on their backs (again), or the season ends in three weeks.

“We are poring into everything right now, whether it’s video, pregame tweaks and things like that,” Boone told Bill Ladson, sticking to the April script. “We know we have the guys capable, but we have to get it done. It’s a little bit of a broken record this week and I understand that. This is the group that we absolutely believe in. We have to get this thing turned around. We believe we will, but it has been a frustrating several days for us on the offensive side.”

Velazquez over Torres

The Yankees are doing the “make a backup an everyday player in the most important games of the season” thing again. Starting Kyle Higashioka over Sanchez last year was easier to justify than starting Andrew Velazquez over Torres this year (Gary last year performed worse than Gleyber this year and Higashioka last year performed better than Velazquez this year), but it’s the same kinda move.

“I very much expect Gleyber back in there (at some point),” Boone told Ladson prior to Torres sitting out a second straight game Wednesday. “I very much expect Gleyber to be a central figure moving forward for us, but felt like today I wanted (Velazquez) back in there. He certainly played a role in helping us win games.”

Velazquez is perfectly fine as the No. 3 guy on the shortstop depth chart. The guy you stash in Triple-A and call up when you get hit with injuries. Make no mistake though, Velazquez was in the lineup earlier this week not because he’s been good and he deserves it. He was in the lineup because Torres has been bad. That move was about Gleyber, not Velazquez.

After the Higashioka-Sanchez wars last year, I don’t have the energy to argue Velazquez over Torres, but I do want to note that when you have to bench one of your supposed core players for the backup flavor of the month in September for the second year in a row, the problem is you, not the player. It’s a pattern. The Yankees have failed to develop Sanchez and Torres.

The blame will be placed at the feet of Gary and Gleyber, and to be sure they deserve a share of it, but this is an organizational failure. A wannabe World Series contender resorting to starting bench players (not even good bench players) in the most important games of the year should prompt serious organizational self-reflection. How did things get to this point? Again?

I have no idea where the Yankees go from here. I think it would be dumb to give up on Gleyber and trade him after the season, but I also don’t have faith in the Yankees being able to fix him. The Yankees have done well developing prospects and getting them to the big leagues, but that development stalls out in the Bronx. Ownership should be on the warpath after seeing what has happened with Torres the last two years. Someone explain it to Hal Steinbrenner in terms of dollars of surplus value lost. Maybe he’ll understand that.

“I expected more from (myself),” Torres told Ladson. “... The postseason is soon. Hopefully we make the postseason and I’ll try to do really good things there and help my team to win. Sometimes, when bad things happen, players get a little frustrated and forget about enjoying the game. I try to learn everything like that. I’ll play better for my team.”

Gil labors

Luis Gil has been progressively worse in each of his four MLB starts, and earlier this week he walked seven Blue Jays in 3.1 innings. Only 47 of his 91 pitches were strikes. When Gil made his MLB debut, I noted throwing as many strikes as he did that night was an outlier. The guy has a 12.5% walk rate in the minors this year and a career 13.5% minor league walk rate.

“Those walks, put myself in trouble. My command wasn’t exactly where I wanted,” Gil said after his start earlier this week (video). It’s the first time that happened to me that I walked seven batters in a game*. I have to keep on working. Keep working hard and try to make the adjustments I need to.”

* Gil did have a seven-walk game in Triple-A in June. People forget stuff. It happens.

The Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon injuries will keep Gil in the big leagues a little while, and even after walking seven batters in 3.1 innings, I’m glad. Once Cole returns, I hope the Yankees put Gil in the bullpen, which has been shaky as hell lately, and let him air it out in short bursts. The upper-90s fastball will play in relief and sliders like this (video link) …

… are just absurd. That looked like a fastball in the middle of the zone until the ball was about 15 feet from the plate. The Yankees had Gil scrap his curveball at the alternate site last year and taught him that slider, and I was skeptical. Reports on the curveball were good and the only alternate site information we had came from the Yankees themselves (because no scouts were allowed). Whenever a team pumps up their own guy, I take it with a grain of salt.

But, Gil’s new slider is legit, and the fastball is top notch. You can survive with bad command in the bullpen*. Aroldis Chapman is like 75% of the way to the Hall of Fame with a career 11.9% walk rate. Dellin Betances was the most dominant reliever in baseball for a half-decade with bad command. No reason Gil can’t succeed in that role too.

* There’s a school of thought that walks are a "good" thing in the late innings because it’s another way to avoid contact. I don’t agree with that the way I stated it, but I get the idea. The ability to miss bats is paramount and walks are technically avoiding contact. A walk is better than a hit.

Hopefully Cole comes back soon and Gil isn’t needed in the rotation, and the Yankees can use him in relief. The season ends in three weeks. I’m completely cool with Gil missing out on three weeks of Triple-A development time to help the MLB team in a postseason race. That’s a good learning experience too. It’s Sept. 10th. Let’s use the most talented players, mmmkay?

5. Rapid fire thoughts. Derek Jeter was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame earlier this week. Last year’s induction ceremony was pushed back (and pushed back again, and pushed back again after that) because of the pandemic, but it finally took place Wednesday, and Jeter gave a surprisingly entertaining speech. I say surprisingly only because Jeter had a knack for being a boring quote as a player. Here’s the video. With Jeter inducted, the next Yankee to go into the Hall of Fame will either be Alex Rodriguez (joins the ballot this offseason) or CC Sabathia (joins the ballot in 2025). If neither gets in, then it’ll be a while until we see another Yankee on the stage in Cooperstown … Broadcaster update: Andrew Marchand says the YES Network is not sending broadcasters to Citi Field this weekend, but they will send broadcasters to two games in Fenway Park later this month (the third game of that series is a national broadcast). Really can’t send them to Flushing, huh? I think I have some unused Uber points I could donate to the YES Network to get 20% off, if that helps. Michael Kay & Co. are doing their best, but the broadcast suffers when they have to call road games from a monitor. We’d make fun of the Rays for being this cheap, yet the Yankees are doing it … And finally, Jordan Montgomery has hired Scott Boras, reports Jon Heyman. Other than maybe having to pay Montgomery a little more when the time comes, I don’t think this changes much for the Yankees. Boras usually (not always, but usually) takes his clients out into free agency, but the Yankees rarely extend players anyway, so it’s not like this will throw a wrench into extension talks (plus I don’t think it’s unwise to pass on extending a good but not truly great starter whose elbow has already blown out once). Get that money, Jordan. I hope Boras can find you some run support.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Alessandro asks: Can't take credit for this one, but saw people throw out a Torres-Bellinger change of scenery swap. As a baseline, does that work? Who would say no/would you do it?

Ooo that’s fun. We all know about Gleyber Torres’ nosedive. As for Cody Bellinger, he’s having a miserable season, hitting .158/.232/.292 (45 wRC+) with nine home runs in 315 plate appearances. That’s worst player in baseball kinda stuff. All the underlying numbers are just terrible too:

A few weeks ago the Dodgers demoted Bellinger into a platoon role and the No. 8 spot in the lineup (ahead of the pitcher), though A.J. Pollock’s injury has made him a full-time player again. Bellinger won Rookie of the Year in 2017, had a down (but not really bad) year in 2018, won MVP and was as good as it gets in 2019 …

… then slipped to .239/.333/.455 (114 wRC+) during the 60-game season a year ago. This year he’s been terrible and he just can’t hit fastballs. Bellinger went into yesterday’s game hitting .129 with a .300 SLG against and a 27.7% whiffs-per-swing rate against fastballs. The MLB averages are .262 AVG and .442 SLG with 20.8% whiffs against heaters. (Torres is at .219 AVG with .310 SLG and 24.0% whiffs, for reference).

Bellinger can fall back on the injury excuse. He had offseason surgery on his right shoulder (he hurt it celebrating a homer last postseason) and he missed close to two months earlier this year with a hairline fracture in his leg after a collision at first base. Bellinger did not have a normal Spring Training because of the shoulder, then he hurt the leg five games into the regular season. He didn’t have anything close to a proper build up.

As a lefty hitter, the injury was to Bellinger’s front shoulder when hitting, his power shoulder, and others who’ve had similar procedures needed more than a year to regain their previous stroke. Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez went through it, most notably. Expecting Bellinger, who is still only 26, to get better as he gets further away from shoulder surgery is not unreasonable.

Bellinger has two more years of team control remaining and his salaries are enormous thanks to the Rookie of the Year and MVP. He’s making $16.1M this year, and even with this disaster year, his 2022 and 2023 salaries will be north of $20M. Some Dodgers fans I know have speculated Bellinger could be a non-tender candidate given his performance and salaries. Not sure I buy it, but it's not completely insane.

Torres has three more years of team control and he’s far cheaper than Bellinger (making $4M this year). The extra year of control, cheaper salaries, cleaner injury history, and better 2021 performance are all points in Gleyber’s favor. Bellinger’s demonstrated peak (MVP caliber) is a big point in his favor. As a change of scenery challenge trade, I love this idea. It’s fun.

The Dodgers could lose Corey Seager to free agency this offseason, though they mitigated that risk by adding Trea Turner, and they still have recent top infield prospect Gavin Lux as well. Los Angeles doesn’t really need another infielder. The Yankees could easily make room for Bellinger (make Aaron Hicks a platoon player or put Bellinger back at first base), though they need infield help more than outfield help.

Ignoring salary and team control and positional needs and all that, I would rather have Bellinger going forward than Torres. Bellinger has shown a higher peak and I think getting healthy would solve a good chunk of his problems. Gleyber’s healthy as far as we know. He’s just bad now. I have no idea what happened, but he’s just bad. His ability to hit the ball hard has vanished.

As a baseline, I think Torres for Bellinger works as a 1-for-1. The Yankees could probably seek a little more given the difference in salary and team control, though the Dodgers could also point to Bellinger and say “he was the MVP last time he had a healthy 162-game season.” My guess is both teams would say no to a 1-for-1, but I’d do it. Bring me the MVP upside and let’s give both guys the change of scenery they probably need, team control and all that be damned.

Emiliano asks: Let's assume Sevy gets back and it's good enough to stay on the rotation (that's a long shot I know) can Nestor be the new Britton? I was thinking something like this: Green 6th inning, Loaisiga 7th inning, Nestor 8th inning, Chapman 9th inning. Nestor and Lo can be interchangeable. Thanks!

This question was sent in before Gerrit Cole, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Jameson Taillon all got hurt, which changes the pitching outlook considerably. Assuming those three and Luis Severino all make it back (long shot but fingers crossed), then yeah, the Yankees can consider putting Cortes in the bullpen (I doubt they’d take Corey Kluber out of the rotation). Until then, he’s needed in the rotation.

As a reliever, Cortes could be a great change of pace guy. Imagine being an opposing hitter and seeing Cole throw 100 mph for seven innings, then Cortes comes out of the bullpen and gets in his rocking chair, and lulls you to sleep with soft stuff in the eighth? It’s kinda like the knuckleball hangover, but in reverse. You go from hard stuff to soft stuff. It can’t be easy for hitters.

For the time being the Yankees need Cortes in the rotation, and he’s been so good this season that we can’t close the door on him starting a postseason game (assuming the Yankees play postseason games). I don’t think the Yankees would start Cortes over Kluber or Taillon, but you have to at least think about it, no? Cortes is a nice piece because he can pitch in any role. Throw him in the bullpen and I think he’d be a weapon there.

Vincent asks: In a "you can never have too much pitching" world, I'm sure the Yankees will hang onto Nestor Cortes. But he's also had the sort of unexpected statistical year that the Yankees like to capitalize on in trades (see: John Ryan Murphy). If they don't believe the performance is sustainable, what's a reasonable return for Nasty Nestor?

I have no idea how to value Nestor. His track record is terrible (career 6.72 ERA and 6.69 FIP prior to 2021), but he’s been really good this year (2.70 ERA and 3.81 FIP), and the velocity uptick and new sweepy breaking ball are tangible reasons to believe in the improvement. Is he really sub-3.00 ERA good? Almost certainly not. Can he be a league average starter? Yeah, maybe!

Nestor has another four years of control remaining after this season. Lots of pitchers have been traded at that point in their careers. How many have had the same development path as Cortes (terrible, then very good in a partial season)? Basically zero. Some possible trade benchmarks:

• Jake Arrieta: Traded with a not yet established Pedro Strop for rental Scott Feldman.
• Nick Pivetta: Traded with a top 12 team prospect (Connor Seabold) for two relievers (Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman).

That’s about it. Arrieta was a former top 100 prospect before getting Oriolesed, and Cortes was never a top prospect. Pedigree matters. The Pivetta trade looked pretty iffy the day it was made because Hembree and Workman are dime a dozen types, and Seabold is a good prospect. I wouldn’t call Pivetta a throw-in, but Seabold was the headliner there.

Cortes has done plenty enough to survive the offseason 40-man roster purge and I think he is more valuable to the Yankees on their roster than anything he could realistically fetch in a trade. If I were another team, would I want to give up even a Grade B prospect to get Cortes? I don’t think so. The track record is too short and too spotty.

Keeping Cortes as depth is smart and trading him while his value is at its absolute peak would be smart too. Either is defensible. It really depends on the trade offers, and what the Yankees do with the rest of their pitching this offseason. My hunch is Cortes has more value to them on the roster than whatever teams would be willing to give up for him in a trade.

Paul asks: Have the Yankees deliberately employed longer relief outings than in years past? I know the 3 batter rule skews things, but it feels like they are planning outings of more than an inning by design.

Going into yesterday the Yankees ranked fourth in baseball with 130 relief appearances of at least four outs (let’s call those “extended relief outings” from here on out for simplicity). The leaderboard is kinda interesting:

1. Orioles: 160 extended relief outings
2. Rays: 158
3. Angels: 158
4. Yankees: 130
5. Tigers: 123

The Angels and Orioles have really bad rotations and need a lot of extended relief outings to cover innings, and the Rays still use openers frequently. Most of the rest of the league slots into the 100-120 range. The Yankees are a little north of that but not wildly so. The top three teams are out on their own island and the Yankees are roughly in line with the rest of the pack.

Those 130 extended relief outings are in line with the last 30 years or so, when modern bullpen usage began to take hold. The Yankees had 150 such relief appearances in 1996 and averaged 133.3 such outings during the dynasty years from 1996-2001. What has changed is the number of relief appearances in general. Teams use way more relievers now.

Here are the percentage of Yankees relief appearances that were extended relief outings (again, that’s four outs or more) the last few years:

• 2021: 30.1%
• 2020: 30.9%
• 2019: 25.9%
• 2018: 24.8%
• 2017: 27.4%
• 1996-2001: 36.1%

The three-batter minimum rule kicked in last year and surely that has contributed to the uptick in the rate of extended relief outings. Back in the day teams would use one reliever for multiple innings rather than multiple relievers for one inning. Then bullpens became specialized and we saw a lot of strict one-inning (and even one-batter) relievers in the 2010s. That is starting to change.

Chad Green (23) and Jonathan Loaisiga (24) account for 47 of those 130 extended relief outings, or 36%, and those are largely by design. The Yankees generally bring them in to throw multiple innings in close games. Lucas Luetge (21), Albert Abreu (12), and the given away Luis Cessa (11) are mostly long man types who soak up innings.

Clay Holmes (four) and Joely Rodriguez (three) have been Yankees for about five minutes and they’ve done the extended relief outing thing a few times each. It does seem like the Yankees are doing this by design more often than in the past. I also think part of that is the three-batter minimum and part of it is necessity with all the short starts earlier this year and again lately.

Julian asks: Why wasn't there a Players Weekend this year? Was it that unpopular?

Chris Creamer reported early last month that there won’t be a Players Weekend this season and I have been unable to find out why. I hope it’s not because it was unpopular. It seemed like the players had fun with it, and I’m sure MLB sold plenty of jerseys and caps. Maybe it’s a pandemic thing? MLB didn’t want to commit to Players Weekend (and manufacture all those jerseys, etc.) only to have a chunk of the season canceled? I dunno. I hope it comes back next year. Players Weekend is fun and it breaks up the monotony of August.

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