June 25th, 2021: Torres, Chapman, Voit, Dominguez, Park, Mailbag

Gerrit Cole has a 2.33 ERA (2.59 FIP) with 123 strikeouts and only 15 walks in 96.2 innings this season. He is incredible. And the Yankees are 8-7 in his 15 starts. This is what I get for making fun of the Mets and Jacob deGrom the last few years. The Yankees are on pace to go 88-74 with 88 games remaining. To today’s thoughts.

1. Weekly observations. The Yankees won a blowout yesterday for the first time in over a month. It was their first win by at least five runs since May 22nd, the middle game of the White Sox series. The Yankees have 40 wins this season and only seven -- seven! -- have been by at least five runs. The awful Diamondbacks (6-42 in their last 48 games, the worst 48-game stretch since at least 1936) have 21 wins overall and nine by at least five runs. The Yankees have seven. Goodness. Anyway, here are thoughts on the last few games, with an unplanned emphasis on guys who are capital-S Struggling.

Gleyber’s slump

Gleyber Torres is in the middle of his worst stretch as a big leaguer. He owns a .245/.340/.340 (94 wRC+) batting line in 424 plate appearances since Opening Day 2020, and in his last 10 games, he is 2-for-35 (.057) with 15 strikeouts. His body language is really bad right now too. Torres looks defeated when he exits the batter’s box and devoid of confidence.

Perhaps the minor back injury he suffered in Buffalo last week is still hampering him, though Gleyber’s slump extends back further than that, and his power vanished last year. He went from 38 homers in 2019 to six in 2020-21 combined. Surely the rocket ball contributed to those 38 homers in 2019. I have a hard time believing the ball is the only reason he hit for that kinda power though.

For whatever reason, Torres has completely lost the ability to hit fastballs. From 2018-19, he hit .337 with a .714 slugging percentage (.391 xwOBA) against fastballs in the strike zone. Since last year, it’s .259 with a .408 slugging percentage (.308 xwOBA). Woof. The MLB averages on fastballs in the zone are a .282 AVG and .486 SLG (.343 xwOBA). Again: WOOF.

I’m going to put my amateur hitting coach hat on and say Torres looks out of whack mechanically at the plate. Specifically, it looks like he’s collapsing on his back leg and flying open with his hips, so his swing is basically all arms. That would explain the 85.9 mph average exit velocity. Hard to drive the ball when you’re not using your legs.

Here’s the requisite before and after GIF. On the right is Torres in 2019 and on the left is Torres in 2021 (GIF link):

Tough to see the difference there. Gleyber’s front foot is planted pretty firm in 2019 and it’s flying away in 2021, which lends some credence to the “he’s not using his lower half enough” theory. Both pitches are 92 mph fastballs down the middle and the GIFs are synced at the frame the pitcher releases the ball. Here’s the point of contact:

More accurately, that’s the point of contact in 2019, because 2021 Torres was late as hell on the pitch. His body is mostly in the same position. Foot down, hips open, etc., but his bat is lagging big time. I mean BIG time. When you’re that late on a pitch (again, that’s a 92 mph meatball), you have basically no chance to hit it with authority.

I have no idea how a player goes about correcting this. If hitting coach Marcus Thames could wave a magic wand or whisper sweet nothings into Gleyber’s ear and get him right at the plate, he would. Ultimately, it’s up to Torres to make the adjustment. And hey, Gary Sanchez did it earlier this year. He corrected his lower half problems. No reason Torres can’t too.

“We’ve got to get him back into the big part of the field. His lower half is not as strong as when he’s going well. We’ve got to get him back to that point,” Thames told Dan Martin earlier this week. “I know him. I know how talented he is and I know it’s gonna happen.”

Good young hitters have out of nowhere bad seasons all the time (2008 Robbie Cano and 2017 Xander Bogaerts are my go-to-examples), and heck, even established stars have random bouts of futility. Jose Ramirez hit .168/.299/.291 (58 wRC+) in 458 plate appearances from August 2018 to June 2019. This game can humble anyone.

Maybe Torres is just going through a 2008 Cano or 2017 Bogaerts or 2018-19 Ramirez phase where he inexplicably forgets how to play baseball, and he’ll get back on horse again in the (hopefully very) near future. If this is Gleyber’s new normal though, it would be devastating to the Yankees. Their potential franchise middle infielder is now a reclamation project.

“Through the last week he’s struggled, it’s been more mechanic-based,” Aaron Boone told Martin. “He’s been a little off-balanced without that power. He’s strong with a thick lower half and it hasn’t been working as well for him. We’ve got to get that unlocked. Eventually we’ll see that power we know he has.”

Chapman’s slump

Man, I hated the intentional walk to Carlos Santana on Wednesday. I get it, there was a rookie with zero big league hits on deck, but Aroldis Chapman has struggled for a few weeks now, and even when he’s right, he’ll walk hitters. The guy has a career 11.6% walk rate. The intentional walk gave him zero margin for error and it nearly cost the Yankees the game.

“When we met on the mound, Chapman wanted to pitch to Santana, and that’s what we talked about,” Sanchez told Zach Braziller. “But later on, Boone made the decision to walk him. And he’s the manager. That’s (something) he has to do as manager of the team, making the tough decision … Probably not what Chapman wanted to do there in that situation.”

Boone said he and Chapman discussed the intentional walk “at length” following the game and hammered things out. "He was upset, understandably so. He wanted to pitch to Santana, and even in hindsight, not just because it didn’t work out, I think probably the right move was to let him pitch,” Boone told Jake Seiner.

Chapman has gone from unhittable earlier this year to allowing eight runs in his last seven appearances and 5.1 innings. Could’ve been a lot worse if not for a(nother) timely triple play too. In those 5.1 innings Chapman has allowed 12 hits and six walks, and opponents have a .462/.548/.731 (!) batting line. Never thought I’d type that after how he looked in April.

“In the first game in the Oakland series, even though they had some good at-bats, some tough at-bats, I thought he was kinda dominant, especially with his stuff,” Boone told Scott Thompson earlier this week. “I thought he threw the ball extremely well against the Blue Jays. Obviously against a tough lineup, made big pitches when he had to. And then the other day was just the issue where obviously the nail played a huge role, so I don’t really attribute that to a stretch that he’s in. That was more of kinda pitching through some adversity out there and soreness.”

Over the years we’ve seen Chapman go through many stretches when he has no idea where the ball is going. All the hits allowed though? That’s unusual. To be fair, quite a few of them were ground balls that snuck through (or even stayed on) the infield (like this one, this one, this one, and this one). Still, Chapman’s swing and miss rate during this 5.1-inning rough patch is 9.7%. It was 19.5% prior to this and it’s 16.8% for his career. 9.7% is extraordinarily low for him.

This is the foreign substance crackdown era, so I must note Chapman’s spin rates have held fairly steady the last few weeks. He’s always been a very high spin pitcher, and his fastball and slider are down around 50-75 rpm of late. That’s not much. It’s the 200+ rpm declines that make you say “okay, this guy was using sticky stuff.”

That said, not everyone uses foreign substances to add spin. Some guys use sunscreen or pine tar just to improve their grip (Eno Sarris found sunscreen adds some spin, though not nearly as much as Spider Tack and all that other stuff), and it could be Chapman is having problems now because he’s throwing sans sticky stuff, and doesn’t have his usual grip.

Also, Chapman has been pitching with a broken nail on his middle finger, which could explain a lot. It could explain everything, really. I’m a habitual nail-biter and am very aware of how uncomfortable nail problems can be (I bite them too short all the damn time). I can totally understand Chapman having problems gripping and releasing the ball because his finger is sore, if that is indeed the case.

If the nail is bothering Chapman that much, it might be best just to give him a little 10-day break on the injured list and let it heal rather than continue running him out there in close games when he’s pitching like this. Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson are on rehab assignments and should return soon, which would lighten the load on the rest of the bullpen during Chapman’s absence.

I think the foreign substance crackdown could be contributing to Chapman’s recent struggles, with the nail problem the more likely explanation. Every closer goes through rough periods like this every season (even Mariano Rivera did), and I’m not at the point of worrying about Chapman just yet. It’s annoying, but his velocity is fine and he seems healthy (aside from the nail). As long as those two things remain true, I trust him to snap out of it.

Free runs

The Yankees seem to score an inordinate number of runs on wild pitches and passed balls, don’t they? They did it again Tuesday night (video), and most notably, they scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball in the tenth inning against the Tigers on May 28th (video). The Yankees eventually lost that game though.

There’s no easy way to look up run-scoring wild pitches and passed balls with the pitch tracking systems, so I came up with a half-baked way using MLB.com’s video archive. I pulled up every passed ball and wild pitch video, scanned the captions to see which ones led to a run, and tallied them up. The unofficial leaderboard as of Wednesday morning:

1. Twins: 10 runs on wild pitches and passed balls
2. White Sox: 10
3. Yankees: 8
4. Red Sox: 7
5. Cubs, Dodgers, Rockies: 6 each

The Cubs are the only team to score two runs on a wild pitch this year (video), and I counted it as two runs above even though it was a single wild pitch. And of course, right after I looked all that up, Katie Sharp noted the Yankees are third in baseball with eight runs on wild pitches and passed balls this season. That’s what I get for showing initiative.

So yes, the Yankees have scored an inordinate number of runs on passed balls and wild pitches this year. But there’s no skill involved here, right? This is just a dumb baseball thing. I guess you could argue Yankees hitters scare pitchers out of the zone and into wild pitches or passed balls, or that they’re disciplined enough to not chase and foul those pitches away, but nah. Just baseball being dumb.

Since I have the videos handy, here’s a compilation of all eight run-scoring wild pitches and passed balls. Between the run-scoring wild pitches and passed balls and all the baserunning nonsense and the triple plays, I’ve come to embrace the weirdness that is the 2021 Yankees. It is a circus between the lines.

The sticky stuff crackdown

Things have been pretty normal with the Yankees, but elsewhere around the league, the new foreign substance crackdown has gone off the rails. Joe Girardi got into it with Max Scherzer (Nationals GM Mike Rizzo later called Girardi a “con artist”) and Sergio Romo dropped his pants on the field (GIF via MLB on FOX):

Changing the rule two and a half months into the season (technically changing how the rule is enforced, not the rule itself) is illogical and I understand why the players are upset. But all the on-field theatrics and the very public sticky stuff checks are a bad look. The optics are worse than I thought they’d be. We don’t need the constant reminders players may be cheating.

“I just think the optics of it are so bad for baseball,” Zach Britton told Braziller earlier this week. “We’re not talking about Wander Franco’s debut, we’re not talking about how well Gerrit (Cole) threw and how well Max Scherzer threw, and all this other stuff around the game. We’re talking about guys getting checked on the field, guys dropping their pants on the field, guys throwing their belts off. I just think the optics are absolutely embarrassing for our game.”

I am hopeful the players will be a little less overtly annoyed with the process moving forward. Right now, they’re toddlers who had their toy taken away and are stamping their feet. They’ll tire themselves out eventually and begrudgingly go along with it, right? I think so. That said, if they want to throw tantrums, purely for entertainment purposes, I’ll allow it.

At some point Rob Manfred has to speak publicly about all this (and not just give interviews to hand-picked reporters). He hasn’t held a press conference since Feb. 2020 even though there was a pandemic, shutdown, rule changes, etc. Manfred went on FOX last postseason to say the owners are losing money, but he hasn’t discussed the state of the game in a public forum in 16 months. He is supposed to be the steward of the sport and not speaking publicly is a dereliction of duty.

“I’d love to hear Manfred answer questions and not just players,” Britton told Braziller. “If you’re the head of a sport, I think part of the job description is to answer the questions and speak to the media occasionally. You see it throughout the other sports. It’s frustrating for the players that we haven’t heard from him yet.”

We’re less than a week into this thing and already the enforcement rules have been adjusted (relievers can now be checked when they enter the game), and I imagine more adjustments are coming this winter. I am 100% onboard with getting rid of sticky stuff. There has to be a better way to do it than this though. This is not a great look for baseball.

(If they’re not going to have an approved substance or a sticky ball, then I think the best thing to do is have enforcement officers who check starters in the tunnel after an inning and relievers in the bullpen before they enter the game, which keeps the process off the field and out of public view. MLB has enforcement officers in video rooms in the wake of the sign-stealing scandals. What’s a few more?)

Miscellany

Luke Voit returned Tuesday and hit the first pitch he saw for a home run. He tripled off the top of the left field wall later in the game, and had the walk-off single off the top of the wall the next day. It goes into the record books as a single because it was a walk-off, though I’m comfortable saying it would have been a double under normal circumstances. Then he hit another home run yesterday, so that’s four extra-base hits in three games back. Yankees first baseman had four extra-base hits in the 11 games prior to Voit’s return, and they were hitting .176/.263/.285 (54 wRC+) overall going into Tuesday. Going from that to a healthy Voit is likely the single biggest upgrade the Yankees can make this year, even including trades. Good to have Voit back and mashing. Now he just needs to hit the weight room so those balls go over the wall instead of hitting the top of the fence … Jonathan Loaisiga is getting Scott Proctored. I thought he’d be down Tuesday after throwing 36 pitches Sunday and pitching five times in the previous nine days, but nope, there he was again, even with Chad Green and Zack Britton available. Not surprisingly, Loaisiga looked pretty gassed, and retired only two of the eight batters he faced. He’s allowed 13 runs this year and nine of them have come in two outings. In his other 29 games, he’s allowed four runs total. Loaisiga has a long history of arm problems and he’s on pace for 87 innings. He’s been awesome and I know it’s tempting to use him, but Boone needs to do a better job spreading the workload around … Mike King badly needs an opener. In five starts he’s allowed eight runs in the first inning, and only once in those five starts did he throw a scoreless first inning. That was because the Yankees turned the first 1-3-6-2-5-6 triple play in history behind him. 1) Pair him with an opener, 2) get him away from the top of the lineup, 3) profit. Obvious move is obvious.

2. Minor league thoughts. Earlier this week J.J. Cooper noted Yankees affiliates have the best record (115-57) and run differential (+277) in the minors. They’ve scored the most runs (990) and allowed the second fewest (713). Triple-A Scranton has the minors’ best record (29-12) and Low-A Tampa is tied for the fifth best record (29-14). Winning doesn’t always equal a great farm system, but winning is preferable to losing, for sure. You want your players to learn how to win and grow to expect to win every single game. Even though winning takes a backseat to development in the minors, too much losing is a bad thing. Here are a few more minor league thoughts.

Jasson’s debut

The rookie Gulf Coast League season begins Monday and that means Jasson Dominguez will finally -- finally! -- begin his pro career in earnest. He’s spent the last few weeks socking dingers in Extended Spring Training (video), and will now play real games with stats that get counted and everything. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for a prospect debut.

Despite zero professional games played, MLB.com and Baseball America (subs. req’d) rank Dominguez as the No. 24 and No. 28 prospect in the game, respectively. For posterity, here is a snippet of MLB.com’s scouting report:

Dominguez not only has the potential for well above-average tools across the board, but he also has the advanced instincts and skills to get the most of them. A switch-hitter, he exhibits a smooth stroke, tremendous bat speed and strength from both sides of the plate. With precocious feel for the barrel and a mature, disciplined approach, he should hit for power and average.

Dominguez's well above-average speed also allows him to make an impact on the bases and in the outfield. He has 30-30 potential, covers plenty of ground in center field and also features at least a plus arm. His quickness and arm strength would allow him to play almost any position and some teams even worked him out as a catcher (as an amateur), though putting him behind the plate would take a toll on his offensive output.

Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Wander Franco were the last two international prospects with as much hype as Dominguez. They both debuted as 17-year-olds in the now defunct rookie Appalachian League. Their stats:

• Vlad Jr. in 2016: .271/.359/.449 (122 wRC+) with 12.7 K% and 12.0 BB%
• Franco in 2018: .351/.418/.587 (159 wRC+) in 7.0 K% and 9.1 BB%

They produced right away. They also didn’t lose a full season to a pandemic, and if we’ve learned anything during this minor league season, it’s that the pitchers came back ahead of the hitters, which makes sense. They only needed a mound to work out at home last year. Hitters had to find pro-caliber live pitching to continue their development, and that’s in short supply.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, but if Dominguez tears up the GCL, I could see the Yankees quickly moving him across the street to Low-A Tampa, where he would be the youngest position player in the league (based on current rosters). That could set him up to split 2022 between High-A and Double-A, and 2023 between Triple-A and MLB. Aggressive? Yes. But not crazy.

For now, Dominguez will make his pro debut Monday after having the start of his career delayed by the pandemic. I expect him to produce right away a la Vlad Jr. and Franco, though the lost season means patience may be required. If nothing else, I am looking forward to no more grainy workout videos. It’s game time.

(Outfielder Kevin Alcantara, shortstop Alex Vargas, and catcher Antonio Gomez will also begin their seasons in the GCL next week. I ranked them the No. 8, No. 9, and No. 15 prospects in the system, respectively. All three have already played in the GCL and/or Dominican Summer League, but they spent last year at home during the pandemic.)

Park in the outfield

Hoy Jun Park started in center field for Triple-A Scranton on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were his first two career games in the outfield. The Yankees are giving Park a look in the outfield because they want to see whether he can handle it, and whether he can increase his versatility. The more positions you can play, the more useful you are to the MLB team.

"That's been in his toolbox for the last couple years, he has worked a little bit out there,” Aaron Boone told Max Goodman earlier this week. “So that's part of his skill set. Obviously he's doing very well down there.”

Park, 25, received a $1M bonus as part of the well-intentioned but ill-fated 2014-15 international signing spree, and he had a fine season with Double-A Trenton in 2019: .272/.363/.370 (120 wRC+) in 487 plate appearances. He spent last year at home, and went into last night’s game hitting .357/.496/.633 (198 wRC+) in 27 games with Scranton, though we must remember …

• … Triple-A is still using the 2020 MLB rocket ball.
• … the injury spike has thinned pitching staffs in MLB and thus Triple-A.
• … his .433 BABIP is eighth highest among the 201 players with at least 100 Triple-A plate appearances.

We have to be careful with Triple-A stats more than ever this year, but, when you hit like Park has, you’re going to get noticed. The Yankees have certainly noticed, and they’re exposing him to the outfield to see whether he can help there. They’ve been using their backup infielder as their backup outfielder since Aaron Hicks got hurt. I’m sure they’d do it with Park like they’re doing it with Tyler Wade.

The Yankees have given us no reason to believe they’ll cut ties with Rougned Odor, so if Park gets called up, it would likely be to replace Wade. That’s probably a lateral move. They’re both good defenders and good runners, and Wade has 12 plate appearances in the last 20 games. The last guy on the bench rarely gets at-bats. It is what it is.

Wade will become arbitration-eligible this offseason, and while he’s not going to get a significant raise by any means, he’ll be in “sorry, we can find someone to do this job for less” territory, and Park could be that someone. It would be similar to Kyle Higashioka (an even later bloomer than Park) replacing Austin Romine when Romine became too expensive for his role.

For now, Park is on the MLB radar. I know this because the Yankees have him playing the outfield, and exposing players to new positions in Triple-A is a classic sign he’s being considered for a big league role. It’s always worth paying attention to a middle infielder with good bat-to-ball skills, good plate discipline, good defense, good speed, and now maybe more versatility.

Miscellany

It’s a toss up with Oswald Peraza, but I think 2019 first rounder Anthony Volpe has been the most impressive performer in the farm system this year, especially once you factor in age relative to level. Volpe took a .293/.420/.580 (165 wRC+) line with eight homers and more walks (34) than strikeouts (30) into last night’s game, and he had the seventh highest average exit velocity in the league. Low-A Southeast is using the automated strike zone and we don’t know how it’s contributing to the walks and strikeouts, but 31 players in the league have at least 150 plate appearances, and Volpe is the only one with more walks than strikeouts. ”Evaluators have raved about Volpe this season, touting his polished skills and exceptional work ethic so far in his first full year as a pro,” Baseball America (subs. req’d) wrote this week. I’ve been hearing Volpe is better than everyone thinks basically since the day he was drafted and I kinda ignored it, assuming it was the Yankees talking up their guy, but it sure looks true. He’s been dynamite … 2018 first rounder Anthony Seigler missed May with an injury and he’s hitting .182/.297/.291 (74 wRC+) in 15 games back, which is obviously very bad. It’s only 15 games though and he’s missed so much time with injuries in his career that I just want to see him stay on the field for an extended period of time. Do that and the numbers will hopefully come. “I just want to be on the field every day, and just stay on the field, honestly. Average, hitting, I’m not really worried about all of that. That will come. But me just staying healthy and doing what I can to stay on the field is my big thing this year,” Seigler told Philip Sanzo earlier this week … Righty Glenn Otto had another 14-strikeout game last week. He’s the only pitcher to strike out 14 batters in a game in the minors this season, and he’s done it twice. Otto’s 74 strikeouts are tied for second in the minors with 2017 No. 2 pick Hunter Greene, right behind 2020 No. 22 pick Cade Cavalli (88). (Ken Waldichuk is fourth with 72 strikeouts). The Yankees helped Otto add a slider this year and it’s made a world of difference. Also, he's stayed healthy. He’s thrown 47 innings this year and his career high is 61.1 innings in 2019. Given the long arm injury history and breakout season, I wonder if the Yankees will look to cash Otto in as a trade chip rather than bank on him staying healthy and contributing a year or two down the line. Either way, I think he’ll get moved up from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton pretty soon … And finally, Advocates for Minor Leaguers passes along word that the Yankees are one of 11 teams paying their players in Extended Spring Training. That’s confirmed by players in the organization, so good on the Yankees. They’re paying their guys even though they don’t have to, as crazy as that sounds. Imagine going to work every day for three months and not getting paid?

3. 2021 draft prospect: Mississippi State RHP Will Bednar. The 2021 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and J.J. Cooper (subs. req’d) reports MLB has informed teams the draft will be 20 rounds, the minimum number allowed under last year’s March agreement. The Yankees hold the No. 20 pick. Here is our 2021 draft prospect coverage archive.

Bednar is the younger brother of Pirates reliever David Bednar (who I once wrote about as a possible trade target) and he is a draft-eligible sophomore who turned 21 two weeks ago. He was great as a freshman prior to the pandemic last year (15.1 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 6 BB, 23 K), and this spring he had a 3.26 ERA with 128 strikeouts and 21 walks in 80 innings.

Earlier this week Bednar struck out 15 batters in six innings in his College World Series debut. Here’s the video. MLB.com and Baseball America (subs. req’d) rank Bednar as the No. 36 and No. 38 prospect in the draft class, respectively. Here’s part of MLB.com’s scouting report:

He sits at 93-95 mph and tops out at 97 with his fastball, which can exhibit both heavy life and riding action. His mid-80s slider has become a consistent plus pitch this spring, surpassing his solid upper-70s curveball with depth.

Bednar also has the makings of at least an average changeup and is pounding the strike zone more than ever, two more ingredients that add to his mid-rotation starter's profile. He doesn't have the cleanest delivery, but he makes it work and has a 6-foot-2, 229-pound frame built for durability. Scouts like his intelligence and competitiveness as well as his physical traits.

For what it’s worth, Kiley McDaniel (subs. req’d) says the Yankees have been connected to Bednar recently, and Jim Callis adds they’re mostly in the mix for pitchers. Keith Law (subs. req’d) said he could see the Yankees being in on Bednar because his “slider and fastball grade out well for teams that emphasize Statcast-style data in their models.”

Bednar has a bit of an injury history (he was a potential top five rounds pick out of high school two years ago before suffering a shoulder injury) and there’s effort in his delivery, which isn’t a great combination. To be fair, he’s been healthy since then, and he’s had no trouble holding his velocity deep into starts and deep into the season.

The Vanderbilt righties (Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker) are the best college pitchers in the draft. Bednar is in the second tier, and picking between him and Ryan Cusick, Gunnar Hoglund, Michael McGreevy, and Jordan Wicks comes down to preference. Bednar doesn’t have Cusick’s velocity or the pitchability of the other three, which puts him further down the board for me.

4. Rapid fire thoughts. Within the last week or so both Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez said they are skipping the Home Run Derby this year. They were both part of the 2017 Home Run Derby (Judge won it), and neither has done it since. Judge has said he’ll do it again when the All-Star Game returns to New York. Sanchez said he’d rather have the time off. Maybe MLB will ask Luke Voit now that’s healthy? I’m sure the league wants a Yankee in there for marketing purposes … Chris Creamer reports that, for the first time, MLB will have a dedicated All-Star Game jersey that will be worn during the game. Players have always worn their team’s uniform during the All-Star Game, and it’s a pretty cool tradition, representing your team instead of the league. Now we’re getting a generic Nike jersey with a team identifier. Here’s what Gerrit Cole & Co. will wear in Coors Field in two weeks:

The hats are okay and the jerseys give off big “graphic design is my passion” vibes. Every year there’s an All-Star jersey for the Home Run Derby and Futures Game (and workouts) that has a theme related to the host city, and that’s fine. I’ve always felt the players wearing their team uniforms in the All-Star Game itself is really neat though. It’s fun seeing all the different uniforms on the field together, and it probably helps casual fans identify players. Now that’s gone. I hereby challenge MLB to do something that doesn’t suck one of these days … And finally, I just wanted to take a quick moment to say I am totally cool with putting 2020 highlights (all sports, really) in a vault and locking them away forever. I’ve seen enough of them during broadcasts and MLB.tv commercial breaks, and I don’t need to see empty stands ever again. Let’s just forget the pandemic season ever happened, agreed?

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Vinny asks: It seems that every time Torres is moved up in the lineup, he immediately tries too hard and goes into a slump. What are his numbers by spot in the lineup for his career? Do they back that up?

Gleyber Torres has been significantly better when he hits lower in the lineup, though that could be selection bias. His best years were 2018-19, when he was a young player who had not yet “earned” a higher lineup spot. Here are the career numbers by lineup spot:

1. .125/.222/.500 (80 wRC+) in 9 PA
2. .136/.240/.182 (24 wRC+) in 26 PA
3. .222/.287/.379 (78 wRC+) in 172 PA
4. .209/.260/.358 (61 wRC+) in 219 PA
5. .292/.376/.505 (137 wRC+) in 474 PA
6. .281/.344/.478 (120 wRC+) in 224 PA
7. .321/.394/.563 (153 wRC+) in 127 PA
8. .280/.400/.380 (114 wRC+) in 60 PA
9. .280/.340/.538 (138 wRC+) in 201 PA

I can totally buy a young hitter pressing and trying to do too much when he’s elevated to a more prominent lineup spot, and maybe that’s what happened with Torres. The sample sizes are pretty small in some spots though, and I don’t think fixing Gleyber is as simple as plopping him into the No. 5 or No. 7 lineup spot and calling it a day.

Steve asks: So I was a little surprised to see the Braves were 3 below .500 so got me wondering if say they continue to tread water on the year and it gets to the deadline, maybe they make some of their short term contract players available.  Looking at Morton specifically as a target, do you think it is at all realistic? (if the Braves paid down his salary of course *eye roll*). Looking at his profile he is not that dissimilar from the Astros version (with more hard contact unfortunately)  but he is still super solid and would not be afraid to start him in a playoff game (AL East experience is also a benefit). I know he has had issues with where he pitches geographically before but if it’s just for 2 months and no no-trade clause, might not be an issue.  Thoughts if he did become available?

Every year there seems to be one team the various projection systems think will perform worse than everyone expects, the masses go nuts and call the projections dumb (that’s why they play the game on the field!), and then the team performs worse than everyone expects. The Braves are that team this season. The projections had them at mid-80s wins* before the season after three straight NL East titles, and here they are at 35-39 on June 25th.

* Atlanta has a lot of injury risk and short track records in their rotation, and so many of their hitters had incredible years last season. Years that could very well go down as career years. The pitching risk and the potential for offensive regression led to the low projections and has contributed to their step back from NL East dominance.

Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos is a go for it type and he recently told Jeff Schultz (subs. req’d) that he’s been given the green light to add payroll at the deadline. The Mets are in first place but they’re the lowest scoring team in baseball and they have a ton of injuries. As long as the Braves stay within striking distance (currently 5.5 games out), I think they’ll go for it rather than trade pieces away at the deadline.

Hypothetically though, yes, Charlie Morton would make a world of sense for the Yankees. He’s made it very well known that he wants to play close to his home in Florida, but he doesn’t have a no-trade clause, and he is close with Gerrit Cole. They were teammates with the Pirates and Astros, and reuniting with him could soften the blow of playing far from home for two months.

Morton is 37 now and he’s not as dominant as he was in his heyday, but he’s still very good, pitching to a 3.68 ERA (3.43 FIP) with 27.4% strikeouts and 47.8% grounders in 80.2 innings. Like many others, Morton has experienced a spin rate decline since the foreign substance crackdown became a thing, though his spin remains above average. This plays:

Morton is a rental but he is an excellent rental, so you’re not getting him for spare parts the way you could, say, Jon Gray or Tyler Anderson. A few years ago rental Yu Darvish fetched a global top 90-100 prospect (Willie Calhoun) and two top 30-ish team prospects (A.J. Alexy and Brendon Davis), which seems like a reasonable benchmark for a Morton trade. One very good piece and two lottery tickets.

Based on that, could you get Morton for one of the Luises (Gil or Medina) and two lower minors prospects? I’d rather give up Gil than Medina, but I wouldn’t hug Medina too tight. It’s tough to count on Corey Kluber and Luis Severino at this point and Morton would be a fine addition even if those two get healthy. He’d help get the Yankees get to the postseason (not a lock at this point) and then be a worthy No. 2 behind Cole in October. Sign me up (not that I expect the Braves to trade him).

Noah asks: Has anyone ever doubled off a runner after robbing a home run? If Judge pretended he missed (the homer robbery in Buffalo) and looked upset, it would’ve fooled everyone, especially the baserunner from his angle. Wouldn’t this be an easy way to get a double play (even triple play in the right situation) as they trot around the bases and you throw it in? Has anyone tried this?

There have definitely been home run robberies that turned into double plays. The Endy Chavez catch in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS started a double play (video). B.J. Upton did it in 2016 (video) and Anthony Santander did it in 2019 (video). I’m sure there have been others, but those are the home run robbery double plays my quick YouTube search turned up.

Doing this intentionally seems like it would be difficult. Most home run robberies happen very quickly. So quick that the outfielder is concentrating on catching the ball and doesn’t have time to set the runner up with a deke. And, if the outfielder has enough time to deke the runner, the runner is probably holding up because the ball would appear playable.

For example, Aaron Judge robbed Francisco Lindor of a home run with a runner at first in Game 3 of the 2017 ALDS (video), and it was as casual as home run robberies get. Could he have sold it in a way that deked the runner into thinking he didn’t make the catch? Maybe, but I’d guess the runner would wait to see the homer signal from the umpire before advancing.

Baseball players are amazing and it would not surprise me at all to one day see an outfielder intentionally deke the runner into thinking he did not rob a home run, and turn it into a double play. From where I sit, it seems like it would be very difficult given how much effort goes into just catching the ball. That’s the priority, and anything that happens after that is gravy.

Paul asks: How much do you think we're going to hear about sticky stuff during the next HoF season? Is this going to be like steroids, where some people don't get in because of it, or will it just be largely ignored?

Oh yeah, I fully expect to hear about foreign substances come Hall of Fame voting season. Hall of Fame voters tend to come up with reasons not to vote for players rather than reasons to vote for players, and this is another one. You know some voters will treat foreign substances and performance-enhancing drugs as equal crimes, and withhold votes.

The Hall of Fame voting body is turning over and players tied to PEDs are getting a little more support with each passing year, which I guess bodes well for foreign substances guys. And we don’t know who used them, right? The new enforcement rules were just put in place and we’re in the dark with guys currently on the Hall of Fame ballot. We can assume, but that’s unfair.

There is a not insignificant number of Hall of Fame voters who actively look for reasons to keep players out of the Hall of Fame, and foreign substances are just another excuse to break out the fainting couch. I hope foreign substances are largely ignored come Hall of Fame voting season, but I fear that is being overly optimistic.

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