May 14th, 2021: COVID Outbreak, Cole, Rotation, Offense, Mailbag

Winning series against the Astros and Rays gets a thumbs up. Winning the first two games and then losing the third though? Blah. Finish the sweep next time, fellas. The Yankees are on pace to go 88-74 with 125 games remaining. To today’s thoughts.

1. The COVID outbreak. Can’t say I expected the Yankees to be the New York team that had a COVID outbreak so severe it requires a CDC investigation. That’s as Mets as it gets right there. The outbreak has unfolded over the last five days and currently includes eight positive tests. Here’s what we know:

• Third base coach Phil Nevin, first base coach Reggie Willits, and a support staff member tested positive before the Rays series.
• Pitching coach Matt Blake and three support staffers tested positive Tuesday.
• Gleyber Torres tested positive Wednesday, then was placed on the COVID injured list. He apparently had COVID in December too.
• All eight cases are “breakthrough positives,” meaning they tested positive even after being vaccinated. (Here’s info on breakthrough positives.)
• The Yankees did not have any new positives Thursday.

First of all, the vaccines worked. The vaccine doesn’t prevent the virus from entering your body, but it does reduce the likelihood of severe symptoms, and only Nevin experienced symptoms. They were light and he was better within two days. Everyone else is asymptomatic. Last year this could’ve been a Marlins-esque outbreak (Miami had 20 positive tests at one point).

“When you read the fine print, they tell you that you still could get the COVID, and the vaccine is to protect you from the symptoms,” Brian Cashman told Marly Rivera. “It's not full protection, but the one thing I take from this is I believe the vaccine is working. We believe it has protected us from obviously something severe or something much more difficult to be handling than we currently are.”

That all said, eight breakthrough cases in a traveling party (50 people or so) is extremely unlikely, statistically. Cashman told Brendan Kuty the “variant that we've been dealing with has been pretty aggressive,” which explains things (the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks were shut down with 25 cases because of a variant). The CDC is investigating. From ABC 7:

"With regard to the Yankees, we obviously need to learn more about that situation," (CDC director Rochelle Walensky) said. "My understanding is that six of the seven reports, six of the seven infections were indeed asymptomatic infections. And we will look to more data from that report to understand what happened there. All of the real world data we've seen that's been in the published literature, large studies, in many different settings, have demonstrated that those vaccines are effective, have a high effectiveness against disease."

The New York State Department of Health is also investigating. From James Wagner:

“While there have been anecdotal reports of New Yorkers who have had a  positive Covid test 14 or more days after receiving their last vaccine dose,” the statement said, “D.O.H. is investigating those cases along with the ones linked to the Yankees further to determine if they meet the formal C.D.C. definition of vaccine breakthrough.”

Saturday’s rain delay may have been the spreader event because the coaches were confined to a smaller area than the players, Cashman told Bryan Hoch. "I think everyone that's in charge of the testing is looking into that and the variants that could be out there. We're trying as best we can to keep our guys healthy and safe,” Cashman said.

I’m no expert, but maybe MLB and the Yankees should’ve skipped a game or two just to be safe? It’s not like rescheduling a game against the Rays would be difficult. Pete Caldera reports 23 of the 26 players on the current roster have received at least one vaccination dose, and I guess that’s enough to play through an unfolding outbreak.

“We spoke together as a group of players to see what we were all feeling and how we were dealing with this and how to protect ourselves,” Gerrit Cole, a high-ranking official in the MLBPA, told Dan Martin. “As a whole, we’re looking to press on. There were different levels of comfortability, I think, across the club. Trying to accommodate that and trying to make sure everybody was in a good spot to perform and felt confident as a group we could do that.”

The Yankees caught a bit of a break with the schedule. Aaron Boone said the Yankees first got word of the positive tests Sunday night, and because they were in Tampa, they were able to pull coordinator of baseball development Mario Garza* from Extended Spring Training and use him as an emergency coach. I believe Garcia went through intake testing during Monday’s off-day.

* Garza’s been an organizational do-it-all guy for over a decade now. He coached and managed in the lower levels of the minors back in the day, and was Director of Latin American Operations for a few years before moving into his current role. The circumstances are very unfortunate, but it’s kinda cool a minor league lifer gets to spend some time in the big leagues.

Bench coach Carlos Mendoza is filling in as third base coach, Garza is filling in as first base coach, and bullpen coach Mike Harkey pulled double duty. He was pitching coach and bullpen coach Tuesday. YES showed him running back and forth between the dugout and bullpen. Director of Pitching Sam Briend has since joined the team to help on the pitching side (I assume Briend wasn't with the team Tuesday because of intake testing).

“(We have) a little bit of a skeleton staff, but nothing we can’t handle,” Boone told Martin. “A lot unfolded (Monday). We’ll have to evaluate (MLB’s relaxed protocols after meeting the 85% vaccination threshold) and make sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to prevent things from happening.”

As for Torres, this year’s health and safety protocols say he has to quarantine a minimum of 10 days because he tested positive, though there are provisions for a vaccinated player returning earlier. This is different from Gio Urshela’s one-day absence for side effects. Boone said the Yankees are going to wing it with Urshela and Tyler Wade at short in the interim. I hope Miguel Andujar gets some run at third base, but I’m not counting on it.

I don’t have much more to say about the outbreak other than I hope everyone comes out of it okay, and there are no more positive tests. I’m glad the Yankees are being so transparent about this rather than hiding behind the protocols because the more information, the better, especially coming from a high profile organization. Fingers crossed this gets no worse.

“In an ideal world, we’d be past this, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past year and a half, it’s that you have to be ready to roll with the punches. Nothing’s guaranteed anymore,” Jameson Taillon told Laura Albanese. “So we’ll mask back up, we’ll keep our distance, we’ll do whatever we have to do to get the season in. We were willing to make big adjustments last year. We’ll do whatever it takes now to keep this going.”

(Sports epidemiologist Zach Binney has a good and concise Twitter thread on the Yankees and their outbreak, so check that out.)

2. Weekday observations. Let’s get to baseball. Holy crap, the Yankees won a series against the Rays! In Tampa too. It was their first series win against the Rays since July 2019 and their first series win in Tropicana Field since May 2019. The Yankees had lost seven straight series to Tampa, including last year’s ALDS. Thank goodness that streak is over. A few quick thoughts.

Gerrit Cole is a New York Yankee

I don’t have the words to do Cole justice. His numbers through eight starts are out of this world: 1.37 ERA (1.10 FIP) with 78 strikeouts and three walks in 52.2 innings. 78 strikeouts and three walks! It’s a 40.8% strikeout rate and a 1.6% walk rate. Goodness. A few more nuggets:

• Cole is the first pitcher in history with at least 70 strikeouts and no more than three walks in his first eight starts.
• He’s struck out 56 batters since his last walk, which was the most consecutive strikeouts without a walk since 1893. Insane. (Corbin Burnes passed him yesterday and went 58 strikeouts between walks, but Cole can reclaim the lead in his next start.)
• At 1,315.1 innings, Cole became the fourth faster pitcher in history to reach 1,500 career strikeouts (he got there Wednesday).
• Cole already has five starts with 10+ strikeouts and zero walks. The previous franchise single-season record was four such starts by Mike Mussina in 2001.
• Opponents are hitting .177/.194/.263 against him.

“He’s an ace. He is an absolute bulldog,” Aaron Boone told Bryan Hoch following Wednesday’s game. “I think he lives for pitching when it’s tough and in the biggest of games. In a 1-0 game, we needed all of it. Even though he breezed through some of those innings and made them look pretty easy, there was a ton on the line with every pitch.”

There is a lot -- A LOT -- of season remaining, but this right now is an MVP caliber season for Cole, not just a Cy Young season. He’s been that good, and the prevailing narrative is the Yankees have crummy pitching (they absolutely have not had crummy pitching this year), and that would work in his favor with MVP voters. Cole is seen as propping up a shaky staff.

Rotation greatness

It’s not just Cole who’s been great. The entire rotation has been great for four weeks now, even with Jameson Taillon’s clunker last night (he was in the middle of the plate way too much). Here are the numbers since the cherry-picked date of April 18th:

• Average start: 5.8 IP, 4.3 H, 1.9 R, 1.8 ER, 1.3 BB, 6.6 K, 0.6 HR in 23 games
• Average start minus Cole: 5.5 IP, 4.4 H, 2.1 R, 2.0 ER, 1.6 BB, 5.7 K, 0.6 HR in 18 games

It’s a 2.77 ERA (2.74 FIP) overall and a 3.25 ERA (3.13 FIP) when you remove Cole. That will play. I would bet against this lasting all season -- it’s a looong season and there’s a lot of injury risk in the rotation -- but it is happening now, and it’s pretty awesome.

This is not a perfect comparison because this stretch spans April and May, but the Yankees rotation has had only three calendar months with a sub-3.00 ERA since 2002, which is as far back as the FanGraphs splits database goes:

• June 2012: 2.62 ERA and 3.11 FIP
• Sept. 2002: 2.70 ERA and 2.84 FIP
• Sept. 2019: 2.92 ERA and 3.07 FIP

The current stretch is as good as any month-long stretch the Yankees rotation has had over the last two decades. The bullpen’s been great too! The Yankees are averaging only 3.65 runs allowed per game, the sixth fewest in baseball (and third fewest in the AL). The pitching has been so outrageously good. Would be nice if the offense gave the staff more support.

My kingdom for some runs

It has been eight days and seven games since the Yankees last scored more than four runs. Their runs scored in the last 10 games: 2, 7, 6, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1, 1. The Yankees have hit .206/.309/.347 in those 10 games, yet are somehow 7-3. Shoutout to the pitching staff. Those guys have carried the Yankees the last few weeks. The entire season, really.

I know offense is down around the league -- MLB is still hitting only .234/.311/.390 overall -- but the Yankees haven’t been good offensively. They are way, way below expectations:

• AVG: .220 (26th in MLB)
• OBP: .317 (8th)
• SLG: .376 (22nd)
• wRC+: 100 (12th)
• Runs per game: 3.86 runs per game (24th)

Luke Voit is back and he’ll certainly help, though we’re still waiting for DJ LeMahieu (.367 SLG!) and Gleyber Torres (.298 SLG!) to really get going, and for Clint Frazier to do something more than tease. There’s too much talent for this to continue, and yet it continues. It’s early, but it’s not early, you know? Time to get this show on the road.

I am happy the Yankees are 14-6 in their last 20 games, but good grief, watching them hit is like getting teeth pulled. There are too many non-competitive at-bats, too many hittable pitches being missed or fouled away, and too many easy innings. All the Yankees can do is wait for their guys to get going, but I’m starting to grow impatient. A bottom 10 offense in runs per game nearly a quarter of the way through the season is not okay.

“(We have) a few guys that are still scuffling to really get it going,” Boone told Ken Davidoff last night. “As an offense, we’re usually really strong when everyone’s kind of grinding you down a little bit. A few guys are still working hard to get clicking.”

A quick word on AL East odds

I mentioned a few times that the division title odds took a hit when the Yankees started slowly, so it’s only fair I update them now that they’ve won 14 of their last 20 games. Here’s the updated AL East odds:

That’s much better. The Red Sox are one of the highest scoring teams in baseball, their pitching has been way better than expected, and they’ve been so healthy articles are being written about how remarkable it is … and they’re a game up on the Yankees in the loss column and tied with the Blue Jays? A Yankees team that can’t score and a Blue Jays team that has gotten nothing from two of their top three offseason additions (George Springer and Kirby Yates)? Geez.

The Blue Jays scare me, man. They have a few guys underperforming at the plate (Lourdes Gurriel Jr., most notably) and some big time power arms looming in the minors (Alek Manoah and Nate Pearson), plus Springer will get healthy eventually. Recent history indicates they’ll go out and get help at the deadline too. The Red Sox have been better than expected, but the Blue Jays are the team that keeps me up at night.

3. Minor league thoughts. Couple quick minor league notes that aren’t worth a full write-up. Deivi Garcia rebounded from his walk-filled Triple-A season debut with five very good innings against a Lehigh Valley lineup he faced who knows how many times in alternate site games last month. His line: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K. That’s more like it. The walk went to the leadoff batter in the sixth inning, the final hitter Deivi faced (I see going batter-to-batter is a thing in the minors too). Very nice rebound for Garcia … This week’s series in Tampa allowed the beat reporters to hit the minor league complex and Extended Spring Training, which means Jasson Dominguez video. Here he is ripping a double. He’s still built like a fullback, but damn, that kid can run. That swing is geared for violence too. Dominguez is trying to hurt the baseball … Sleeper lefty Ken Waldichuk had a fun outing for High-A Hudson Valley the other day: 3.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K. Every out was a strikeout. Here’s video. There’s some funkiness in the delivery and the stuff looks good. Waldichuk won’t be a sleeper much longer … Coordinator of baseball development Mario Garza is filling in as first base coach and he told Marly Rivera the rookie Gulf Coast League season will begin June 28th and end in late September. They’re going to play five days a week rather than the usual six. The start of the GCL season had been up in the air, but now we know. That figures to be where Dominguez begins his pro career.

4. 2021 draft prospect: Mississippi RHP Gunnar Hoglund. 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.

The Pirates selected Hoglund, 21, out of his Florida high school with the No. 36 pick in the 2018 draft. He didn’t sign (the two sides had a disagreement over something in his physical) and instead followed through on his commitment to Ole Miss. As a freshman in 2019, he struggled to a 5.29 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 68 innings.

Hoglund was having a breakout sophomore season when the pandemic struck (1.16 ERA and 37/4 K/BB in 23.1 innings), and he was very good again this year, pitching to a 2.87 ERA with 96 strikeouts in 62.2 innings. Unfortunately, pitchers break, and Hoglund blew out his elbow last Friday. He’ll undergo Tommy John surgery next week.

Prior to the injury Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranked Hoglund as the ninth best prospect in the draft class. MLB.com had him tenth. Chances are he’ll move down draft boards now given the major arm injury. Here’s some video and here’s a snippet of MLB.com’s scouting report:

Hoglund's stuff plateaued in his first two college seasons, as he showed the same 89-93 mph riding fastball and average breaking ball that he had in high school. His stuff ticked up last fall, however, and he now works at 92-95 for five innings at a time and displays a tighter, harder slider at 84-86. His low-80s changeup serves as an effective third pitch and he can give batters a different look by dusting off a curveball he relied on more as a prepster … With a durable 6-foot-4 frame, an easy delivery and a history of quality strikes, Hoglund already had a high floor as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Baseball America’s scouting report notes Hoglund projected to have above-average command when he was coming out of high school, and they call him “one of the better command arms in the class” now. Before the injury, he was the prototypical “give me a guy with command and I’ll improve his stuff” modern pitching prospect, and firmly a top 15 pick.

The timing of Hoglund’s injury means he’ll miss most of next season, if not all of next season, and then his workload will be carefully monitored the following year. You’re going to have to wait until 2024 to really turn him loose, and let him pitch without restrictions. That’s a long wait. Then again, talented players are worth waiting on, and Hoglund has the goods.

If they like a prospect enough, the Yankees will roll the dice on a pitcher who either had or will soon have Tommy John surgery (Andrew Brackman, Clarke Schmidt). I don’t love the strategy (just take healthy players in the first round) but it is viable, and it has paid big dividends for a few teams (Lucas Giolito and Walker Buehler were drafted with known elbow issues).

I asked around and it seems Hoglund is highly regarded enough that he’s still expected to be a high selection, and will likely come off the board before the Yankees pick. If he’s there at No. 20 though, it would be awfully tough to pass on him. Unlike fellow Tommy John surgery haver Jaden Hill, Hoglund’s command is excellent, and he’s closer to a total package.

5. Rapid fire thoughts. Luis Severino threw live batting practice for the first time as part of his Tommy John surgery rehab. He was supposed to throw Wednesday, but he woke up with a stiff neck, so the Yankees pushed it to Thursday. Aaron Boone told Erik Boland that Severino hit 96 mph and it went “really well.” Here’s video of Severino facing Jasson Dominguez. That’s fun. Still a ways to go before Severino gets into minor league rehab games and rejoins the Yankees, but everything is going well so far … And finally, Joel Sherman reports the MLBPA has filed a grievance against MLB, alleging the league did not make a good faith effort to play as many games as possible last season. The union is seeking $500M in damages, which is roughly 20 games worth of pay, indicating the MLBPA believes they could have played an 80-game season last year. We knew the grievance was coming after the messy return to play negotiations. At a minimum, this gives the MLBPA a bargaining chip heading into Collective Bargaining Agreement talks (give us this and we’ll drop the grievance, etc.). Sherman says MLB has requested that the grievance be expedited given the looming CBA talks. Whether that happens is another matter.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Michael asks: A wise blogger I know totally called it - MLB, the king of unintended consequences, appears to have produced a ball with higher seams that allows pitchers to dominate like never before and has resulted in 4+7/9 no-hitters already (and, to my eye, more shutouts than usual as well). Any chance that MLB replaces this ball after the ASB?

There are reasons to believe this happened in 2015. Offense was way down in 2014 -- the league hit .251/.314/.386 that year with it lowest runs per game rate since 1981 and it’s lowest homers per game rate since 1991 -- then this happened in 2015:

• First half: 0.96 HR/9 and 10.7% HR/FB
• Second half: 1.09 HR/9 and 12.1% HR/FB

Doesn’t seem like a big change, but that’s a) roughly one extra homer per team per week, and b) an abnormally large increase from the first half to the second half, historically. The ball behaved differently (similar exit velocity and launch angle produced different fly ball distances) and the homer rate kept climbing and climbing in subsequent years. Hmmm.

Anyway, MLB deadened the baseball this year because they want more non-homer hits and more action on the bases, and the thinking was if you lower the home run rate, hitters will focus on contact. Sounds smart, but that adjustment was not going to happen overnight. It didn’t help that MLB informed teams of the changes to the ball right before Spring Training.

There are enough reasons to question the integrity of the results on the field (sign-stealing scandals, foreign substances, MLB going all-in on gambling, etc.), and I don’t think changing the baseball midseason is a smart decision. You don’t want to give fans another reason to doubt what’s happening on the field. Ride out this ball and give hitters time to adjust.

What I think doesn’t matter though. The league is hitting .234/.311/.390 in the early going and there have already been five no-hitters, so the lack of offense is in your face obvious. MLB may come to believe it has no choice but to intervene to spark offense. They may have already done so in 2015, so it would not be a surprise if they do it again in 2021.

Ovadia asks: We've all noticed how insanely good Chapman has been in this early portion of the year. Even for his own standards. We know he's due for some regression, even with that nasty splitter...but what would he have to do to earn the AL Cy Young award in your opinion?

I’m not sure a reliever can win the Cy Young award these days. The game’s top starters are insanely good (Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom, etc.) and voters are more aware of the limited impact of relievers. They’re important! High-leverage relievers are undervalued, I think, but a 200-inning ace is more valuable than an elite 60-inning reliever.

The last reliever to finish in the top three of the Cy Young voting was Francisco Rodriguez in 2009. He set the single-season record with 62 saves that year and finished third in the voting behind Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. Here are the relievers who received Cy Young votes the last few seasons:

• 2020: Liam Hendriks (9th in AL voting)
• 2019: Kirby Yates (9th in NL voting)
• 2018: Blake Treinen (6th in AL voting) and Josh Hader (7th in NL voting)
• 2017: Craig Kimbrel (6th in AL voting) and Kenley Jansen (5th in NL voting)
• 2016: Zack Britton (4th in AL voting) and Andrew Miller (9th in AL Voting)

Britton was basically flawless in 2016. He went 47-for-47 in save chances and had a 0.54 ERA (1.93 FIP) in 67 innings. Opponents hit .162/.221/.209 against him. That’s about as good as it gets as a closer, and he was still only fourth in the voting behind Rick Porcello, Justin Verlander, and Corey Kluber. (It will never not be weird that Porcello won a Cy Young.)

I think two things need to happen for Chapman to win the Cy Young. First, he needs to do exactly what he’s done so far this year all season. I mean a 0.00 ERA and a strikeout rate over 50%. Based on 2016 Britton, blowing a single save might take him out of the running, and even a 0.50 ERA might not be good enough. The Cy Young bar for relievers is incredibly high.

And second, the AL’s top starters all have to falter a bit. That means Cole, Shane Bieber, Tyler Glasnow, John Means, so on and so forth. If anyone has a 2.50 ERA with 275 strikeouts and a 21-4 record or something like that, you can bet the farm on him getting the Cy Young over a reliever, no matter how good the reliever. It is what it is.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a reliever as dominant as Chapman has been this year, and I saw the entirety of Mariano Rivera’s career and Dellin Betances’ peak. Rivera was obviously great, but he wasn’t dominant in the way Chapman is, overpowering hitters with three pitches. Rivera was surgical. Chapman overwhelms. We don’t need him to win the Cy Young to appreciate this.

Jordan asks: With the extra innings rule, wouldn't it make sense to save Chapman for the 10th in a tie game? He's your best strikeout pitcher and the hardest to bunt on. I understand not wanting to lose the game with Chapman still in the pen, but the Yankees have enough very good relievers that it seems like a low risk, high reward move.

It definitely makes sense, and will only make more sense when Zack Britton returns. Saving your top reliever for an inning that may not happen makes me a little squeamish, but I think if you get to the ninth inning tied, and you have a choice between Aroldis Chapman and, say, Britton or Chad Green, saving Chapman for the extra inning rule is sensible.

This needn’t be a blanket policy. If you get to the ninth and, say, Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers are due up, then yeah, I’d go to Chapman because he’s most likely to shut them down. But if it’s Hunter Renfroe, Franchy Cordero, and Bobby Dalbec, then you can better get away with saving Chapman for the top of the order in the tenth.

I wouldn’t blame the Yankees and Aaron Boone for using Chapman in the ninth inning rather than saving him for a tenth inning that may not happen, but there are situations where it could make sense. Depends who else is available in the bullpen, the batters coming up (for both teams, really), and the importance of the game. But no, this idea isn’t crazy.

Alessandro asks: Aroldis Chapman has gotten me thinking...What's the lowest FIP over the course of an entire season in MLB history?

Chapman has struck out “only” three of the last 11 batters he’s faced, lowering his strikeout rate to 57.4% and raising his FIP to -0.04. The only run he’s allowed this year was unearned thanks to the extra innings tiebreaker rule. 54 batters faced, 31 strikeouts, nine baserunners (one was an intentional walk). Decent.

Among pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, the all-time single-season FIP leader is Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. He had a 1.20 FIP in 390.2 innings in 1908 thanks to 259 strikeouts, 42 walks, and only five home runs allowed. Not including 2021, the all-time single-season FIP leaderboard is basically this:

1. Dead Ball Era guy
2. Dead Ball Era guy
3. 1999 Pedro Martinez (1.39 FIP in 213.1 innings)
4-10. Dead Ball Era guys

Pedro should’ve won MVP in 1999. He had a 2.07 ERA (1.39 FIP) with a 37.5% strikeout rate and a 4.4% walk rate in Fenway Park in the heart of the Steroid Era. The league average strikeout rate was 16.4% that year. Randy Johnson had the next lowest ERA (2.48), FIP (2.76), and strikeout rate (33.7%). 1999 Pedro was out of this world. Arguably the best pitching season ever.

If we drop the minimum to 50 innings, Craig Kimbrel owns the record with a 0.78 FIP in 62.2 innings in 2012. 2003 Eric Gagne (0.86 FIP in 82.1 innings) and 2014 Chapman (0.89 FIP in 54 innings) are the only pitchers with a sub-1.00 FIP in at least 50 innings. Lotta season left, but with the way he’s thrown the ball so far, Chapman has a chance to do it this year.

Paul asks: The Yankees are top-3 in home runs and bottom-4 in doubles. That's weird, right? Feels weird.

The Yankees are fourth in baseball with 48 home runs and 27th with 44 doubles. They've made a habit of ranking near the top of the league in homers and in the bottom half of the league in doubles, though this close to the bottom in doubles is a bit crazy. The last few years:

• 2020: 5th in homers and 20th in doubles
• 2019: 2nd in homers and 14th in doubles
• 2018: 1st in homers and 16th in doubles
• 2017: 1st in homers and 22nd in doubles
• 2016: 18th in homers and 28th in doubles

Yankee Stadium is a great home run park but it is a terrible doubles and triples park. Statcast’s three-year park factors say Yankee Stadium suppresses doubles to 78% of the league average and triples to 30% (!) of the league average. The short porch is great for dingers but not so much other types of extra-base hits.

I’m not sure there’s anything to the lack of doubles this year beyond early season weirdness and the fact so many Yankees hitters are underperforming. It hasn’t helped that DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela, their top doubles threats, have been a bit uneven these first few weeks, and Brett Gardner (another doubles threat) is now a bench guy.

Jonathan asks: Please compare the combined productivity of the Yankee catchers to other American League teams' catchers.

I did not realize there was such a huge league split in catcher offense this year. Here are the numbers going into Thursday’s games:

• American League catchers: .198/.277/.355 (81 wRC+)
• National League catchers: .241/.323/.407 (102 wRC+)

Geez. Carson Kelly and Will Smith have been awesome, Buster Posey is having a resurgent season, J.T. Realmuto is J.T. Realmuto, and Omar Narvaez has bounced back. NL catchers have been great. The best hitting AL catcher to date has been … Kyle Higashioka? Kyle Higashioka. The AL catcher leaderboard going into yesterday (min. 50 plate appearances):

1. Kyle Higashioka, Yankees: 147 wRC+ in 55 PA
2. Francisco Mejia, Rays: 130 wRC+ in 67 PA
3. Salvador Perez, Royals: 124 wRC+ in 145 PA
4. Yasmani Grandal, White Sox: 122 wRC+ in 100 PA
5. Mike Zunino, Rays: 121 wRC+ in 81 PA

Let’s take a moment to appreciate Grandal’s .130/.384/.333 batting line. Nine hits (!) and 29 walks will do that. Anyway, Gary Sanchez is hitting .197/.351/.382, which certainly isn’t great, yet it’s a 114 wRC+. That’s relative to all hitters too. Compared to other AL catchers, Sanchez has been way better than average. Here’s where Yankees catchers rank in AL:

• AVG: .200 (8th in AL)
• OBP: .338 (2nd)
• SLG: .467 (3rd)
• wRC+: 128 (1st)
• HR: 9 (1st, only eight AL catchers have hit 4+ homers and two are Yankees)
• WAR: +1.3 (2nd, includes framing)

Man. I can’t bring myself to say Yankees catchers have been good this year -- Higashioka has gotten exposed since his playing time increased (.148/.233/.407 since Aaron Boone anointed him the starter) -- yet AL catchers have been so bad overall that the Yankees have arguably the best catching tandem in the league. Pretty crazy.

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