March 23rd, 2021: Wilson, Roster Check-In, Tauchman, Hicks, Stanton

At this time next week Spring Training will be over and the Yankees will be back in New York awaiting Opening Day. Did you know the Yankees are 13-7-1 this spring? Pretty good. I wish it meant something. Anyway, here’s the television broadcast schedule for the final few Grapefruit League games, and here are today’s thoughts.

1. Wilson injured. Another important Yankee bites the dust. Justin Wilson exited Monday night’s game with shoulder tightness, and he will be evaluated today. He threw a pitch, called for the trainer, and left the game. Here’s the video. Wilson’s fastball velocity tells you everything you need to know:

• March 10th: 92.8 mph average and 93.4 mph max
• March 13th: 94.5 mph and 95.3 mph
• March 19th: 94.3 mph and 95.9 mph
• March 22nd: 91.7 mph and 92.1 mph

Yikes! Shoulder trouble typically shows up in velocity and elbow trouble in command. Wilson reported to Spring Training a few days late because he was stuck at home in Texas during the bad weather/power outage, so maybe he ramped up too quickly once he got to Tampa? Dunno, just speculating. Sometimes injuries happen for no good reason.

"The way he described it, (he) was just having a hard time getting loose out there," Aaron Boone told Greg Joyce. "We’ll see what we have in the morning ... I think there’s a chance it might not be that big a deal."

Opening Day is only nine days away, so even if today’s evaluation brings good news, it’s hard to think Wilson will be ready for the start of the season. Pitchers usually don’t shake off a shoulder issue and pick up right where they left off, especially not this time of year. Gotta figure Wilson will join Zack Britton on the injured list to begin the season. Sigh.

Wilson’s injury all but locks spring sensation Lucas Luetge into an Opening Day bullpen spot. He’s had a great spring and the only lefty in the bullpen is closer Aroldis Chapman, and he’s not going to match up in the middle innings. Luetge can do that. That still leaves two open bullpen spots alongside Chapman, Luetge, Luis Cessa, Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Darren O’Day. The pitching depth is already being tested.

There’s not much to say about Wilson’s injury at this point because we don’t know the severity. It stinks no matter what. He’s a good reliever who was already going to take on increased responsibility because of the Britton injury, and now the Yankees will have a patchwork middle innings crew. It’s too early in the year for this. It really is. Green and O’Day are going to have to eat up a lot of high-leverage innings in front of Chapman the next few weeks.

2. Latest cuts and an updated roster check-in. The Albert Abreu fourth minor league option mystery has been solved. He does indeed have a fourth option, and we know that because the Yankees optioned him to Triple-A Scranton* over the weekend. That’s good news. The Yankees get another year to develop and evaluate the talented yet enigmatic right-hander.

* Sending Abreu to the alternate site rather than holding him back in Double-A/Single-A camp makes sense. He’s on the 40-man roster and only players at the alternate site can be called up, so might as well make sure Abreu’s available to the Yankees as an extra arm that first month.

Thairo Estrada, Mike Ford, and Brooks Kriske were also optioned to Triple-A over the weekend. Estrada’s demotion all but confirms Tyler Wade will be on the bench (unless the Yankees are comfortable using Gio Urshela as the backup shortstop), which shouldn't surprise anyone. Ford never had much of a chance to make the 26-man roster, and Kriske is a bullpen shuttle guy.

With those moves the Yankees are down to 47 players in big league camp, seven of whom are injured: Miguel Andujar (wrist), Zack Britton (elbow), Robinson Chirinos (wrist), Clarke Schmidt (elbow), Luis Severino (elbow), Justin Wilson (shoulder), and Asher Wojciechowski (lat, suffered over the weekend). Here are the players still in camp:

Wilson’s injury means there are five roster spots open rather than four, and the races are clearer now than they were 11 days ago, the last time we checked in on the roster. Since then Andujar got hurt, Wojciechowski got hurt, Wilson got hurt, and several players were sent to minor league camp. Let’s update the roster spot competitions.

BN4: Andujar’s hurt, Estrada’s out, Ford’s out, and I’m comfortable saying Velazquez is out as well, though he’s had a superficially good spring (5-for-14). Non-roster guys like Allen, Brantly, Brito, and LaMarre are still in big league camp, so they are technically bench candidates, but nah. This is a three-man race between Bruce, Dietrich, and Tauchman. The numbers:

• Bruce: 6-for-29 (.207) with two homers
• Dietrich: 4-for-23 (.174) with one homer
• Tauchman: 5-for-24 (.208) with two homers

Bruce started the spring 4-for-6 and is 2-for-23 since. If he started 2-for-23 and had gone 4-for-6 since, would we look at this bench competition differently? Probably. First impressions matter. I don’t think he’d be a serious bench candidate in that case, but what do I know. Either way, basing roster decisions on Spring Training results is pretty dumb, yet it happens all the time.

“It all matters,” Aaron Boone told Brendan Kuty over the weekend. “It’s not as much, ‘this guy got two hits, this guy pitched a scoreless,’ but sometimes those results are indicative of what you are doing and where you are physically and things like that. I would say it all matters.”

When the Yankees signed Bruce, I thought it was pretty clearly a “we’re signing him in case we don’t re-sign Brett Gardner” move. If the Yankees truly believe Bruce can help them, then it makes sense to put him on the Opening Day roster. Find out if he can help as soon as possible rather than stashing him at the alternate site and hoping he can help later.

Carrying Bruce likely means losing Tauchman, though that’s not something the Yankees have to worry about just yet. Bruce can opt out Thursday* if he’s not on the 40-man roster. The Yankees can put Britton (or Andujar** or Wilson?) on the 60-day injured list to make room for him, allowing them to keep Bruce and Tauchman for a few days, just in case an outfielder gets hurt over the weekend or something.

* The way these things work is once Bruce triggers the opt out, the Yankees get 48 hours to respond, either by putting him on the 40-man roster or releasing him. Saturday is the real date of the opt out. Thursday is just Step 1 of the process.

** Earlier this week Boone told Erik Boland he doesn’t “expect to see (Andujar) in a game anytime soon,” which is a bummer. At least Miggy will get to open the year on the injured list (and thus collect MLB play and service time) rather than at the alternate site.

Barring injury, I have a hard time seeing Dietrich on the Opening Day roster, even with Urshela dabbling at shortstop. Dietrich can opt out Thursday and my hunch is another team will be willing to put him on their Opening Day roster. I think he’s a goner come the end of the week. The bet here is the Yankees go offense over defense for the last bench spot. Prediction: Bruce.

“I am the wrong person to ask when it comes to whether or not it’s going to be a difficult decision,” Bruce told Greg Joyce about his looming opt out. “I don’t really have control over that. I know that I came to Spring Training physically ready to go. I feel like I’ve shown that I’m capable of handling multiple positions. My swing feels good. So we’ll see (Thursday). I don’t know. I’m eager to find out. My goal is to continue to get ready for the season and I hope to help the club.”

SP5: At this point, I think we can bump King out of the No. 5 starter’s race. Garcia and German have been making regular Grapefruit League starts while King has made more relief appearances than starts (though he has gotten stretched out to four innings). Usage indicates Garcia and German are the contenders for this job. King (and Chacin) are backup plans.

Deivi put up zeroes in his start over the weekend but his control was shaky -- Garcia walked the bases loaded in the first inning and all three walks came after he was ahead in the count 0-2 or 1-2 -- and that’s the closest he’s come to pitching his way out of the competition. German has yet to hit a bump in the road. The numbers (vs. similar competition):

• Garcia: 4 GS, 11 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 6 BB, 12 K
• German: 3 GS, 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 13 K (plus one simulated game)

I’ve been saying it all spring: I think the Yankees want German to win the No. 5 starter’s spot, allowing them to send Garcia to the alternate site to better control his innings. I doubt they’d admit it, but I also think they want German to make them look smart for sticking with him through the domestic violence suspension. Bottom line, Domingo’s done nothing to pitch himself out of the Opening Day rotation. Prediction: German.

“I’m really excited where both guys are. Tremendous confidence giving either one of them the ball in any situation,” Boone told Pete Caldera last week. “As we sit here in the middle of March, we’re in a pretty good place. The bottom line is, we’re going to lean on all of them.”

RP6, RP7 & RP8: The Yankees have 12 pitchers in camp who are theoretically in the mix for the bullpen, and prior to Wilson’s injury, I thought King, Luetge, and Nelson were the only real candidates for an Opening Day roster spot. I don’t think the loser of the No. 5 starter’s race will open the year in the bullpen, and none of the other non-roster guys distinguished themselves.

The Wilson injury changes things. It opens the door for someone like Lyons (5.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K this spring), who’s a big spin rate guy and has spent time with the Yankees the last two years. Goody’s had an okay spring (5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K), so maybe he’s in the mix? I don’t like that we’re talking about Lyons and Goody as possible bullpen candidates on March 23rd.

Luetge had his first bad outing Sunday (two homers), though he’s still missing bats (he’s at 53.5% strikeouts and 47.7% whiffs-per-swing), and the Britton and Wilson injuries create a need for a middle innings lefty. I think Wilson’s injury makes Luetge a lock, and he’s in the same boat as Bruce. If you believe he can help you, then put him on the Opening Day roster and find out. Don’t kick the can down the road.

Unlike Bruce (and Dietrich), Luetge is not a six-year service time guy, so he doesn’t have an opt out Thursday. If he makes the team, the Yankees won’t have to put him on the 40-man roster until the morning of Opening Day, so they could put whoever on the 60-day injured list for Bruce, then make a move with Tauchman to open a 40-man spot for Luetge next Thursday.

Nelson got married on last Thursday’s off-day and has pitched well in camp (6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K). King gave up three runs in two innings in the Grapefruit League opener and has allowed two runs in 11 innings since, and he’s more stretched out. Prior to Wilson’s injury, I thought King would get the final spot over Nelson only because he’s in better position to eat innings early in the season. Now there’s room for both.

Minor league contract opt-out clauses will come into play soon and I’d expect the Yankees to scour the market in case someone decent becomes available. The bar that has to be cleared is “better than at least two of King, Luetge, Lyons, or Nelson” and folks, that ain’t high. Shane Greene and David Robertson are still unsigned. Maybe trade for Adam Ottavino? I hear you won’t have to give anything up and will even get a prospect in the deal. Prediction: King, Luetge, and Nelson (for now).

“There are going to be a lot of innings (available) this year because we have no idea if all of our starters are going to be able to go 200 innings,” King told Bryan Hoch over the weekend. “I want to make an impact on the team and my goal is 100 (innings), so I don’t care if they’re starts, piggybacks, long relief, whatever it is. I think that if I contribute 100 solid innings to this team, it would be very beneficial for this season.”

3. Tauchman trade possibilities. Mike Tauchman’s days with the Yankees may be numbered. Jay Bruce has done enough that making the Opening Day roster isn’t completely insane, and there’s not enough room on the bench for both guys. Not unless someone gets hurt. Brett Gardner makes Tauchman redundant, and there are better ways to use that roster spot.

Tauchman is out of minor league options, so the Yankees can’t stash him in Triple-A or at the alternate site. Should they go with Bruce, they’ll shop Tauchman around -- for what it’s worth, Brian Cashman told Bryan Hoch he gets “a lot of calls” about Tauchman over the winter -- and hope another team likes him enough to give up something decent in a trade*.

* The Yankees have already leaked a “we could send Tyler Wade down and carry both Bruce and Tauchman on the bench” scenario (via Andy Martino), which is a transparent attempt to create leverage. I know Gio Urshela played five innings at shortstop last week, but there is no scenario in which carrying three lefty hitting outfielders on a four-man bench isn’t dumb. You need a backup infielder.

“I’m just trying to get ready for the season,” Tauchman told Hoch last week when asked about battling for a roster spot. “I think that a really good way to make myself crazy is to worry about that. There’s certain things I’m trying to get done in Spring Training -- going first-to-third, going gap-to-gap for balls, being aggressive with leadoffs, trying to see a lot of pitches -- stuff like that is infinitely (more) important than worrying about some competition.”

For the record, I would carry Tauchman on the bench. Bruce hasn’t been good the last few years and 30-something Grapefruit League plate appearances aren’t changing my mind. Guys like Bruce always seem to be available (Bruce himself has changed teams six times in the last six years). I'm not even a big Tauchman guy, but I know he’ll at least contribute at the field and on the bases, and won't eat up a big chunk of the little payroll space the Yankees have left themselves. I'm not sure Bruce will contribute at all. I'd prioritize the third string center fielder over the third string first baseman. (Also, would it really be that big of a surprise if Tauchman out-hit Bruce in 2021?)

Anyway, Bruce can opt out of his contract Thursday, so unless the two sides agree to push the opt out back a few days (it happens every now and then), we’re going to know pretty soon whether Tauchman has a place on the Opening Day roster. With that in mind, let’s quickly break down his market and how things could play out the next few days.

What’s his trade value?

You have to forget about Tauchman being a competent fourth outfielder with four years of team control. The normal rules of trade value don’t apply because he is out of minor league options and he doesn’t have a spot on the roster, so the Yankees have little leverage. It’s not about what’s fair. It’s about the other team being able to squeeze you, and believe me, they will.

There were no Spring Training trades involving out of options players last year because of the pandemic. In 2019, Tyler Austin and Blake Swihart were traded for team top 20-30 prospects (Malique Ziegler and Marcus Wilson, respectively) soon after Opening Day. In 2018, Deven Marrero was traded for a non-top 30 team prospect (Josh Taylor) at the end of camp. Austin, Marrero, and Swihart were all out of options and didn’t have a spot on the roster.

The Yankees themselves traded for an out of options player a few Spring Trainings ago. They sent the Giants righty George Kontos, then a fringe top 30 team prospect, for Chris Stewart at the end of camp in 2012. Based on all that, Tauchman’s trade value seems to be a prospect at the bottom of a team’s top 30 prospects list. That’s what out of options guys usually fetch.

Two years ago the Yankees traded lefty Phil Diehl, himself a fringe top 30 team prospect, to the Rockies for Tauchman. Netting a similar prospect now would be a win. They’d have turned Diehl into two years of Tauchman plus a Diehl-level prospect. An exciting series of trades? No, not at all, but Tauchman addressed a need at the time, and the cost was minimal.

Possible trade partners

The Astros immediately jump to mind. They have Michael Brantley and Kyle Tucker in the outfield corners and they’re great. They’re going to give Myles Straw a look in center (I’m a fan), and right now their fourth outfielder is Chaz McCormick, who has no MLB time and Baseball America (subs. req’d) says “some scouts see as a reserve outfielder.” Eh.

Houston is bumping up against the $210M luxury tax threshold and Tauchman represents a minimum-ish salary fourth outfielder with more experience than McCormick. Are you really going to do any better than Tauchman as outfield depth when you have little money to spend and free agency has been picked clean? I don’t think so. The Astros are a fit.

Other possible trade partners include Cleveland (they always need outfield help), the Athletics (their projected fourth outfielder is Rule 5 Draft pick Ka’ai Tom), the Reds (Shogo Akiyama has a hamstring injury), the White Sox (Adam Engel has a hamstring injury), the Cardinals (fourth outfielder Justin Williams has a fourth minor league option), and basically every rebuilding team.

Injuries could create a need somewhere around the league between now and Opening Day and yeah, the Yankees could be that team. Someone could tweak a calf or take a pitch to the hand in the coming days, and suddenly there’s room for Bruce and Tauchman on the roster. Unless the offer is too good to be true, the Yankees will want to hang onto Tauchman as long as possible before making a trade.

What about waivers?

I wouldn’t call it likely, but the Yankees could simply put Tauchman on waivers and take their chances. If he clears, they’d get to keep him in the organization as a non-40-man roster player, and that would be swell. Brian Goodwin is a pretty good comparison for Tauchman …

• Tauchman career: .241/.343/.415 (100 wRC+) and +1.6 fWAR in 476 PA
• Goodwin through 2018: .250/.315/.454 (99 wRC+) and +1.0 fWAR in 502 PA

… and Goodwin was claimed on waivers at the end of Spring Training 2019. The Royals had no room for him on the roster, tried to trade him, then put him on waivers when they were unable to put together a deal. The Angels claimed him and that was that. Something similar could happen with Tauchman. There may not be much trade interest in him at all.

Timing is important. The Yankees slipped the out of options Austin Romine through waivers at the end of Spring Training 2015 because they didn’t put him on waivers until after Opening Day. They designated him for assignment during Spring Training, waited a few days, then put him on waivers. Teams are (a little) less likely to make a claim after setting their Opening Day roster.

This would be the move: designate Tauchman for assignment shortly before Opening Day, wait until the season begins, then put him on waivers and hope no team claims him because they’re all still feeling good about the roster they took out of Spring Training. It worked with Romine. It can maybe work with Tauchman too.

The guess here is the Yankees trade Tauchman for a middling prospect, likely someone in the low minors who’s yet to break out (think Luis Gil in the Jake Cave trade) and is years away from Rule 5 Draft eligibility. I think there will be enough of a market that the Yankees can trade Tauchman, and putting him on waivers is not something they’ll have to do.

4. Hicks intends to bunt more. As a pull hitter from the left side, Aaron Hicks is susceptible to the infield shift, and that was exacerbated last season, when he struggled to elevate the ball in his first year post-Tommy John surgery. His batting average on balls in play as a lefty dropped from .282 in 2018, his last season with a healthy elbow, to .258 in 2020.

In an effort to avoid the shift, Hicks says he is planning to bunt more often this season. He laid down a gorgeous bunt last week (video link) and has reportedly attempted a few others in non-televised Grapefruit League games, though I’m unsure how those turned out. Statcast tells me Hicks has attempted 34 bunts as a lefty hitter in his five years as a Yankee:

• 18 foul balls
• 9 non-sacrifice outs on balls in play
• 4 sacrifices
• 3 hits

Hicks wasn’t trying to bunt for a hit every single time, but those are the results his bunt attempts produced. 34 bunts attempts in 1,212 plate appearances as a lefty equals one bunt attempt every 36 plate appearances. One every 10 days or so, so even if Hicks were to double his bunt attempt rate as he tries to beat the shift, we’re still talking about relatively few attempts.

“I feel like it’s there for me. I have plenty of speed to get to first and get hits that way. I feel like it just kind of sets up the rest of my day, to even start the day off with a bunt. No one’s on, big huge shift and nobody’s on third base, and kind of take advantage of it, because it’s there for me,” Hicks told Greg Joyce over the weekend. “I’ve kind of been overlooking it. I’ve hit (into) the shift way too much to kind of earn respect for it. So I think adding the bunt to my game is definitely going to create some problems.”

I’m totally cool with bunting against the shift. It’s not as easy as the shift haters seem to think (“It’s a free hit!”) and no, bunting for a hit isn’t going to stop the other team from shifting. When Giancarlo Stanton hits a slider off the scoreboard, they don’t stop throwing him sliders. They’re still the best way to get him out, and the shift is still the best way to convert batted balls into outs when Hicks hits lefty. It will take a lot of shift-beating bunts to change the scouting report.

“I think it’s one of those things that, if you demonstrate you can do it even once, it’s something that gets on the board with an opposing team and their scouting report,” Aaron Boone told Joyce. “It all of a sudden makes you have to make a real-time decision about how you’re going to defend, if you’re going to sell out and still move the third baseman. I do think there’s certainly a place for it, especially when you can do it. It’s something we’ve encouraged Aaron to do, and it’s obviously something he’s capable of doing. Even if you do it a couple times and you’re successful, it goes a long way in changing how they play you and eventually opening up more of the field.”

I’m cool with bunting against the shift as long as Hicks (and everyone else) is smart about it. I love Curtis Granderson, he’s one of my favorite Yankees of the last 15 years, but it drove me nuts when he’d square around to bunt against the shift with two outs and the bases empty. You’re a 40-homer guy, dude. Swing the bat in that situation.

Hicks is not a 40-homer guy but he is really good at getting on base. When he’s facing a reliever with a 10% walk rate in the late innings, is Hicks more likely to reach base by bunting, or by taking a normal plate appearance? Seeing how he converted only three of 16 balls bunted into play into hits as a lefty from 2016-20, I’d say the former. Be smart about when you’re bunting against the shift. Don’t just mindlessly do it because the left side of the infield is open.

“I feel like by adding a bunt, being able to use the middle of the field a little bit more, (it) will definitely take away that huge shift on the right side and ultimately give me more chances to get more hits,” Hicks told Joyce.

5. Remembering a random Yankee: Joel Skinner. By request, this week’s random Yankee is a player who once earned the “catcher of the future” label from George Steinbrenner. Here's the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

Skinner grew up in San Diego and the Pirates made him a 37th round pick out of high school in 1979. He hit .266/.313/.411 with 11 homers in 117 Single-A games in 1980. A catcher with a good defensive reputation hitting like that will get noticed, and the White Sox selected Skinner with the first pick in the old free agent compensation draft in 1981 (here’s how that worked).

“I'm not worried about my catching. I think I could catch in the big leagues right now,” Skinner told UPI in Spring Training 1982. “But I need to get better with my bat. I struck out 99 times last year (21.2 K%). That's too many.”

Skinner spent 1982 in Double-A, then was an up-and-down third catcher behind Carlton Fisk and backup longtime Marc Hill from 1983-85. He hit .259/.318/.341 in 140 MLB plate appearances and .256/.321/.419 in 994 Triple-A plate appearances those three years. The White Sox had the brilliant idea to put Fisk, then 38, in left field in 1986, opening up the catcher spot for Skinner.

"They say it's to help prolong my career. What do they mean? Eight years ago, okay, but now? I'm 38 years old. I'm an All-Star catcher. Why do something like that now?” Fisk told Leigh Montville in Spring Training 1986. “Suppose this experiment doesn't work? What happens then? Suppose it's the middle of June? Am I supposed to become a catcher in the middle of June? It would be like starting Spring Training all over again. You do different things to prepare for a season as a catcher."

The experiment didn’t work. Fisk hit .200/.255/.305 and struggled defensively in the first 25 games of the season, and Skinner put up a .163/.222/.204 line in his first stint as a big league starter. Chicago moved Fisk back behind the plate in mid May and Skinner became the backup, starting 29 of the next 72 games after starting 19 of the first 25 games.

The ChiSox were well out of the race that year while the Yankees were hanging around the AL East, and getting little from veteran catcher Butch Wynegar. Right before the trade deadline, the two teams hooked up for a six-player trade. The details:

• Yankees get: OF Ron Kittle, C Joel Skinner, IF Wayne Tolleson
• White Sox get: C Ron Hassey, minor league IF Carlos Martinez, and a player to be named later (minor leaguer C Bill Lindsey)

'”Finally, we have some complementary parts,” then-manager Lou Piniella told Craig Wolff. “We needed a righty with power. We got it (Kittle). We needed a shortstop. We got it (Tolleson). But there will be some more roster moves. All I have to do is let the players know.”

''I don’t think (the trade) is going to help them that much,'' George Steinbrenner told Jerome Holtzman. Hassey hit .285/.372/.420 in a year and a half with Chicago before moving on to the Athletics as a free agent. Martinez hit .258/.292/.356 in parts of three years with the White Sox and Lindsey played only nine big league games, all with the 1987 White Sox.

The Yankees immediately installed Skinner as their starting catcher after the trade (he started 52 of their final 60 games) and he finished well, hitting .306/.339/.331 in his final 39 games. He hit for no power (literally zero homers), but the batting average was good and pitchers enjoyed having Skinner behind the plate. All things considered, it was a good first impression.

“(George Steinbrenner) said Skinner is their catcher of the future,” Jack Sands, the agent for longtime Red Sox catcher and then-free agent Rich Gedman, told Murray Chass in Jan. 1987. The Yankees passed on Gedman and eventually brought Rick Cerone back to serve as Skinner’s backup. They were committed to the young catcher.

"I didn't replace Carlton Fisk. I played after him. I had good moments in Chicago, but I didn't play every day,” Skinner told Craig Barnes in Spring Training 1987. “With the Yankees, I feel it's a bonus to the team each time I can drive in a run. I have a chance to take some pressure off the rest of the lineup because the offensive expectations on me aren't as great.”

Skinner started 24 of the team’s first 29 games in 1987 and folks, it did not go well. He hit .139/.173/.222 in those 24 games -- Skinner’s high point as a Yankee was his go-ahead grand slam off Cleveland lefty and Hall of Famer Steve Carlton on April 14th -- and Cerone started to get more playing time. On June 11th, the Yankees sent Skinner to Triple-A.

“I had 100 at-bats and played (defense) well but didn't get any hits. When you do that, you can't expect to keep playing,” Skinner told Michael Martinez after the demotion. He owned a .137/.205/.265 batting line at the time.

Skinner didn’t wow in Triple-A (.242/.283/.421 in 49 games) before rejoining the Yankees in August. He started 12 of the final 47 games and went 5-for-37 (.135), and finished with a .137/.187/.210 line in 154 plate appearances. The Yankees were 63-40 and in first place on the day of the trade deadline that year, then went 26-33 the rest of the way to fall out of the race.

The catcher of the future was no longer the catcher of the present. Following Skinner’s anemic season, the Yankees traded for Don Slaught in Nov. 1987, and they had a three-headed catcher competition in Spring Training 1988. Slaught was always going to make the team, so Skinner and Cerone were competing for the backup job.

“I wouldn't say we have a regular catcher,'' then-manager Billy Martin told Martinez. ''All three are going to get work. It depends on who hits and who does well behind the plate. But I'm looking more for someone who can call a game and throw people out than use the bat.''

Skinner won the job -- Cerone was released at the end of Spring Training and signed with the Red Sox (Gedman fell off a cliff following his free agent year) -- and he wound up starting 72 games behind the plate, though he still didn’t hit. At age 27, Skinner put up a .227/.267/.335 batting line in 225 plate appearances. The Yankees went 85-76 and missed the postseason.

Bob Geren debuted late in 1988 and showed enough at Triple-A that the Yankees were ready to give him the backup catcher’s job behind Slaught. Dave Winfield suffered a back injury in Spring Training 1989 that required surgery and would sideline him all season, so the Yankees made a trade for Mel Hall. Skinner and minor leaguer Turner Ward went to Cleveland in the deal.

"I figured they were talking about a deal (after Winfield got hurt). I told Dave LaPoint that I hoped I wasn't part of it,” Skinner told Barnes following the trade. “I knew they weren't as optimistic about Winfield's situation as they were two weeks ago. With him injured, they were in a bind. It was something they had to do. The times in New York have been enjoyable. I'm a little shocked, but I have to get over it. It's part of the game.”

In parts of three seasons with the Yankees, Skinner authored a .214/.253/.299 batting line with eight homers in 600 plate appearances. He also posted a 36% caught stealing rate, which was better than the 31% league average at the time. Good defense aside, Skinner is one of the worst hitters in Yankees history among players with at least 600 plate appearances (non-pitchers only):

1. Walter Blair, 1907-11: 50 OPS+
2. Joel Skinner, 1986-88: 51 OPS+
3. Enrique Wilson, 2001-04: 56 OPS+
4. Wayne Tolleson, 1986-90: 56 OPS+
5. Everett Scott, 1922-25: 57 OPS+

Two of the four worst hitters in franchise history were acquired in the same trade. Alrighty then. At least Skinner and Tolleson played strong defense at premium positions. Anyway, Skinner spent 1989-91 with Cleveland, mostly backing up Sandy Alomar, during which he hit .241/.279/.311 in 227 games. Shoulder problems hampered him from 1992-94 and eventually ended his career. He retired as a .228/.269/.311 (60 OPS+) career hitter in 1,551 MLB plate appearances spread across 1983-91.

Skinner jumped into minor league coaching with Cleveland as a 34-year-old in 1995, and he gradually worked his way up the ladder until being named their Major League third base coach in 2000. He had a 76-game stint as interim manager after Charlie Manuel was let go in July 2002. Skinner stayed with Cleveland until 2009, then spent 2010 as Athletics bench coach (under Geren), and 2011-19 as a Triple-A manager with the White Sox and Twins.

“I joke with the players, ‘That was the year I pitched,’” Skinner told Sal Maiorana in April 2018 about his 1987 season with the Yankees (Skinner never did actually pitch in his career). “I could catch. That’s the one thing I could do. I could control the ball in the dirt, I had a feeling for the pitching staff, the catch and throw, all that, but I didn’t hit. In '87, I pretty much forgot how to hit.”

6. Rapid fire thoughts. Turns out Giancarlo Stanton won’t play the outfield at all this spring. I thought he’d at least get one game out there. Stanton said he and Aaron Boone talked it over, and determined there’s no point in playing the outfield now, then not doing it for a few weeks. “As the discussions went on, me and Boonie talked. I’ll be needed (in the outfield) later in the first month or two. So now isn’t as important as to just be ready to go a few weeks in,” Stanton told Bryan Hoch. The Yankees only have two games in National League parks in the first half and they’ll never play more than three straight games in a National League park this year, so it’s not like they’re going to run into a week where they don’t have the DH and have to figure out what to do with Stanton … Righty Trevor Stephan has been told he’s made Cleveland’s Opening Day roster, according to Mandy Bell. They selected him from the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft. Stephan’s had a good spring (7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 10 K) and he has the velocity and spin rates teams want. Cleveland develops pitching as well as any organization and the middle of their bullpen is unsettled, so it’s no surprise he made the team. There’s been no official word yet, but Garrett Whitlock is a safe bet to make the Red Sox, and it looks like Kyle Holder will be returned to the Yankees (the Phillies selected him, then traded him to the Reds after re-signing Didi Gregorius). Whitlock and Holder were the two other Rule 5 Draft losses … Last week Jim Bowden (subs. req’d) put together a “trades I’d like to see” post and here’s what he had for the Yankees:

Yankees acquire: SS Trevor Story, RHP German Marquez, RHP Daniel Bard
Rockies acquire: RHP Deivi Garcia, RHP Jonathan Loaisiga, 3B Gio Urshela, INF Miguel Andujar

To be clear, this is not a trade that is being discussed. It’s just a trade Bowden thinks makes sense (his trade proposal sucks, you could say). Anyway, the Yankees do that in a heartbeat, right? Marquez is really freakin’ good and Story is a star. A star one year away from free agency, but a star nonetheless. Story is an upgrade over Urshela (Story plays short, Gleyber Torres goes to second, and DJ LeMahieu goes to third) and we should all be happy if Garcia turns into Marquez one day. Andujar and Loaisiga are easy pieces to surrender at this point. The Yankees upgrade their infield and rotation while giving up nothing they’d miss (because the two main guys they’d give up are being replaced by better players), and they’d also get Bard, as a treat. Again, this is just Bowden rosterbating, but sign me up for that.

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