February 19th, 2021: Kluber, German, Roster Construction, Sanchez, Gardner, Severino, Mailbag

Good news, folks: Grapefruit League games will be televised. The YES Network site says the exhibition opener on Feb. 28th will be televised, and the official site lists 16 broadcasts for March, including eight road games. I guess they’ll piggyback on the home team broadcast with YES announcers calling the game remotely? Either way, hooray for watchable baseball. It’s only nine days away. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Boone’s press conference. Aaron Boone held his annual start-of-spring press conference Wednesday and you’re not going to believe this, but he feels really good about his team. Crazy, I know. You never hear that this time of year.

"I believe (we're) on the short list of teams really capable of winning a championship,” Boone said. “... In fact, I'm as excited as I've been with some of the moves we've made to put ourselves on really good footing as we enter this season.''

More importantly, Boone said there were no issues with COVID-19 intake testing, and everyone who is supposed to be in camp is in camp (no visa issues, etc.). Pitchers and catchers have started workouts and position players report Monday. Here’s video of Boone’s press conference and here are a few thoughts, in no particular order.

Kluber already facing hitters

Boone said Corey Kluber is already facing hitters -- he’s been throwing simulated innings at Eric Cressey’s facility, where he works out in the offseason -- which puts him well ahead of the usual Spring Training schedule. Typically it’s a week of bullpens, a week of live batting practice and simulated games, then Spring Training games. Kluber’s ahead of the curve.

"Corey threw a few innings the other day to live hitters. (Jameson Taillon) has had a number of bullpens, so they came in ready to go,” Boone said. “Obviously, not having pitched a lot in the last couple of years, it's going to be something we're going to not only monitor here closely in Spring Training and as the season unfolds. Hopefully they're contributing and pitching well and thriving, but we certainly have to be mindful. And that's where the depth of our pitching staff is going to play a crucial role in hopefully allowing guys to stay healthy by protecting one another."

Kluber’s and Taillon’s health is The Big Story this spring and so far, so good. It is also Feb. 19th and neither has pitched in a real game, nor entered the grind of starting every five (or six) days. The fact Kluber is already facing hitters is encouraging though. It means he’s over the shoulder muscle tear and starting to really let it rip, and isn’t still in rehab mode. Good news.

Yankees met with German

Throughout the offseason the Yankees, including Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, said they planned to sit down and speak with Domingo German following his suspension under the league’s domestic violence policy. Boone confirmed that meeting has happened, and everyone is ready to move forward and focus on baseball. This is my shocked face :-|

“Cash and I have spoken with Domingo, and (bench coach) Carlos Mendoza with us as well,” Boone said. “Welcoming him back certainly. We know he’s paid a significant price from a career standpoint, really having missed a full season-plus now. Hopefully that’s behind us. We feel like he’s in a good place coming in, and now it’s on him to go out and kind of resurrect his career and compete for a spot on this team. It’s been a long year coming back. We feel like he’s done what he’s needed to do to get to this point.”

Boone said German hasn’t been promised a role or even a roster spot (duh) and that there are “no plans to have him in a group setting” to address his teammates. Zack Britton was asked how he’ll receive German yesterday and didn’t exactly hold back. From Randy Miller:

“That’s tough question,” Britton said in a Zoom interview. “I don’t think he owes anything to me. I think it’s off the field stuff that he needs to take care of. Sometimes you don’t get to control who your teammates are, and that’s the situation. I don’t agree with what he did. I don’t think it has any place in the game or off the field at all.”

…

“My job is to go out there and pitch and do my job,” Britton said. “So that’s kind of what my concern is right there. But (German) doesn’t owe me anything. I think that’s something that he’s going to have to deal with on his own and make better choices going forward.”

Maybe I’m just jaded by the way teams (including the Yankees) have handled these situations in the past, but I never expected the Yankees to do anything other than welcome German back. He’s cheap and at worst serviceable, and at best pretty darn good. There is nothing teams crave more than cheap production and they’re willing to overlook a lot to get it. C'est la vie.

On roster construction

Will we see an eight-man bullpen and a four-man bench this year, or a nine-man bullpen and a three-man bench? A little of both, Boone said, adding he’d prefer the former. The Yankees will adjust their roster as necessary throughout the season, making this exactly like every other season in the last, I dunno, 10 years or so. Since bullpen shuttles became a thing.

“It’s possible (that we carry 14 pitchers). Ideally you kind of like to be at that 13 and 13 (pitcher/position player split),” Boone said. “However we start on Opening Day, on April 1st, that’s going to always be fluid throughout the course of the year. There’s going to be times where you may have a day or two where you go with 12 pitchers, or you need a spot starter or you need somebody called up for a day or something, so you move to 14 pitchers. That’s something that’s kind of always a fluid situation. I think 13 and 13 is kind of that happy spot.”

Real talk: We spend too much time focusing on the bottom of the roster (spots 25-26 on the 26-man roster and 38-40 on the 40-man roster). Those spots change frequently and we like to discuss roster moves, so sure, let’s talk about them, but the discussion-to-on-field impact ratio is out of whack. They’re rarely set spots and are almost always occupied by low impact players.

Personally, I prefer good players to flexibility, but teams obsess over flexibility these days (roster flexibility, payroll flexibility, whatever), so that 26th roster spot will be a ninth reliever (or sixth starter) some days and a fourth bench player others. It is the way of the world. Here’s what I think will happen early in the season:

• The Yankees will break camp with four starting pitchers, four bench players, and nine relievers.
• They’ll send down the fourth bench player or ninth reliever to add a fifth starter when they first need one (sixth game of the season).
• They’ll then send the fifth starter down after his start and call up a new fourth bench player or ninth reliever.
• They’ll send the fourth bench player or ninth reliever down to call up a fifth starter when they need one again (12th game of the season).
• They’ll then send the fifth starter down and call up a fourth bench player or ninth reliever, because they won’t need a fifth starter again until the 21st game.

The 10-day rule means the Yankees will have to call up different players at different times, so maybe German is the fifth starter the first time around and Deivi Garcia the second, and Mike King breaks camp as the ninth reliever and Nick Nelson takes his spot after the fifth starter makes his start. That plan is workable though, giving the Yankees a fourth bench player and a ninth reliever most days. Best of both worlds.

The x-factor is how the Yankees choose to handle their starters (and the weather, which is out of their control). They may want to use all those April off-days (four in the first 19 days of the season) to give their top four starters extra rest and build them up slowly, especially with Kluber and Taillon coming off major injuries. Even still, I think the Yankees have enough depth to swing the “call up a new fifth starter every five days” plan. We’ll see.

Point is, there won’t be a set eight-man bullpen and four-man bench, or nine-man bullpen and three-man bench. We’re going to see both throughout the season. Early on, I bet they carry an extra pitcher over an extra bench player. The Yankees have brought their pitchers along slowly in recent years in general, and now they’re coming off a weird year and/or injuries, so I imagine they'll be even more cautious.

Sanchez will catch Cole

This should not be A Thing but it quickly became A Thing. Boone said he is not planning to stick with Kyle Higashioka as Gerrit Cole’s personal catcher. Gary Sanchez will get a chance to catch the staff ace again.

“We’ll come in with the idea that, whether it’s Gary or Kyle, they’ll both work with really all of our pitchers here in spring,” Boone said. “Whether it’s in bullpens, and then into the spring games, I’m always willing to do whatever I feel like it’s necessary moving forward. But no, I don’t have that plan of pairing Cole and Higashioka.”

First and foremost, words are pretty meaningless, and we’ll see who’s behind the plate when games that count begin. Secondly, it’s Spring Training! Sanchez absolutely should catch Cole now because Higashioka may not always be available (injury, illness, etc.), and you don’t want the first time Gary catches Cole this year to be in a game that matters.

Yes, the Yankees have Robinson Chirinos in camp as a non-roster invitee, and he caught Cole with the 2019 Astros. Chirinos isn’t guaranteed to stick around though. He can opt out of his contract at the end of Spring Training, and if there’s an MLB job open somewhere, you have to expect him to take it. Jon Heyman says Chirinos has multiple opt outs during the season too.

I am a personal catcher agnostic. I think Cole’s dominance is 99% Cole being awesome and 1% the catcher. If Cole is more comfortable with Higashioka behind the plate, then whatever, let him have his catcher. The Yankees have to be prepared for all situations though, and that includes having Cole work with Sanchez. This is the time to do it and in no way should this be controversial.

2. The latest on Gardner. Jon Heyman reports the Yankees remain interested in re-signing Brett Gardner, though it has to be at their price, and Heyman says that is likely around $3M. Randy Miller recently reported the Yankees hadn’t even started negotiations with Gardner, but Jack Curry said the two sides rekindled talks last month, and I’m inclined to believe Jack.

The on-field fit is obvious. The Yankees don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to injury prevention, plus the pandemic can shorten rosters at any moment, and they can do better than Greg Allen, Jay Bruce, Derek Dietrich, or Mike Tauchman as their top backup outfielder. Gardner still hits righties and can play good defense in left and center fields. The Yankees are more likely to regret not re-signing him than re-signing him, I think.

Gardner’s loyalty to the Yankees is admirable and appreciated, but he’s done himself no favors by being so public about his desire to remain with the team the last few years. The Yankees haven’t waited him out this long only to cave and meet his asking price. There are other teams that could use a player like Gardner (Astros, Cardinals, and White Sox jump to mind), though it’s unclear if they’re even interested, so his leverage is limited.

We still don’t know the terms of Justin Wilson’s contract. Andy Martino says it will be around $4M in 2021, and Ken Rosenthal said it will be a creative deal with a $2M to $3M luxury tax hit on MLB Network the other day, so who knows? It could be both, $4M in cash in 2021 with a lower luxury tax hit spread across two years. We know Wilson's contract is a one-year deal with a player option and a club option, similar to Darren O'Day's deal.

Whatever Wilson's contract, the Yankees know what they're doing, and whatever they’re willing to give Gardner will fit neatly under the $210M luxury tax threshold. They’ve worked too hard to get under the threshold to blow it all up re-signing a fourth outfielder. Heyman says Gardner's deal could be in the $3M range, and maybe that's a $3M luxury tax hit across two years with $5M or so in compensation this year. Spreading the luxury tax burden across multiple years is a thing the Yankees are doing now on these smaller free agent contracts. No reason to think Gardner would be different.

Positions players report to Spring Training on Monday and the bet here is Gardner will be among them. I don’t think either side wants to drag this out any longer, and a reunion works for everyone. The Yankees get a quality veteran who plays with an edge -- it can be childish at times, but there’s nothing wrong with beating the crap out of a water cooler now and then -- and Gardner returns to the only team he’s known, and gets a chance to win a championship. A reunion makes too much sense not to happen and I think it will this weekend.

3. Rapid fire thoughts. Luis Severino rehab update: He’s playing catch at 120 feet and will throw off a mound soon, Aaron Boone said yesterday. For comparison’s sake, Noah Syndergaard had his Tommy John surgery one month after Severino, and he’s already throwing bullpens. The Yankees are really taking it slow with Severino, huh? Either that or he suffered a setback somewhere along the way and we don’t know about it. Hmmm. The important thing is Severino is still on track for a return at midseason. Hopefully there are no bumps in the road once he gets back up on a mound … The 2021 minor league schedules are out: Triple-A Scranton, Double-A Somerset, High-A Hudson Valley, and Low-A Tampa. Every Monday is an off-day and teams will play a six-game series the rest of the week to reduce travel. I can see that becoming permanent and eventually migrating to MLB. Maybe not in five years or 10 years or even 20 years, but eventually. Anyway, the Triple-A season will be 142 games and is scheduled to begin April 6th, though that is not set in stone, and the season could be delayed. If it is, MLB will go with the alternate site model in the interim. Double-A and below will play 120-game seasons beginning May 4th. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to following prospects in actual games again. I missed it dearly last season … I wonder what kind of odds I could’ve gotten on the Padres becoming the first team in history to hand out two $300M contracts? Fernando Tatis Jr. joined Manny Machado in the $300M club earlier this week -- the Yankees have two $300M players in Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton, but Stanton signed his deal with the Marlins -- and I think it’s a great deal for everyone. The Padres signed their franchise player to what is essentially a lifetime contract, Tatis gets a massive payday, and Padres fans now know they’ll be able to watch the extremely good and fun Tatis play for their favorite team the next 14 years. That is much more preferable to what happened with, say, Cleveland and Francisco Lindor. Tatis probably left some money on the table by not going through arbitration and free agency, but I can’t fault a guy for taking $340M now over the $400M that might have been on the table in a few years. The Padres are the only team in town now that the Chargers are gone, and they have incredible international appeal with Tatis, Yu Darvish, and Ha-Seong Kim. Hell of a thing they’ve built in San Diego … As expected, the Blue Jays will play their home games at their Spring Training park to begin the season because of Canada's quarantine requirements for international travelers. The team made the announcement yesterday. They’ll play at least their first two homestands in Dunedin, which includes a three-game series against the Yankees from April 12th to 14th. The Yankees will be in Tampa for Spring Training, then go to the Bronx for six games to begin the regular season, then go right back to the Tampa area to play six games against the Rays and Blue Jays. Their second road series against the Blue Jays isn’t until mid June and hopefully they’ll be allowed into Canada by then, because playing outdoors in the Florida weather in June sounds miserable.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Nik asks: If Judge had stayed healthy do you think he’d be getting Tatis money?

Nah. When Aaron Judge was Fernando Tatis Jr.’s age, he had about a month’s worth of Low-A experience, and was still three years away from his first full MLB season. Tatis is already a star player at the big league level, and while the 14-year term is jaw-dropping, Tatis will be only 35 when his new extension expires. The age difference is massive.

Tatis signed his extension when he was four years away from free agency. Had Judge signed an extension at the same point in his career, the more appropriate comparison would’ve been Alex Bregman’s six-year, $100M extension. Bregman was two years younger than Judge at the same point in his career, but they were similar All-Star caliber players with lots of MVP votes. Tatis is five years younger than Judge was when he was four years away from free agency.

Judge will turn 31 a few weeks into Year 1 of his free agent contract and George Springer’s deal is a good benchmark. Springer turned 31 in September and again, they’re both All-Star caliber players who received consistent MVP support. Springer has had some injury issues -- he played 453 of 546 possible games from 2017-20, or 83% -- though not as severe as Judge’s.

If he stays on the field the next two years (a big if at this point) and has two typical Aaron Judge seasons (top 10-15 player in the sport), then he’ll be in good position to demand a six-year deal in the $150m range like Springer. Even if he’d stayed perfectly healthy the past three years, I don’t think Judge was ever going to be in position to get $300M+ like Tatis or Mookie Betts. His age worked against him.

Dan asks (short version): How would you grade this off-season? Getting rid of Otto to the Red Sox is awful, losing Tommy and Dellin last year, really leaves this “new” bullpen not in the circle of trust. I feel like Cash has done just enough to compete and didn’t go for it. Maybe a B-/B grade? You could even argue a C+ with the lack of firm reliability in the rotation, too many “ifs”. Thoughts?

This question was sent in right before the Justin Wilson signing, though I’m not sure it changes much, to be honest. I’m going with a C. I’m a tough grader and it takes a lot to get an A out of me. You have to do something(s) that substantially improves your outlook and separates you from the rest of the pack to get an A. Adding Francisco Lindor (and Carlos Carrasco) might’ve done it.

I’m not willing to go to a B either because the Yankees doubled down on injury risk with Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon despite their terrible track record with injury prevention. I needed to see more reliability to give them a B. Had the Yankees brought in those two and retained Masahiro Tanaka, then yeah, I’d be more comfortable with a B. Can’t do it now though.

Dumping Adam Ottavino and reallocating his salary to Wilson and Darren O’Day was a fine series of moves but not anything that will change the balance of power in the AL East, and re-signing DJ LeMahieu, who’s awesome, only gets the Yankees back to where they were last season. How did this team improve? The only answer involves Kluber and Taillon staying healthy, and eh.

Context is important and the Yankees decided to chop roughly $50M off last year’s payroll, so they went into the offseason holding themselves back. In that sense, they did well to get upside in Kluber and Taillon. Cutting payroll in the middle of a championship window is dumb as hell though. It was a conscious decision and the Yankees don’t get to set the curve I grade them on.

Based on what we know right now, I’m going with a C. This is the sort of high variance offseason that could look like an A+ in about six months, or leave everyone wondering what in the world the Yankees were thinking. It’s hard to upgrade a roster that’s won more than 61% of its games the last three years, but the Yankees clearly needed rotation help this winter, and I can’t go any higher than a C given the significant injury risk of their top two rotation additions.

Steven asks: How is Bauer's contract structure legal? This is obviously CBT manipulation. There are a million ways to manipulate, but this one seems egregious. Dumb, unrealistic hypothetical here, but what's to stop a team from offering a 10 year, $100m contract where year 1 is worth $91m with an opt out after year 1, knocking the "cap hit" to $10m? That's clearly illegal, but what's the cutoff between that and what the Dodgers are doing with Bauer?

Trevor Bauer’s contract is not quite what was originally reported. Initially reports had it at $40M in 2021, $45M in 2022, and $17M in 2023, with an opt out after each year. Turns out Bauer is getting a little less up front and a little more at the back end. Here are the payout details, via Bob Nightengale:

• 2021: $10M signing bonus ($5M paid immediately and $5M paid on July 1st) and $28M salary ($20M paid in a lump sum on Nov. 1st)
• 2022: $32M salary ($2M buyout if he opts out after 2021)
• 2023: $32M salary ($15M buyout if he opts out after 2022)

Fortunately, the luxury tax calculation is simple, and $102M across three years equals a $34M luxury tax hit. Because the buyouts are not more than 50% of the player option year salaries, 2022 and 2023 count as guaranteed years for the luxury tax calculation.

If Bauer opts out after 2021, there will be a “catch up” luxury tax charge of $6M in 2022 because he will have been paid $40M in 2020 ($10M signing bonus plus $28M salary plus $2M buyout) but the Dodgers were only taxed on $34M. If he opts out after 2022, the catch up charge will be $17M in 2023 because he will have been paid $85M from 2021-22 while the team was taxed on $68M.

Bauer’s contract includes representative salaries in 2022 and 2023. He’d be leaving a lot on the table by opting out, which is not something that would happen with Steven’s hypothetical 10-year, $100M contract with $91M paid in Year 1. Opt out after Year 1 and you’ll get slammed with an $81M catch up charge ($91M the guy was paid minus the $10M luxury tax hit), and since the salaries are so low in Years 2-10, why wouldn’t the player opt out?

The catch up charge has always existed but only now is it becoming a thing because teams are getting creative with player options, like the Dodgers and Bauer, and to a (much) lesser extent the Yankees and Darren O’Day (and Justin Wilson, apparently). The Bauer contract gives the Dodgers a luxury tax break in 2021 but not a huge one. MLB frowns on those NHL style contracts with guaranteed years tacked on at super low salaries to reduce the luxury tax charge, and in Bauer’s case the salaries are pretty darn good. This structure won’t raise as many eyebrows as the originally reported $40M plus $45M plus $17M structure.

Max asks: What happened to Jacob Lindgren. He went from MLB ready call up straight out of the draft, to injured, to minor league journeyman?

Injuries. The Yankees drafted Lindgren, a lights out closer at Mississippi State (Jonathan Holder was his setup man), with the No. 55 pick in the 2014 draft -- he was their first selection that year because they gave up picks to sign Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Brian McCann (they also gained picks for losing Robinson Cano, it was complicated) -- and he reached the big leagues in May 2015 (four runs in seven innings). That remains his only MLB stint.

Lindgren, 28 in March, has been mostly hurt since then. Here’s the timeline:

• 2014: Drafted by Yankees.
• 2015: Debuts with Yankees.
• 2016: Needed Tommy John surgery after six minor league appearances. The Yankees non-tendered him after the season.
• 2017: Signed with the Braves and spent the entire year rehabbing.
• 2018: Suffered a setback in March and needed a second Tommy John surgery.
• 2019: Signed with the White Sox and pitched in 21 minor league rehab games.
• 2020: Remained with the White Sox but wasn’t invited to the alternate site.
• 2021: In camp with the White Sox as a non-roster invitee.

The Yankees reportedly hoped to re-sign Lindgren to a minor league contract after non-tendering him in 2016, but the Braves, who were rebuilding at the time, gave him a big league deal and a 40-man roster spot, so to Atlanta he went. 

Lindgren threw 35.2 innings from 2016-20 and had two Tommy John surgeries. Back in the day he was a low-90s fastball guy with a hellacious slider that helped him strike out 148 batters in 80.1 innings between college and pro ball in 2014. That was seven years and two elbow ligaments ago now, and I have no idea what Lindgren’s stuff looks like these days.

At this point Lindgren's claim to fame is being the first pitcher Bryce Harper ever faced in the big leagues that was younger than him. It happened on June 10th, 2015, when Harper was 22 years and 237 days old, and Lindgren was 22 years and 90 days old. Lindgren got Harper to fly out and it was the 1,734th (!) plate appearance of Harper's career. Crazy.

Anyway, I was pounding the table for the Yankees to call up Lindgren all year in 2015 because there was no sense in wasting bullets in the minors, and because I didn’t see the point in cycling through guys like Caleb Cotham, Diego Moreno, Sergio Santos, etc. They had no future with the Yankees. Lindgren might have. Alas. Pitchers break (but you still need them).

James asks: What’s been your biggest hits and misses? Hits meaning prospects you liked a lot more than everyone else and misses meaning prospects you loved who didn’t pan out.

The bad misses far, far outnumber the good misses. I thought Carmen Angelini would be a star. I thought Ramon Flores would have a 10-year career as a David Murphy type. I thought Graham Stoneburner would be the next great high-leverage reliever. I thought Marcos Vechionacci would be what Gio Urshela is now and Brad Suttle would be what Luke Voit is now.

Among the players I’ve ranked in the top 10 of my annual top 30 prospects list are Alberto Gonzalez (No. 7 in 2007), Alan Horne (No. 5 in 2008), Jose Ramirez the pitcher (No. 10 in 2010), Angelo Gumbs (No. 9 in 2013), and Wilkerman Garcia (No. 8 in 2016). Woof. Everyone missed on Jesus Montero (and Manny Banuelos, though I don’t sweat missing on pitchers when they get hurt), myself included.

In my pre-blogging days I thought it was nuts Robinson Cano wasn’t a top 25 global prospect after hitting .283/.339/.457 as a 21-year-old middle infielder at Double-A and Triple-A in 2004 (Cano never appeared on any publication’s top 100 prospects list). I’d be lying if I said I saw him having a borderline Hall of Fame career, but he was pretty obviously an elite prospect given his unreal bat-to-ball skills and production relative to age and level.

Adam Warren and Miguel Andujar have long been personal favorites who I ranked higher than other places -- Baseball America’s average top 30 rank for Warren was 17.7 from 2010-12 (it was 10.0 for me) -- and I was lower on Chance Adams than most others. I was always skeptical of that guy. Like I said though, the bad misses massively outnumber the good misses. If you're batting 1.000 in this game, you aren't taking enough swings.

Tyler asks: I know it’s probably too early for you to look at draft prospects, but do you have any thoughts on James Wood? Came upon his name on Twitter and he looks a lot like Aaron Judge if he were a HS lefty hitter. He’s even playing jumbo CF right now like Judge did. Right up the Yankees alley as a huge exit velo guy who could take aim at the short porch. Very intrigued and would love to hear your thoughts.

Wood is a 6-foot-6, 230 lb. outfielder at the IMG Academy in Florida (John Ryan Murphy’s alma mater). He’s been putting up huge exit velocities in showcases in recent weeks. Here’s an off-balance 98 mph shot to the opposite field. Here’s a 104 mph liner. It’s a metal bat, but high school kids don’t just don’t hit the ball that hard.

Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranks Wood as the No. 7 prospect in the 2021 draft class and MLB.com has him at No. 14. The Yankees hold the No. 20 pick and there’s a long way to go between now and draft day. The rankings say Wood is out of their range now, but who knows comes the big day? Here’s a snippet of Baseball America’s scouting report:

He gained around 20 pounds of muscle prior to the summer and has shown that strength in games, with tantalizing home runs against some of the top pitching in the class. Scouts entered the summer wondering about the swing and miss in his swing but have been impressed with the ease of his operation, his bat speed and his ability to put the barrel on the ball in games for impact. Despite his size, scouts have been impressed with his defense in center field. Wood moves well—he ran a 6.7 60-yard dash at PG National—and shows good instincts reading the ball off the bat, and moves well on the base paths.

A physically huge player with big exit velocities? At an up-the-middle position? Yes, I’d say Wood is right up the Yankees’ alley, and he is an exciting prospect. There will always be some swing-and-miss in his game with those long arms, and it’s unrealistic to expect him to stay in center field long-term at that size, but yeah, the kid is fun and exciting.

If Wood is going to keep pummeling the ball these next four months, the Yankees are going to need him to float a huge bonus demand to get to the No. 20 pick. He’s committed to Mississippi State, a top college program, but not exactly Vanderbilt or Stanford when it comes to hard-to-break commitments.

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