Fixing The Yankees
The Twins series was not a get right series after all. The win game 1 against Tampa did not right the ship either. The Yankeesare now 5-15 in their last 20, pushing me closer to my breaking point with this team. It is unwatchable, it is embarrassing, but all is not lost. Before this stretch, the Yankees were 45-27. You don’t just become a bad team overnight. Look at the Knicks. They weren’t the 2-9 team they were from New Year’s Eve to MLK Day. They were the 51-20 team from the rest of the year and 16-3 team in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Yankees, the division is slipping away. The Yankees have injuries and holes to fill, but there are clear ways they can fix them.
REPLACE AUSTIN WELLS
Even before this stretch, we knew the Yankees needed a catcher. All we have learned is that it is more dire than we thought. Wells has a .483 OPS. That is lower than Aaron Judge and Ben Rice’s Slugging Percentage and on pace for one of the worst Yankees seasons of all time. Wells has gotten a nice runway because he’s never had an OPS below .711. However, at some point you have to realize that he is not that guy anymore. He has 4 hits in last 58 plate appearances. 4 HITS! JC Escarra’s 10 day window has expired and I call him up to replace Wells until a catcher can be acquired at the deadline. He looks beyond broken and to have a chance at fixing him, we need to send him down or send him out of town.
WHEN HEALTHY, GIVE GEORGE LOMBARD JR A SHOT
A bit of a, “Civil War,” has been launched online over the Yankees shortstop position. Some will convince you if Jose Caballero played short every game, the Yankees would be 87-5 the planets would align, and all wars would cease. Then there are a very small number of Anthony Volpe supporters still out there. One accused me of rooting against him because I voted differently than Volpe. The truth is, neither of them is the long term answer. Lombard, like many Yankees, is on the IL right now but has resumed baseball activities and could return soon. In the 30 games before his injury, Lombard Jr was hitting .281/.382/.510 (.892 OPS). If he can pick up where he left off after being activated, I think he would put him in the conversation for a call up.
SHUFFLE THE BULLPEN
Like the catcher situation, this isn’t new. Yeah, the Yankees bullpen is second in the league in ERA, but their pen is top heavy. After David Bednar, Fernando Cruz, and Brent Headrick, the bullpen thins out a bit. Paul Blackburn has exceeded expectations and is starting to get more work and you still have Tim Hill as a lefty specialist. You need to replace Camilo Doval, Jake Bird, and Ryan Yarbrough. In the short term, give Yovanny Cruz a shot as soon as his 10 days in Scranton are up. They need to make some trades. The plan was probably to move a starter to the pen and call up Lagrange, but with injuries, that plan might never come to fruition. Like with Wells, Doval is another guy that has been given too long of a leash because of past production. Aaron Boone unfortunately said he’s, “been throwing the ball well.” Yes he throws hard and has great stuff, but New York isn’t for everybody. Let him turn it around in Miami or some other small market.
BE AGGRESSIVE
The Yankees added seven players and trade Oswald Peraza away at last deadline. They need too add three pitchers (at least 2 relievers and possibly starter), a catcher, and a shortstop. So the shopping might actually be a little shorter than last year. Unless, they shuffle their big league roster with some big leaguer for big leaguers trades with other contenders. For example, if a team is looking for a second baseman and comes calling for Jazz Chisholm, you might be able to swing him for some pitching help. Then you would have to replace him. I wouldn’t argue with shipping out Jazz. He is talented but a head case and a free agent at the end of the season. He has also underperformed all season. Prior to this season, he had an .816 OPS and 126 wRC+ since joining the Yankees. This year he has a .697 OPS and 97 wRC+. That is simply not cutting it. Even before the injuries, we needed more from Jazz than what he has been giving us. Other vets they could potentially move are Amed Rosario, Doval, and maybe guys like Volpe and Wells if a team believes they can be fixed.
FIRE BOONE
This should be higher but I don’t have confidence they will actually do that. Just about every year has played out the same under Boone. They started out, they melt down for two months, and then they finish hot before choking in the playoffs. “Well they always make the playoffs.” People who aren’t Yankees fans say stuff like this because they don’t realize how hard it is to watch these swoons. The things that happen in these stretches seemingly defy logic. You wouldn’t think nine guys would go cold and forget how to play baseball all at once, but it happens. You wouldn’t think a .600 team would all of a sudden play close to sub .400 ball during a long stretch, but it happens. And often times, these losses involve snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the form of unthinkable bullpen meltdowns or multiple errors or failing over and over again with runners in scoring position at such a high rate you would think they are trying to lose. When the roster changes a lot over the years but the same thing constantly happens, that points to the manager.
People will say Cashman too but I think they are a few differences there. First of all, they are talented. The Yankees have only had one non-pandemic season since Boone took over have the Yankees won less than 92 games. They have won over 100 twice, 99 once, and led or tied for the American League lead with 94 wins each of the last two seasons. Second of all, Boone is the one who sets the tone in the clubhouse. To me, every game a professional teams should do two things, focusing and play hard. Aaron Judge was among many internal voice who has cited the lack of focus. Compare that to the level of focus we saw from the Knicks during their title run, and it is night and day. You also can’t help but question when you see them strike out 17 times twice in a row whether or not they are playing hard.
Part of the thing that I feel prolongs is a lack of urgency which comes from thinking either, “we’re the Yankees, everything will work out,” or, “guys will play to the back of their baseball cards.” To play to the back of Wells’s baseball card, he would have to hit like Barry Bonds the rest of the year at this point. Boone watches Cody Bellinger 4 for his last 52, or Paul Goldschmidt go 0 for his last 34, or Jazz Chisholm underachieve all year, or and seemingly does nothing to rectify the issues. When guys like Camilo Doval, with a career 3.53 ERA and 100+ MPH velocity, give up multiple runs in three straight outings, or Will Warren, who posted a 3.22 ERA and 3.28 FIP through May, posts a 5.03 ERA since, that should set off alarm bells. But nothing gets done about it. He just blows bubbles while the team melts down.
Now it is not all his fault, there are injuries we are dealing with. However, the last three nights, the Rays started four and three guys respectively with OPS’s over .700. We started six and seven such guys. We started Cam Schlitter, Will Warren, and Gerrit Cole. They started two guys who started as relievers. Yet they are ahead of us in the standings? These are the demons people want us to replicate? We are better than them. We shouldn’t be five games back. We are ahead of them in major stats like home runs, OPS, wRC+, BB%, fWAR (hitting and pitching), ERA, and FIP yet they are five games ahead of us and 6-2 in the season series. We have underachieved the last few years and have not been able to take advantage of a weak American League. We’re in year 9 and he has one pennant. Then we got to the World Series and he blew Game 1. I don’t know how much longer you can underachieve and let him keep his job. Assuming no in season change comes, I think he should be fired unless we get back to the World Series. If theres one thing the Knicks taught us (even though they really taught us a lot) it’s that a contender can make a coaching change in the middle of a window and can still win. First, the Yankees need to acknowledge that Aaron Thibodeau isn’t right for the job.