The New York Yankees’ performance in the season to the end of May is better than any of us had a right to expect.
Part of that is due to the batting performances of the likes of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but that is not the whole picture. The pitching arms have been an essential part of the growth.
Continue readingInjuries? The Yankees got ’em.
Nestor Cortes; Luis Severino; Albert Abreu; Anthony Misiewicz; Wandy Peralta; Tommy Kahnle; Ryan Weber; Luis Gil; Lou Trivino.
And Frankie Montas, and Keynan Middleton just made it back before the end of the season.
And Ian Hamilton by the middle of September.
No surprise then that the patched up Yankees rotation and bullpen struggled in September and in game 162 in October.
Thank goodness for Gerrit Cole.
Let’s take an overview of the stats…
Continue readingWell, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?
Wrong.
Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.
So, we are thinking about the Yankees’ performance in August, and obviously based on their record during the month (10 wins – 18 losses), you wouldn’t expect an upswing in the quality of their pitching performances but in reality there were some positive signs.
Indeed, in the bullpen there were as many significant improvements as there were players who made a significant decline.
Let’s see who the strong performers were, and those who buckled under the strain:
So, continuing on with this theme of the Yankees appalling collapse in July – It is not appalling because the Yankees have a divine right to success. It’s is appalling because the Yankees’ roster is not the roster of the Kansas City Royals, or the Oakland Athletics. It is appalling because going into the season, it appeared that the Yankees had a roster which was the envy of everyone, and had a starting rotation which looked like one of the best, if not the best in the Majors.
Gerrit Cole – Carlos Rodon – Nestor Cortes – Luis Severino – Frankie Montas — and if injuries arose Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt to fall back on.
Injuries came – and too many. Even then the bullpen held up the weight, but by July the relievers were over-tired, and with Aaron Judge injured the team was going nowhere but down.
As we have seen in the analysis of the batters’ statistics the Yankees really over-depended on the pitchers in June, and in particular their bullpen.
Obviously, this cannot continue. In a peculiar way, the steady drip, drip, drip, of pitchers returning from injury means that fresh arms are being made available. Some have been out all season (Tommy Kahnle), others for a shorter time (Ian Hamilton). And the return of Carlos Rodon is not too far away.
It seems likely that before the trading deadline, the Yankees will need to bring new offensive and pitching stars. Let’s hope they are able to do so without giving too much away.
The Yankees went from one game over .500 to ten games over .500 in the course of the month of May – rising from 15-14 to 34-24.
In the process, they moved from 4th in the division to third and remained in close contention for a wild card spot, moving between 2nd and 3rd in that particular race. They were close and back-and-forth with their modern era fierce rivals, the Houston Astros.
None of this could hide the reality of just how far they are behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who were quickest out of the traps and have not slowed to any considerable extent.
The Yankees’ injury situation in May began to settle down. Only four players were added to the injured – Aaron Judge, Jose Trevino, Ian Hamilton and Oswald Peraza. And whilst it is never going to be easy to lose Judge, in particular, it must be noted that three of these players bounced back at the end of the 10 days that their period on the injured list required. Hamilton will be out for longer.
At the same time, many players were heading for rehab assignments and moving closer to a return. These included Luis Severino, Josh Donaldson, Tommy Kahnle, and Ben Rortvedt.
Perhaps even more significantly the Yankees finally gave up on the wretched tenure of Aaron Hicks, accepting that clearing a space on the roster was more important than worrying how much of his contract they were still going to be liable for. They designated him for assignment on the 20th of the month – and when he cleared waivers without any notable interest, they released him a week later. Hicks signed for Baltimore by the end of the month.
In a parallel move, the Yankees traded with the Boston Red Sox, giving up minor leaguer Diego Hernandez and acquiring Greg Allen. Allen had previously played for the Bronx Bombers in 2020.
Potentially, from the injured list we gave you at the head of our last article, you could put together four-fifths of a starting rotation, and four relievers to add to your bullpen.
The injuries included Carlos Rodon, who was intended to be the number two starter in 2023, Luis Severino a potential number four starter, and Frankie Montas who was originally brought in from Oakland to be a number 5 starter.
Leading bullpen pieces who were missing in action included Tommy Kahnle, and Jonathan Loaisiga.
There was no question that these were going to be devastating for the Yankees’ early season chances of success.
Here we go… Harrison Bader, Lou Trivino, Tommy Kahnle, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Frankie Montas, Scott Effross, Luis Severino, Ben Rortvedt, Jonathan Loaisiga, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson.
This is the shortlist of players that the Yankees had to place on the injured list through March and April in 2023. It is fair to say it left them with a much weakened team.
That they managed to come through to the end of April with a record of 15-14 was no mean achievement. But a 3 game losing streak against the Texas Rangers at the close of the month meant that they were 4th in the division table, albeit that the American League East is by the far the strongest of the divisions.
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