Pathetic: The Yankees Were Swept Out Of Boston This Weekend And Find Themselves Hopeless Without Aaron Judge
Winslow Townson. Getty Images.Baseball has long been a sport where one player cannot carry an entire team. For example, look at what the Angels did from 2011-2022 when Mike Trout was doing God like things on a daily basis. Nothing to show for it in terms of team success, right? Now that he's struggling (by his standards) the Angels are firmly in the playoff hunt and in the best shape they've looked in a while. The Braves won their most recent World Series title without Ronald Acuña. The sport makes no sense sometimes.
That being said, I fully underestimated the amount of holes and problems that Aaron Judge covered up for the New York Yankees. They are realistically a .400-.500 at best team without 99 in the lineup and in the field. They're terrible. If you've watched them play over the last 12 games since his toe injury in LA you know they're a BAD club. When Judge is in the lineup they score 5 runs a game. When he's missing games they score 3.4 runs a contest. It's an unwatchable brand of baseball. Uninspiring and depressing. They go down and they just die. Hell, without Gleyber Torres and Jake Bauers over this recent stretch they wouldn't have any wins with Judge down. It's a big fucking problem and from what it sounds like, the big man ain't going on that lineup card anytime soon.
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This Weekend
The Yankees were swept in Boston this weekend, capped off with Sunday's doubleheader drubbing where they showed no will to fight. This came off losing two of three at the stadium the previous weekend to the same Boston team. Let's do the simple math here people, that means they've lost 5 of 6 to the last place Red Sox in 2023. Do me a favor and go find yourself a level headed, sensible Sox fan who understands what's going on with their team. They'll tell you straight up this is not a good Red Sox team. The stats and record back it up. Cora has complained about their roster construction, Devers has had a weird year, the pitching is a shitshow, and the offense as a whole has vanished more frequently than expected. They were nearly swept by the lowly Rockies in Boston earlier in the week for crying out loud. That Sox team pretty easily won 5 of 6 against the Yankees in the last 10 days. That's unacceptable and embarrassing.
Vets Gone Missing
So let's talk through the issues. We'll start with the veterans. Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu, and Josh Donaldson are giving you absolutely nothing right now. Zip. Nada. Zilch. $82 million counted against this year's luxury tax with absolutely no production in the last month when the team has needed them to step up. That right there is the main problem. Those guys not carrying the load as a group is inexcusable.
Rizzo has been a shell of himself since he got kneed in the neck by Fernando Tatis Jr. at the end of May. Giancarlo Stanton has had nothing to offer since coming off the IL. He does this where he takes his time to get the swing right, but man would it be nice for him to expedite that process before his next injury. Also why did he have zero minor league rehab build up coming off the injury? Moving on, Josh Donaldson has no business being on the team right now. His average is down to .151 on the season and the at bats Sunday night were dreadful. For Christ's sake the guy got picked off at first. What is Josh Donaldson doing getting picked off? There should be no world where he's taking a lead at first where he can't take one quick step back on the bag. Get off the team dude.
And there's DJ LeMahieu. This one hurts to look at.
Through 93 games last year DJ had a triple slash of .286/.388/.429 which is good for an .817 OPS. I'd kill for those numbers right now in the middle of this order. From that point on DJ began playing with his injury and tapered off big time before having to shut it down. Here was his savant page. Red is great, blue is bad.
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Not too bad, huh? Here's 2023 with him being fully healthy from what we understand.
Going from the 93% k percentile to 26% is jarring. If you watch DJ's at bats you're witnessing a shell of a man. Is he hiding an injury or did a soon-to-be 35 year old fall off the proverbial cliff that every athlete does? Here are his exit velos month by month.
Not fun. If Aaron Judge is missing an extended period of time like he is currently then you need the veterans who earn lots of money to pick up the slack, plain and simple. It's not happening with any of them and we're seeing the very bleak results. The pitching and defense have to nearly play a perfect game to produce wins at this going rate and that's a lot to ask for when you have infielders playing the outfield and a rotation in flux. A very good Cole and the best bullpen in baseball have kept them above water to this point, but there's only so much they can withstand when the offense isn't scoring anything.
Anthony Volpe
Okay fine let's talk Volpe even though he is far from this team's biggest issue. The kid is struggling and struggling doesn't really do it justice.
Throughout every stage of his minor league development the 22 year old has taken time to adjust to the new level of difficulty. Eventually he figures it out and starts to cook to the tune of being a top 5 prospect in the sport. Well, it's mid-June and the progression isn't there. He struggles with elevated pitches and frequently looks overmatched. His swing seems like it has too much of an uppercut, something probably encouraged with our flawed offensive philopshy throughout the org. He has moments, but not enough to outweigh the struggles.
Now I fully agreed with the move to put him on the Opening Day roster given the current status of the team. The only other viable option was Oswald Peraza who Volpe unquestionably beat out in the Spring. It was the clear and right decision. I just wish the rest of the lineup was producing so he could ease into this more with less pressure. You already get all the stress and pressure of being the new starting shortstop of the New York Yankees, but having to try and be a top producer for a team 10+ games back in the division and clinging to a WC spot? Doesn't make the adjustment period any easier.
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.712 — That's the highest Volpe's 2023 OPS has been this year after the first week of the season and that came following the April 26th game. He currently sits at a .614 OPS with a measly .189 batting average. His glove has been average I'd say. There have been routine balls botched, but also outstanding plays to counter. He's for sure an upgrade over IKF, but that's not saying much. Long term he most likely projects as a 2nd baseman with his arm. The speed is great (15 for 15 stolen bases) but he's not getting on base anywhere close to enough for that to really impact the game.
So what do you do with Volpe? I'm personally not panicking about him and I understand it takes time for a rookie in his spot to get comfortable. Don't lose all your faith and hope in the kid because of this slow start. That being said we need production from any and all spots right now in the order. Volpe underwent a little bit of a stance change before the Subway Series which our own hitting coach wasn't observant enough to suggest in the last 8 weeks (more on him in a bit). Maybe through a large sample size that brings good results. Listen not everyone is Elly De La Cruz. Jeremy Pena went through an abysmal 64 game stretch in the middle of his rookie year in 2022 hitting .225 with a .617 OPS. He found his stride late and helped the Astros win the World Series. Now Pena's glove and arm are both ridiculous and he was on a team stacked with skilled vets to allow him to do his thing. Volpe doesn't have that luxury unfortunately. My point is just that he can very easily come around here with time. Most Yankee fans just don't have that patience, and I don't blame them.
The fact of the matter is that the org has made it pretty clear they're riding with Volpe and they kinda made that bed when they passed on all the star shortstops over the years: Seager, Semien, Correa, Turner, etc. I wanted Seager more than anything in the world, but they opted for the cheaper in-house option and pushed all their chips in with him. They believe he'll get comfortable and the results will be what we want. I wouldn't waste your energy pushing for him to go down.
Now here's what can switch up.
Oswald Peraza deserves a legitimate opportunity with this team. What you get with him is a premier defensive infielder with a good bat. After begging in the 2nd half of last year to have him called up he hit .306 in 57 plate appearances, good for a .832 OPS. Small sample size, but he looked all the part of a major leaguer in that month. Peraza has mostly been hitting well in AAA this year since losing the SS competition in March (34G, 11 HR, .292/.360/.563). A good chunk of fans are calling for a flip of him and Volpe right now and I hear you. Again, based on what Hal, Boone, etc. have said, I just don't see it happening.
What is our most likely path of resolution is the DFA of Josh Donaldson, and that needs to happen yesterday. With Gleyber at 2nd and Stanton DHing you need to go Volpe at SS and Peraza at 3rd with DJ doing his utility thing or phantom ILing until he gets right again.
In a perfect world Giancarlo doesn't swallow up the DH spot and you DH Gleyber a ton. That frees up 2nd, allowing you to throw Volpe there and the stronger defender in Peraza at short. That scenario doesn't exist, but it's nice to type out.
Donaldson just has to go. One of Brian Cashman's biggest flaws is that he takes forever to admit a mistake of his, if he ever does at all. You saw how long it took for him to bail on Aaron Hicks. The same with Gary Sanchez. Well, how about Donaldson? He's a free agent at the end of the year so it's just 2023 money. Burn it. You can't be having a guy like him clog up the middle of the order with his .150 batting average and home run or bust swing that's not working. He's not helping. I have no guarantees what an Oswald Peraza does, but I know JD ain't it and this can't hurt. Wake up, admit your error, and move on.
Another issue potentially is this asshole, Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson.
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Now hitting coaches are not necessarily the root of a team's offensive issues. We all know this roster and lineup is flawed, but that being said, did you watch the clip? Just a bunch of nothing. Blah, blah, blah. No wonder he didn't notice Volpe had deviated from his stance in the minors over these 2.5 months. He's just telling guys to "hit strikes hard" and believe in themselves and is confused when they come back to the dugout sad.
Whole team goes up there with no approach other than to swing really hard and you wonder why the whole group falls into the doldrums like the one we're witnessing now. The goal with hiring Lawson was to bring in a similar mind that they have in Matt Blake, the pitching coach who is an absolute beauty. I love Matt Blake. So far I'm not seeing much here that comes off as game-changing, but keep swinging hard boys, a good sound approach means nothing anymore!
How fucked are we actually?
I just wrote a whole lot of words to explain the ongoing problem. In short, the season's life hinges on when Aaron Judge returns. He's that much of a difference maker. Bader's return Tuesday definitely makes them better because he puts up competitive at bats and plays great defense, but he ain't 99. From what the reports have said that return date likely is right after the All Star Break. Gulp.
While they say he's getting better by the day, his type of toe injury is something that has a high re-aggravation possibility if rushed back too soon. They're gonna make sure he's right so that when he returns they make their full push to sneak in as a wild card team and hopefully get hot at the right time for a change. That's all this organization is banking on. The front office feels like if Rodon returns as well in a few weeks and you have him ramped up for the stretch run along with Judge and Bader then they like their chances. They view the baseball playoffs as a crapshoot. Just get into the dance and anything can happen. The ol' "anything can happen" Yankees, just what we all grew up on in the late 90s early 2000s.
Realistic Outlook
Realistically nothing changes until the Brian Cashman-Aaron Boone regime is done with. Given that Cash just got a 4 year extension based on zero recent success or results I'm assuming we're gonna be waiting a long time for that. We've got infielders playing the outfield trying to plug and play until the big guns get back. While a bat like Jake Bauers has been nice, the defense as a result of doing that has caused a lot of sloppy play they cannot afford to have. There's bad contract after bad contract scattered all over the place. Wake me up in mid-July and pray the vets find a way to keep the boat from totally sinking by then. Even then things would have to perfectly break their way in October with this group health and performance wise to win. It's all just sad. I'm tired of being sad and sad of being tired.