If Brian Cashman Had An Ounce Of Balls He Would Call Up The Kids And Give This Struggling Yankees Team a Spark
Let's be honest with ourselves, the Yankees are a walking corpse right now. All the fun and excitement from the first three months of the season are long gone. It's honestly a miracle they're still 10 up in the division with how they've played since July. A bad week here at home vs. Tampa and Toronto could certainly change that situation, but let's not think about that yet because I'm sad enough.
The Yankees are coming off a miserable weekend in Boston and an even worse roadtrip against the Cardinals, Mariners, and Sox all together. Michael Wacha hadn't pitched in two weeks and looked like prime Maddux with the way he dispatched the Yankees lineup on Sunday Night Baseball. The game ended before 9:30 for Christ's sake. How does that even happen?
Well, when you have a lineup that's producing as little as the Yankees are right now, that's how that happens. Aside from Aaron Judge who is producing right now? DJ was on a tear before dealing with his toe/foot injury that hopefully is nothing, but probably will spiral into something based on how things go. With Matt Carpenter out a foot fracture and Giancarlo not back for probably two more weeks best case, this offense is in a bad spot.
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Gleyber Torres is 6 for his last 52 and couldn't look more off-balanced at the plate. He's trying to pull everything and it's giving him no chance to be successful. Even with his 4 hit night last week, Josh Donaldson is 14 for his last 72 with just two homers. The 36 year old is enduring his worst full season of his entire career and I don't seem to care for that one bit. Great defense at 3rd is obviously nice, but the bat is missing fastball after fastball down the heart of the plate. Aaron Hicks has continued to be an atrocious baseball player outside of one hot month that seemed to trick a ton of people into believing he could useful. He's 10 for his last 69 with 0 home runs and 3 RBIs. Remember when he said with a straight face that he could be a 30/30 guy this year? What a loser.
IKF is IKF. The gold glove third baseman converted shortstop has basically hit close to his career averages all season long. He's a singles hitter whose OPS will never be over .700. Cashman and co. decided to not entertain the idea of a Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, or Carlos Correa and instead went with the stopgap SS they hoped could play the position well. It's tough to get mad at IKF because it's not like he's playing down compared to his career stats. He is what he is. That doesn't mean you can't be disappointed the Yankees aren't exploring other options with the position. If you're sending death threats to him and his family you are the biggest loser on Earth by the way.
I had no issues with any of the deadline moves the Yankees made besides trading Jordan Montgomery for a player who is hurt right now and can't help. I still believe they had a Pablo Lopez deal lined up that Miami pulled out of at the last second. That being said I'd play Harrison Bader with a walking boot over Aaron Hicks. It really can't get much worse in my mind. As for the other moves, Effross, Trivino, Montas, and Benny are all guys who will help this team in the next few months. After a bad home stint to start his Yankee career, Benny came alive on the road. Unfortunately no one else really did besides Judge.
So that recaps how bad the lineup is. Eight runs in their last five games won't cut it. Two shutouts in that span, which put their total 2022 number already higher than 2021's. Once you get by DJ, Judge, Rizzo, and Benny you essentially have a cake walk.
There are two options they can go the rest of the way in hopes to turn this around.
1) Hope and prayer. You can just sit back and hope the team from April through June miraculously comes back and takes over the world once again. Getting Giancarlo back in two weeks will help immensely, especially with protecting Judge in the lineup. Rizzo was on fire prior to his back injury, he needs to get going. Can Josh Donaldson actually be a real player? Gleyber Torres simply has to be better. Shorten the leg kick and keep yourself more balanced at the plate. Take the ball the opposite way for the love of god. Maybe Carpenter does make it back before season's end like he keeps confidently saying he will. Maybe Aaron Hi…never mind with him. Let's just get Bader healthy as quick as humanly possible before I cut my eyes out.
2) Inject youth into this team. Part of what made 2017 feel so special was the contribution the young guys had on that club. Why not run it back? There are four guys in AAA right now who can be called up today and immediately make the team better. Ron Marinaccio, Clarke Schmidt, Oswald Peraza, and Oswaldo Cabrera all are MLB ready guys that need to be here.
To start off there's no excuse whatsoever for Ron Marinaccio to be down in the minors right now. The guy has given up one run in his last 22 innings in the big leagues, but because he has options he's not with the big league club right now. Just cause he can be sent down to the minors doesn't mean he should be there…
There's this undying infatuation with Albert Abreu (zero options left) to remain on this team for a reason that continues to escape me. Abreu wasn't used once this weekend in Fenway, but apparently he's good enough to not get DFA'd despite his unappealing numbers? Beats me. Albert Abreu was DFA'd by the Rangers this year and traded by the Royals, but we have to keep him here. I'm not so sure if the Yankees DFA'd him he'd be picked up by any team. Get him gone and bring back Ron. Easy.
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Clarke Schmidt has shown he's a big league pitcher. He should be on this team no questions asked, He's down in the minors being stretched out to be a starter, but why? Cole, Nestor, Montas, Jamo, Domingo. Severino is due back in about 3-4 weeks as well. What's the reason for Schmidt being stretched out now when his role is clearly the pen for 2022? If they moved Domingo to the pen I guess that'd make sense, but his starts have been pretty good lately. Clarke's long term role with this team is a starter for sure, but in the immediate I don't see how he slots in. I don't think they know what to do with him which is par for the course.
Oswald Peraza is the current no. 35 ranked prospect in all of baseball. His calling card is spectacular defense, but his hitting has also come around lately (.964 OPS since June 11). IKF was brought in as the stop gap SS for this team and I think that's run its course. People seem to be hesitant on calling the kid up and messing with him. I don't see it that way at all. For starters, I solely care about right now and I know Peraza can help this team. I'm not really sure how he could be worse than IKF right now on both sides of the ball. I know Falefa had the big game on Saturday, but that can't wipe away what he's done at the dish all year long. Again, a .638 OPS and .269 average are numbers he's put up his whole career. It's not IKF's fault Cashman chose him as the answer, but it's time to bring up the real talent. Why can't IKF slide to the Marwin Gonzalez role right now? You could tell me Marwin was cut and I wouldn't know for sure if you were lying. He has six total plate appearances in August. That's the easiest DFA option you can make. They may very well be waiting until the 18th when Oswald's service time doesn't get impacted, but if not it's malpractice.
If you're not gonna call up Peraza for whatever stupid reason you can come up with, then at least give Oswaldo Cabrera a shot. Since July 15th the utility man has an 1.118 OPS. In that time he's played second, short, third, left and right. He's not on this team in place of Marwin because why?
The Yankees have a long history of not knowing when to call up their young guys. Don't make that mistake this year. This big league roster desperately needs a spark and these kids can give it to them. If not, then I'm not even sure this team wins a playoff series at this point. The starting pitching has held their own lately only to get absolutely zero run support. You gotta shake stuff up. DFA Albert Abreu and Marwin Gonzalez. Option Loasiga to the minors. It's really not that hard. When rosters expand to 28 in September you use those on Stanton and Bader. If Severino does make it back you figure that out roster wise, but that's not a guarantee right now with where we stand.
TLDR: Call up the kids and give this team a spark
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