After a weekend on the road, the Yankees will play their first home game of the Grapefruit League season this afternoon. The Yankees are at George M. Steinbrenner Field today and that means we’ll see Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton for the first time this spring. I wouldn’t call Judge a veteran yet, but he’s definitely earned “you don’t have to go on road trips in February” status.
Today’s main event: James Paxton. He is making his spring debut — he’ll also be the first member of the projected Opening Day pitching staff to appear in a Grapefruit League game — after being the team’s prized offseason addition. Paxton will only throw two innings or 30-ish pitches, something like that, but this’ll be our first opportunity to see him on the mound. Should be fun.
Also, Troy Tulowitzki is the lineup for the first time today. Aaron Boone said the Yankees will take it easy on him early in camp — it’ll be a few weeks until he plays back-to-back days — though today will be our first chance to see him in action. I’m more curious to see how he moves at shortstop than how he swings the bat. Here is the Blue Jays’ lineup and here are the players the Yankees will use today:
- SS Troy Tulowitzki
- RF Aaron Judge
- DH Giancarlo Stanton
- CF Aaron Hicks
- 2B Gleyber Torres
- 1B Greg Bird
- C Kyle Higashioka
- LF Trey Amburgey
- 3B Angel Aguilar
LHP James Paxton
Available Position Players: C Kellin Deglan, C Francisco Diaz, C Jorge Saez, 1B Mike Ford, 1B/OF Ryan McBroom, IF Oswaldo Cabrera, IF Diego Castillo, IF Dermis Garcia, IF Wilkerman Garcia, IF Kyle Holder, OF Billy Burns, OF Estevan Florial, OF Isiah Gilliam, OF Jeff Hendrix, OF Zack Zehner. Aguilar, McBroom, Cabrera, Castillo, Gilliam, Hendrix, Zehner, and the Garcias are up from minor league camp. I hope we get to see Dermis launch some bombs in the late innings.
Available Pitchers: RHP Luis Cessa, RHP Cale Coshow, LHP Phil Diehl, RHP Domingo German, RHP Chad Green, RHP Joe Harvey, RHP Jonathan Holder. Green and Holder wouldn’t be on the list as extra arms. They’re pitching today. I imagine Cessa and German will as well.
It is warm, cloudy, and windy in Tampa this afternoon. Not as windy as it is here in New York, but windy. Today’s game will begin at 1:05pm ET and you can watch live on YES and MLB.tv. There are no MLB.tv blackouts in Spring Training.