So far, so good. The Yankees lost their first Grapefruit League game of the year yesterday, dropping their spring record to 5-1. They were the last team with a perfect 1.000 winning percentage. More important than the winning is health. Aside from Clint Frazier’s concussion, no one has gotten injured. That’s good. Anyway, I have some thoughts a week into the Grapefruit League season.

1. I’m the biggest Miguel Andujar fan you’ll find and I’d love to see him at third base on Opening Day. I still feel compelled to pump the breaks on his big spring to date. Andujar has gone 4-for-10 with a double and two homers so far, including a walk-off homer earlier this week. Andujar hit one homer against a Single-A kid and the other homer against a Double-A kid. Baseball-Reference.com’s quality of competition metric says the pitching Andujar has faced so far this spring falls somewhere between High-A and Double-A caliber. I love the kid, but these first ten spring at-bats don’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Yes, it’s good he’s raking now rather than struggling, but his performance either way wouldn’t mean much given the sample size. I think Andujar belongs at third base on Opening Day because he’s handled Double-A and Triple-A, and is ready to face MLB caliber pitching. That’s the next challenge to continue his development. I’m glad Andujar has started the spring strong and I hope it continues against higher quality arms in the coming weeks. For now, he’s crushing the caliber of pitching we already know he can crush. I don’t think that means much at all.

2. The Yankees sure aren’t treating Chasen Shreve like a reliever who has to compete for a roster spot. He hasn’t pitched in a game yet! Neither have other no-doubt Opening Day roster relievers Aroldis Chapman, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle. Dellin Betances made his first spring appearance just yesterday. Jonathan Holder, Ben Heller, and Luis Cessa — the guys you’d figure Shreve would be competing against for the final bullpen spot — have all pitched in multiple games already. Instead, Shreve is getting the established reliever treatment and being brought along slowly. Hmmm. Shreve is out of minor league options, and because he’s left-handed and breathing (and cheap at $825,000), I think he’d get claimed on waivers if the Yankees tried to slip him through. He’s had some big time meltdowns the last few years, but at the end of the day, Shreve is a 27-year-old southpaw with a history of missing bats (career 26.5% strikeout rate) and no platoon split, plus he can go two innings at a time. If the Yankees consider him a lock for the bullpen — and the early indications this spring suggest that is the case — it’s understandable. Seems to me that if Shreve truly had to fight for a job, he would be pitching in games already, not being held back with the high-end bullpeners.

3. The rotation order is kinda sorta coming into focus. CC Sabathia starts today, Masahiro Tanaka starts tomorrow, and Luis Severino is expected to throw a simulated game Saturday rather than go on the road to face the Red Sox, according to George King. Opening Day is four weeks from today. Tanaka tomorrow and Severino on Saturday lines them up to start the first two games of the season, in that order, with five spring starts total and a few extra days of rest built in. Sabathia starting today before Tanaka puts him in line to start the fifth game of the season, which makes sense, because it would keep him away from the turf in Toronto in the first series of the regular season. So, based on that, the regular season rotation tentatively lines up like this at the moment:

1. Masahiro Tanaka
2. Luis Severino
3. Sonny Gray or Jordan Montgomery
4. Sonny Gray or Jordan Montgomery
5. CC Sabathia

Plans can always change — Opening Day is four weeks from today and four weeks is an eternity in baseball — but that’s how things line up right now. Works for me. Knock on wood, health and the weather will cooperate, and everything will go according to plan.

4. Dillon Tate, who I ranked as the eighth best prospect in the system, has pitched in one game so far this spring, but it wasn’t televised, so we didn’t get to see him in action. I’m hoping to see him soon because apparently the Yankees have him working on a two-seamer. From Brendan Kuty:

Dillon Tate is working on a new pitch — that’s not the story. It’s a two-seamer — that’s not really story either. It’s how he started throwing it. Tate said the Yankees’ analytics department sized up his arm angle and spin rate and told him he’d be a “good candidate” to throw the pitch, so he’s been working on it.

Interestingly enough, Matt Gelb says teams have an agreement to share minor league PitchFX data, so that’s where the arm angle and spin rate stuff comes from. Anyway, a two-seam fastball could be a real game-changer for Tate. The book on him is that his velocity is high-end, but his fastball is kinda straight, and it gets squared up more than you’d like. The Nathan Eovaldi problem, basically. A two-seamer would give him a fastball with enough movement to miss the barrel. Learning a two-seamer isn’t easy — lots of guys struggle to locate the pitch because they don’t know how to control a fastball with that kinda movement — but if Tate can get it down, it could make a real difference for him. I hope to see him in a televised game soon to see how the two-seamer is coming along.

5. In these first few games I’ve heard Aaron Boone encouraging his players from the dugout rather enthusiastically — “Outstanding Birdie!” was a good one during the spring opener, after Bird worked a full count — which is definitely not something I can ever remember Joe Girardi doing at any point. I’m not trying to knock Girardi here. I can’t ever remember any manager yelling like Boone has been this first week. I assume this is some new to the job enthusiasm and Boone will eventually tire himself out, though I find all these little differences between Boone and Girardi fascinating. Girardi was very business-like and hey, that’s great. He won a title doing that. Boone is so much more outgoing, and he really seems like a big time player’s manager. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t prepare or things like that. Boone and Girardi just have very different personalities. It’s like the Yankees replaced Girardi with his exact opposite, and that is usually how managerial changes go. The Phillies replaced old school Pete Mackanin with the new school Gabe Kapler. The Red Sox replaced the old school John Farrell with the new school Alex Cora. The Yankees replaced the stern Girardi with the much more easy going Boone. Yelling words of encouragement from the dugout? That’s a new one.

6. One thing I’ve noticed this last week is that holy cow, the Yankees’ minor leaguers have been so much more impressive than minor leaguers with other teams. It’s not just the teams the Yankees are playing. I’ve watched lots of baseball the last few days, both Grapefruit League and Cactus League, and the Yankees seem to have more talent than other clubs. The various scouting publications say New York’s farm system is second best in the game behind the Braves and I can see why. These kids are talented, they know how to play the game, and many of them are close to the big leagues. The pitchers all seem to throw 96 with nasty hooks and the position players all have power or speed or both. I get the Tigers didn’t send their A-team on the road yesterday, but they were running relievers throwing 90-92 mph with no command out to the mound. The Yankees had their third tier arms (Brady Lail and Will Carter, for example) on the mound throwing mid-90s. It has been eye-opening. The Yankees have gobs of talent and a very deep farm system, and that talent has been on display already this spring. It’s awfully fun.

7. I saw my first bit of new mound visit rule weirdness yesterday. As the Yankees rallied in the ninth inning, Detroit’s pitching coach went to the mound to talk to the pitcher, then a batter or two later the catcher got up and started to make his way to the mound. Catchers going to the mound counts as a mound visit now, so it would’ve been the second visit to the pitcher, necessitating a pitching change. The Tigers’ coaches had to yell from the dugout to stop the catcher. He got maybe a step beyond the plate before retreating back. There aren’t many mound visits in general in Spring Training because the pitchers are usually on strict pitch counts and no one cares about the score or the outcome, so we’re not going to see how the new rules really change the game until Opening Day. I reckon yesterday won’t the last time I see a catcher start to go out to the mound to talk things over with the pitcher, only to get told to go back behind the plate by the coaches.

8. And finally, there are no instant replay challenges in Spring Training, and I have to say, it is quite refreshing. The play happens and … that’s it. No one argues, no one stalls for time so the replay guy can look at the play, nothing. It was the same way in the first two rounds of the World Baseball Classic last year. They had replay for homers only. It’s nice to go back in time to the pre-instant replay era of baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I am pro-instant replay — getting the call right is the most important thing — and I’m glad MLB has a system in place. It’s just nice to watch a few meaningless games without it. There’s no stalling and I’m not waiting anxiously for a replay after every close play.

Baseball finally returns tomorrow. Meaningless baseball, but baseball nonetheless. The Yankees open their Grapefruit League schedule tomorrow afternoon against the Tigers and yes, the game will be televised. I can’t wait. Meaningless spring games are fun in their own way. Let’s get to some thoughts the day before the spring opener.

1. The players I am most interested to see this spring, in no particular order: Albert Abreu, Kyle Holder, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Dillon Tate. Weird list, I know. Loaisiga, Abreu, and Tate are three of the best pitching prospects in the organization and I haven’t seen any of them in game action yet, so I’m looking forward to that. Holder is an outstanding defensive shortstop and great defense is always fun. Hopefully Abreu’s appendectomy doesn’t stop him from getting in games. Of course I want to see guys like Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, Giancarlo Stanton, and Brandon Drury. I want to see everyone. That kinda goes without saying. But I really enjoy Spring Training because it’s a chance to see players I’ve never seen and maybe won’t ever see again. Loaisiga is fascinating because he went from tryout camp to legitimate prospect, and Tate is supposedly back to where he was in college, when he was the fourth pick in the 2015 draft. I’m guessing he’ll come out throwing fire, creating a “who the heck is this guy?” type of buzz among casual fans this spring. That’d be fun.

2. Specific things I am most interested to see this spring, in no particular order: Aaron Judge’s swing post-shoulder surgery, Tyler Wade’s and Clint Frazier’s new hitting mechanics, and Gleyber’s swing post-elbow surgery. Judge and Gleyber both had surgery on their left arms, their front arms as right-handed hitters, and I’m curious to see whether there is any apprehension on their part to really cut it loose. That would be a bad thing but also a completely natural and correctable thing. My guess is both Judge and Torres will take full swings and look completely normal. They’ve been in camp and hitting a while now. They’ve likely worked through any lingering post-surgery apprehension. As for Wade and Frazier, both said they tweaked their hitting mechanics over the winter to accomplish different things — Wade wants to get around on the inside pitch better and Frazier wants to keep his bat in the zone a little longer — and I want to see those changes in action. Also, I should include Jordan Montgomery’s changeup in here. He said he the pitch didn’t behave last year. Getting that pitch back could be huge considering Montgomery was pretty darn good without it. Could take him to another level.

3. Annual reminder that Spring Training performance doesn’t mean anything — “(It) is a super small sample size with different kinds of situations than you would see during the regular season,” said Aaron Boone to Randy Miller — except in the very few cases it does. Those cases tend to be players on the fringes of the roster who are trying to make the team, or avoid getting released at the end of camp so they can go to Triple-A. They have to impress to stick around. Brian Cashman singled out Tyler Austin as someone who needs to have a good spring — “(He’s) going to have to show us some things down here to prove he’s the guy (to back up first base),” said Cashman to Dan Martin — and that was before the Drury trade. Now the Yankees could easily go into the season with Drury as their backup first baseman and send Austin back to Triple-A. So, who falls into the “he needs to have a good spring” camp this year? Austin, obviously. I’d say Chasen Shreve as well. The Yankees have lots of power arms in the minors and Shreve is the last guy in the bullpen. Andujar and Gleyber could help their roster situations with great Grapefruit League seasons, though in reality, there might not be anything they can do to secure a spot. They might be destined for Triple-A no matter what. Luis Cessa could use a strong spring to avoid falling behind guys like Domingo German and Chance Adams on the rotation depth chart. If CC Sabathia has a 9.75 ERA this spring, don’t worry. If Didi Gregorius doesn’t hit a homer until March 26th, don’t worry. If Masahiro Tanaka has a 0.50 ERA, don’t get excited. Spring performance for veteran dudes locked into a roster spot means nothing. It’s the guys on the fringes of the roster who have to perform.

4. When the Yankees hired Boone, I said I don’t expect there to be a meaningful difference in on-field strategy between Boone and Joe Girardi, only because the front office is involved in so many decisions. Sure enough, this Boone quote on the bullpen sounds very Girardi-esque. From Peter Gammons:

“These are guys who can be used in any situation at any point in games,” says Boone. “We have to carefully monitor their usage so they’re fresh right into September and hopefully October. The stuff and the depth the Yankees have assembled is really something.”

Girardi wouldn’t have thrown in that last line, otherwise yeah, sounds like him. And that’s fine. Keeping relievers healthy and effective over the long haul should be a top priority this season — the Yankees aren’t planning for a 162-game season here, they’re planning to play into November — and the Yankees do have the bullpen depth to make it possible. Certainly moreso than last year, when Girardi’s second wave of relievers was guys like Jonathan Holder and Tommy Layne. Boone has Adam Warren and Tommy Kahnle for those spots this year. Girardi didn’t like using relievers back-to-back-to-back days until very late in the season and I suspect the same will be true with Boone. That seems like a directive — maybe not a directive, but a suggestion — coming from above. When it came to not overworking relievers, Girardi was obsessive. I hope Boone is the same way. The real question is how does he deploy those guys? Does he have set seventh and eighth inning relievers, or will he be more willing to mix and match? Girardi rested guys but was very rigid with his deployment. I’m hoping Boone will be a little more flexible.

5. How long until Judge and Stanton get tired of answering questions about their bromance? It seems like something the media is trying to force on them — in every press conference so far they’ve been asked about their relationship and their work together — and that has to be annoying. I get it. They’re two superstars and they’re basically mirror images of each other, so these questions are inevitable. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were asked about their relationship all the time when the Yankees first acquired A-Rod. Now it’s happening with Stanton and Judge. They’re both awesome and they’re both Yankees, and it would be cool if they’re best buds. And if they don’t become best friends, that’s okay too. You can’t just stick two random people together and expect them to become friends just because they have similar traits. (It irks me to no end when Michael Kay says the Red Sox signed Hideki Okajima just so Daisuke Matsuzaka would have a friend.) Judge and Stanton are great, and as long as they’re both driven to help the Yankees win, that’s good enough for me. Being buddies would be icing on the cake even though it would make zero difference to my life whatsoever. I imagine all the questions will get grow old quick though. I know they would to me if I were in their shoes.

6. The new mound visit rule is going to create some headaches. One of the unintended consequences: How do teams stall for time while a reliever warms up? Usually the catcher would go out to the mound, maybe the pitching coach too, and there would be some pickoff tosses to first base to give the reliever time. Now those visits to the mound are limited. They’re a finite resource and teams may not want to burn one just to get a reliever ready. I suppose the solution is stepping off a bunch and/or making more pickoff throws to first base? Or do teams get their relievers warm a little earlier than usual? That’ll be tough because usually when we see teams stall for time, it’s because the inning is unraveling. The starter cruised through the first five innings then bam, a double and a walk to start the sixth inning, and the bullpen is getting hot. More step-offs and pickoff throws to first seems like the inevitable solution here, and functionally they shouldn’t add time to the game, but for whatever reason that stuff seems to kill the vibe more than a mound visit.

(Also, what happens when an umpire takes a foul ball to the face mask and needs a few seconds to gather himself? Usually the catcher makes a courtesy trip to the mound to give the umpire some time. I guess those visits are off the table now? And the umpires are okay with potentially feeling rushed back into the game while possibly being concussed?)

7. Can Major League Baseball work in Florida? This isn’t really a Yankees question but I think it has to be asked. Both the Marlins and Rays are tearing things down, and even when they were good and in contention, they couldn’t draw fans or run high payrolls. The Marlins have a brand new ballpark and they still can’t sell it out. Now the Rays are pushing for a new park right in Tampa. Is it worth it? Florida produces a ton of baseball players and you’d think a warm weather state would be a natural spot for MLB, but it’s been two decades now — more than that for the Marlins — and it’s not really working. Before investing hundreds of millions of dollars (tax payer dollars, of course) in another new ballpark in Florida, the league has to discuss whether it’s actually worth it. Would baseball be better with a team in, say, Portland or San Antonio rather than downtown Tampa? MLB is kinda stuck with the Marlins because the ballpark was just built. As for the Rays, MLB doesn’t want to lock itself into another undesirable situation if it’s not a viable market. The state doesn’t seem willing to support a team.

Spring Training has arrived. Pitchers and catchers report to Tampa today, and although pitchers and catchers reporting is typically a non-news day, it’s still exciting. Position players are due to arrive Sunday — many are already in camp — and the first Grapefruit League game is next Friday. Fun time of year, this is. Anyway, let’s get to some thoughts.

1. New manager Aaron Boone will hold his first annual start of Spring Training press conference later today — YES will have it live at 12pm ET (MLB.com will probably stream it as well) — and the major on-the-field questions he’ll be asked are pretty straightforward. Who will play second and third bases? Will Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton play left field? What role do you envision for Dellin Betances? How does Jacoby Ellsbury fit? The answer to each will be a longer version of “we’ll see.” Sorry for the spoiler. The more important questions, in my opinion: How is Judge doing following shoulder surgery? What sort of precautions are being taken with Luis Severino after last year’s workload? What do you need to see from Chad Green to stick with him as a starter? What are some of the challenges you’ve already faced as a manager that you didn’t expect? These start of spring press conferences are typically all optimism. Everyone is in great shape, so and so has been throwing well in bullpens, we’re really excited about that young player, so on and so forth. I don’t expect anything all that meaningful to come from today. I’m more curious to see how Boone is settling in now that the offseason is over and it’s time to get to work.

2. I am weirdly interested in hearing how Spring Training runs this year. Rob Thomson had been in charge of Spring Training since 1998, even when he wasn’t on the coaching staff, and George King says third base coach Phil Nevin and infielder coordinator Carlos Mendoza will run the show this year. I’m home in New York, not in Tampa, so I won’t be able to tell you what’s different and how things are going. At the end of the day, it’s Spring Training. Pitchers throw their bullpens, batters take batting practice, and fielders go through their drills. It’ll probably be the same as it always was. I’m just curious to see whether anything new is introduced. New drills, more team outings to bring the guys together, that sort of stuff. I guess my point is that, for the first time in 20 years, the Yankees have someone new running Spring Training, and I wonder what changes that will bring, if any.

3. Yu Darvish was the only free agent who I thought it was worth going over the $197M luxury tax threshold to sign. I’ve said all I have to say about the luxury plan. I think it’s dumb for the Yankees to throw away their inherent market advantage. But they’re going to get under the threshold whether I like it or not. The sooner they do it, the better. And with Darvish off the board, I don’t see the point in exceeding the threshold for anyone else. J.D. Martinez doesn’t fit at all. Lance Lynn or Alex Cobb? Meh. Eric Hosmer or Mike Moustakas? Not when you have Greg Bird and a small army of talented young infielders. Darvish makes any rotation better and would’ve been a big short-term upgrade for the Yankees. I like Jordan Montgomery as much as anyone, but he’s not Darvish. And besides, the Yankees will need their sixth starter to make a bunch of starts at some point anyway. Simply put, signing Darvish would’ve given the Yankees a much better chance to win the World Series this year and the next few years, and I think that’s enough of a reason to exceed the luxury tax threshold. Yes, the last two or three years of the contract will probably be ugly. That’s life. The Yankees have enough money to deal with the back-end of the contract though. (They paid Ellsbury and Alex Rodriguez a combined $42.1M last year for +1.6 WAR and survived.) With Darvish off the board, I don’t see any other free agent capable of having that kind of impact, so just get under the threshold now. Let’s get this plan over with already.

4. Am I the only one who thinks the Yankees’ rotation is pretty underrated right now? There’s been so much talk about adding a pitcher — not just any pitcher either, the Yankees have been connected to guys like Darvish and Gerrit Cole and Chris Archer — that it can be easy to think the rotation is a mess. Some combined 2018 projections for the top six starters on the depth chart (Montgomery, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, Sonny Gray, and presumably Luis Cessa):

• PECOTA: 4.16 ERA and +2.2 WAR per 180 innings
• Steamer: 4.09 ERA and +2.7 WAR per 180 innings
• ZiPS: 3.96 ERA and +3.0 WAR per 180 innings

The average AL starter had a 4.54 ERA last season. That three objective projection systems have the Yankees’ top six starters putting up a combined 4-ish ERA in Yankee Stadium is pretty great. We’ll see what actually happens on the field, of course. Projections don’t really mean anything at the end of the day. They’re just something fun to look at. I just think the Yankees have a pretty darn good rotation as it is, even while fully acknowledging the injury risks. Would another Darvish or Archer caliber pitcher be a welcome addition? Of course. But it’s not necessary. I get the feeling that the ongoing search for a starter has a lot of people — not Yankees fans, necessarily — thinking the Yankees will be running a patchwork staff out there in 2018.

5. Alright, so who is going to be That Guy this spring? The guy who has an inexplicably excellent Spring Training and everyone wants him on the Opening Day roster. Every once in a while That Guy turns into Yangervis Solarte (.429/.489/.571 in spring 2014). Most of them turn into Jon Weber (.452/.452/.581 in spring 2010), which is to say not much at all. The Yankees didn’t really have a That Guy last year. Greg Bird (.451/.556/1.098) and Gleyber Torres (.448/.469/.931) were way too hyped and prospecty to qualify as That Guy. Maybe Kyle Higashioka (.296/.406/.630)? Well, whatever. Danny Espinosa and Jace Peterson have serious That Guy potential this spring. They’re too obvious though. I’m going with Nick Solak even though he’s an actual prospect. I could see Solak hitting something like .420/.480/.700 against minor leaguers in the late innings of spring games and getting buzz as a second base option, even though he’s only played 30 games above Single-A. Jump him over Triple-A, who cares, he’s obviously ready and the best second base option. I can see it now.