Tuesday Night Open Thread

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The Yankees were rained out tonight, and earlier this afternoon they announced Michael Pineda will start tomorrow night’s game as scheduled. Shane Greene is being pushed back to Saturday, with Brandon McCarthy going Friday and Chris Capuano going Sunday. The Yankees are taking advantage of the rainout and Thursday’s off-day by giving Hiroki Kuroda a nice seven-day rest. He needs it.

Here is your open thread for the Yankees baseball-less lineup. The Mets are playing, MLB Network will air a regional game, plus the Little League World Series is on. Talk about any of those games or anything else right here.

King: Yanks have until end of the week to make offer to Rusney Castillo

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Via George King: The Yankees have until the end of the week to submit a contract offer to Cuban free agent Rusney Castillo. Several teams have already made him an offer, though it’s unknown if the Yankees are one of those teams. Castillo is expected to sort through the offers in the coming days and could sign next week.

The Yankees had Castillo in Tampa for a private workout last week, and they reportedly like him more at second base than in the outfield. Most teams like him in the outfield. Castillo has had private workouts with several teams and King says he still has a few more scheduled this week. I have no idea whether signing Castillo is a smart move — reports indicate he could get as much as $50M — though the Yankees certainly have a long-term need at second. If that doesn’t work, the outfield is always a fallback option.

Tonight’s Yankees-Orioles game postponed, doubleheader Sept. 12th

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2:53pm: Erik Boland says the game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12th. That means the Yankees will play 21 games in 20 days to close out the regular season.

2:49pm: Tonight’s Yankees-Orioles game has been postponed due to rain, according to Marly Rivera. There has not yet been an official announcement. No word on when the game will be made up, but they could play a doubleheader tomorrow or the makeup game on Thursday’s mutual off-day. The Yankees and Orioles do not have any other mutual off-days this season.

Trade deadline additions yet to have an impact offensively

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"Please pray that I get a hit." (Darren McCollester/Getty)
“Please pray that I get a hit.” (Darren McCollester/Getty)

Heading into the trade deadline, it was clear the Yankees needed to upgrade their lineup and their rotation. The pitching help never came, at least not in the form of something other than a scrap heap pickup, but the team did add three position players at the deadline. Chase Headley was acquired to shore up third base, and, about a week later, Stephen Drew and Martin Prado were brought in for second base and right field, respectively.

The Yankees were getting close to nothing from those three positions before the trade deadline. The team’s third basemen hit .224/.321/.301 from June 1st through the Headley trade while their second basemen and right fielders hit .204/.259/.319 and .228/.254/.290, respectively, in June and July before the Drew and Prado trades. That’s pretty awful. The Yankees had (at least) three dead spots in the lineup for a two-month stretch and something had to be done. That couldn’t continue.

Headley, Drew, and Prado stepped right into the lineup and immediately improved the team’s defense even though the latter two were playing out of position. Surely the focus was on upgrading the offense, but improve the defense was also important and the Yankees accomplished that with the trades. The offensive production has not been there yet, at least not from Drew and Prado. Headley is hitting .250/.354/.382 (110 wRC+) in pinstripes and it would be unfair to lump him in with the other two. He hasn’t been great with the bat but he hasn’t been part of the problem either.

Drew and Prado, however, has been totally unproductive in their limited time with the Yankees. Drew is hitting .154/.195/.231 (12 wRC+) in 41 plate appearances so far, and two of his three hits (!) came in his first two games with the team. He’s gone 1-for-28 with no walks since. He has consistently had long at-bats (4.12 pitches per plate appearance) but, as we saw with Brian Roberts, that is close to meaningless if those at-bats don’t turn into times on base. He’s been very good defensively in my opinion, especially since he’s playing a new position, but that hasn’t been enough.

(Presswire)
(Presswire)

Prado, on the other hand, is hitting .189/.250/.297 (51 wRC+) with a homer in 40 plate appearances with the Yankees. He took David Price deep a week ago and has three singles with no walks since. Prado wasn’t hitting much with the Diamondbacks before the trade (89 wRC+), though he was trending in the right direction, with a .282/.326/.411 (103 wRC+) batting line in the two months prior to coming to New York, but he has not sustained that success in pinstripes. I don’t think anyone was expecting peak Prado, when he was consistently a 117+ wRC+ player with the Braves, but I think we were all hoping for something better than this.

Now, both Drew and Prado are playing new positions and that could be hurting their offense. Drew didn’t have a proper Spring Training and Prado is also changing leagues. If nothing else, those are reasons to hope they will improve going forward. Not hitting since joining the Yankees doesn’t mean they will not hit forever, but these last eleven games or so happened. They’re in the books and neither player has helped the struggling offense. The Bombers averaged 4.01 runs per game before the trade deadline and they’re at 3.82 runs per game since. Obviously facing Corey Kluber and Detroit’s staff last week will skew the numbers a bit, but Bud Norris? Carlos Carrasco? Anthony Ranaudo?

The Yankees lack a bonafide number three or four hitter in the wake of Robinson Cano‘s departure and that type of hitter simply wasn’t available at the trade deadline. The team was going to have to get by with smaller upgrades to add depth to the lineup, and the Drew and Prado additions theoretically did that. They have yet to hit though, failing to meet the low “better than Roberts and Ichiro” standard this far. The Yankees don’t have the pitching or the impact hitters at other positions to continue carrying multiple dead spots in the lineup. Drew and Prado have to start producing for the team to have any hope of climbing back into the postseason race.

Davidoff: Yankees likely to support Rob Manfred for next commissioner

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Via Ken Davidoff: The Yankees are likely to support MLB COO Rob Manfred as baseball’s next commissioner. Manfred is up for the job along with MLB executive vice president of business Tim Brosnan and Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. Richard Sandomir and Michael Schmidt note Brewers owner Mark Attanasio and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg were also interviewed for the job but not nominated. Manfred and Werner are considered the favorites with Brosnan lagging behind.

Davidoff says the Yankees figure to support Manfred because of his relationship with the players’ union and the belief that he’ll be able to keep both big and small market teams happy going forward. Manfred spearheaded MLB’s investigation into Biogenesis and testified against Alex Rodriguez during his appeal, though I highly doubt that has anything to do with the team’s willingness to support him. Supporting Manfred is all about what Yankees ownership believes is best for their billions of dollars, not a grudge against A-Rod.

The owners will vote on the next commissioner this Thursday at the quarterly meetings, and a candidate needs 23 of 30 votes to be elected. There’s a chance no one will be elected on Thursday and the search for Bud Selig’s replacement will continue for another few weeks. Selig is retiring in January.

Bullpen issues coming at a bad time for Yankees

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(Presswire)
(Presswire)

When Chris Davis hit that two-run homer off Chris Capuano last night, it gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead that felt a whole lot bigger than one run because of how ineffective the Yankees’ offense has been. Scoring has been a big problem, so when Adam Warren and Chase Whitley combined to let the O’s blow things open in the later innings, the game was over. The Yankees might not score as many runs in the series as Baltimore did on Monday.

The offense was again a huge issue last night, especially considering two of the team’s three runs were gift-wrapped by some defensively hilarity. The bullpen was also an issue, which has been the case more and more often in recent weeks. Last night was an extreme example, obviously, but the bullpen has now allowed at least one run in each of the last four games and in 15 of 24 games since the All-Star break. The bullpen overall has a 3.91 ERA (3.99 FIP) since the break, which doesn’t sound awful, but the AL average is 3.63 ERA (3.68 FIP).

The Yankees have had a revolving door in the last spot or two of the bullpen all season, and guys like Chris Leroux and Alfredo Aceves and Matt Daley have put a dent in the team’s overall bullpen numbers. Joe Girardi has a top heavy bullpen this year led by the two elites in David Robertson and Dellin Betances. Adam Warren was an excellent supporting piece at various points, but that has not been the case lately. In fact, he’s been part of the problem these last few weeks.

Obviously last night was a total nightmare. Three runs on a single, a double, and a homer in one inning of work, giving Warren a 6.97 ERA (5.65 FIP) in 10.1 innings in the All-Star break. Take it back to May 15th (arbitrary!), which immediately follows a stretch in which he threw multiple innings five times in eleven days, and he has a 4.75 ERA (3.60 FIP) in 36 innings. Warren has walked six batters and struck out only five in his last 6.1 innings and he just looks worn down. He’s not locating well or finishing his pitches; his breaking balls are cement mixers more often than not.

Shawn Kelley had a disaster outing against the Indians on Friday night (four runs in one-third of an inning) but otherwise has allowed just one run since the break. He looked a little rough when he first came off the disabled list back in June, but Kelley has sorted it out of late and should clearly be ahead of Warren on the bullpen pecking at this point. I really like Warren as a one-inning, air-it-out reliever, but I just don’t see how Girardi can use him as a high-leverage guy right now. He’s not equipped to help the team in that capacity at this point in time.

(Abelimages/Getty)
(Abelimages/Getty)

The Yankees are carrying eight relievers — it’s a necessity more than overkill right now given the state of the rotation — but the last few spots are for spare arms in case of blowouts. Daley, Bryan Mitchell, and Leroux have cycled in and out of the last bullpen spot just within the last week. Soon Esmil Rogers will take over. Rich Hill (and David Huff) is keeping the left-handed specialist position warm until the Yankees deem someone like Tyler Webb or Jacob Lindgren big league ready, and Chase Whitley is flat out unusable. Four runs in two-thirds of an inning last night, ten runs in 6.1 innings since moving into the bullpen, and 30 runs in his last 28.1 innings overall. I don’t see why he belongs on the MLB roster at this point.

That eight-man bullpen is effectively a three-man bullpen with a lot of filler mixed in. Robertson, Betances, and Kelley should be Girardi’s top choices for important innings — it seems like Huff has worked his way into the Circle of Trust™ as well, but yuck — simply because no one else is pitching well. Warren shouldn’t see big innings because he hasn’t shown us anything recently to make us think he’s reliable. I don’t know if it’s fatigue or something else, but it’s happening. The Leroux, Whitley, and Hill group is there to steal outs whenever they can, basically. Sometimes you get lucky, most of the time you don’t.

At the moment, you could make a pretty strong case Rogers is the fourth best reliever in the Yankees’ bullpen. I’m talking about this very moment in time. There is definitely an argument to be made that Rogers is better able to help you win a game on August 12th than Warren or Whitley or whoever. The Yankees aren’t getting a lot of length from their starters and the offense has been stagnant, so the bullpen has had to work a lot and these emergency type arms have been forced into important situations. That’s a problem. Girardi’s bullpens have been very good over the years, but the combination of a bad offense and a short rotation has this relief crew teetering on the edge of disaster whenever someone other than Betances or Robertson enters the game.

Orioles spot the Yankees some runs, Yankees lose 11-3 anyway

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It was pretty obvious which team is in first place and which team is struggling to stay in the second wildcard race on Monday night, wasn’t it? The Yankees lost the series opener in Baltimore by the score of 11-3. They actually lead 3-1 at one point. I assume the Bombers wanted to come into this series and make something of a statement. Instead they were the bug and the Orioles were the windshield.

(Greg Fiume/Getty)
(Greg Fiume/Getty)

Look At What The Orioles Did
The Yankees scored their first run in the first inning on a simple triple (Brett Gardner) plus ground ball (Derek Jeter) combination. The triple was juuust out of Adam Jones’ reach in left-center. It might have even hit off his glove. In such an important game, scoring a run within the first two batters is much appreciated. I love first inning runs on the road. Jump right on the other team and force them to play from behind.

The second and third runs … I can’t even begin to explain what happened. Carlos Beltran walked and Chase Headley snuck a ground ball single through the infield on a hit-and-run to give the Yankees runners on corners with no outs, and that’s the easy part. This is the Little League play that followed and resulted in two runs:

The official scoring was stolen bases for both Headley and Beltran — so Beltran technically stole home — plus errors on Manny Machado and Bud Norris. The errors allowed Headley to go to third and then home. I don’t even care how it gets scored. I’m just happy that hilarity led to two runs for the Yankees. They need all the runs they can get these days, and if it takes Machado hitting Beltran in the helmet with a throw, so be it.

With their nightly runs scored quota met, the offense packed it in the rest of the game and had just one runner make it as far as third base after the second inning. That was Jacoby Ellsbury in the eighth, when he walked, stole second, and moved to third on Beltran’s ground out. Jeter’s one-out double to right in the fifth was their only hit after the second inning. Beltran reached on an error by second baseman Jonathan Schoop in the third, Ellsbury drew his walk in the eighth, and Headley drew walks in both the sixth and eighth. That was all the offense in the final seven innings.

(Greg Fiume/Getty)
(Greg Fiume/Getty)

No Match
Chris Capuano had a typical Chris Capuano outing, at least based on his entire career and not just his two weeks in pinstripes. He allowed four runs in six innings, including two on Chris Davis’ mammoth go-ahead two-run homer in the fifth inning. It was a total hanger, the curveball curved right into Davis’ bat. Sucks because Capuano was ahead in the count 0-2 before David battled back to make it 3-2 and hit the homer. Blah.

The offense was going to have a hard enough time coming back from the 4-3 deficit following Davis’ homer, so the game was effectively over once Nelson Cruz clobbered an Adam Warren meatball for a two-run homer in the seventh inning to give Baltimore a 7-3 lead. Doubles by Nick Markakis and Jones gave the O’s a run earlier in the inning. Warren was almost out of the inning when Cruz popped up in foul territory, but Martin Prado couldn’t reel it in near the wall. Not like it would have mattered anyway.

Because being down 7-3 wasn’t enough, Chase Whitley put two guys on base and served up a three-run homer to Schoop in the bottom of the eighth to really put the game out of reach. That pretty much guarantees the Orioles will outscore the Yankees in the series. Dating back to June 1st, Warren has a 5.46 ERA (~4.10 FIP) in 28 innings. Whitley has allowed ten runs in 6.1 innings since moving into the bullpen last month, allowing at least one run in all five appearances. Capuano held his own, but otherwise New York’s staff was no match for Baltimore’s offense.

Feet aren't supposed to bend that way. (Presswire)
Feet aren’t supposed to bend that way. (Presswire)

Leftovers
Gardner (triple), Jeter (double), Headley (single), Prado (single), and Frankie Cervelli (single) had the team’s only hits. Ellsbury, Beltran, and Headley (two) drew the walks. The Yankees have had exactly five hits in each of their last three games. The last time they had five or fewer hits in three straight games was, well, last September.

The Yankees took a big fat 0-fer in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position. They actually had men on first and second with one out in the second inning after that Little League play, but Gardner flew out and Jeter grounded out. Bud Norris was asking for it early on, but the Yankees are pros at letting pitchers off the hook.

Machado left the game in the third inning with a right knee injury after his leg buckled under him on a swing. It was kinda ugly. He had surgery on the other knee over the winter. The Orioles say he has a sprain and will be re-evaluated on Tuesday. I doubt we see him the rest of the series.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the video highlights and box score, go to MLB.com. For some other stats, go to FanGraphs. For the updated standings, go to ESPN. The Yankees are currently seven games back in the AL East and three games back of the second wildcard spot. The Royals jumped over the Tigers in the AL Central, so Detroit is currently sitting in the second wildcard spot. FanGraphs has the Yankees’ postseason odds at 16.5%.


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
Same two teams on Tuesday night, when Shane Greene gets the ball against lefty Wei-Yin Chen. It will be the first time Greene faces a team for the second time as a starter. That’s always a big deal.