An MRI showed inflammation and no new tear in Mark Teixeira’s right wrist, Joe Girardi announced. The first baseman received a cortisone shot and will be re-evaluated in a few days. He will avoid the DL for the time being. Teixeira is not close to being out of the woods yet, but that’s a surprisingly positive diagnosis.
Sherman: Yankees did not make an offer to Yasiel Puig
Via Joel Sherman: The Yankees did not make a contract offer to Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig during his free agency last summer. Like many other teams, they simply hadn’t seen enough of him to go all-in. The Dodgers signed him to a seven-year, $42M contract after one workout.
Puig, 22, has gone 20-for-44 (252 wRC+) with four homers and several stellar defensive plays during his two weeks in the big leagues. The Dodgers reportedly outbid the next highest offer by as much as $30M. For what it’s worth, Sherman hears a pair of Yankees scouts filed reports calling Puig an “impact player” soon after seeing him in the minors late last year. New York has become very conservative when it comes to Major League caliber international free agents, but Los Angeles did blow everyone out of the water. This wasn’t exactly a Jose Contreras-esque photo finish.
Yankees drop fifth straight; Angels win 6-2
Source: FanGraphs
We’ve reached the point where the Yankees look so washed up and non-competitive that all you can do is laugh. The losing streak reached five games on Saturday — they’ve also lost 13 of their last 20 games and are ensured of a losing road trip, not that it really matters — and as an added bonus, Mark Teixeira suffered an “aggravated right wrist” and will return to New York to get checked out by the team doctor on Sunday. Sure, why not? Let’s recap the 6-2 loss:
- Cy Hanson: Is anyone really surprised the Yankees made Tommy Hanson, he of the 4.12 ERA (5.68 FIP), look like a frontline starter on Saturday? Of course not. He struck out a season-high eight and faced the minimum three batters in four of his six full innings. The Yankees scored their only two runs in the third, when Jayson Nix followed Brett Gardner’s run-scoring triple with a run-scoring single. That’s all. They only had three other runners in scoring position in the entire game, and one got thrown out trying to steal third. For the fourth straight game and fifth time in the last six games, the Bombers scored no more than two runs.
- Plops: The pitching staff has carried the Yankees for the first two months of the season, but David Phelps became the third starter to allow at least four runs during the five-game losing streak on Saturday. Those four runs came on nine hits and two walks in six innings, making this one of his worst starts of the year. That’s a testament to how good he’s been, really. Phelps wasn’t bad but he wasn’t particularly sharp either, just one of those imperfect days. It happens. Unfortunately, that means a loss these days. Don’t count on the offense bailing anyone out.
- Leftovers: Shockingly, the murder’s row of Thomas Neal, Reid Brignac, and Chris Stewart couldn’t get Ichiro Suzuki home from third with no outs in the seventh … in other surprising news, intentionally walking the bases loaded with no outs (!) in the seventh backfired when Shawn Kelley walked in a run … Ichiro went 2-for-4 with two stolen bases and was the only real bright spot for New York. He also made two stellar sliding catches in right. It was vintage Ichiro! for a night … Gardner, Nix, and Stewart all had one hit apeice and that was it. No other Yankees had hits.
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some other stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Red Sox beat the Orioles and the Rays won, so the Yankees are three back of Boston, one back of Baltimore, and one up on Tampa. They’re five up on the Blue Jays. This nightmare ten-game West Coast swing ends on Sunday, when CC Sabathia gets the ball against Jered Weaver.
Cave & Bird both double twice in Charleston win
3B Eric Jagielo tweaked his hamstring in Extended Spring Training and will miss a few weeks, reports Robert Pimpsner. The Yankees selected Jagielo in the first round of last week’s draft and signed him for $1.84M a few days ago. That didn’t take very long, did it?
Meanwhile, RHP Mark Montgomery was activated off the DL, according to Donnie Collins. He missed about a week with shoulder fatigue. See? It’s not all bad news.
Triple-A Scranton (7-0 win over Lehigh Valley)
- C J.R. Murphy: 3-6, 1 R, 1 RBI — first hits at this level, this was his third game
- LF Zoilo Almonte: 4-5, 1 R — ten hits in his last 23 at-bats (.435)
- LHP David Huff: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5/4 GB/FB — 37 of 56 pitches were strikes (66.1%)
- RHP Mark Montgomery: 0.2 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 0/1 GB/FB — five of 11 pitches were strikes … I wonder if they’ll use him as a traditional one-inning reliever now instead of stretching him out for five or six outs
- RHP Chase Whitley: 2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2/0 GB/FB — 30 of 43 pitches were strikes (70%)
Update: Mark Teixeira leaves game with “aggravated right wrist”
9:26pm: Teixeira has an “aggravated right wrist,” the Yankees announced. He will return to New York to get checked out by the team doctor tomorrow. Probably not a good sign that they aren’t even waiting until the off-day on Monday.
8:32pm: Mark Teixeira left tonight’s game with an apparent right wrist problem after the third inning. Joe Girardi said he “just doesn’t feel like he has the snap in his swing” during the FOX interview while also indicating the first baseman will get the next few days off. Teixeira missed close to three months with a tendon sheath injury earlier this year, and the Yankees indicated there was only a 70% chance he would not require season-ending surgery.
Game 68: Stop the Skid
The Yankees are playing no good, very bad baseball these days. They can’t hit and their rotation has gone from outstanding to average of late — 3.96 ERA over the last 30 days and 4.09 ERA over the last 14 days. The bullpen has been dynamite, but there’s only so much those guys can do to help the team win. Someone needs to hit and someone needs to hand the relievers a lead. Here’s the lineup that will faced the mushy shoulder of right-hander Tommy Hanson:
- CF Brett Gardner
- 3B Jayson Nix
- 2B Robinson Cano
- 1B Mark Teixeira
- DH Lyle Overbay
- RF Ichiro Suzuki
- LF Thomas Neal
- SS Reid Brignac
- C Chris Stewart
And on the mound is the rotation leader with a 9.1 K/9, right-hander David Phelps. He is actually starting tonight, I don’t have my days mixed up again.
More perfect weather in Anaheim, but no surprises there. The game is scheduled to start at 7:15pm ET and can be seen on FOX. Sorry to those of you who will be blacked out, but then again the other teams might be more entertaining at this point. Enjoy.
Draft Signing Updates: Judge, Palladino, Giel
The Yankees signed eighth rounder Georgia Tech OF Brandon Thomas to a below-slot bonus on Friday, now here are some more updates on various other draft deals (draft round in parenthesis):
- Both California HS LHP Ian Clarkin (1s) and California HS 2B Gosuke Katoh (2) worked out with the Yankees before last night’s game. Doesn’t mean they’re close to signing; high picks typically come in for a dog and pony show soon after the draft.
- Fresno State OF Aaron Judge (1s) is still negotiating with the team, according to K. Levine-Flandrup. He’s slotted for just under $1.68M, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was under contract by this time next week. Hard to think this will be a prolonged negotiation.
- Howard JuCo RHP David Palladino (5) signed for $371k, reports KL-F. He agreed to terms earlier this week. The big (listed at 6-foot-9) righty was slotted for just about $278k, so he got almost a hundred grand over-slot. Good for him. They must really like his arm.
- Texas HS OF Kendall Coleman (11) signed for $150k, reports KL-F. Like Palladino, he agreed to terms a few days ago. Any money paid to a player drafted after the tenth round in excess of $100k counts against the draft pool, so Coleman chips $50k off the ledger.
- Missouri HS 3B Drew Bridges (20) received a call from the Orioles gauging his price in the third round and from the Yankees in the sixth round, reports Anvil Welch. “The Yankees are coming in this week or next to talk contract … I’ll make a decision after the meeting. If I get the money I’m asking, I’ll sign. If not, I’ll go to Missouri State,” he said. I’m guessing Bridges is just a backup plan in case the team winds up with some extra draft pool cash.
- Florida HS LHP Nestor Cortes (36) hopes to sign and will pitch in a summer league in the coming weeks, reports KL-F. Sounds like a typical summer follow situation, where the Bombers scout him further in the coming weeks before deciding whether to make an offer.
- According to Baseball America, the Yankees have signed UNLV RHP Andy Beresford (19), Western Oklahoma JuCo RHP Alex Polanco (23), Adelphi RHP Dillon McNamara (27), and Hawaii Pacific 3B Chaunsey Sumner (32). No word on the bonuses, but I doubt they’ll impact the draft pool. Polanco is Placido’s nephew and McNamara is a local kid from Staten Island.
- The Yankees have signed Columbia RHP Tim Giel as an undrafted free agent according to his Twitter feed. He was the top prospect in the Ivy League coming into the spring. No word on his bonus, but anything in excess of $100k counts against the draft pool. An undrafted free agent getting that big a bonus is unheard of, however. He’s a four-pitch righty who relies more on location than pure stuff. Here’s some video.
All of the team’s draft selections can be seen at Baseball America, and you can keep track of the draft pool situation with our 2013 Draft Pool page.