River Avenue Blues

Game 129: Just Win

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(Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

The Yankees have split four games against the lowly Indians and Blue Jays, and they’re essentially a .500 team since the All-Star break. Mark Teixeira now joins Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez in the position player infirmary, so the club is really short-handed on offense. Add in a taxed and somewhat ineffective bullpen, and the current outlook isn’t looking so rosy for the Bombers. No one feels bad for them though, so just win. Here’s the lineup…

SS Derek Jeter
1B Nick Swisher
2B Robinson Cano
DH Steve Pearce
C  Russell Martin
CF Curtis Granderson
RF Andruw Jones
3B Jayson Nix
LF Ichiro Suzuki

RHP Phil Hughes

Tonight’s game is scheduled to start a little after 7pm ET and can be seen on YES. Enjoy, or at least try too.

Yankees option Casey McGehee to Low-A Charleston

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To make room on the 25-man roster for the recently-acquired Steve Pearce, the Yankees have optioned Casey McGehee all the way down to Low-A Charleston. The River Dogs have already been eliminated from postseason contention, so McGehee can return to the big leagues when their regular season ends next Monday rather than wait the full ten days. I thought they would make a similar move with David Phelps since he just started last night and Thursday’s off-day would allow them to shuffle the rotation, but they opted to play with a short bench instead. Weird.

Replacing Mark Teixeira with Chris Dickerson

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(Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

The Yankees lost more than just a game last night, as Mark Teixeira went down with a Grade I calf strain that will cost him no less than one week. Derek Jeter, as you may remember, suffered a Grade I calf strain last season and missed roughly three weeks. Hopefully the fact that he’s five years younger than the Cap’n will hasten Teixeira’s return to the lineup. Either way, the Yankees will be without their first baseman for an important stretch of games.

With the rosters set to expand on Saturday, don’t count on the Yankees placing Teixeira on the DL. Chances are they’ll play shorthanded for the next three games (Thursday’s an off-day) before calling up some players from the minors to fill various voids. One of those guys should be outfielder Chris Dickerson, who we saw briefly last year but has spent this summer raking for the homeless Triple-A squad. He owns a .321/.421/.523 batting line (169 wRC+) in 316 plate appearances this year, including a gaudy .354/.464/.619 line since the All-Star break.

I’ve written about the potential usefulness of the 30-year-old Dickerson in the past, noting that he can hit righties (career .341 wOBA against big league righties plus a .323/.420/.568 line against them in Triple-A this year), steal bases (17-for-20 in stolen bases attempts in Triple-A this year), and play strong defense in all three outfield spots. Dickerson can’t hit lefties though, so he is yet another platoon player in a lineup already featuring too many platoon players, but at this point the Yankees don’t have any alternatives. Players who can hit both lefties and righties are hard to find this time of year.

With Teixeira out of the lineup, the Yankees would have four players for four spots against righties — Dickerson, Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez, and Eric Chavez. Chavez has to play third and Ichiro an outfield corner; that’s the easy part. Having Dickerson around allows them to keep Ibanez at DH and put Dickerson in the other outfield corner while the switch-hitting Nick Swisher plays first. Against lefties they would have Andruw Jones, Casey McGehee, Jayson Nix, and the recently-acquired Steve Pearce for those same four positions: Jones at DH, McGehee at third, Nix in left, and Pearce at first with Swisher in his usual right field.

It’s pretty easy to see where Dickerson fits in here. Without him, one of those four right-handed platoon bats is going to have to play against righties, and that’s far from ideal. He’ll add some much-needed speed — Ichiro is 4-for-7 in steal attempts as Yankee — and improve the defense overall while not being an automatic out against righties. The sorta tricky part is getting him on the 40-man roster, which is backlogged as it is. I’m planning to write more about the 40-man situation in a day or two, but calling up Dickerson probably costs Ramiro Pena or Justin Thomas their job. That’s life though, these decisions are going to have to be made at some point anyway.

The Yankees catch a little bit of a break because they’re scheduled to face two left-handed starters in the next three games, so they can wait until rosters expand on Saturday to recall Dickerson. They don’t absolutely have to do it right now and set off a chain-reaction of 25-man roster moves. There’s no way they’ll be able to replace Teixeira’s production, but adding Dickerson as a platoon bat is their best in-house solution at the moment. Maybe McGehee or Pearce or one of those other platoon guys gets hots and carries things for a bit, but I wouldn’t count on it. Dickerson is mashing in Triple-A and offers the speed and defense elements as well. He’s their best internal option with Teixeira on the shelf.

More thoughts on the Boston fire sale

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So the guy with the $140M contract is going to play for a guy that used to manage in Japan? Come on!
(AP)

A few days ago, the Red Sox and Dodgers completed a potentially franchise-altering trade.  Boston sent underachieving malcontents Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez (who is actually still pretty good) plus Nick Punto to suddenly-loaded LA.  In return they received several solid prospects, the thoroughly mediocre James Loney, and most importantly, massive salary relief.  It was shocking to see a wealthy big market team unload all this talent for pennies on the dollar, truly a fire sale that only Tobias Funke could properly dramatize.

The deal will have a major impact on the Red Sox and Dodgers for years to come, and the reverberations could be felt throughout the league.  The Red Sox significantly increased their flexibility by shedding some $260 million in future contract obligations, allowing them to be big players on the free agent market in 2012 and in upcoming seasons.  While the 2012’s free agent class is not considered a stacked group, they could have room in the budget to sign several impact free agents.  These could include such notables as Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton, both incredibly talented players (albeit with risks attached).  If the Red Sox choose to spend big this offseason, it could be reminiscent of the Yankees’ spending spree in the 2008-2009 offseason, in which they signed Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett.

As we remember, these signings contributed heavily to the Yankees’ 2009 World Series title, so a similar splurge by the Red Sox could have them back in contention in a hurry.  However, failing several big acquisitions, it is difficult to see the Red Sox being serious playoff contenders in 2013 and possibly 2014.  While they have some talent remaining on the team and some intriguing players down on the farm (Xander Bogaerts, Matt Barnes, and Jackie Bradley Jr. especially), it is hard to see that roster being a serious threat to win the AL East.  Consequently, they will need to decide whether they are doing a full rebuild, or a Yankees-esque reload.  If they go big on the current free agent class, they risk burdening themselves with the types of big expensive contracts that got them into this mess in the first place.  However, a rebuild will likely doom them to non-competitiveness for several years, and this may have significant financial ramifications.

Assuming Boston doesn’t go for the full reload in 2013, the Yankees should be the AL East frontrunners, with the Rays as the main competition.  This is especially the case if Baltimore comes back to earth after a 2012 season that seems somewhat fluky.  Toronto will likely not have the same number of injuries again, but I don’t think that team has enough impact talent to be a competitor yet.

The defanging of the Red Sox definitely helps the Yankees in the short term, but how about the long term?  A lot of that depends on how the Red Sox end up deploying their newly-acquired flexibility.  The Yankees likely won’t be huge spenders on the free agent market over the next two years if they are serious about adhering to the austerity budget.  If Boston hasn’t loaded up on big free agents after 2012 or 2013, they could be serious competitors for some big name players that could hit the market in 2014 , most notably Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez.  The trade could also put Boston in the position to build a sustainable powerhouse if they are more fortunate with their free agent signing and hit it big on with a few of their prospects.  One question, however, could be whether Boston’s willingness to dump players recently signed to long-term contracts shows a lack of loyalty, and could make it difficult for them to attract free agents.  I think money talks ultimately, but that could be a tie-breaker.

While they are not in the same league as the Yankees, the sudden willingness of the Dodgers to spend big to acquire impact players should draw the attention of Yankee fans.  We are largely used to a unipolar landscape where the Yankees are the dominant franchise financially, capable of outbidding all comers to acquire their choice free agents.  There have been some exceptions to this paradigm of late, most notably the Yankees’ failure to sign Cliff Lee, but it largely has held true.  Seeing the new-money Dodgers throw that kind of cash around  begs the question of how much they are willing to spend to make their team a World Series contender.  Could they even outspend the Evil Empire?  After this big trade, they are pretty close, and if they are willing to spend even more money, they could be a force to be reckoned with on the free agent market.

Ultimately, the Yankees will be fine, but there is no doubt that this deal is a potential game-changer.  The Yankees may not be able to count on being able to sign all the best free agents to fill their holes, as fewer top guys have been hitting the market, and more teams have the financial resources to compete for the ones that do.  The Red Sox suddenly have huge flexibility to bring in new impact players, while the Dodgers showed a willingness to spend at Yankee-esque levels to become relevant.  In the short term, the Yankees should maintain their hold on the AL East, but they certainly can’t get too comfortable at their perch.

Reports: Dodgers inquired about Sabathia and Teixeira

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Via Joel Sherman, the Dodgers called the Yankees about the availability of both CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira prior to swinging their nine-player blockbuster with the Red Sox. The Bombers told them they have no interest in moving either player. Both Sabathia and Teixeira have four years and $90M+ left on their contracts after the season as well as full no-trade clauses.

It’s well-known that the Yankees want to get under the $189M luxury tax threshold in 2014, so moving even one of those two contracts would have been a huge financial help moving forward. Of course, it also would have weakening a division-leading club with World Series aspirations immensely. Moving Sabathia would have been foolish, Teixeira less so. Sherman also notes that the Dodgers didn’t appear to have any interest in Alex Rodriguez, who is still owed $114M from 2013-2017. That’s one contract the Yankees aren’t shedding.

Thoughts following last night’s extra-innings loss

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Someone else starting hitting too, please. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

I find these little “Thoughts following…” posts to be pretty therapeutic because they allow me to write about things on my mind that aren’t necessarily worth a full blown post; I just wish I had come up with them earlier. Hopefully you feel the same way. Anyway, I have some scattered thoughts to share after last night, so here they are…

1. I feel like I read this once a week on Twitter or in the comments or something, but last night’s loss legitimately felt like the worst of the season. This loss to the Rays and this loss to the White Sox were really bad as well, but not worst loss to the season bad. Frankly I kinda forgot about them until I dug through our game recap archive. Last night though, with the Yankees struggling in recent weeks and Rafael Soriano on the bump with a two-run lead and one strike to go (to the batter before Colby Rasmus) … yeah that one stings.

2. The Yankees are really, really going to miss Mark Teixeira while he’s out with his Grade I calf strain. Not counting the resurgent Derek Jeter or the suddenly prone to lefties Robinson Cano, the club now features platoon bats at first base, third base, left field, and DH in addition to the offensive black hole at catcher. That’s just way too many platoon guys. Injuries have forced it, but that doesn’t make it any easier for those fellas to remain sharp with irregular at-bats. That’s on top of missing Teixeira’s defense.

(REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)

3. I mentioned last night that David Phelps has stellar 17/2 K/BB in 18 innings since returning to the rotation two weeks ago, but he’s also allowed four homers during that time. For the season overall, he owns a solid 45.1% ground ball rate but an eyesore 1.29 HR/9. Granted, that’s not Phil Hughes-level bad or anything, but it is a flaw. It’s impossible not to have been impressed by Phelps this year, but keeping the ball in the park is one of many things he still has to learn how to do.

4. I can’t get over how shaky the bullpen is, particularly the middle relief compared to the rest of the Joe Girardi era. Soriano has been excellent in the closer’s role despite last night’s blowup and David Robertson remains more than capable as the setup man, but those middle innings are just terrifying. When left-handed specialist Boone Logan is your number three reliever, that’s a problem. I feel like the Yankees want Derek Lowe to revert back into the 1999-2001 version of himself so he could soak up some late-inning appearances, but I’m very skeptical of that actually happening. He missed bats back then. Hopefully they’re claiming every half-decent reliever off trade waivers even if it means getting saddled with a bad (Francisco Rodriguez?) contract for a month. They need arms.

5. You know what would be nice? If the Yankees actually bothered to blow some games open from time to time. Nineteen of their 74 wins have been by five runs or more (25.7%) compared to 34 of 97 last year (35.1%) and 35 of 95 the year before that (36.8%). The Yankees scored double-digit runs 19 times in 2010 and 18 times in 2011, but this season they’ve done it just eight times. That can obviously change in a hurry, but you get the point. Three of those eight have actually come against the Red Sox, if that means something. Probably not. The offense isn’t what it has been in recent years (injuries have played a part in that), but sheesh. Some easy wins would be appreciated down the stretch.

A-Rod will take batting practice today; Pettitte may throw off mound this week

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Via Mark Feinsand, third baseman Alex Rodriguez has been cleared to take full batting practice today after seeing the doctors about his broken hand last night. He’s been swinging a bat and hitting off a tee and soft toss in recent weeks, but full blown hacks on the field is another story. If he can take full batting practice for the next few days and that goes well, I suppose minor league rehab games won’t be far behind. That’s good, they really need him.

In other news, Andy Pettitte will continue to throw off flat ground and hopes to get back up on the mound later this week. He’s been throwing for some time while gradually increasing how much he’s pushed off that fractured left leg. He’ll need more time to get ready than A-Rod obviously, and there’s a good chance he’ll end up making minor league rehab starts during the Triple-A and Double-A playoffs. That should be neat.