River Avenue Blues

Thoughts after the Yankees lose Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar to injuries

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Miggy :(    (Presswire)

The Yankees were hit with a double whammy yesterday. They lost Giancarlo Stanton to a biceps strain and Miguel Andujar to a “small” labrum tear. Stanton got hurt taking a swing and Andujar got hurt diving back into third base. Once CC Sabathia’s suspension ends tonight and he’s placed on the injured list tomorrow, the Yankees will have ten players on the shelf. The season is four games old! Good gravy. Anyway, let’s get to some thoughts.

1. The Andujar injury is brutal. Stanton’s a great player and an important Yankee, but he pulled a muscle and is expected back in a few weeks. It sucks but it’s not the end of the world. Andujar has structural damage in his shoulder and is potentially facing season-ending surgery. Career-altering surgery, maybe, because it is his throwing arm. He was all set to build on what was a historic rookie season in some respects, and now he’s instead looking at a lost season and an uncertain future. The Yankees passed on Manny Machado and showed faith in Andujar as their long-term third baseman over the winter. He’s missing out on a chance to reward the team’s faith in him and further seize the job. I feel terrible for the kid. Andujar’s best case scenario is spending a few weeks rehabbing and what, coming back in May or June? Maybe even later? He worked hard all winter and all Spring Training on his defense and just like that his season might be over. Baseball ain’t fair sometimes.

2. Andujar, Stanton, Aaron Hicks, and Didi Gregorius are four-ninths of the Yankees’ best possible lineup and they’re all on the injured list. They combined for 119 home runs and +15.1 WAR last season. That is a ton of production. A ton. There is of course no guarantee they would’ve repeated those numbers this season, but all four guys are in their primes, and it’s not unreasonable to think they would have put up similar (or better!) numbers with good health. Instead, they’re all out of the lineup and it is impossible to replace them. Their replacements aren’t putting up those numbers. No team could lose four-ninths of their best possible lineup and not feel it. The worst part? I’m not sure any of those guys is coming back anytime soon. We know Gregorius won’t return until June or July or August. Hicks hasn’t started baseball activities yet. Aaron Boone said Stanton will “hopefully” return before the end of the month. Andujar? Who knows. I hope the rehab approach works but I can’t get the Mason Williams/Dustin Ackley base-related shoulder surgeries out of my head. Fingers crossed. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this other than to say geez, the lineup has really thinned out. The Yankees will be without their two best left-handed bats (well, one lefty and one switch-hitter), no worse than their second best power hitter, and their best contact/power threat. It stinks. It really, really stinks.

3. With the lineup thinned out, the Yankees are going to need several incumbents to pick up the slack offensively with Andujar and Stanton injured. They have to get something out of Greg Bird. Have to. Enough with the “he has upside and he hit some homers in the postseason two years ago!” theoretical production. Bird keeps falling upwards into playing time — he hit .199/.286/.386 (81 wRC+) last season and four games into this season he’s hitting cleanup! — and the Yankees need him to be the on-base/power threat they envisioned when he first arrived. They also need something more than nothing from Troy Tulowitzki, and they need Gary Sanchez to be 2017 Gary Sanchez rather than 2018 Gary Sanchez. Also, Brett Gardner too, especially since he’s apparently entrenched as the leadoff hitter. I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Gardner’s looked more like himself the last two games, and Sanchez is socking dingers, so hopefully that continues. It is literally impossible to replace Stanton’s power and there’s no other player in the organization who combines contact ability with extra-base ability like Andujar. Forget about replacing their individual production. Just get as much as you can from everyone else and worry about fielding the deepest possible lineup. Get more from catcher, get more from first base, get more from Gardner and Tulowitzki. Easier said than done, of course, but it’s the only thing the Yankees can do. No one player is coming to save the day.

4. As much as the injury stinks, one thing losing Andujar does is improve the infield defense and quite a bit at that. I love the kid, and I do think was kinda sorta maybe possibly getting better at third base, but yeah, DJ LeMahieu is a much better gloveman. I’m sure LeMahieu’s inexperience will pop-up at some point — that usually happens on a cutoff play or something non-routine — but, overall, he’s looked rock solid at worst and legitimately above-average at best at the hot corner in limited looks. Going from Andujar to LeMahieu means the Yankees will lose something offensively but gain a lot defensively. Heck, the defensive gain might more than make up for the offensive loss. Then again, it’s not Andujar or LeMahieu. The Yankees should have Andujar and LeMahieu. Still, the infield defense will be improved now that LeMahieu is at third full-time. That’ll help CC Sabathia in particular given how many weak rollers to the left side of the infield he gets. That’s the silver lining in otherwise terrible situation.

5. The Yankees really lucked out with the schedule this month. We know any team can beat any other team on any given day in this game — we certainly saw that this past weekend — but I will happily take a month filled with games against rebuilding teams than a month filled with games against contending teams. Especially while dealing with so many injuries. No Andujar, no Gregorius, no Hicks, no Stanton? Give me the Tigers and Orioles and White Sox and Royals as much as possible until they start coming back. The season is four games old and already it feels like the Yankees are just trying to keep their head above water. That’s not good. The Yankees have come out and play well — they clearly didn’t do that against the Orioles the last few days — but at least the schedule gives the a little reprieve. Staying afloat is easier against bad teams than good teams.

6. The potential for the Yankees to use the injuries as an excuse for, well, anything, is annoyingly high right now. Don’t win the division? Don’t make the postseason? I can already hear Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner talking about all the injuries and adversity and all that. I hate it. Injuries happen and yes, the Yankees are dealing with an inordinate number of injuries now, but I’ve never liked leaning on them as an excuse, especially when you’re in the game’s biggest market and have the most resources. Every team has injuries. The teams that best overcome them are the teams left standing at the end of the season. We’re four games into the season and already the injury excuse is built-in. I really hope we don’t hear it later in the season and we’re instead talking about how Clint Frazier and Greg Bird and others stepped up. Would be cool.

Yankees 3, Tigers 1: Yankees sacrifice Stanton and Andujar to injury gods for a win

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That’s much more like it. The Yankees bounced back from those yucky back-to-back losses to the Orioles over the weekend to pick up a 3-1 win over the Tigers in Monday night’s series opener. All they had to do was sacrifice Giancarlo Stanton (biceps) and Miguel Andujar (shoulder) to the injury gods.

Hey Gardner’s taller. (Presswire)

Dingers & Errors
Last season, in his first healthy season in several years, Tyson Ross held righties to a .172/.250/.315 (.243 wOBA) batting line. Lefties? They hit .292/.381/.467 (.368 wOBA) against him. That platoon split played out Monday night:

  • RHB vs. Ross: 1-for-11 (.091) and three strikeouts
  • LHB vs. Ross: 3-for-8 (.375) and one strikeout

That one right-handed hit was Gary Sanchez’s second inning solo home run to center field to open the scoring. Gary has gone deep in back-to-back games for the first time since hitting a home run in three straight games in August 2017. Only two other righties managed to hit the ball out of the infield against Ross: Luke Voit lined out to right and Gleyber Torres flew out to right.

The left-handed batters picked up the slack. After Voit drew a two-out walk in the third inning, Greg Bird looped a single to left field, and Christin Stewart muffed it. Took his eye off the ball, it clanked off his glove, and it got by him. That allowed Voit to chug all the way around from first base to score. I thought he was going to be out at the plate by about 25 feet. Instead, he slid in safely and the Yankees took a 2-0 lead.

Brett Gardner had two of those three left-handed hits against Ross. He snuck a ground ball through the infield to start the first inning with a single, though that didn’t lead to anything. In the fifth Gardner tomahawked a mistake fastball into the home bullpen for a solo home run and a 3-1 lead. Ross was leaving spinners up in the zone all night and Sanchez and Gardner parked two of them over the fence.

German Walks The Tight Rope
Against a better offense, Domingo German does not get through five innings with one unearned run on the board. The Tigers are rebuilding and their lineup outside Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera is pretty terrible, and that helped German avoid the big inning Monday night. He walked five in those five innings, and he also got away with several mistake pitches in the heart of the plate. Look it:

A more fearsome lineup probably turns some of those foul balls and swings and misses out over the plate into balls in play. But, the Tigers are not a more fearsome lineup, so German was able to give the Yankees five innings, and the results are the only thing that matters. Not hypothetical performances against hypothetical lineups. German is the sixth starter and I’ll take five innings and one run from my sixth starter each time out.

German’s outing would’ve been scoreless had Gleyber Torres not alligator-armed a throw from Sanchez at second base. The runners took off on a pitch in the dirt and Sanchez’s throw was right there. The runner slid into the tag! Torres whiffed on the throw though, so the ball sailed into center field and the runner came around from second to score with two outs. Gleyber has to at least keep that on the infield to stop the runner at third. Alas.

As always, German’s stuff was just filthy Monday night. Fastball sat 94.3 mph and topped out at 96.3 mph while running all over the place, the breaking ball had tremendous bite, and he also threw a few changeups with serious fade. Stuff has never been a question with German. It is exciting. Command and sometimes basic strike-throwing has proved elusive, however. Domingo doesn’t always know where the ball is going, hence the five walks.

The final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 7 K on 79 pitches. The Tigers missed with 16 of their 34 swings. Nearly half. Those 16 swings and misses are 11th most by any pitcher in a game in the early going this season, and nine of the ten guys with more threw at least 88 pitches in their outing. Strikes were an issue on a cold night. The results were not. One run and five innings is just what the Yankees needed.

Four Relievers For Four Innings
I love that Aaron Boone used Adam Ottavino against Castellanos and Cabrera. Ottavino has been hell on righties since the start of last season. When the other team has two great right-handed hitters back-to-back in the lineup, Ottavino should be matched up against them in a close game. That meant holding him back until the eighth inning on Monday and not sticking to some paint-by-numbers bullpen approach.

Using Ottavino against Castellanos and Cabrera was a smart move … and then Ottavino walked them on ten total pitches to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Niko Goodrum, a switch-hitter, scorched a line drive to right that Aaron Judge managed to catch on a dive without breaking his wrist.

Man, I can’t help but cringe whenever a player makes a catch like that and rolls over on his wrist. Fortunately Judge is okay. Also, if that ball gets by him, the game’s tied. The speedy Dustin Peterson pinch-ran for Cabrera at first base and that ball was far enough in right field that Peterson likely scores before Gardner retrieves the ball. Huge, game-saving catch. What a ballplayer.

Chad Green went 1-2-3 in the sixth, Zack Britton pitched around a one-out double in the seventh, and Aroldis Chapman needed all of seven pitches to close the door in the ninth. In case you’re wondering, Chapman’s fastball sat 97.0 mph and topped out at 98.3 mph. Ottavino made things interesting with the two walks. Otherwise the bullpen was nails.

Leftovers
Only five hits for the Yankees. Gardner had a single and a homer, Sanchez had a homer, Judge had a double, and Bird has his single Stewart muffed in left field. Judge, Voit, Sanchez, and DJ LeMahieu each drew a walk. Aside from the two solo homers and the Bird single/Stewart error, there wasn’t much action in this one.

With German starting, every player on the Opening Day roster has appeared in a game except one: Austin Romine. I think he’ll catch the afternoon game Wednesday after the night game Tuesday.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
The box score and video highlights are at MLB.com. The updated standings are at ESPN. We have a Bullpen Workload page. Here is the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The fifth game of the season and the second game of the series. It’ll be Masahiro Tanaka and Jordan Zimmermann on Tuesday night. That’s another 6:35pm ET start.

Miguel Andujar placed on 10-day injured list with shoulder injury

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(Presswire)

9:33pm ET: Andujar has a “small” tear in his labrum, Aaron Boone said following tonight’s game. The Yankees and Andujar will take the conservative approach and try to rehab the injury, but season-ending surgery is a possibility. Either way, he’s going to miss several weeks. Sigh.

6:07pm ET: Nine! Nine injured Yankees, ah ah ah. The Yankees have placed Miguel Andujar on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, the team announced. Tyler Wade has been recalled to fill the roster spot. The Yankees lost Giancarlo Stanton to a biceps injury earlier today.

The Yankees say Andujar will undergo tests and, considering Wade was in Scranton for the Triple-A team media day earlier today, this was a last minute decision. Jack Curry says Andujar suffered the injury diving back into third base yesterday. I assume it happened on this play:

While with the Yankees both Mason Williams and Dustin Ackley suffered shoulder injuries diving back into bases that required season-ending surgery. That is worrisome, to be sure, but we don’t have any real information about the Andujar injury. It’s serious enough to require an injury list stint and tests. That’s all we know.

The Yankees have a quality replacement third baseman in DJ LeMahieu, which means Wade will get playing time whenever Troy Tulowitzki rests. That will be fairly often. Over the weekend Aaron Boone said they don’t want to play Tulowitzki three straight days just yet. The Yankees have nine guys on the injured list and somehow Tulowitzki and Greg Bird are not among them. Go figure.

Right now the Yankees are without their ace (Luis Severino), starting shortstop (Didi Gregorius), starting third baseman (Miguel Andujar), starting center fielder (Aaron Hicks), starting designated hitter (Giancarlo Stanton), ace setup man (Dellin Betances), and various depth players (Jacoby Ellsbury, Ben Heller, Jordan Montgomery). The depth is being tested early. That’s for sure.

Game Four: Win it for Giancarlo

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(Sarah Stier/Getty)

Because losing two of three to the crummy Orioles isn’t bad enough, the Yankees lost Giancarlo Stanton to an injury this weekend as well. He was placed on the injured list with a biceps strain earlier today. The lineup is now missing Stanton, Didi Gregorius, and Aaron Hicks. They combined for 92 homers and +12.9 WAR last year. That’s a lot of production gone.

“I don’t like it at all,” Stanton said to Bryan Hoch this afternoon. “I just worked for six weeks to get here, plus the offseason. I’d much rather this would have popped in Spring Training, but it’s where we’re at.”

Clint Frazier is with the Yankees and was told he’ll play a lot, though he’s not in today’s lineup because he’s been traveling — he went from Tampa to Scranton yesterday, then Scranton to New York this morning — and also because tonight’s matchup isn’t good. Tyson Ross chews up righties and is susceptible to lefties, so Mike Tauchman gets his first start in pinstripes. Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. 1B Greg Bird
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. 2B Gleyber Torres
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Mike Tauchman
9. SS Troy Tulowitzki

RHP Domingo German

Detroit Tigers
1. 2B Josh Harrison
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. DH Miguel Cabrera
4. 1B Niko Goodrum
5. 3B Jeimer Candelario
6. LF Christin Stewart
7. C Grayson Greiner
8. SS Jordy Mercer
9. CF Mikie Mahtook

RHP Tyson Ross

It has been a deceptively beautiful day in New York. Big blue sky and not a cloud to be found. It’s also freezing. Those last few days with temperatures in the 60s were a tease. It’ll be in the low 40s tonight. Yeesh. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm ET tonight and you can watch on the YES Network. Enjoy.

Injury Update: Aaron Hicks (back) has started doing some rotational work. He has not yet resumed baseball activities and Aaron Boone said Hicks “still has got some weeks to go,” which ain’t good.

Yankees place Giancarlo Stanton on 10-day injured list with biceps strain

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(Presswire)

4:01pm ET: Stanton suffered the injury on a swing yesterday. He told the Yankees he needed a day or two off after the game, they sent him for an MRI, and it revealed a Grade I strain. Stanton will be shut down ten days, then reevaluated. “Hopefully we get him back at some point this month,” said Boone.

Here is the injury swing. You can see Stanton shake out his left arm after fouling the pitch back. He also took a long walk around before getting back in the box.

11:04am ET: Another key Yankee has been lost to injury. This morning the team announced Giancarlo Stanton has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left biceps strain. Clint Frazier has been called up in a corresponding move.

The Yankees did not announce the severity of Stanton’s injury nor did they announce a timetable for his return. That’s something we’ll likely learn during Aaron Boone’s usual pregame media session this afternoon. Stanton is the eighth (!) Yankee on the injured list. Look at this:

  • Dellin Betances (shoulder inflammation)
  • Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery)
  • Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery)
  • Ben Heller (Tommy John surgery)
  • Aaron Hicks (back)
  • Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery)
  • Luis Severino (shoulder inflammation)
  • Giancarlo Stanton (biceps)

That’s the staff ace, the starting shortstop, the starting center fielder, the No. 3 hitter, the ace setup man, and other depth players. Oh, and CC Sabathia will be placed on the injured list Wednesday, after his five-game suspension ends. He’ll be the ninth Yankee on the injured list.

Stanton is 2-for-8 (.250) with an MLB leading seven walks in the early going this season. He’d taken over left field full-time with Brett Gardner sliding over to center to cover for the Hicks injury. The outfield right now is Gardner, Frazier, Aaron Judge, and Mike Tauchman. Cool. Rad. Great.

Frazier did not have a good Spring Training at all, hitting .143/.228/.245 with 16 strikeouts in 57 plate appearances. Baseball Reference’s opponents quality metric says he faced mostly Double-A caliber pitching. I suppose the good news is Frazier has been hitting well over in minor league camp.

The Yankees were planning to send Frazier to Triple-A Scranton for regular at-bats following last year’s concussion issues — Clint hit .311/.389/.574 (170 wRC+) in 48 games with the RailRiders last season — but he’s needed now in the Bronx. Frazier missed out on a golden opportunity last year because he was hurt when Judge was sidelined. This year he’ll get a chance to play while Stanton is out.

My hunch is the Yankees will move Greg Bird into Stanton’s vacated No. 3 lineup spot to split up the righties (Judge and Luke Voit), and also because the Yankees love Bird and will give him endless opportunities. I wish Frazier could stay in Triple-A to get those at-bats because he looked awfully rusty in camp. He’ll instead have to shake it off in games that count.

4/1 to 4/3 Series Preview: Detroit Tigers

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Gardenhire. (Presswire)

I was all ready to say one 2018 last place team is leaving the Bronx and another one is coming in, but then I realized the Tigers finished in third place last year despite going 64-98. Life in the AL Central must be nice. The second series of 2019 brings another rebuilding team to Yankee Stadium.

Their Story So Far

The Tigers did this year what the Yankees did last year — they opened the regular season with a four-game series split in Toronto. Detroit scored six runs in the four games, including four of the six yesterday, and still managed to win twice. The Tigers are relatively early in their rebuild, though they have much more talent than the Orioles team that just left town.

Injury Report

Michael Fulmer had Tommy John surgery a week ago and he’ll obviously miss this season and very likely the start of next season as well. That’s the big injury. Boy, did the Tigers miss their chance to trade Fulmer for maximum value or what? Regular center fielder JaCoby Jones is out with a shoulder issue and righty Drew VerHagen is dealing with arm fatigue. Jones and VerHagen are on the injured list and won’t return this series.

Projected Lineup

The Tigers had a rough time at the plate against the Blue Jays despite splitting the four-game set. Manager Ron Gardenhire joked his offense was driving him to “drink heavily,” and, as a team, the Tigers are hitting .156/.250/.230 (50 wRC+) in 152 plate appearances this year. That’s with the very good Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera too. Yikes.

After using the same lineup the first three games and scoring two runs total, Gardenhire changed things up in their fourth game yesterday. They scored four runs and won, so I imagine they’ll use the same lineup tonight. That seems one like one of those typical baseball things, you know? Here’s the projected lineup:

  1. 3B Jeimer Candelario
  2. RF Nick Castellanos
  3. DH Miguel Cabrera
  4. 2B Niko Goodrum
  5. LF Christin Stewart
  6. 1B John Hicks
  7. CF Mikie Mahtook
  8. C Grayson Greiner
  9. SS Jordy Mercer

When Hicks starts behind the plate, Cabrera plays first base and someone else takes a turn at DH. Gordon Beckham and Dustin Peterson are the reserve infielder and outfielder, respectively. Candelario and Stewart are promising second tier prospects and Goodrum had a sneaky nice season as a super utility last year. A league average bat who can play pretty much anywhere is a valuable piece. Some 2018 Statcast numbers:

Again, Castellanos and Cabrera are the headliners here. Miggy is no longer the hitter he was in his prime, back when he was historically great, but I still don’t want to see him at the plate in a big spot. Cabrera took a pitch to the hand Saturday and was in obvious pain, then he came back and hit two balls to the wall Sunday. Dude can still mash.

Pitching Matchups

Monday (6:35pm ET): RHP Domingo German (vs. DET) vs. RHP Tyson Ross (vs. NYY)

Ross had a nice little bounceback season with the Padres and Cardinals last year, throwing 149.2 innings with a 4.15 ERA (4.39 FIP). The peripherals (19.2 K%, 9.8 BB%, 45.9 GB%) weren’t great, though considering Ross barely pitched the previous two years due to various arm injuries, that’s a good rebound season for a dude who looked done not too long ago. The Tigers gave him a one-year deal over the winter and he’ll make his first start of the season tonight.

The fastball isn’t as lively as it once was and the slider isn’t as sharp as it used to be, but Ross can really spin the ball, and he’s always thrown a ton of sliders. Even at his peak it was close to a 50/50 split with the fastball and slider. Because he doesn’t really have a changeup, left-handed batters have given Ross trouble throughout his career. The Yankees are short on quality lefty bats the moment though, so they aren’t really in position to capitalize.

Tuesday (6:35pm ET): RHP Masahiro Tanaka (vs. DET) vs. RHP Jordan Zimmermann (vs. NYY)

Last Thursday, Zimmermann did something that hadn’t been done in nearly 80 years: He had a perfect game bid through 6.2 innings on Opening Day. The last pitcher to do that was Hall of Famer Lefty Grove with the 1940 Red Sox. Zimmermann lost the perfect game and no-hit bid with two outs in the seventh and wound up with a no decision for his efforts. Bummer.

Opening Day notwithstanding, Zimmermann has not been the same guy since signing with the Tigers a few years ago. Last season he managed a 4.52 ERA (4.88 FIP) with a great walk rate (4.7%) but mediocre strikeout (20.0%) and ground ball (34.0%) rates in 131.1 innings, and that qualifies as his best season with Detroit. His platoon split has been quite small in recent years, which I guess is a plus.

It could easily be a one-start blip, though it’s worth noting Zimmermann went anti-fastball against the Blue Jays last week. He threw nearly twice as many curveballs and sliders (44) as fastballs (25). Zimmermann’s been more of a 50/50 fastball/breaking ball split guy the last few years. Could be a conscious change, could be small sample noise.

The biggest issue for Zimmermann the last few years has been the long ball. He’s been exceptionally home run prone. Last year it was 28 homers in 131.1 innings and the year before it was 29 homers in 160 innings. That’s a 1.76 HR/9 rate across two seasons. Last August Zimmermann stifled the Yankees for five innings then bam, three homers in the span of four batters in the sixth inning.

Last start (March 28th vs. Blue Jays): 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

Wednesday (4:05pm ET): TBA vs. LHP Matt Boyd (vs. NYY)

Boyd is a really interesting pitcher. I don’t know whether he’s actually good — last season he threw 170.1 innings with a 4.39 ERA (4.45 FIP) and unspectacular peripherals (22.4 K%, 7.4 BB%, 29.0 GB%) — but he is interesting. Last year Boyd intentionally threw with less velocity in an effort to disrupt timing, then, when that didn’t work, he went back to throwing hard. Look at this:

Over the years Boyd has also toyed with different arm angles and breaking balls. He’s mostly fastball/curveball/slider these days and he produced better than average hard contact rates last season. When he’s on, Boyd can be really difficult to square up. When he’s off, he’ll give up some dingers, and right-handed batters can give him a real hard time.

As for the Yankees, they have this spot listed as TBA, though it is expected to be Jonathan Loaisiga (or Loaisiga with an opener). CC Sabathia’s suspension ends after tomorrow’s game, at which point the Yankees will put him on the injured list and recall Loaisiga for this start. He didn’t have a good spring (16 IP, 13 H, 13 R, 12 ER, 7 BB, 18 K, 4 HR) and has never faced anyone on the Tigers, so at least Johnny Loaisiga will have the element of surprise going for him.

Boyd’s last start (March 29th vs. Blue Jays): 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

Bullpen Status

The Tigers and Blue Jays played eleven innings yesterday, yet Detroit’s bullpen is in good shape going into tonight’s series opener because Matt Moore (?!?) gave them seven strong innings. Huh. Here is Gardenhire’s relief unit:

  • Closer: RHP Shane Greene
  • Setup: RHP Joe Jimenez
  • Middle: RHP Victor Alcantara, RHP Buck Farmer, RHP Reed Garrett, LHP Blaine Hardy, LHP Daniel Stumpf
  • Long: LHP Daniel Norris

Jimenez, Farmer, Stumpf, and Greene all threw an inning yesterday and needed no more than 17 pitches to do it. None of them has pitched back-to-back days either. Norris threw 2.1 innings and 36 pitches on Saturday, so maybe the Tigers don’t want to go back to him just yet. Otherwise it seems everyone will be available tonight.

Greene is miscast as a closer — on a contending team, he’s maybe the fourth or fifth best reliever in the bullpen– but he has A+ stuff and is effectively wild. Jimenez was the selected to the All-Star Game as the token Tiger last year and has allowed 20 runs in 21.2 innings since, including three runs in an inning yesterday. Seems bad. Alcantara, Farmer, and Garrett have live, power arms. Garrett is the token Rule 5 Draft pick on the rebuilding team.

Yankees announce 2019 Opening Day minor league rosters

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Clint. (Presswire)

The Major League regular season is underway and, later this week, the 2019 minor league regular season will begin as well. Three of the Yankees’ four full season minor league affiliates begin play this Thursday with the fourth beginning play Friday. To me, it’s not until the minor league season begins that it feels like baseball is truly back.

The Yankees announced their minor league coaching staffs a few weeks ago. Over the weekend, they announced the Opening Day rosters for their four full season minor league affiliates, which they’ve never announced to fans in this way before. At least not since I’ve been blogging about the Yankees. Hooray for the Yankees finally launching an official player development Twitter account.

Since the minor league Opening Day rosters have been announced with a few days to spare, it gives us a chance to look them over and break things down. Keep in mind minor league rosters change a lot throughout the season. Example: The Giancarlo Stanton injury and Clint Frazier call-up. These rosters are already in flux. Anyway, let’s dig through the minor league Opening Day rosters.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

The farm system has thinned out a bit and Triple-A Scranton’s roster isn’t as prospect-laden as it was the last two or three years. IF Thairo Estrada and UTIL Tyler Wade are the notable youngsters who will anchor the lineup now that Frazier has been summoned to the Bronx. I imagine Estrada, Wade, and Frazier were penciled in as the 1-2-3 hitters. Let’s lay out a potential starting lineup, because why not?

  1. 2B/SS Thairo Estrada
  2. 2B/SS Tyler Wade
  3. 3B Gio Urshela
  4. 1B/DH Mike Ford
  5. 1B/DH Ryan McBroom
  6. C Kyle Higashioka/Ryan Lavarnway
  7. OF Zack Zehner
  8. OF Billy Burns
  9. OF Matt Lipka

Wade will presumably continue to see action in the outfield, opening up playing time for IF Gosuke Katoh, who was a super utility infielder for Double-A Trenton last year. Estrada and Wade (and Frazier before the call-up) are the developmental priority guys and they’re going to be in the lineup everyday. The other starting position player spots will be more of a rotation to ensure everyone gets at-bats, which is par for the course in Triple-A.

Based on the personnel, the five starting pitchers will be RHP Chance Adams, LHP Nestor Cortes, LHP Gio Gonzalez, RHP David Hale, and RHP Drew Hutchison in whatever order. RHP Adonis Rosa is the other rotation candidate should the Yankees slot Cortes or Hale into the bullpen. Gonzalez started an Extended Spring Training game last Friday and that likely lines him up for the season opener Thursday. He hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since 2009. RHP Joe Harvey and RHP Raynel Espinal were a dynamite closer/setup man combo last year. They’re back together to start this season.

RHP Jonathan Loaisiga is not on the Triple-A Scranton roster because he’s not going to Triple-A Scranton. The Yankees are planning to call him up Wednesday to serve as their fifth starter. Loaisiga will be called up as the corresponding move for CC Sabathia’s injured list assignment. Tomorrow is the final day of Sabathia’s five-game suspension.

Double-A Trenton Thunder

What a fun rotation. RHP Albert Abreu, RHP Nick Green, RHP Nick Nelson, RHP Trevor Stephan, and RHP Garrett Whitlock are the expected five starters in whatever order. (Green was returned as a Rule 5 Draft pick last week.) The Yankees have moved RHP Domingo Acevedo to the bullpen, and he’ll presumably work on a set schedule, at least initially. Two innings every three days, something like that. That’s usually how these things work.

The lineup is lacking prospect star power. OF Estevan Florial’s broken wrist is partially to blame there. SS Kyle Holder is the only position player top 30 prospect on the roster, though OF Trey Amburgey and IF Brandon Wagner are somewhat notable. Amburgey spent all of last season with Trenton and Wagner about half the season. Here’s a possible lineup, though it should be noted Hendrix is a candidate to move up to Scranton to replace Frazier:

  1. OF Jeff Hendrix
  2. 2B/SS Kyle Holder
  3. OF Trey Amburgey
  4. 1B/3B/DH Brandon Wagner
  5. 1B/DH Chris Gittens
  6. OF Jhalan Jackson/Ben Ruta
  7. 3B Mandy Alvarez
  8. 2B/SS Angel Aguilar
  9. C Francisco Diaz/Jorge Saez

Like I said, not the most exciting position player group. There’s been a bit of a position player prospect gap in the system the last few years and it reached Double-A Trenton this season. Clearly, the rotation is the story here. The Thunder will send a top 30 prospect — a top 20 prospect, really — to the mound every game. With Cortes and Hale holding down Triple-A rotation spots, don’t be surprised if Nelson or Stephan gets bumped up to Scranton fairly early in the season.

High-A Tampa Tarpons

RHP Deivi Garcia and RHP Clarke Schmidt make for one heck of a 1-2 punch atop the rotation. Garcia closed out last season with a spot start at Double-A Trenton — he was going to make a postseason start for Trenton had they not been swept in the best-of-three first round series — though sending him back there to start this season never seemed all that likely. He’s still only 19 and he made six starts with Tampa last year. Give it a few weeks and Garcia will be back in Trenton.

As for Schmidt, the Yankees are finally ready to take the reins off their 2017 first round pick. He’s fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and last year’s oblique strain. Of course the Yankees will monitor Schmidt’s workload — they’re not going to throw caution to the wind — but the point is Schmidt is going to start every five days and begin his pro career in earnest. I’m excited.

RHP Rony Garcia, RHP Glenn Otto, and RHP Miguel Yajure figure to join Deivi and Schmidt in the rotation. Yajure was one of my not top 30 prospects and Otto is coming back from surgery to remove a blood clot from his shoulder. He made only two starts last season. Otto might be a reliever long-term, but he has a chance to be a really good, and he’s healthy now. LHP Dalton Lehnen or RHP Janson Junk could bump Otto to the bullpen at the outset. We’ll see.

The position player group is headlined by a few 2014-15 international signing spree guys: 1B/3B Dermis Garcia, SS Diego Castillo, OF Pablo Olivares, and C Jason Lopez. Here’s the possible lineup:

  1. OF Pablo Olivares
  2. 2B/SS Oswaldo Cabrera
  3. OF Isiah Gilliam
  4. 1B/3B Dermis Garcia
  5. 1B Steven Sensley
  6. C Jason Lopez/Donny Sands
  7. 2B/SS Diego Castillo
  8. OF/DH Rashad Crawford/Tyler Hill
  9. OF/DH Rashad Crawford/Tyler Hill

Gilliam is returning to Tampa after his power, strikeout, and walk rates all took noticeable dips last year. As a bat-only corner outfielder, he needs a good year to remain relevant. Sensley and Crawford had some prospect shine a year or two ago but have since faded. Crawford actually spent much of the last two years with Trenton, so he’s been bumped down. Lopez and Sands are a sneaky interesting catcher tandem. There might be something there.

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs

Good gravy that rotation. RHP Roansy Contreras, RHP Luis Gil, RHP Luis Medina, RHP Tanner Myatt, and RHP Matt Sauer in whatever order is crazy prospect fun. That’s five top 30 prospects and three top 16 prospects. I thought Gil, Myatt, and especially Medina were candidates to begin the season back in Extended Spring Training, so it’s pretty cool to see them get the full season assignment.

RHP Rodney Hutchison, RHP Jio Orozco, and RHP Shawn Semple are starters by trade, so I imagine we’ll see some piggybacking, especially early in the season. The starter goes four or five innings and the next guy goes three or four innings, that sorta thing. That might be the plan initially with that young rotation. Myatt turns 21 in May he’s the oldest projected starter. These guys will all have workload limits and be eased into action.

The position player group includes last year’s second round pick (C Josh Breaux) and the Sonny Gray trade return (OF Josh Stowers), otherwise there’s not a whole lot to see there. 3B Nelson Gomez was a big money 2014-15 international signing spree guy who hasn’t really worked out, but he is only 21 and he has big power, so who knows. Anyway, here’s a possible lineup:

  1. OF Brandon Lockridge
  2. OF Josh Stowers
  3. C Josh Breaux
  4. 1B/DH Mickey Gasper
  5. 1B/DH Eric Wagaman
  6. 3B Nelson Gomez
  7. OF Isiah Pasteur/OF Frederick Cuevas
  8. 2B Kyle Gray
  9. 2B/SS Max Burt/Eduardo Torrealba

I’m not sure I would call them sleepers, but Lockridge (last year’s fifth round pick) and Gray (last year’s 14th rounder) are more than organizational players. They have some skills (Lockridge is crazy fast, Gray has sneaky pop) and could sneak up on people as great performance guys this season. Pasteur as well. Last year’s 13th rounder is a great athlete who can impact the game in a lot of ways.

Notably Absent

Farquhar. (Presswire)

The four full season affiliates begin play later this week, though there’s also Extended Spring Training, which leads into the various short season leagues later in the summer. The Rookie Pulaski Yankees, Short Season Staten Island Yankees, and two Rookie Gulf Coast League Yankees clubs begin play in June. Those rosters are a long way from being finalized. They’ll include 2019 draftees, among others. Here is a not at all complete list of notable prospects not included in an Opening Day full season affiliate roster this year.

Known Injuries: OF Antonio Cabello (shoulder), OF Estevan Florial (wrist), RHP Mike King (elbow), RHP Freicer Perez (shoulder), C Anthony Seigler (quad)

Perez had surgery to remove bone spurs last May and I assume he’s still in rehab mode. Cabello, this year’s Prospect Watch prospect, had offseason surgery but was playing in minor league Spring Training games last month. That means he’s making progress with his rehab, so that’s good. Obviously the Yankees are not ready to turn him loose just yet. The Prospect Watch will sit quiet until Cabello joins an affiliate. My guess is he joins Low-A Charleston in a few weeks.

Florial, King, and Seigler all suffered their injuries in Spring Training. King has resumed throwing and is expected to join Triple-A Scranton in early May. Florial will spend three weeks in a cast. I know that much. I don’t know what the exact timetable is for his return or Seigler’s return, for that matter. Seigler might’ve been an Extended Spring Training guy even with good health. I think he’ll join the RiverDogs at some point in the first half.

Others: SS Roberto Chirinos, RHP Harold Cortijo, 2B Ezequiel Duran, RHP Danny Farquhar, OF Anthony Garcia, SS Wilkerman Garcia, RHP Frank German, RHP Yoendrys Gomez, OF Ryder Green, RHP Brian Keller, RHP Nolan Martinez, SS Hoy Jun Park, SS Oswald Peraza, OF Everson Pereira, OF Raimfer Salinas, LHP JP Sears, OF Canaan Smith, RHP Juan Then, C Saul Torres, RHP Matt Wivinis

I think it’s safe to assume a few of these guys are injured. German was pitching in minor league spring games a few weeks ago, and a recent high-ish draft pick (fourth round last year) who played three years in the Atlantic Sun Conference wouldn’t typically be an Extended Spring Training candidate. He’s probably hurt. Same with Wivinis, who pitched well at three full season levels last year and went to the Arizona Fall League.

Sears had some shoulder trouble last season and Keller’s been an organizational innings guy the last two years. He spent the entire 2018 season with Double-A Trenton. No way a healthy Keller goes to Extended Spring Training. Park had a nice season with High-A Tampa last year and Garcia (Wilkerman, not Anthony) had a not-so-great season with Low-A Charleston. Both would be in full season if they were healthy, especially Park.

Farquhar is not injured. He’s just working his way back following last year’s nearly fatal brain hemorrhage. Farquhar didn’t look game ready during Grapefruit League play and I figured he’d spend a few weeks in Extended Spring Training. “That’s a decision to get him going. To get him regular reps, and then when he and us feel really good about it, he’ll get out to a team,” said Aaron Boone over the weekend. Give it a few weeks and Farquhar will land with one of the affiliates, likely a quick tune-up with High-A Tampa before an assignment to Triple-A Scranton.

Everyone else in this group is a clear Extended Spring Training prospect given their age and developmental needs. Chirinos, Duran, Garcia (Anthony, not Wilkerman), Gomez,  Green, Peraza, Pereira, Salinas, Smith, and Then are all teenagers. Cortijo and Torres are 20. I thought Pereira had a chance to break camp with Low-A Charleston because he’s so talented and advanced for his age, but nope. A 17-year-old (!) staying in Extended Spring Training is hardly surprising no matter how high he ranks on prospect lists.