Gary Sanchez Archives - Page 3 of 56

Where does each 2019 Yankee hit the ball the hardest?

March 14, 2019 by Mike

In the year 2019, exit velocity is firmly ingrained in the baseball lexicon. It is inescapable. It’s all over Twitter and game broadcasts, and the Yankees literally show exit velocity on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard. Each time a Yankee puts the ball in play, there’s the exit velocity, right next to the pitch velocity on the center field scoreboard. Get used to it. Exit velocity isn’t going anywhere.

The Yankees have embraced exit velocity as an evaluation tool. It helped them unearth Luke Voit, and I remember former farm system head Gary Denbo mentioning Aaron Judge had premium exit velocity back when he was still a prospect in the minors. Hit the ball hard and good things happen. Here is the 2018 exit velocity leaderboard (min. 200 balls in play):

Aaron Judge: 94.7 mph
Joey Gallo: 93.9 mph
Nelson Cruz: 93.9 mph
Giancarlo Stanton: 93.7 mph
Matt Chapman: 93.1 mph
(MLB average: 87.7 mph)

Hitting the ball hard is a good skill to have. I mean, duh. Hit the ball hard and it’s more likely to go for a hit. Hit the ball hard in the air and it’s more likely to do serious damage, meaning extra-base hits. Last season the league hit .730 with a 1.098 ISO — that’s ISO, not SLG — on fly balls and line drives with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. For real.

Not surprisingly, the home run record-setting Yankees led MLB with a 93.6 mph average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives last season. With that in mind, let’s look at where each projected member of the 2019 Yankees hit the ball the hardest last year. Specifically, let’s look at where in the strike zone they produce their best contact. Some guys are low ball hitters, others are high ball hitters, etc.

For the purposes of this post, we’re going to consider “best contact” to be fly balls and line drives with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. Why 100 mph and not, say, 95 mph or 97.6 mph or whatever? No real reason. Round numbers are cool so 100 mph it is. Here is each projected 2019 Yankee, listed alphabetically, and last year’s “best contact” profile.

(All spray chart are shown with Yankee Stadium’s dimensions even though not every batted ball was hit at Yankee Stadium, which is why there appear to be more homers than were actually hit.)

Miguel Andujar

Average FB+LD exit velocity: 92.7 mph
Number of 100+ mph FB+LD: 65 (13.5% of all balls in play)

I am legitimately surprised Andujar’s exit velocity numbers are not better. His average exit velocity on all batted balls was 89.2 mph, which ranked 72nd among the 186 hitters with at least 300 balls in play last year. His average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives ranked 128th (!), right behind Manny Margot and one-tenth of a mile-an-hour better than JaCoby Jones. Huh. Didn’t expect that.

Anyway, the strike zone plot above shows Andujar makes hard contact pretty much everywhere. That makes sense. He seems to get the fat part of the bat on the ball no matter where it’s pitched. Most of his 100 mph or better fly balls and line drives are to the pull field, like most hitters, though Andujar can drive the ball the other way. I’m still a bit surprised his exit velocity are numbers are relatively low (but still better than average). Didn’t see that coming. Maybe that means he’s due for bad regression?

[Read more…]

Yankees sign Aaron Judge, 20 other pre-arbitration-eligible players to one-year contracts for 2019

March 11, 2019 by Mike

Opening Day is less than three weeks away and the Yankees recently wrapped up their final little bit of offseason business. The Yankees have signed their 21 pre-arbitration-eligible players to one-year deals for 2019, reports the Associated Press. That’s everyone. The entire 40-man roster is under contract.

As a reminder, players with less than three years of service time do not have arbitration rights. The team can pay them pretty much whatever they want, though they usually negotiate with the player and agree to a salary to maintain a good relationship. The Yankees agreed to deals with everyone this year and did not unilaterally renew anyone, which they did with Dellin Betances back in the day.

Here, via the Associated Press, are the salary details. Because I like you, I’ve gone through the trouble of including each player’s year-to-year raise in parenthesis, assuming last year’s salary information is available. The Major League minimum rose from $545,000 last season to $555,000 this season.

	Service Time (Years.Days)	MLB Salary	MiLB Salary
Gary Sanchez	2.086	$669,800 ($49,400)	$310,200
Aaron Judge	2.051	$684,300 ($62,000)	$311,150
Chad Green	2.050	$598,650 ($27,850)	$285,400
Jordan Montgomery	1.153	$596,600 ($16,150)	$290,225
Jonathan Holder	1.144	$580,300	$262,947
Luis Cessa	1.131	$578,975 ($10,050)	$210,768
Ben Heller	1.096	$555,000 ($7,525)	$273,738
Clint Frazier	1.057	$563,300 ($4,100)	$222,711
Miguel Andujar	1.020	$617,600 ($71,800)	$269,216
Domingo German	1.017	$577,500 ($29,275)	$190,150
Tyler Wade	1.007	$572,000 ($20,700)	$155,692
Luke Voit	0.169	$573,200 ($27,600)	$145,673
Gleyber Torres	0.162	$605,200 ($60,200)	$240,210
Kyle Higashioka	0.124	$562,900	$160,207
Jonathan Loaisiga	0.047	$560,550 ($15,550)	$92,766
Stephen Tarpley	0.030	$557,250	$90,400
Chance Adams	0.025	$556,725	$90,400
Domingo Acevedo	0.001	$555,000	$90,400
Albert Abreu	0.000	$555,000	$90,400
Thairo Estrada	0.000	$555,000 ($10,000)	$90,400
Joe Harvey	0.000	$555,000	$45,300

Unless the two sides agree to a long-term contract, all pre-arb players sign non-guaranteed one-year split contracts that pay them one salary in the big leagues and another in the minors. Non-guaranteed means the team can release the player in Spring Training and pay him only a fraction of his contract. I don’t expect that to happen with anyone though. I’m just saying.

Most teams, including the Yankees, have a sliding salary scale based on service time for pre-arb players, with escalators for All-Star Games and awards voting, things like that. Minor league salary is determined by big league service time and tenure on the 40-man roster more than anything. This is Harvey’s first year on the 40-man. It’s Abreu’s and Estrada’s second and their minor league salaries are almost exactly double Harvey’s. The math is easy enough.

It goes without saying many pre-arb players are grossly underpaid. Judge at less than $700,000 is one of the best bangs for the buck in baseball. Players make nothing early in their careers, and it used to be that teams made it up on the back end during free agency. That isn’t really the case anymore. The MLBPA should push for increased pay for players with 0-6 years of service time. I’m not sure increased spending on free agency is realistic in the analytics era.

The Yankees have already signed Luis Severino and Aaron Hicks long-term this spring, and reports indicate they’re talking extensions with others as well. Impending free agents Dellin Betances and Didi Gregorius are presumably the top priorities. Judge and Sanchez are in their final dirt cheap pre-arb season, so I’d assume the Yankees will talk to them about an extension at some point. They might enjoy the huge six-figure production in 2019 first.

The Polarizing Backstop Poised for a Rebound [2019 Season Preview]

March 6, 2019 by Bobby Montano

The Yankees are the most scrutinized team in baseball and, as such, always need a lightning rod. Gary Sanchez has taken the baton from Alex Rodriguez to become the team’s newest polarizing figure. There is no moderation with Gary Sanchez: fans either love him or love to hate him. It’s not difficult to see why, as the Yankee backstop has been at the center of many key moments of the current resurgence in the Bronx. Just consider a sample of prominent storylines involving the Kraken since the beginning of 2017:

He was benched in early August of 2017 by Yankee skipper Joe Girardi, who argued that Gary needed to “improve his defense”;
A few weeks later, he participated in a scuffle with the Detroit Tigers, landing what most observers considered a “cheap shot” or “sucker punch” on superstar Miguel Cabrera;
That October, he was widely-panned and blamed for the Yanks’ ALCS Game 2 loss to the Houston Astros for dropping a throw home in the 9^th inning;
Two games later, his double in the 8^th inning capped off a memorable Yankee comeback to tie the series and sent the Yankee Stadium crowd into a thunderous frenzy;
Girardi’s treatment of Sanchez played a major role in the Yanks’ decision to let him go following the 2017 season and an important role in their decision to hire Aaron Boone;
During the Yankees early-season run of dominance last year, he hit a walk-off, three-run home run against Minnesota and delivered another three-run, go-ahead 9^th inning homer off Houston closer Ken Giles to secure a particularly delicious win;
He had a miserable game in Tampa featuring both atrocious defense and lack of appropriate hustle, all while re-injuring himself;
He was party to one of the worst defensive displays in recent Yankee memory during a skid in September against the Oakland A’s; and, finally,
He hit two towering home runs in Game 2 of the ALDS, playing a major role in the Yanks’ sole victory in the series.

These specific moments were more than just talk radio fodder: they either validated or challenged fans’ preconceived notions of the slugger, building on a history of accusations of laziness and complacency that have dogged him since he signed with the Yankees at age 16—though it’s impossible to overlook the implicit bias on display. Fans love to criticize his defense (more on that in a bit) and a non-insignificant number of fans proudly claim that Austin Romine is a better option.

The Yankees organization itself, by contrast, loves Sanchez. “It would be hard not to have Gary Sanchez as our catcher”, Brian Cashman said last offseason. “He’s certainly someone that we’ve invested in and believe and expect to be a part of this place moving forward.”

They’ve walked the walk, too, sticking with him last postseason against Oakland and Boston last year on top of repeatedly offering their support for their controversial catcher. In other words, Gary Sanchez, love him or hate him, is the Yankee catcher now and for the future.

It’s no secret that 2018 was a lost campaign for Gary, so let’s look back at what happened before looking ahead.

What Happened in 2018?

Time to play a quick game called “which stat line belonged to Gary Sanchez last year”.

A: .232/.304/.372 (84 wRC+), .296 wOBA, 8.0% BB%, 23.5 K%, .140 ISO and .284 BABIP

B: .186/.291/.406 (89 wRC+), .304 wOBA, 12.3 BB%, 25.1% K%, .220 ISO and .197 BABIP

Sanchez, of course, was B—but A was the cumulative line for catchers across the league. The point here is not to argue that Gary was Actually Good in 2018 (he flatly was not) but to illustrate a point that often gets lost in baseball: watching one team over and over again obscures the bigger picture. (More on this in a bit.) Gary was, in other words, a league average offensive catcher last year—albeit one with above-average power and patience and an extremely low batting average on balls in play. In fact, our very own Katie Sharp presented convincing evidence over at The Athletic (subs. req’d) that suggested that Gary was atypically unlucky on balls he hit hard last year. But again: Gary is not supposed to be an average player at a weak position. He was extremely disappointing in 2018; in all likelihood, he was the most disappointing player in baseball.

On the defensive end, Gary again struggled in the most visible way: passed balls. His 18 led the league by a wide margin even with a reduced workload due to injury, and passed balls are really ugly. That’s why he has a reputation for being a sub-par defender. But the problem with narratives are that they so often paint an incomplete picture—and that’s the case for Gary and his defense. A closer look reveals that Gary is actually a competent, above-average defender. Consider his rankings in other defensive metrics, all courtesy of Baseball Savant/Statcast or Statcorner:

Pop Time: 1.94 seconds (tied for 3^rd)
Arm Strength: 86.8 mph (4^th)
Exchange: 0.76 seconds (tied for 14^th)
Framing/RAA: 3.3 (18^th out of 126 catchers with a sample of at least 2,000 pitches)

This runs counter to the conventional wisdom that Gary is a defensive liability, showing that he is a plus defender behind the dish when you factor in his ability to limit stolen bases and frame pitches. This was true even last year, despite his propensity for passed balls. Moreover, Marc Carig reported at The Athletic (subs. req’d) that the Yankees view Gary’s preparation and ability to digest analytics and advanced game plans from the front office as unique—and that’s a skillset the analytically-oriented Yankees understandably prize.

Last year was certainly a step back for Sanchez, as it was a far cry from his dominant 2017 campaign in which he was worth 4 wins or his stellar 2016 debut in which he racked up 3 wins in two short months. We know he can be better because we’ve seen it, but even still: he was an average player at a weak position in the league, and that was all while battling injury.

The Bigger Picture

Sanchez only played in 89 games last year, so to truly project what he’ll do in 2019, it’s critical to zoom out and consider the bigger picture—both relative to the rest of the league and to his past performance. As I mentioned earlier, baseball is a sport where fans typically watch their preferred team and few other teams. That’s not bad necessarily (it is one of the many reasons I love the sport) but it does have a few pernicious analytical effects: it exacerbates the flaws of our own team at the expense of others by limiting our sense of perspective.

That’s true especially true when it comes to Gary. To gain a better appreciation of Gary’s overall talent and production for the Yankees, it’s helpful to take a look at his offensive figures relative to other catchers league-wide. Since the beginning of 2016, 32 Major Leaguers have come to the plate 750 times or more with at least 75 percent of those games behind the plate. Gary’s numbers are below, with rankings in parentheses:

Batting Average: .252 (13^th)
On Base Percentage: .333 (11^th)
Slugging Percentage: .516 (1^st)
On Base Plus Slugging: .849 (1^st, next closest is Wilson Ramos at .826)
Walks: 110 (11^th)
Home Runs: 71 (3^rd overall, behind Yasmani Grandal (73) and Salvador Perez (76), each of whom have at least 300 more plate appearances)
RBI: 188 (6^th)
Doubles: 49 (14^th)

The data make it clear that Gary is one of the game’s finest catchers—and clearly the most powerful. Even when accounting for his bad year in 2018, Gary ranks near the top of the league in every relevant offensive category for catchers. He has been one of the most productive catchers in the sport since he entered the league in late 2016, and it’s worth remembering that his counting stats are limited by injury and the fact that he played only two months in 2016. It’s simply dishonest to pretend Gary is anything but one of baseball’s most talented and productive catchers.

What to Expect

Count me among Gary’s believers. I fully expect him to return to form in 2019, providing the Yankees with the superior production we expected in 2018. For what they’re worth, ZiPS projects .246/.323/.499 (120 wRC+) out of Gary, and PECOTA similarly projects .254/.332/.473 (113 DRC+). These numbers reflect the fact his underlying peripherals (his batted ball profile, power and longer-term production) remain strong and that his true talent level is far higher than what we saw in 2018.

Development is not linear—as Robinson Cano’s 2008 demonstrates—and Gary’s 2018 was injury-riddled to boot. When fully healthy, Gary has proven that he is one of baseball’s most dominant offensive backstops, and the advanced metrics prove that he is above-average defensively, too. The Yankees absolutely love him (and have since he was 16) and have stood by him through thick and thin. That means that we should be confident that Gary will be Gary once more in 2019, reminding Yankee fans why we are all so fortunate to root for a team with him behind the dish.

Feb. 28th Spring Training Notes: Severino, Chapman, Sanchez, Paxton, Wilson

February 28, 2019 by Mike

The Yankees beat the Pirates this afternoon and are 3-2 this spring. Troy Tulowitzki clubbed a three-run home run, his second dinger of the spring. “I’m probably more excited about how well he’s moving in the field and how he’s attacking the ball and just playing free and easy. He looks really athletic out there,” said Aaron Boone to Brendan Kuty after the game. Tyler Wade also went deep, and Greg Bird and Aaron Judge both had doubles. Bird is 5-for-8 (.625) with two doubles and a homer so far. He needs a good spring and is having one so far.

J.A. Happ made his spring debut and allowed three runs and two homers in 1.1 innings. I wouldn’t sweat that at all. A veteran like him is just going through the motions on February 28th. Adam Ottavino and Zack Britton both made their spring debuts as well. Ottavino allowed two runs on two hits and a walk. Britton tossed a scoreless frame. The important thing: Everyone’s healthy. Here’s the box score and here are today’s notes from Tampa:

As for yesterday’s report that Happ was starting on Friday and Paxton on Saturday, that was obviously wrong. Seems like someone wrote the wrong days in their notebook or something like that rather than the Yankees changing their pitching plans, then changing them back again. Anyway, Paxton starts tomorrow and Masahiro Tanaka starts Saturday.
Luis Severino and Aroldis Chapman threw simulated games today as scheduled. Giancarlo Stanton almost hit Severino with a hard-hit comebacker, which would’ve been bad. Here’s video. “It’s not fun,” Severino said of facing Stanton and Gary Sanchez. “I’m healthy and feel really good,” said Chapman when asked about his knee. [Lindsey Alder, Mark Didtler]
Sanchez (shoulder surgery) will indeed make his Grapefruit League debut tomorrow night as scheduled. He’s going to catch a few innings. The Yankees held Sanchez out of the first week of games as a precaution. Also, Tulowitzki will play four innings Saturday as the Yankees ease him into things. [Coley Harvey, Brendan Kuty]
Paxton has been picking Andy Pettitte’s brain this spring. “(We talked) about our back sides, our arm swings. We both have a tendency to get long. Towards the end of his career, he tried to shorten things up, took stress off the shoulder. He was chatting about that a little bit,” said Paxton. [George King, Ken Davidoff]
And finally, the Yankees don’t know whether Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson will join them for their Spring Training again this year. It was reported he would a few weeks ago, though I guess that was not set in stone. [Erik Boland]

The Yankees will play their first night game of the spring tomorrow when they host Orioles at George M. Steinbrenner Field. That game will not be televised. The next Yankees broadcast is Sunday.

Feb. 25th Spring Training Notes: Hicks, Betances, Gregorius, Sanchez, Andujar, Gardner, Rotation

February 25, 2019 by Mike

The Yankees beat the Blue Jays for their second straight Grapefruit League win this afternoon. Troy Tulowitzki went deep in his first at-bat. “It was the biggest Spring Training homer I’ve ever hit in my life … No doubt (it felt good). That was a team that told me I couldn’t play anymore,” he said to Bryan Hoch and Coley Harvey. Tulowitzki looked quite good in the field too. I was pleasantly surprised. Anyway, Kyle Higashioka socked a dinger and Aaron Judge banged a double off the wall in left-center.

James Paxton made the start tossed two scoreless innings. He struck out two. Paxton was a little wild in the first inning (two walks) before settling down in the second. Domingo German and Luis Cessa each tossed two scoreless innings as well. German allowed a single, Toronto’s only hit of the day. Chad Green and Jonathan Holder had uneventful innings. So far, so good. Here are the box score and video highlights, and here are the day’s notes from Tampa:

In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees signed Aaron Hicks to a seven-year, $70M extension with an eighth year club option. “I’m betting on you,” Brian Cashman said he told Hicks. The GM added he believes Hicks has “a lot more gas in the tank,” which I think means the Yankees believe Hicks has a lot of peak years remaining. Would be cool. [Jack Curry]
Cashman reiterated the Yankees are having extension talks with other players. “We’ve been very vocal that we’ve engaged with a lot of players,” he said. Dellin Betances is among them, though there is nothing imminent with him or Didi Gregorius. [Jack Curry, Andy Martino]
Gary Sanchez is expected to get into a Grapefruit League game at the end of this week. “We are still shooting for March 1st. He is ready to go,” said Aaron Boone. The Yankees are easing Sanchez back into game action this spring following offseason shoulder surgery. [George King]
Miguel Andujar and Brett Gardner were both scratched from today’s lineup. Andujar is sick and Gardner has an ingrown toenail. Neither is serious. Andujar is day-to-day and Gardner is scheduled to play tomorrow. [Bryan Hoch]
The upcoming rotation: Masahiro Tanaka on Tuesday (YES, MLB.tv), Albert Abreu on Wednesday (no TV), and J.A. Happ on Thursday (no TV). Damn. Was really hoping to see Abreu. [Coley Harvey]
And finally, in case you missed it earlier, the Yankees have hired Andy Pettitte as a special advisor to Cashman. Pettitte said Derek Jeter tried to woo him to the Marlins.

If you’re interested, this afternoon’s game will be replayed on MLB Network (8pm ET) and YES (after the Nets game). The Yankees are back at it tomorrow afternoon at home against the Phillies. That’s another 1:05pm ET start. YES and MLB.tv will carry the game live.

Eight storylines to follow as the Yankees begin Spring Training

February 14, 2019 by Mike

Pitchers and catchers reported to Tampa yesterday and it didn’t take long for the Yankees to suffer their first injury of the spring. Pitching prospect Mike King will miss at least three weeks with an elbow issue. Baseball always has a way of keeping you humble. Excited Spring Training has started? Well you won’t be seeing this pitching prospect this spring, sorry. So it goes.

Position players report Monday and the Yankees open their Grapefruit League season next Saturday. These next ten days are a grind. Baseball is happening and not happening at the same time. We waited all winter for Spring Training to begin and now we have to wait a little longer for actual baseball games, and even then the games are meaningless. It’s baseball though, and baseball is better than no baseball.

Now that Spring Training has opened, this is a good time to break down some key Yankees storylines for the coming weeks. Players to watch, trends to track, that sorta thing. Here are eight storylines to watch this spring, listed in no particular order.

Seriously, what about Harper and Machado?

Look, I’m as sick of writing about them as you are of hearing about them, but as long as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado remain unsigned, we have to talk about them. The stunningly stupid prevailing logic says MLB teams all have smart front offices now and they’ve realized paying top dollar for ~~aging past prime players~~ elite prime-aged talent is a bad idea. Did you know ten teams have a sub-$100M payroll? In 2019? Crazy.

Anyway, the Yankees only half-heartedly pursued Machado over the winter and they weren’t connected to Harper at all. “I’m surprised you’re still asking,” said Brian Cashman when asked about possibly signing Harper during the Winter Meetings. The thing is, the longer those two sit in free agency, the greater the chances the Yankees swoop in to sign one of ’em. The temptation has to be there, and, at this point, I have to think a discount is possible.

It feels like everyone I talk to wants Machado and Harper to sign just to get it over with already. We’re sick of hearing about them and, frankly, it’s embarrassing for baseball that these two are unemployed as camp opens. It looks bad. Hopefully the Yankees can sign either Machado or Harper. That would be preferable but weeks ago I accepted they’re probably going elsewhere. Until they sign though, their situation has to be monitored.

Tulowitzki’s comeback attempt

The Good: Troy Tulowitzki has fully recovered from last year’s dual heel surgeries and is as healthy as he’s been at any point in the last couple years, plus he is basically free, so the Yankees could easily cut him loose should he not get the job done. The Bad: The Yankees seem very committed to Tulowitzki as their starting shortstop and I’m not sure they would cut him loose even if his production warrants it.

“The plan right now is to get Troy ready to play shortstop. That’s where he’ll focus,” Aaron Boone said yesterday. “As the weeks — as the months — unfold we’ll adjust if we need to. We’re planning on him playing shortstop and focusing solely there.”

“We were all in. He really looked athletic (during his workout), it looked like he had that bounce back in his step. We feel there is a lot of potential upside here,” said Cashman last month. I totally get rolling the dice on Tulowitzki. It’s a low-risk contract and, as a former star caliber player, there’s always a chance he has a late-career dead cat bounce season. Think Eric Chavez in 2012. He’s worth a look with Didi Gregorius out.

Tulowitzki has not played since July 2017 and you kinda have to expect some rust after that. He has been working out all winter — Tulowitzki has been in Tampa working out at the minor league complex for a few days now even though position players aren’t due to report until Monday — but there’s no substitute for game action. Those first few live pitches and ground balls might speed up on him a little bit, you know?

Spring Training performance is not very predictive and that will be especially true in Tulowitzki’s case. Certainly it would be great to see him knock the snot out of the ball and vacuum up everything at shortstop for a few weeks. Even then, we won’t know how long it’ll last because he’s had so many injury problems throughout his career. For all intents and purposes, we’re going into camp with no idea what to expect from Tulowitzki. We’ll learn as we go.

Andujar’s defense

“Entirely at third,” Boone came out and said yesterday when asked where Miguel Andujar will play going forward. “That said, there may be a day or two that we pick to have him on a back field just getting some first base in — which we may do with a (Austin) Romine or a Gary (Sanchez) — pick a day just to keep some versatile options when you get into a little bit of a bind. His game work will be, I’ll say pretty much entirely at third base.”

Last season Andujar was the worst defensive third baseman in baseball (according to DRS) and the Yankees sent him into the offseason with a plan to improve what he does before the pitch is thrown. They want him to get in better position to react and make plays, basically. Andujar’s hands and throwing arm are pretty good! There are times he stumbles over his own feet though, and he rushes his throws because he double-clutches so often.

I have no illusions of Andujar becoming an above-average defender. He is a tireless worker and I don’t doubt that he’ll try to improve. It’s just that going from that bad to that good is unlikely. Has anyone else done it? Gone from being one of the worst defenders in baseball, statistically, to being legitimately above-average? I can’t think of anyone. My hopes are modest. Andujar becomes an average defender who makes routine plays look routine. That’s all I’m asking.

I think two things will happen this spring: One, any Andujar misplay will be magnified, and two, he’ll look better than expected at third base because we’ve kinda lost perspective about him as a defender after spending all winter talking about how bad he defensively. Pre-pitch setup is not something we’ll be able to evaluate in Spring Training. At least not on television. Clearly though, Andujar’s defense is something to monitor throughout camp.

“I feel like he’s in a really good place defensively,” Boone added. “There’s some things that we’ve had him work on defensively that I think have really taken hold with him. And I think he’s had a great winter of work — I think all of you that have been around and have seen the work ethic, that’s reared its head in the winter — I feel that he’s another guy that comes into Spring Training in a really good place.”

Sabathia’s farewell

On Saturday, CC Sabathia will make official what we’ve known for a long time now: 2019 will be his final season. Sabathia will hold a press conference (with his family in attendance) to formally announce his retirement, and mostly take questions because no one has had a chance to ask him about it. Man I hope he doesn’t cry during the press conference. Not sure I could handle seeing the big guy in tears.

Once the press conference is over with, it’ll be time to get down to business. Sabathia had his usual offseason knee cleanup procedure and also heart surgery in December, and Boone said yesterday the Yankees will take it slow with Sabathia early in camp. So much so that his first bullpen session could be a few weeks away, which would seem to put his Opening Day roster status in question.

Sabathia is fine, physically. It’s just that the heart procedure interrupted his offseason work and put him behind schedule, and he’s still catching up. The Yankees take it very easy on Sabathia in Spring Training anyway — he usually pitches in simulated games rather than Grapefruit League games — so it’ll be tough to know exactly how far behind schedule he is. He’s a difficult guy to track usually because we rarely see him in games.

If Sabathia has to start the season on the injured list, so be it. Won’t be the only time the Yankees have to use one of their depth starters this year. The larger point is this is it for Sabathia, and maybe Brett Gardner as well, the final two links to the 2009 World Series team. It’s one thing when the veterans assume reduced roles. It’s another when they’re gone and the changing of the guard is complete.

How is the rehab group doing?

The list of rehabbing Yankees is sneaky long. Sabathia did not suffer a baseball injury but he will be playing catch up in Spring Training. Tulowitzki has technically completed his heel surgery rehab but is something of an unknown, physically. Clint Frazier is in a similar spot following his concussion and post-concussion migraines. Here are some of the other rehabbing Yankees and their statuses:

Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery): He won’t report with position players Monday and will instead stay home in Arizona for a few more weeks. Weird, man.
Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery): Started a throwing program last week and is a few weeks away from swinging a bat two-handed. The Yankees refuse to give a firm timetable for his return.
Ben Heller (Tommy John surgery): No update, probably because he’s not a big name player.
Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery): Expected to throw off a mound next month and rejoin the Yankees sometime after the All-Star break.
Gary Sanchez (shoulder surgery): He is hitting and catching, and will be held back early in Grapefruit League play. Sanchez will be ready for Opening Day.

We won’t see Gregorius or Montgomery participate in Grapefruit League games at all this spring given where they are in their rehab. The same is probably true with Ellsbury, and Heller as well. We’ll see Sanchez on the field and be able to track his progress ourselves. The other guys? No luck. The Yankees will give us updates when they’re deemed necessary and we’ll continue to guesstimate Sir Didi’s return date and Ellsbury’s future.

“I hate giving a timeline because we’ll let the thing play out,” said Boone when asked about Gregorius yesterday. “I think our original was anywhere from 2-4 months maybe into the season. He certainly seems at least on that pace. He’s in really good shape and progressing the way he should be so we’re optimistic that he’s going to play hopefully a significant amount of the season for us.”

LeMahieu’s transition to utility infielder

It has been nearly five years since DJ LeMahieu played a position other than second base. He played one inning at first base in an emergency situation on June 28th, 2014, and he didn’t even have to make a play. A reliever struck out the side in that inning. LeMahieu has played second base exclusively since that date and that includes Spring Training. The Rockies never worked him out anywhere else.

The Yankees are planning to use LeMahieu as a super utility guy — Boone said yesterday the plan is to give Tulowitzki regular rest in April in an effort to keep him healthy, which equals playing time for LeMahieu — and gosh, that always makes me nervous, moving a full-time player into a part-time role. It sounds great, bringing in a regular for a bench role, but it can be a difficult adjustment.

I have no idea how LeMahieu will handle it offensively. Not only is he leaving Coors Field, but he’s also going not going to get as many at-bats as usual. Defensively, I think he’ll be fine. He’s a legitimate Gold Glove guy at second base. His range, his hands, his arm, and his instincts are all good, so it’s not like the Yankees are asking a guy short on defensive tools to move around. I see four ways for LeMahieu to get playing time:

Start at second base on days Tulowitzki sits (with Gleyber Torres at short).
Start at first base when Luke Voit sits (or Greg Bird sits, I guess).
Replace Andujar in the late innings pretty much every game.
Play third whenever Sabathia (and J.A. Happ?) starts to handle all the pulled grounders by righties.

LeMahieu has the tools to play pretty much anywhere on the infield. He just hasn’t played anywhere other than second base in a few years now, so he’s going to spend a lot time working out at first and third bases this spring. Probably more than he does at second. My guess is LeMahieu winds up playing more than expected this season, maybe as many as 500 plate appearances, but this spring will be about adjusted to life as a glorified utility guy.

The few position battles

“Hopefully, if things play out from a health standpoint in Spring Training, there will be very few decisions that we have to make,” said Boone yesterday, and he’s right. At the moment the Yankees are poised to have very few position battles in Spring Training. Two bullpen spots and a bench spot. That’s pretty much it. This is the projected 25-man Opening Day roster right now:

Catcher	Infielders	Outfielders	Rotation	Bullpen
Gary Sanchez	1B Luke Voit	LF Brett Gardner	Luis Severino	CL Aroldis Chapman
	2B Gleyber Torres	CF Aaron Hicks	James Paxton	SU Dellin Betances
	SS Troy Tulowitzki	RF Aaron Judge	Masahiro Tanaka	SU Zach Britton
INJURED LIST	3B Miguel Andujar	OF Giancarlo Stanton	J.A. Happ	SU Adam Ottavino
Didi Gregorius			CC Sabathia	MR Chad Green
Ben Heller	BENCH			MR Jonathan Holder
Jordan Montgomery	C Austin Romine	???		???
Jacoby Ellsbury	IF DJ LeMahieu			???

The rotation order and the batting order will be whatever they end up being. Those are 22 of their 25 Opening Day roster names though. There is one open bench spot and two open bullpen spots. Should Sabathia have to begin the season on the injured list, then there will be a competition for the fifth starter’s spot as well. For all intents and purposes, the Yankees only have to figure out the 23rd, 24th, and 25th men on their roster.

With Ellsbury out of the picture, the final bench spot comes down to Greg Bird, Clint Frazier, and Tyler Wade. There’s a small army of relievers up for those bullpen roles. Chance Adams, Luis Cessa, Domingo German, Joe Harvey, Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loaisiga, Stephen Tarpley, so on and so forth. Cessa and Kahnle are out of minor league options and that might give them a leg up on the competition — Boone hinted that Cessa is headed for a bullpen role yesterday — but it doesn’t guarantee anything.

Spring Training competitions are kinda weird. First and foremost, spring performance is not very predictive, and yet teams base roster decisions on spring performance all the time. We see it every year. Bird could hit .350/.450/.750 during Grapefruit League play and it wouldn’t tell us a thing about him going forward, but it would probably land him on the Opening Day roster. Hard to ignore numbers like that, you know?

And secondly, Spring Training competitions don’t end on Opening Day. Whoever wins the final bullpen spot better pitch well during the regular season, otherwise the Yanks will swap them out with someone else. Winning a spring position battle is the easy part. Keeping the job is where it gets difficult. The Yankees have a few roster decisions to make in camp. Thankfully nothing major. And it’s entirely possible those roster decisions could be upended a few weeks into the regular season. Such is life.

Farquhar’s comeback attempt

Last, but certainly not least, the Yankees have a feel-good story in camp in Danny Farquhar. I honestly don’t think he has much of a chance to crack the Opening Day roster, but he’s healthy, and that’s all that matters. Farquhar suffered a life-threatening brain hemorrhage last April when a brain aneurysm ruptured. He collapsed in the dugout while with the White Sox and had to be rushed to the hospital, where he remained for three weeks.

Farquhar’s recovery is complete and he will be a fully participant in Spring Training — his first spring bullpen session is scheduled for tomorrow — which is wonderful news. Maybe he won’t make the roster and instead go to Triple-A, or opt out of his contract and sign with a team willing to put him on their Opening Day roster. Either way, I’m glad Farquhar recovered and able to resume his career, and I think it’s pretty cool he’ll do it with the Yankees.

Wednesday Notes: Andujar, Sanchez, 60-day IL, Britton

February 13, 2019 by Mike

Baseball is in the air. Pitchers and catchers reported to Tampa today and Spring Training has begun. Position players are due in camp Monday and the Yankees will play their Grapefruit League opener one week from Saturday. Hooray for that. Anyway, make sure you check out Matt Foley’s piece on Adam Ottavino’s makeshift training facility in Harlem. Here are some other notes to check out.

Marlins wanted Sanchez and Andujar for Realmuto

According to Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d), the Marlins wanted Gary Sanchez and Miguel Andujar during J.T. Realmuto trade talks earlier this winter. The deal might’ve been expanded to include utility man Miguel Rojas and possibly another Marlins piece as well. Rosenthal says the Yankees wouldn’t trade Sanchez for Realmuto straight up because he’s younger and under control twice as long. Sanchez and Andujar? Nah.

The Marlins traded Realmuto to the Phillies last week for a three-player package that included top pitching prospect Sixto Sanchez and big league catcher Jorge Alfaro, which is decidedly less than Sanchez and Andujar. Rosenthal indicates the Yankees wanted to acquire Realmuto and flip him to the Mets for Noah Syndergaard, which is something we heard back during the Winter Meetings. Talks never gained traction though. Sounds like the Yankees wanted to do all that while subtracting as little from their MLB roster as possible.

Disabled list is now the injured list

The disabled list has a new name. It will now be known as the “injured list” at the suggestion of advocacy groups for the disabled. MLB never did formally announce the change, but teams are using “injured list” in press releases, and it doesn’t get more official than that. There have been no other changes to the DL IL as of now. The MLBPA is pushing to go back to a 15-day IL to help curb roster manipulation. That could happen soon.

“The principal concern is that using the term ‘disabled’ for players who are injured supports the misconception that people with disabilities are injured and therefore are not able to participate or compete in sports. As a result, Major League Baseball has agreed to change the name ‘Disabled List’ to be the ‘Injured List’ at both the major and minor league levels,” said MLB’s senior director of league economics and operations Jeff Pfeifer to the Associated Press. An overdue change, this is.

60-day IL is now open

Quick procedural note: Teams can now place players on the 60-day injured list to open up a 40-man roster spot. I know this because earlier today the Diamondbacks put Taijuan Walker (Tommy John surgery) on the 60-day IL to make room for free agent signing Caleb Joseph, and the Athletics put Sean Manaea (shoulder surgery) on the 60-day IL to make room for free agent signing Brett Anderson.

The Yankees have two 60-day IL candidates in Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery) and Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery), and potentially two more in Jacoby Ellsbury (hip surgery) and Ben Heller (Tommy John surgery). Next time they need a 40-man spot, I imagine Montgomery will be first to go on the 60-day IL. I should note that, if you put a player on the 60-day IL in Spring Training, the clock on the 60 days does not start until Opening Day. You can’t put a guy on the 60-day IL now and get credit for 40-something days during Spring Training.

Zach Britton is now Zack Britton

Here’s another name change: Zack Britton is now going by Zack with a K instead of Zach with an H. The Yankees announced it last week. “I was born Zack, with a ‘ck,’ but I didn’t know until I went to get a passport it was really with a ‘ck.’ My parents had told me it was with a ‘ch.’ I am blaming my parents,” Britton joked to Kristie Ackert. “The Orioles always just put the ‘ck’ on any legal documents and I went by ‘ch,’ with everything else.”

Ackert says the Yankees and Britton had to rewrite their contract this offseason to change Zach to Zack. Sounds like all his paperwork with the Orioles over the years was correct, but everyone around the league thought it was Zach, and it wasn’t until he signed with a new team that it came to light. Anyway, Britton says going by Zach never bothered him. So far DL/IL has tripped me up more than Zach/Zack, but dude, if you’re going to change your name, don’t change one letter. Go full Giancarlo.

Teams will wear MLB 150 jersey patches this year

Earlier this week MLB announced all 30 teams will wear an “MLB 150” patch on their sleeve this season to celebrate the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first ever professional baseball team. They were the first team with an entire roster of salaried players. Teams will also wear the patch on the side of their caps on Opening Day. The patches are pretty snazzy. Here’s a look:

(@MLB)

“We’re excited to recognize the 150th anniversary of professional baseball by honoring our history while celebrating the game and the great players of today. The MLB 150 patch will be a continuous reminder on the field of the link everyone involved in the game today has with the storied history of professional baseball and MLB,” said commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement. Celebrating the first salaried team while clubs simultaneously work to suppress player salaries is something else.