NY Yankees News, Information & Community

Game 137: End of the Homestand

September 2, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

The penultimate homestand of the regular season ends today and this afternoon’s game will determine whether this is a tolerable 4-3 homestand or a disappointing 3-4 homestand. Man, losing four of seven to the White Sox and Tigers at home would really stink. Even winning four of seven would feel kinda like a letdown. Whatever.

A modest goal today: Get a hit at some point in the first four innings. That’s been an issue the last few days. I’m not going to bother to look this up to confirm it because I don’t really care, but it feels like the Yankees have won all these “they’re getting no-hit through five innings they suck so much” games this year. Still, hits are good. Hits and runs. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. RF Andrew McCutchen
2. CF Aaron Hicks
3. 3B Miguel Andujar
4. DH Gary Sanchez
5. 2B Gleyber Torres
6. 1B Luke Voit
7. C Austin Romine
8. SS Adeiny Hechavarria
9. LF Brett Gardner

RHP Lance Lynn

Detroit Tigers
1. 3B Jeimer Candelario
2. CF JaCoby Jones
3. DH Nick Castellanos
4. 1B Niko Goodrum
5. LF Mikie Mahtook
6. C James McCann
7. SS Ronny Rodriguez
8. 2B Dawel Lugo
9. RF Victor Reyes

LHP Matt Boyd

It is warm and cloudy in New York today, but there is no rain in the forecast, and that’s all that matters. This afternoon’s series finale will begin at 1:05pm ET and you can watch on YES. Enjoy the game.

Boone Suspended: Aaron Boone has received a one-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for Friday’s ejection tirade, MLB announced. His cap made contact with the umpire at some point and making contact is an automatic suspension. Boone is serving the suspension today and bench coach Josh Bard will fill in as manager.

Injury Update: Didi Gregorius (heel) took batting practice and ran the bases today. It’s more likely he’ll return at some point during the Mariners series late next week rather than the upcoming Athletics series … Aside from the ongoing hamstring issue, Giancarlo Stanton is fine. Adding McCutchen and getting Sanchez back allows the Yankees to finally give Stanton a day to rest. He’d started the previous 84 games.

Roster Move: Welcome back, Jonathan Loaisiga. The Yankees have called Johnny Lasagna up from Double-A Trenton, the team announced. He was scheduled to start today. There are now 31 players on the active roster.

Thinking Ahead to 2019

September 2, 2018 by Matt Imbrogno Leave a Comment

Before we begin, an early Happy Labor Day to all of you. While you’re winding your summer down this weekend, please take a minute and reflect on the blood, sweat, and tears of the labor movement that made this weekend and so many other things possible.

Last week, I had my first three days of work since June. There weren’t any students, and not even the full staff was there, but it gave those of us who were there a chance to plan ahead. So, in a notebook, I have my units and lessons vaguely planned out up through the three day weekend of Veteran’s Day. Like talking about the Yankees’ roster in 2019 in September 2018, that’s a fool’s errand because so many things can and will come up to disrupt those plans. Regardless, and given that shaker of salt to consider, let’s take a look into the near future.

Starting with departures, the Yankees have a handful of pending free agents. On the pitching side of things, there’s CC Sabathia, JA Happ, Lance Lynn, David Robertson, and Zach Britton. On the position player side of things, there’s Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Adeiny Hechavarria, and Brett Gardner (with a $2MM buyout). That would leave the roster looking something like this as this year ends and next year begins.

C–Gary Sanchez, Austin Romine/Kyle Higashioka

1B–Greg Bird, Luke Voit

2B–Gleyber Torres, Ronald Torreyes

3B–Miguel Andujar

SS–Didi Gregorius

LF– Clint Frazier

CF–Aaron Hicks

RF–Aaron Judge

DH–Giancarlo Stanton

SP–Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, Justus Sheffield (hopefully?), OPEN–presumably Jordan Montgomery if/when healthy

RP–Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Chad Green, Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Holder, AJ Cole, Stephen Tarpley, Luis Cessa

That in and of itself is a decent roster; with it, the Yankees could easily compete, but there are enough questions that ‘reinforcements’ would be needed, especially on the pitching staff. A backup outfielder is also needed, as this bench is pretty thin.

Starting with, well, the starters, I think it’s almost a no brainer to bring CC Sabathia back. At this point, he’s earned the Andy Pettitte treatment–one year deals until he’s ready to retire. As he finishes out his career, he’s a good option on the back end of the rotation and he would be a great mentor to the younger guys on the staff in Sheffield and Montgomery. Additionally, he sets the tone for the clubhouse and having that around for another year would be valuable for the team in its present and future.

JA Happ has also earned a shot at a second look, at the very least. Having another lefty in the rotation, especially in Yankee Stadium, would be welcomed. His transition to a strikeout pitcher is also promising as his career moves forward. I’m not sure I’d go more than one or two years with him, but I wouldn’t object to him being back at all.

Between those relievers (and Lance Lynn), I think I’d only bring one back, and it would be David Robertson. Zach Britton still seems to be searching for something and while it might be a case of letting him go just as he’s about to figure things out, it’s risky enough that I’d be okay walking away.

As for the position players, all three are probably worthy of starting jobs, but it’s unclear if there would be one for them. Though it’s hard to say this–given he’s basically the position player version of Sabathia at this point, with the added homegrown label–it might be time for the Yankees to move on from Brett Gardner. I’ve loved rooting for him since his time in the minors and he’s been a good-at-times-great player for the Yankees since he came up, but the constant second half swoons and the young, viable replacement that is Clint Frazier make me think a send off is fine.

This, of course, doesn’t factor in outside spending and the Yankees–as every team–will look at the FA market for options, including Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. I, however, am unconvinced that the Yankees will spend big on either one. It would require a lot of moving parts and I don’t think that ownership wants to spend big anymore. While frustrating at times, it is an okay strategy in free agency, especially when the team doesn’t necessarily need big stars, given its construction and production.

Yankees 2, Tigers 1: Two Hits, Two Runs, One Win

September 1, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

Sometimes you have to win a low-scoring game, and win a low-scoring game the Yankees did Saturday afternoon. They beat the Tigers 2-1 in the third game of this four-game series. At 86-50, the Yankees are a season high tying 36 games over .500. Their magic number to clinch a postseason spot is 17.

Gleyber Day Weekend
Less than 24 hours after Jordan Zimmermann no-hit the Yankees through five innings Friday night, Daniel Norris nearly did the same Saturday afternoon. The southpaw was making his first start since April following groin surgery and my goodness, he went right after the Yankees early on. Strike one, strike two, working quickly, the whole nine. Norris filled up the strike zone and the Yankees had no answer through four innings. A dozen up, a dozen down.

The Yankees managed only two hits and five walks Saturday, and, fortunately, they bunched one of those walks and one of those hits together in the fifth inning. My main man Miguel Andujar worked a four-pitch leadoff walk to give the Yankees their first baserunner, and after a Gary Sanchez fly out, Gleyber Torres got the Yankees on the board with a two-run home run to left. It was a total golf shot. Gleyber really went down to get it. No-hitter gone, shutout gone, lead gone. The Yankees went up 2-1.

As great as Norris was early on, you could kinda sorta see the Yankees starting to get to him once the lineup turned over. Andrew McCutchen fouled off three straight two-strike pitches in his second at-bat, Aaron Hicks fouled away two in his seven-pitch strikeout, Andujar worked his four-pitch walk, Sanchez hit a ball to the warning track, and then Gleyber went deep. Norris was dominant the first time through the order. The second time wasn’t as good.

A few pitches after the homer, Norris had to exit the game with what the Tigers called a calf injury. He went from a perfect game to no-hitter to trailing to injured in the span of a half-inning. That bites. The Yankees recorded just one hit aside from the Gleyber home run and it didn’t even leave the infield. Aaron Hicks beat out an infield single in the sixth inning. That’s it. A two-run home run, an infield single, a hit batsman, and five walks. There’s all the offense.

Masahiro My Hero
What an outing for Masahiro Tanaka. And to think, he got BABIP’d to death in the first inning. Mikie Mahtook, the first batter of the game, beat out an infield single on a ground ball that was kinda in no man’s land between Andujar and Torres on the left side. Jim Adduci reached on a swinging bunt, and Nick Castellanos flared a single juuust over Gleyber at shortstop. Bases loaded, no outs, nothing hard hit to start the game. How annoying.

Victor Martinez gave the Tigers a quick 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly, but Tanaka was able to limit the damage to one run in that first inning thanks to a strike out and a fly out. Following the Castellanos single Tanaka retired 17 of the next 20 batters he faced. He was in cruise control until the seventh inning, which Grayson Greiner started with a double to right. JaCoby Jones moved him to third with a single, then stole second to put runners at second and third with no outs. Gulp.

Tanaka was so efficient Saturday that, even after allowing the double and single to start the seventh inning, he’d still thrown only 80 pitches. It was easy to think it was time for a strikeout happy reliever with runners on second and third and no outs, but Aaron Boone stuck with Tanaka, and he escaped the jam with a ground ball to first base and two strikeouts. He threw Mahtook and Adduci some nasty splitters to escape that jam. That was a Big Moment.

Tanaka’s final pitching line: 7 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K on 96 pitches. Outstanding. Tanaka threw a first pitch strike to 23 of 29 batters and only two of those 29 batters saw a three-ball count. Sixteen of those 29 batters saw no more than three pitches. Tanaka ran into some crummy ball in play luck in that first inning. Otherwise he was on the attack all afternoon and finished with a flourish by escaping that seventh inning jam. A gem.

Cutch Debuts & Gary Returns
Welcome to the Yankees, Andrew McCutchen. He batted leadoff in his first game in pinstripes and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a hit-by-pitch. Not exactly a storybook debut, but whatever. Gary Sanchez, meanwhile, went 0-for-4 with three eventful outs in his first game back from the disabled list. In his first at-bat, he nearly beat out an infield single before replays showed the tag was applied to his chest before his foot came down on the bag. Third baseman Niko Goodrum threw high and Adduci had to making the leaping catcher at first. He was able to slap the tag on in time.

The second time up Sanchez crushed a ball to the left-center field warning track that sure looked like it had a chance to get out off the bat. Wrong part of the park, Gary. In his third at-bat he ripped a line drive right at Goodrum at third base for a double play. Hicks was running on the 3-2 count. Nothing he could do about it. Sanchez hit a routine ground out his fourth time out. His first three at-bats were pretty eventful. The last one wasn’t. Tough combined 0-for-7 for McCutchen and Sanchez on Saturday. That’s okay. I still love ’em. Glad they’re around.

Leftovers
Recent workloads meant the bullpen was short some bodies, so Jonathan Holder got the eighth inning in a one-run game. He allowed a leadoff single, got a double play, then struck out the third batter to end the inning. Dellin Betances rebounded from Thursday’s disaster with a scoreless ninth. He allowed a two-out single. Betances struck out the first batter he faced to a) extend his AL record to 36 consecutive relief appearances with a strikeout, and b) reach 100 strikeouts for the fifth straight season. He’s the first reliever in history to do that. Go Dellin.

The Yankees had a homer (Torres), an infield single (Hicks), and five walks (Hicks, Andujar, Brett Gardner, Luke Voit twice). They’re the third team to win a game with only two hits this season, joining the Phillies (vs. Mets), Tigers (vs. White Sox), and Giants (vs. Dodgers). This was the first time the Yankees won a game with only two hits since last May against the Athletics. Life is good when you sock dingers.

And finally, Adeiny Hechavarria made his Yankees debut Saturday as well. The Yankees started the game with Andujar-Torres-Neil Walker-Voit around the horn on the infield. They ended it with Tyler Wade-Hechavarria-Torres-Walker. Wade pinch-run for Voit in the seventh and took over at second with Walker going to first. Then, in the ninth, Hechavarria replaced Andujar in the lineup and everyone shuffled around.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
ESPN has the box score and updated standings, MLB has the video highlights, and FanGraphs has the postseason odds. Guess I might as well start including those here since we’re in September. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the win probability graph:

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The Yankees and Tigers will wrap up this four-game series and the homestand Sunday afternoon. Lance Lynn and lefty Matt Boyd are the scheduled starting pitchers. That’s a 1pm ET start.

DotF: Stephen dominates in Trenton’s win

September 1, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (3-0 loss to Pawtucket)

SS Gio Urshela: 0-3, 1 BB, 1 E (fielding)
RF Ryan McBroom: 1-4, 1 2B, 2 K — 5-for-14 (.357) with two doubles in his last four games
1B Mike Ford: 1-4, 1 K
LHP Nestor Cortes: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 3/3 GB/FB — 50 of 83 pitches were strikes (60%)
RHP Chance Adams: 2 IP, zeroes, 1 K, 3/1 GB/FB — 16 of 26 pitches were strikes (62%) … he’s allowed one run in 5.1 innings in his three relief appearances

[Read more…]

Game 136: Happy Cutch & Gary Day

September 1, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

Today is a pretty cool day in Yankeeland. Literally. Temperatures are in the 70s today. After a week with real feel temperatures in the triple digits, this feels like the arctic. Pretty great.

But seriously, today is a pretty cool day because Andrew McCutchen will wear Yankee pinstripes for the first time. Also, Gary Sanchez is back from the disabled list. The Yankees have been scraping by with a bare bones lineup the last few weeks. Some of those 7-8-9s were ugly. That changes today.

Cutch is a Yankee, Gary is back, and this afternoon the Yankees go for their second straight win over the Tigers. The first two games of this series have been a bear. Far more difficult than they needed to be. Hopefully the new guys (well, new guy and returning guy) help correct that. Here are the lineups:

New York Yankees
1. RF Andrew McCutchen
2. DH Giancarlo Stanton
3. CF Aaron Hicks
4. 3B Miguel Andujar
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. SS Gleyber Torres
7. 1B Luke Voit
8. 2B Neil Walker
9. LF Brett Gardner

RHP Masahiro Tanaka

Detroit Tigers
1. LF Mikie Mahtook
2. 1B Jim Adduci
3. RF Nick Castellanos
4. DH Victor Martinez
5. 3B Niko Goodrum
6. SS Ronny Rodriguez
7. C Grayson Greiner
8. CF JaCoby Jones
9. 2B Dawel Lugo

LHP Daniel Norris

It is a bit cloudy in New York today but it is relatively cool and there is no rain in the forecast. Good afternoon for a ballgame, I’d say. This afternoon’s game will begin at 4:05pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and FOX Sports 1 nationally. Enjoy the game.

Roster Moves: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees announced their first round of September roster call-ups. McCutchen and Adeiny Hechavarria were added to the active roster, Sanchez was activated, and Luis Cessa, Tyler Wade, and Stephen Tarpley were all called up.

Injury Update: Didi Gregorius (heel) is progressing but is more likely to be activated for the Mariners series late next week than the Athletics series that begins Monday … Aroldis Chapman (knee) is expected back this season, but Brian Cashman said that’s not a guarantee. Gulp.

Yankees activate Sanchez; call up Cessa, Wade, and Tarpley

September 1, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

September 1st has arrived and that means rosters have expanded. Teams can carry up to 40 players through the end of the season rather than the usual 25. Most teams will wind up carrying 30-35 players this month. Every team will have extra relievers and bench players starting today.

The Yankees announced a series of call-ups and roster moves today. A recap:

Andrew McCutchen and Adeiny Hechavarria added to the active roster.
Gary Sanchez activated off the 10-day DL.
Tyler Wade and Luis Cessa recalled from Triple-A Scranton.
Stephen Tarpley added to 40-man roster and promoted to MLB.

Andrew McCutchen! The Yankees acquired McCutchen from the Giants yesterday and he spent the day traveling to New York. He wasn’t put on the active roster yesterday because there was no reason to do so. He wasn’t going to be available and there’s no sense in playing with a 24-man roster. McCutchen is in today’s lineup. Hooray. I’m not sure whether Hechavarria, who came over in a trade late last night, is with the team yet. No harm in adding him to the roster now that rosters have expanded though.

The big news is Sanchez returning from the disabled list. For all intents and purposes, he’s missed the last two months with a groin injury. He went on the disabled list June 25th, returned July 19th, played three games, then returned to the disabled list after reaggravating the groin injury. All told, Gary has missed 54 games with the groin injury and reaggravation of the groin injury.

While Sanchez was out the Austin Romine/Kyle Higashioka catching tandem hit .201/.258/.350 in 231 plate appearances and opponents went 43-for-56 (77%) stealing bases. The overall team ERA also went from 3.43 to 3.72 during Sanchez’s absence. It has not been pretty behind the plate the last few weeks. I’m looking forward to Gary being back and him getting back to being the player he was last year.

The other big news today is Tarpley’s call-up. The left-hander came over as one of the two players to be named later in the Ivan Nova trade with the Pirates, and thanks to a new pitch and a new role, he posted a 1.94 ERA (3.23 FIP) with 25.6% strikeouts, 9.4% walks, and 68.1% grounders in 69.2 innings between Double-A and Triple-A this year. That 68.1% ground ball rate is the highest among the 1,011 minor leagues with at least 65 innings pitched in 2018.

Tarpley will be making his big league debut, and, like most first time September call-ups, I expect him to work in mop-up duty, at least at first. He held left-handed batters to a .148/.219/.193 batting line in the minors this year and could always get the call in low-to-mid-leverage left-on-left spots. Phil Coke quickly worked his way into the Circle of Trust™ in September 2008. Maybe Tarpley can do the same in September 2018. That’d be cool.

The Yankees have not yet announced a 40-man roster move for Tarpley. I wonder if it’ll be Shane Robinson now that McCutchen is with the team and Wade, who can also play the outfield, has been added to the roster. The Yankees might be waiting to make sure no one gets hurt during batting practice today before announcing Robinson has been designated for assignment, assuming he is the move. That’s a fairly common practice.

Update: Yep, Robinson has been designated for assignment, the Yankees announced. That’s the 40-man move for Tarpley.

Cessa and Wade have been up and down a bunch this season and are just extra bodies now that rosters have expanded. Wade is a speedy utility guy who can play pretty much anywhere. With Quintin Berry not being called up (not yet, anyway), I assume Wade takes over as the designated pinch-runner. Cessa is stretched out as a long man, so now the Yankees have him and Sonny Gray available for long relief work for whenever things go haywire.

Notably absent among today’s call-ups: Justus Sheffield. Aaron Boone said yesterday Sheffield would not be called up today, but could be later this month. I think it’ll happen fairly soon. Sheffield moved to the Triple-A bullpen last week in preparation for a call-up, but he missed a few games with an illness earlier this week, and fell behind a bit. I expect him to come up after one or two more relief appearances with the RailRiders.

As always, more call-ups will take place throughout September. Sheffield will be up at some point and I assume Chance Adams will as well. Probably once Triple-A Scranton’s season ends, which could be as soon as Monday. Berry is another call-up candidate. Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga will likely return later this month, plus Aroldis Chapman and Didi Gregorius will eventually be activated off the disabled list, hopefully soon.

Thoughts following the Andrew McCutchen trade

September 1, 2018 by Mike Leave a Comment

It took a little longer than I think everyone would’ve liked, but the Yankees have officially acquired an Aaron Judge replacement, and they got a good one. Prospects Abi Avelino and Juan De Paula went to the Giants for former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen yesterday. McCutchen is an impending free agent — that makes him a 27-game (plus postseason) rental — and the Giants are paying half his $2.4M salary to help make the luxury tax plan work. Time for some trade related thoughts.

1. Question No. 1: What does this mean for Aaron Judge? I do think the trade is an indication the Yankees have some concern either Judge won’t return before the postseason, or at least won’t return at full strength. There are four weeks and one day to go in the regular season and Judge has not yet started swinging a bat. Whenever he is cleared to swing, he first has to take dry swings, then hit off a tee and soft toss, then hit in the cage, then take batting practice, then face live pitching, and then play in games to shake off the rust. It’s a process and it takes time, and while there are four weeks remaining in the regular season, time is starting to run out. The minor league season ends in two days, so Judge won’t be able to play in rehab games. There is point of no return here and every day Judge doesn’t swing a bat brings us one day closer to that point. At the trade deadline, a few days after Judge went down, Brian Cashman said he was looking for an outfielder who could slide into a bench role once Judge gets healthy. That’s not McCutchen. They picked up an above-average everyday player who’s never been a part-timer or platoon bat. This isn’t a stopgap pickup. This is a “we need an everyday guy in case Judge doesn’t come back” pickup. That doesn’t necessarily mean Judge isn’t expected back or won’t come back. It just means the Yankees have enough concern that they added some protection.

2. Question No. 2: How does everyone fit when Judge returns? This is not something worth worrying about right now. Worry about it when Judge does actually return, which doesn’t seem to be imminent. In a perfect world scenario, Judge comes back with two or three weeks to go in the regular season, giving him time to get at-bats and get back to full strength. If that does happen, and I really hope it does, McCutchen allows the Yankees to get Giancarlo Stanton off that tight hamstring for a bit, and it allows them to rest Aaron Hicks and especially Brett Gardner a little more often. If Judge gets healthy and the Yankees go into the postseason with five outfielders (Gardner, Hicks, Judge, McCutchen, Stanton) for four spots (three outfield plus DH), then celebrate. Too many good players is better than not enough. Aaron Boone will have plenty of lineup options. Let’s worry how all the pieces fit when all the pieces are actually healthy and on the active roster. That isn’t the case right now and it doesn’t appear it will be anytime soon.

3. Question No. 3: What took so long? The Yankees have needed an outfielder for weeks now. Weeks. It has been five weeks and two days since Judge got hurt. Billy McKinney was traded earlier that same day. Clint Frazier has been on the disabled list since the All-Star break. The outfield need didn’t come out of nowhere, and yet, the Yankees didn’t get Judge’s replacement until five weeks after Judge got hurt. And during those five weeks the Yankees essentially slipped out of the AL East race completely. Replacing Shane Robinson with McCutchen or Curtis Granderson or whoever on July 31st probably doesn’t change the division race much — they’d be what, maybe three games closer to the Red Sox at the most? — but still, would’ve been nice to have a real outfielder this last month. In McCutchen’s case, the Giants weren’t ready to trade him at the deadline because they were still in the postseason mix and wanted to try to make a run. Didn’t happen. They slipped in the standings and decided to cash him in as a trade chip. There were other outfielders available though. I know that because there are always outfielders available. I don’t know if the asking prices were too high or if nothing worked under the luxury tax plan or something else. Whatever it was, getting an outfielder is really something that should’ve happened weeks ago. Better later than never though.

4. Among the players who were actually available on the trade market, meaning no fantasy Bryce Harper trade, McCutchen is the best possible replacement for Judge. He’s no longer the MVP caliber player he was in his prime — this dude hit .313/.404/.523 (157 wRC+) from 2012-15 — but he’s hitting .255/.357/.415 (115 wRC+) this season and will walk a ton (12.9%) without striking out excessively (21.7%). Moving from spacious AT&T Park to hitter friendly Yankee Stadium figures to increase his power output, though there are only eleven home games remaining in the regular season. Beyond all that though, McCutchen has a flair for the dramatic …

… and he’s a Grade-A clubhouse dude who plays with a lot of energy and a lot of swagger. He’ll quickly become a fan favorite. Also, McCutchen has been a star player on a contending team. He was The Man when the Pirates averaged 93 wins a season and went to the postseason three straight years from 2012-15. McCutchen was the centerpiece of the lineup and the franchise player. He knows what that is all about and I have no worries about him fitting in. There might even be a Todd Frazier effect, so to speak. Frazier came in last year and, in addition to being productive on the field, he gave the team some more life and confidence. McCutchen can do the same this year. Other guys like Granderson and Adam Jones would’ve been adequate outfield fill-ins as well. McCutchen was the best possible addition in my opinion though.

5. Between the McCutchen trade and the imminent returns of Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius, the Yankees are getting a real shot in the arm this weekend. Sanchez will be activated today and Gregorius isn’t far off. The Yankees will still be without Judge for a while, but they have a more than competent replacement now, and their starting catcher and starting shortstop are back as well. We’ve seen some lineups the last few weeks where the 7-8-9 hitters had a real 2013 Yankees feel to them, no? McCutchen, Sanchez, and Gregorius are three middle of the order types, which means guys like Walker and Voit can move down in the lineup, adding depth. A possible lineup:

CF Aaron Hicks
DH Giancarlo Stanton
SS Didi Gregorius
RF Andrew McCutchen
3B Miguel Andujar
C Gary Sanchez
2B Gleyber Torres
1B Luke Voit/Neil Walker (sorry, Greg Bird, but you can’t seem to hit anymore)
LF Brett Gardner

Boone said he may bat McCutchen leadoff, but I think Hicks should be the regular leadoff hitter, and I said so weeks ago. Will Boone actually do that though? I’m not sure. Also, something tells me four straight right-handed hitters in the 4-5-6-7 spots will give Boone the heebie-jeebies, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see McCutchen leading off and Hicks hitting fourth or fifth to break that up. The lineup above is probably the lineup I’d go with though, without thinking about it too much. Flipping Stanton and McCutchen would work, ditto flipping Sanchez and Torres. That’s the way I’d go, I think. Sure looks a heck of a lot better than the lineups they’ve been running out there since Didi got hurt, doesn’t it?

6. Look at that lineup above. Look how much turnover there’s been since Opening Day. The Yankees have a new right fielder, a few first baseman, a new second baseman, and a new third baseman. And also two new starting pitchers and a new late-inning reliever. Four-ninths of the lineup and two-fifths of the rotation have turned over since Opening Day. Part of that was planned (Torres was always going to take over at second base at some point) but most of it wasn’t (Luke Voit!?). Amazing how so much can change in this game over the course of the 162-game season, even with the best teams. The Yankees came into the year with like seven viable big league outfielders and now here they are trading for McCutchen in August. Go figure.

7. Not often you can say this about a guy who hit .298/.387/.533 between Triple-A and MLB, but wow what a crappy year for Clint Frazier. He missed much of Spring Training and the first few weeks of the regular season with the concussion, then went up and down a bunch of times as a spare bench bat, and then the post-concussion migraines flared up just in time to land him on the disabled list right when playing time became available. It would’ve been Frazier in right field these last few weeks instead of Robinson and Walker. He would’ve been in the lineup every single day. The concussion and migraines robbed him of an opportunity at regular playing time, and a chance to show the Yankees and everyone else what he can do. Sucks. And now the Yankees trade for McCutchen just as Clint begins a minor league rehab assignment. Poor kid, man. Awful timing from start to finish. It’s been a difficult year for Frazier. Hopefully he finishes healthy and strong, has a good offseason, and becomes a better player after dealing with all the adversity this year. (I wonder if Frazier will look to play winter ball somewhere to make up for the lost time. He has too much service time for the Arizona Fall League.)

8. As for Avelino and De Paula, the Yankees didn’t give up a whole lot to get McCutchen, which isn’t surprising. He’s a one-month (plus postseason) rental. I had neither Avelino nor De Paula in my most recent top 30 Yankees prospects list — before the trade MLB.com ranked them as the 23rd and 26th best prospects in the system, respectively — and they were both surplus players for the Yankees. Avelino’s a middle infielder who had success in Double-A (162 wRC+) and not much success in Triple-A (83 wRC+) this year while repeating the levels, and he’s due to become a minor league free agent after the season. I don’t think he was a good bet to get a 40-man roster spot at all with Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada still around. As for De Paula, he is still in short season ball and the Yankees are loaded with lower level pitching prospects. He’ll be Rule 5 Draft eligible after the season and, with his 21st birthday three weeks away, De Paula was one of the team’s oldest pitching prospects not in full season minor league ball. He was arguably the most expendable of the bunch. Avelino figures to get a chance to help the Giants right away as a utility guy. They wouldn’t have traded for him if they weren’t planning to add him to the 40-man to prevent him from leaving as a minor league free agent this winter. De Paula is still a few years away from helping. The Yankees dealt from positions of depth and gave up two players they’re not going to miss. Avelino was probably a goner after the season and De Paula is way too far down the ladder to worry about.

9. This is the first time the Yankees have made an August waiver trade since getting Steve Pearce for cash in 2012, and that was a minor trade for a spare part player — that was two years before Pearce really broke out with the Orioles — who was waived after 12 games. The last time the Yankees made an August waiver trade for a no-doubt big league player who stayed on their roster the rest of the season was 2009, when they sent cash to the Padres for Chad Gaudin. The sample size is not big, but the best August waiver trade the Yankees ever made went down in 1996, when they got Charlie Hayes from the Pirates for a minor leaguer who never made it. Hayes went 19-for-67 (.284) with three doubles and two homers in 20 regular season games with the Yankees, then caught the final out of the World Series. So, long story short, there’s a pretty darn good chance McCutchen will go down as the best August waiver trade pickup in franchise history. He has to perform, of course, but there’s no reason to think he won’t other than baseball being weird sometimes. It’s not often impactful trades go down in August. That Justin Verlander deal last year? A complete and total outlier for August, historically. The Yankees may’ve just made an impactful August trade, however. McCutchen is a great player who fills a big need and is a super likeable dude.