River Avenue Blues

The New Super Utility Infielder [2019 Season Preview]

by

(Presswire)

The Yankees signed a free agent infielder to a multi-year contract this past offseason. It was not the free agent infielder most expected or hoped, however. Rather than spend big on Manny Machado, the Yankees instead scooped up longtime Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu. He received a two-year contract worth $24M total.

“He’s always shown the ability to play all four infield positions,” said special assistant Jim Hendry, who drafted LeMahieu when he was with the Cubs, to Dan Martin a few weeks ago. “And we have a lot of guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but that comes with strikeouts. He’s gonna make contact and be a winning player for us.”

LeMahieu turns 31 in July and he’s coming off a .276/.321/.428 (86 wRC+) batting line last season with his third Gold Glove in the last five years. The Gold Gloves are deserved too. His +18 DRS was second to Kolten Wong (+19 DRS) at second base last year, and, over the last five years, his +48 DRS is second only to Ian Kinsler (+67 DRS).

The Yankees are not getting 2018 LeMahieu or 2014-18 LeMahieu, however. They’re getting 2019 LeMahieu and, barring a trade or release, 2020 LeMahieu as well. Taking a relatively light hitting infielder out of Coors Field is a risky move, but the Yankees are all-in. Let’s preview LeMahieu’s season.

How much offense should we expect?

We know five things about LeMahieu as a hitter. One, he’s a ground ball guy (career 53.8%). Two, he’s more likely to go the other way to right field than pull the ball to left (35.0% to 25.0%). Three, he’s been more effective at Coors Field than everywhere else (96 wRC+ vs. 84 wRC+). Four, his contact rate on pitches in the zone is elite (92.6%). And five, he’s a sneaky good exit velocity guy.

Like every other Rockies hitter, LeMahieu has benefited from playing in Coors Field. He’s just benefited in a different way than, say, Nolan Arenado or Brad Hawpe or Vinny Castilla. LeMahieu’s not a home run guy. He sprays the ball around and took advantage of that huge Coors Field outfield, the second most spacious in baseball. There’s a reason LeMahieu has a career .374 BABIP at Coors Field and a career .310 BABIP everywhere else.

The issue with Coors Field is not necessarily Coors Field itself. It’s what happens when hitters leave Coors Field and go out on the road. There’s evidence of a Coors Field hangover effect, meaning Rockies players are unfairly dinged when they leave altitude. Remember when Adam Ottavino said he’s looking forward to leaving Coors Field and gaining consistent break on his pitches? That works the other way too. LeMahieu will see consistent break now.

Although he’s a right-handed hitter with a tendency to hit the ball to right field, LeMahieu’s not a great candidate to take advantage of the short porch because he hits so many balls on the ground. His walk rate has more or less been average over the years despite a very low chase rate (26.1% since 2015) because he puts the ball in play easily. It’s good LeMahieu knows a ball from a strike. It’s just that well-above-average chase rate only equals an average number of walks.

Only some power and only some walks means LeMahieu’s offensive value is tied tightly to his batting average, which is risky. Risky probably isn’t the right word. Susceptible to big year-to-year swings is more like it. Three years ago LeMahieu hit .348. Last year he hit .276. Sure, his true talent level changed some across three years because he aged, but 72 points of batting average? Walks and power help stabilize things and LeMahieu doesn’t really offer them.

As for his contact rate, that’s nice, though the idea he solves any strikeout concerns is a real stretch. For starters, the Yankees don’t strike out as much as everyone seems to think. Their team 22.7% strikeout rate was almost exactly league average (22.3%) last year. (The difference was roughly 25 strikeouts across the 162-game season.) Having one or two strikeout prone hitters like Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton doesn’t make the entire team strikeout prone. Whatever. This narrative isn’t going away.

Anyway, LeMahieu makes a lot of contact and doesn’t strike out much, but even if you believe strikeouts are this team’s fatal flaw, LeMahieu is only one player, and no one player can fix any team’s flaw. Also, if LeMahieu is suddenly a true talent .270-ish hitter with not much power, how much is that extra contact really helping? Point is, LeMahieu not striking out much is welcome, but the idea that he’s exactly what the Yankees need because they strikeout a lot is … woof. No.

My hope is LeMahieu can be a league average hitter now that he’s free from the Coors Field hangover. League average for a hitter with this profile in Yankee Stadium means something like .280/.330/.400. Nothing exciting about it, and it would assuredly make LeMahieu no better than the seventh or eighth best hitter on the team, but that’s okay. They can’t all be middle of the order thumpers. League average is a modest and reasonable goal.

A super utility infielder

“I was told to bring a lot of gloves,” LeMahieu quipped during his introductory conference call. The Yankees intend to use LeMahieu has a super utility infielder, meaning someone who plays regularly but at different positions. Second base one day, third base the next, first base the day after that, so on and so forth. It’s a great idea, especially with Troy Tulowitzki needing regular rest, though it’s not as easy as it sounds. We’ve seen other players struggle with it.

LeMahieu is a career second baseman, so it’s no surprise he’s spent more time at third base (25 innings) than second (22 innings) this spring. He knows second base. Third base is the one he has to learn. And, coincidentally enough, LeMahieu is playing first base for the first time in today’s Grapefruit League game. He played a little first and third in the past. The Yankees want to make it a weekly thing and LeMahieu’s on board. He knew what he was getting into.

“This is really how I came up to the Majors,” LeMahieu said to Kristie Ackert earlier this week. “I played different positions, and then second base opened up so I kind of stuck there. When this opportunity to come to the Yankees opened up for me, it was what I wanted … Because it’s the Yankees.”

Granted, we haven’t seen him much at third base this spring, but LeMahieu has looked fine there in his limited looks. He has the hands and arm for it. I’m not worried about him catching and throwing the ball. The adjustment will come on those quick reactions — there’s a reason it’s called the hot corner! — and plays when the ball isn’t hit to him. Where does he go on cutoff plays, things like that. That’s usually where the lack of experience shows up.

I expect LeMahieu to be perfectly fine at first and third bases. His inexperience will show up at times and that’s to be expected. Otherwise I think he’ll handle both positions well. The question is how much will he play? Aaron Boone says the Yankees plan to play LeMahieu pretty much every day, but these super utility things are always better as an idea than in reality. My guess is this will be more of a play it by ear situation initially.

“(LeMahieu) allows us to really have a ten, eleven-man rotation for nine spots,” said Boone to Brendan Kuty last month. “It keeps everyone, we believe, playing regularly, but also able to keep guys fresh, hopefully more healthy over the long haul and a guy or two on the bench every night that’s a really good player.”

* * *

The LeMahieu signing is the kinda move hardcore statheads call savvy because he has untapped potential (woo exit velocity!) but leaves most others shrugging their shoulders. Especially when the Yankees passed on Machado to sign LeMahieu. Of course it’s not that simple — they’re not in the same stratosphere contract-wise — but that’s how many fans will see it, that the Yankees passed on Machado to sign LeMahieu.

For all intents and purposes, the Yankees signed LeMahieu to be Tulowitzki insurance, and to be a better version of Neil Walker. LeMahieu’s a much better defender than Walker — or at least he is at second base (first and third bases remain to be seen) — and he theoretically offers more offensive upside because he makes more contact and has shown better exit velocity. I feel like there are only two possible outcomes here: LeMahieu is unexpectedly great and looks like a steal, or he’s terrible and everyone hates him. No middle ground.

Where does each 2019 Yankee hit the ball the hardest?

by

(Presswire)

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):

  1. Aaron Judge: 94.7 mph
  2. Joey Gallo: 93.9 mph
  3. Nelson Cruz: 93.9 mph
  4. Giancarlo Stanton: 93.7 mph
  5. 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…]

March 13th Spring Training Notes: Voit, Seigler, King, Orioles

by

(Presswire)

The Yankees tied Bryce Harper and the Phillies tonight. Harper went 0-for-2 with a strikeout and reached on a catcher’s interference. See? He’s already turning into Jacoby Ellsbury. Anyway, Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run that cleared the left-center field scoreboard according to everyone in Tampa. He had a single as well. So did Brett Gardner, Luke Voit, Gary Sanchez, and Greg Bird.

Opening Day starter Masahiro Tanaka allowed two runs in 3.2 innings before hitting his pitch limit. He struck out six. Chad Green faced two batters and gave up a solo homer. I believe Green is the first projected big league reliever to pitch back-to-back days this spring. Adam Ottavino allowed an unearned run in his inning and Tommy Kahnle tossed a perfect frame. Here’s the box score and here are the day’s notes from camp:

  • Despite the supposed first base competition, Aaron Boone is already talking about batting Voit cleanup this year. “I could see him possibly being in the three hole, too. I’m definitely considering him in a couple places. You could see him anywhere from third to sixth,” he said. Does Voit at cleanup mean Aaron Judge and Stanton will hit back-to-back? Hmmm. [Bryan Hoch]
  • Anthony Seigler, last year’s first round pick, is currently sidelined with a quad strain. Farm system head Kevin Reese said it’s nothing serious, but Seigler is now likely to begin the regular season in Extended Spring Training rather than Low-A Charleston. Bummer. [Sam Dykstra]
  • Mike King (elbow) is playing catch at 90 feet as he works his way back from the stress reaction in his elbow he suffered early in camp. “He started his throwing program. He feels good and hopefully we’ll have no more setbacks on that,” said Reese. [DJ Eberle]
  • If you’re interested, Conor Foley has the day’s minor league camp lineups and workout groups. Don’t read anything into who is at what level. Those are only Spring Training workout groups, not regular season assignments. Josh Stowers hit a homer today. [Sam Dykstra]
  • And finally, the Orioles announced Alex Cobb will start Opening Day, so it’ll be Tanaka vs. Cobb at Yankee Stadium two weeks from tomorrow. I imagine Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy will start the second and third games of the season for Baltimore in either order.

The Yankees will be on the road tomorrow afternoon to take on the Blue Jays. Luis Cessa is starting and Brendan Kuty says Troy Tulowitzki will make the road trip to face his former team. Tomorrow’s game will be televised live but not on YES. It seems the game was dropped and will not be broadcast. Groan.

Spring Training observation: Masahiro Tanaka’s new curveball

by

(Presswire)

In two weeks and one day Masahiro Tanaka will be on the mound for Opening Day at Yankee Stadium. He’ll make his fourth Opening Day start in the last five years thanks to Luis Severino’s shoulder issue. Tanaka’s Opening Day history isn’t good (14 runs in 12.2 innings), but who cares. What happened in 2015-17 has no bearing on 2019.

Anyway, Tanaka has been very good so far during Grapefruit League play, allowing two runs in 6.1 innings. And that is completely meaningless. Example: Tanaka had a career best 0.38 ERA in Spring Training 2017 and a career worst 4.74 ERA during the 2017 regular season. It’s 6.1 innings! Good or bad, his spring performance means nothing.

For a veteran like Tanaka, it’s more instructive to track the process than the results. Sometimes in the spring you can spot a swing change or a delivery tweak. For example, Tanaka employed a little pause at the top of his leg left during his first Grapefruit League start this year. Check it out:

That caught my attention. Tanaka did it a few times during that start and varied the pause. Sometimes it was even a little more exaggerated than that. It didn’t last though. Tanaka was back to his usual smooth, continuous leg motion with no pause in his second Grapefruit League start. Didn’t do it once. Maybe he gave up on the pause. We’ll see.

The pause might be one of those Spring Training nothings. Tanaka’s new curveball is not.  Earlier this spring he said he started toying with a new curveball — a new knuckle curve, specifically — late last year because he didn’t like the traditional curveball he’s been throwing pretty much his entire career, and he’s continuing to work on it this year.

“I really didn’t like how the previous curveball was moving. So I wanted to try something new and that’s where basically I have a new curveball now,” said Tanaka to Mark Didtler through a translator. “It’s something that I’ve been kind of been playing around with or trying during the later part of the season last year. Actually I’ve thrown a couple in a game towards the end of last season. So I kept working on it and working on it.”

Here is the obligatory GIF of Tanaka’s new knucklecurve:

It’s a little snappier than Tanaka’s old curveball, though the big difference is the radar gun. That pitch was 80 mph on the television gun — the YES Network gun has matched Trackman (i.e. Statcast) for years now and is generally very reliable, even in Spring Training — which is awfully hard for a curveball. Last year’s Tanaka’s curve averaged 77.3 mph.

In his five seasons with the Yankees, Tanaka has thrown 17 total curveballs at 80 mph or better, with eight of the 17 coming in 2016. Here are the 2018 league averages:

  • Curveballs: 78.3 mph
  • Knuckle curves: 80.9 mph

The velocity difference more or less matches Tanaka’s. There’s a three mile-an-hour separation between a curveball and knuckle curve, on average. We haven’t seen many knuckle curves from Tanaka thus far this spring — he said he threw some late last year, but Statcast didn’t pick up any — so we’re definitely short on information right now.

Tanaka typically uses his curveball to steal strikes early in the count. Roughly 7% of the pitches Tanaka has thrown in his MLB career are curveballs, and approximately 62% of his curveballs have been thrown as the first pitch of an at-bat. It’s a clear change of pace/steal a strike pitch. Not a finish pitch or anything like that. It’s a sneak attack pitch.

I don’t see that changing anytime soon, even if Tanaka gives up the traditional curve and goes with the knuckle curve full-time. He’s always going to be a slider/splitter pitcher with a show-me fastball. When you have two offspeed pitches as good as Tanaka’s slider and splitter, there’s no sense in getting cute with your fourth or fifth best pitch.

Maybe the knuckle curve proves to be so effective that Tanaka can use it as a putaway pitch. I’d bet against it. At this point, Tanaka is who he is, and he’s not going to drastically change anything until the hitters tell him it’s necessary, like they told CC Sabathia he needed a cutter. Tanaka is not at that point yet. He’s tinkering more than overhauling.

Tanaka is a master craftsman and he knows how to best use his arsenal. The knuckle curve is a (theoretically) better version of his old curve and gives hitters one more thing to think about, and that’s it. Not something to lean on heavily, you know? For now, the knuckle curve is a #thingtowatch, even if it doesn’t figure to be a real impact pitch going forward.

The Return of J.A. Happ [2019 Season Preview]

by

(Presswire)

The Yankees had a chance to be bold this offseason. They could’ve splurged for Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, or even Patrick Corbin, but instead opted to spread the money around on several good players rather than one or two great players. Calling it an offseason of half-measures is probably unfair. Clearly though, the Yankees could have done some bigger things and passed.

Among the offseason pickups was veteran southpaw J.A Happ, who pitched so well for the Yankees following last year’s trade (2.69 ERA in eleven starts) and has had a renaissance in his early-to-mid-30s. Rather than sign Corbin to a deal that would’ve carried him through his age 35 season, the Yankees gave Happ a little two-year contract (with a vesting option) that covers his age 36-37 seasons.

At a time when so many teams are shunning free agents and older players, the Yankees gave the winter’s third largest average annual value ($17M per year) for a free agent starting pitcher to the fourth oldest starter on a 40-man roster at the start of Spring Training. Corbin and Hyun-Jin Ryu received a higher average annual value. Only Rich Hill, CC Sabathia, and Adam Wainwright are older.

“He was a performer. He took the ball every five days. He was a competitor. He came as advertised,” Brian Cashman said to Coley Harvey following Happ’s re-signing. “A real pro. Had a veteran presence within that clubhouse. Knew exactly what was necessary and brought it every five days in the most competitive division in all of baseball and the world.”

Aside from his ALDS start, Happ’s brief tenure with the Yankees went very well, and it shouldn’t be ignored that he joined the team in the middle of a postseason race and thrived. That’s not easy, especially not in New York. Happ is a pro’s pro. Low maintenance and effective. Every team wants a guy like him in the middle of their rotation. Let’s preview his upcoming 2019 season.

Is an adjustment coming?

The Yankees are an anti-fastball team but Happ is not an anti-fastball pitcher. In fact, he’s one of the most extreme fastball pitchers in baseball. Last season he threw the fifth highest rate of fastballs in baseball:

  1. Lance Lynn: 88.9%
  2. James Paxton: 81.5%
  3. David Price: 74.9%
  4. Jon Lester: 74.8%
  5. J.A. Happ: 73.3% (72.0% with the Yankees)

Happ ratcheted up his fastball usage during his brief stint with the Pirates a few years ago, which led to his early-to-mid-30s renaissance. He hasn’t lost velocity with age either. Look at his average four-seam fastball velocity numbers the last four years:

  • 2015: 92.8 mph (96.4 mph max)
  • 2016: 92.8 mph (96.4 mph max)
  • 2017: 92.9 mph (96.4 mph max)
  • 2018: 92.7 mph (96.2 mph max)

Geez, hard to get more consistent than that. The velocity has held steady. Happ’s fastball spin rate dipped noticeably last year …

… which worries me a bit. Three of Happ’s four worst months in average fastball spin rate from 2015-18 came last year, and August 2018 was 6 rpm short of making four of the five lowest. Happ likes to pitch up in the zone with his fastball because it’s a great swing and miss pitch. High spin helps the fastball play up.

“I was encouraged, feeling (my fastball) had a little more life,” Happ said to Pete Caldera following his most recent Grapefruit League start. Aaron Boone added: “(I) thought it was the first time he had his Happ fastball. I thought it was a really good day for him.”

Aroldis Chapman’s velocity dipped last season and, to compensate, he started throwing a lot more sliders. The thing is, Chapman came out of the gate throwing more sliders. More sliders was the plan going into the season. He and the Yankees didn’t wait around until they were sure his velocity dipped to make the adjustment. They were proactive.

The Yankees are big believers in spin rate, so they surely noticed Happ’s fastball spin rate dip last year. Because of that, I wonder if we’ll see a slightly different Happ on the mound this year. Maybe more sliders or changeups, or perhaps he’ll bring back the cutter he shelved a few years ago. A proactive adjustment like Chapman’s slider.

For what it’s worth, Happ threw a lot of changeups in his Grapefruit League start last week. That could’ve been one of those “veteran working on a pitch that’s given him trouble this spring” things. Probably was. But maybe it was part of an adjustment? More changeups to help the fastball play up makes sense, no? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

What do we expect in 2019?

I say this with all due respect: J.A. Happ is boring. He’s a very good Major League pitcher. He’s also relatively uninteresting from a analytic standpoint. He likes to use his high spin fastball up in the zone and … that’s it? In three of the last four seasons he’s finished with an ERA in the 3.50 to 3.65 range. In three of the last four seasons he’s finished with a FIP in the 3.75 to 3.95 range. Consistency is boring.

Happ will play the entire 2019 regular season at age 36 and, for any player at that age, age-related decline is a major concern. Things can fall apart quickly. Happ has defied the typical aging curve — that is especially true with his fastball velocity (it should’ve dipped years ago) — with is encouraging, but it doesn’t mean he will continue to defy it forever. Father Time remains undefeated.

While I admit to being concerned about the drop in fastball spin and the potential ramifications, Happ has earned the benefit of the doubt. He’s been consistently above-average on a rate basis the last four years and he’s averaged just short of six innings per start the last four years. Year after year, season after season, it’s been the same J.A. Happ. That’s not a bad thing at all.

Luis Severino’s injury has created some rotation issues, but, more than anything, the Yankees need Happ to provide competency. They didn’t get it from Sonny Gray or Domingo German last year. Happ came in and stabilized things. If he pitches like an ace, great. That’d be a neat little bonus. With their offense and their bullpen, the Yankees only need Happ to be solid and chew up innings. He remains capable of doing that.

* * *

I was hoping the Yankees would spend big for Corbin, a high strikeout and high ground ball southpaw in the prime of his career. Once they determined his asking price was out of their range (another issue for another time), Happ was the next best thing. I had him as the second best free agent starter this winter. The Yankees avoided a guaranteed third year, which is always a plus for a pitcher this age, and they got to know him a bit firsthand last year following the trade. He’s not Corbin, but Happ was a solid re-signing and will be integral to the 2019 Yankees.

The contingency plan for Aaron Hicks

by

(Presswire)

Opening day is roughly two weeks away and the Yankees might not have their regular starting center fielder for it. Back problems have held Aaron Hicks out of camp for a little more than a week now. Even though he’s indicated that he’s not worried about his readiness for the start of the season, it’s fair to wonder with time running out. It seems like there’s been talk of Hicks getting back into action every day now, only to be pushed back. The latest is that he just received a cortisone shot on Monday.

It’s fine and astute to be cautious at this junction of the year. It’s also reasonable to ponder what would happen if he’s not ready to go by the end of the month. If healthy, the team’s position players were all but set, aside from the first base competition. If Hicks proves not to be ready by opening day, there would have to be a reshuffle.

Here’s how the dominoes could fall without Hicks: Brett Gardner would become the regular center fielder, which in turn leaves a left field vacancy. Giancarlo Stanton could take over in that corner, but that would leave the designated hitter role open. Give that job to Miguel Andujar, and third base is available. Let DJ LeMahieu take over the hot corner, and a bench spot opens up. Who gets it? It depends on how the club plans to replace Hicks’s playing time.

Without Hicks, the Yankees have only three true outfielders slated to make the 25-man roster. Tyler Wade, the apparent favorite for the final bench spot, has some experience out there. Even though the team is working him in the outfield corners this spring, they still might want an extra primary outfielder. That could be Clint Frazier, though it would only make sense if he were to play daily. That means he’d probably rotate with Stanton in left field and at DH, which would bump Andujar and LeMahieu back to their original roles.

A problem with going the Frazier route is that he hasn’t performed well in Grapefruit League play. Not that we should make a big deal of spring training stats, but it might behoove him to spend some extra time in Triple-A to get back up to speed. Shaking off the rust in Scranton wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Jacoby Ellsbury doesn’t appear to be an option even though he’s joining the team in a few days. If he reports this weekend as anticipated, he’d only have ten days or so to be ready for big league action. Ellsbury’s going to open the season on the injured list barring something unforeseen.

If the Yankees are comfortable not having a true fourth outfielder, perhaps they’d reconsider the idea of rostering both Luke Voit and Greg Bird. They’ve made it clear that under normal circumstances it doesn’t make sense to keep both of them, but maybe losing Hicks changes things. In this scenario, Stanton would play the outfield regularly while Voit and Bird are both in the lineup at first base and DH.

The only other 40-man roster position players are Kyle Higashioka and Thairo Estrada. Neither make sense to replace Hicks for the short run. There’s no need for a third catcher nor another infielder.

Would the Yankees entertain a non-roster player? Billy Burns, Matt Lipka, and Estevan Florial are the current in-house options with the major league team this month. Florial has been awesome in camp and will need to be added to the 40-man eventually, but there’s no need to rush him. Burns and Lipka don’t offer much more than a warm body, which probably keeps them from traveling north. Alternatively, depending on Hicks’s status over the next week or two, the Yankees can monitor other team’s NRIs with opt out dates approaching. There are even some mildly interesting free agents out there, should this back problem linger.

If I had to rank the possibilities of potential replacement, I’d go as follows:

  1. Bird/Voit
  2. Frazier
  3. Burns/Lipka
  4. Free agent/Poach another team’s NRI
  5. Higashioka/Estrada
  6. Ellsbury
  7. Florial

I lean toward Bird/Voit because they both could gain regular playing time, and it would give the team more time to make a decision on what to do with the two of them. If Frazier wasn’t returning from such a difficult situation, he’d easily be my top choice.

Hopefully this roster speculation is much ado about nothing. I’m sure the last thing Hicks wants to do is spend any time on the injured list. He has a reputation of being somewhat brittle, though he did manage a career high 137 games played last season. Regardless of how this plays out, it’s most important to get him back to full strength without taking any shortcuts.

March 12th: Spring Training Notes: Hicks, Sabathia, Paxton, Gregorius, Heller, Ellsbury, Roster Cuts

by

The Yankees rallied in the eighth inning to beat the Orioles tonight. Miguel Andujar had three hits and made a nice defensive play going to his right. Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge, and Kyle Higashioka all hit home runs. Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, and Troy Tulowitzki all had base hits as well. Trey Amburgey’s bases loaded walk and Clint Frazier’s sacrifice fly contributed to the three-run eighth inning rally.

Jonathan Loaisiga got the start and gosh, it did not go well. He really labored in the second inning and finished the night having allowed six runs (five earned) in two innings. It would behoove him to pitch well in his final two Grapefruit League appearances. Jonathan Holder allowed a solo homer in an otherwise uneventful night for the big league relievers. Zack Britton threw two innings. Holder, Chad Green, and Aroldis Chapman threw one each. Here are the box score and video highlights, and here are the day’s notes from Spring Training:

  • Aaron Hicks (back) received a cortisone shot yesterday. He admitted he still had limited mobility when he took swings Sunday. Aaron Boone said Hicks could return to game action this coming weekend. “Something like this lingering, we had to do something about it,” Hicks said, adding he can always go to minor league camp to get a bunch of at-bats before Opening Day, if necessary. [Bryan Hoch, James Wagner]
  • CC Sabathia faced hitters for the first time this spring in a short live batting practice session. Only three hitters. Here’s some video. Also, James Paxton threw a simulated game. He was away from the team this past weekend following a death in his family. [Kristie Ackert, Pete Caldera]
  • Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery) has progressed to take dry swings with a regular bat. He was swinging a fungo bat last week. Gregorius will begin hitting off a tee in a week or two. Until then, dry swings only. [Bryan Hoch]
  • Ben Heller (Tommy John surgery) is ten bullpen sessions into his throwing program and is about six weeks away from pitching in rehab games. He’s throwing fastballs and changeups only now. He’ll introduce sliders into his throwing program next week. [DJ Eberle]
  • Jacoby Ellsbury (hip) is expected to join the Yankees on Sunday. He’s still in rehab mode and only recently started running on flat ground. Ellsbury is still a ways away from baseball activity, let alone playing in games. [Brendan Kuty]
  • More roster cuts: Chance Adams, Trey Amburgey, Cale Coshow, Kellin Deglan, Thairo Estrada, Danny Farquhar, Mike Ford, and Joe Harvey have all been sent to minor league camp, the Yankees announced. I count 50 players in big league camp now.

If you’re interested and will be up early, tonight’s game will be replayed on MLB Network at 6am ET tomorrow. The Yankees have another night game tomorrow night. That’s a home game against the Phillies. Masahiro Tanaka is starting and the game will not be televised.