River Avenue Blues

Spring Training Game Thread: Under The Lights

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(Presswire)

Isn’t it weird most Spring Training games are played during the day, then everyone has to adjust their schedule for night games during the regular season? I’ve always thought it’s a little weird. Anyway, for the first time this spring, the Yankees are playing a televised night game. It’s their second night game of the spring overall, but this is the first one on television.

The fifth (and fourth, really) starter’s competition continues tonight as Domingo German will make his latest Grapefruit League appearance. He’s going to have to come out of the bullpen following some no-doubt big leaguers, however. Also, DJ LeMahieu’s crash course at third base continues. He’s looked pretty good there so far this spring, though it isn’t a big sample size. Here is the Tigers’ lineup and here are the players the Yankees will use tonight:

  1. SS Troy Tulowitzki
  2. RF Aaron Judge
  3. LF Giancarlo Stanton
  4. 1B Luke Voit
  5. DH Miguel Andujar
  6. 2B Gleyber Torres
  7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
  8. CF Brett Gardner
  9. C Austin Romine

RHP Masahiro Tanaka

Available Position Players: C Kellin Deglan, C Francisco Diaz, C Ryan Lavarnway, C Jorge Saez, 1B Mike Ford, IF Oswaldo Cabrera, IF Thairo Estrada, IF Kyle Holder, IF Gosuke Katoh, 1B/OF Ryan McBroom, OF Estevan Florial, OF Isiah Gilliam, OF Matt Lipka, OF Ben Ruta. Cabrera, Katoh, McBroom, Gilliam, and Ruta are all up from minor league camp.

Available Pitchers: RHP Dellin Betances, LHP Zack Britton, LHP Rex Brothers, RHP Domingo German, RHP Joe Harvey, RHP Tommy Kahnle, LHP Anderson Severino, LHP Stephen Tarpley. Severino is up from minor league camp for the day. No, he’s not related to Luis.

It is cloudy and cool in Tampa tonight. Not a bad night to spend at the ballpark. Tonight’s game will begin at 6:35pm ET and you can watch live on YES and MLB.tv. There are no MLB.tv blackouts in Spring Training. Enjoy the game.

Early Spring Training observation: Aaron Judge’s adjustment in the box

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If you caught the beginning of the game against the Cardinals on Wednesday, you might have heard Reggie Jackson and Ken Singleton discuss Aaron Judge’s refined approach this spring. Changes that hitters make in the batter’s box aren’t always obvious unless they’re drastic, and I don’t think I would have noticed it until Mr. October said this:

“Aaron has been working in the cage and behind the scenes, if you will, by trying to take a no-stride swing to not have too much going on with two strikes.”

I wanted to see this for myself. Lo and behold, Jackson was right:

Left: 2018, Right: Wednesday.

Watch Judge’s front foot closely. He completely elevated it off the ground last year in a two-strike count. On Wednesday, his toes remained in touch with the dirt. Go back and watch any highlight from Grapefruit League action and you’ll see that he’s been doing this all spring. Shortly after Reggie introduced the topic on the broadcast, Singleton briefly mentioned a discussion he had with hitting coach Marcus Thames, who told Singleton that Judge is trying to cut down on his strikeouts.

That goal should come as no surprise. Strikeouts are Judge’s only flaw on offense, and given his brute strength, it’s easy to dream on how much better he could be with a little more contact.

So, what are the early returns on this adjustment? I shouldn’t be citing spring training stats, but I’m going to do it anyway. Take the following with the largest grain of salt possible. In 17 plate plate appearances, Judge has struck out three times, or just under 18 percent. I’m not going to pretend that’s predictive or anything. Let me emphasize it once more: never, ever, draw conclusions from spring training stats, let alone 17 plate appearances. But…maybe it gives us a little hope? What’s the harm in dreaming?

Before we get too wrapped up in this change, keep in mind that this isn’t the first time Judge has tried to pare down his leg kick. In fact, by now we should expect him to experiment in camp. After introducing a leg kick in 2016, He played around with quieting the kick in 2017…


…though that turned out to be a false alarm. The leg kick stuck around to great success. He could decide to go back to it this time around, too. Look, it would be great for Judge to reduce his career 31.6 percent strikeout rate, but not at the expense of his other skills. If he ultimately feels uncomfortable with this new approach and reverts to the leg kick, fine by me. It’s great that he’s trying to get better and fun to think about the best case scenario, but sometimes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Let’s also not forget that this change that Judge is trying is not guaranteed to succeed. His strikeout rate could be just the same as usual or potentially even worse. Guys who punch out as frequently as Judge rarely start making much more contact. Sometimes, it’s just who the hitter is and no alteration can make a difference. The only examples I can think of who improved after striking out roughly as often as Judge are Kris Bryant and Giancarlo Stanton.

Bryant fanned 30.6 percent of the time in his rookie season, but was able to drop his mark to as low as 19.2 percent in 2017 (he’s been around 22 – 23 percent otherwise). Meanwhile, Stanton dropped his near 30 percent clip to 23.6 percent in 2017, though that jumped back up in pinstripes.

It won’t be the end of the world if Judge maintains his high strikeout rates. It hasn’t slowed him down thus far in his career, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to any time soon. Without question, it would be fantastic to see him dip into the low-to-mid twenties, but that’s a lot to ask. For now, it’s still early March, so it’s fun to drool about the possibility. We won’t really know if this will work until the regular season. And that’s if he doesn’t decide to scrap it like he did a couple years ago.

The Second Half Rotation Addition [2019 Season Preview]

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(Presswire)

For the fifth time in the last five seasons, the Yankees lost a member of their starting rotation to Tommy John surgery last year. Jordan Montgomery, who exited his May 1st start with elbow tightness, joined Michael Pineda (2017), Nathan Eovaldi (2016), Chase Whitley (2015), and Ivan Nova (2014). That’s some rotten elbow luck.

Prior to his injury Montgomery made six starts and pitched to a 3.62 ERA (4.22 FIP) in 27.1 innings. His strikeout rate (22.2% to 19.8%) dropped and his walk rate (7.9% to 10.3%) increased from his rookie year, though it was only 27.1 innings, so it’s tough to tell what was noise and what is meaningful. The curse of small sample sizes.

Montgomery, 26, he had his surgery on June 7th. With the exception of one minor little setback over the winter — “Just general soreness. I feel like I’m just hypersensitive to everything in my elbow right now,” he said to Coley Harvey last month — his Tommy John surgery rehab is on schedule. He’s due to return later this summer.

The prospect of a healthy Montgomery returning to give the Yankees a midseason lift is exciting. He was solid during his rookie year, occasionally spectacular, and there’s never such a thing as too much rotation depth. Another warm body to give the regular starters a little breather down the stretch would be welcome. Let’s preview Montgomery’s partial season.

When will he return, exactly?

The plan is sometime after the All-Star break. Montgomery started his throwing program a few weeks ago — he was making 50 throws at 90 feet when Spring Training opened — and we haven’t heard any updates recently, though that’s not unusual. Last month Montgomery told Pete Caldera he would throw in the bullpen sometime this month, and rejoin the Yankees in mid-July. “I have my sights set on that,” he said.

Returning to the mound sometime this month does not mean Montgomery will enter Spring Training mode. Tommy John surgery rehab includes several weeks of mound work before game action. The first few weeks are all fastballs too. It’ll be a few weeks until breaking balls and changeups are introduced. Montgomery starting mound work this month puts him in track to see game action sometime in May.

Minor league rehab stints for position players are 20 days maximum. They’re 30 days maximum for pitchers, but, if a pitcher is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, teams can request another 30 days and MLB always grants it. Bet on that happening with Montgomery. The Yankees will want him to get as much game action as possible. Remember, the goal is not only to get stretched out to 100 pitches. Montgomery has to get his mechanics back in place and regain feel for his pitches. I’d consider a return sooner than mid-July to be pretty aggressive.

“I’ve got four more months to get as strong as I can and try to work on anything I want to. My mechanics, clean those out, get my legs stronger,” Montgomery said to Harvey last month. “Just to get in better shape and come back a whole new pitcher is the plan … Hopefully in four months, right when I’m done with my rehab starts, then I’ll be back (with the Yankees).”

What happens when he comes back?

Worry about it when the time comes. Seriously. There’s no point in wondering where Montgomery will slot into the rotation when he returns when we’re still (at least) four months away from that happening. It’s too far away and lots can and will change between now and then. If the rotation is healthy and productive, send Montgomery to Triple-A. If there are injuries and an open spot, stick him in the rotation. That’s it. This is the epitome of a “figure it out when the time comes” situation. It’s a boring answer, I know, but it is the only possible answer right now.

Will he be the same Montgomery?

There have been many studies examining performance after Tommy John surgery. The results of those studies often conflict, and the end result is a great big shrug emoji. Some guys return better than ever (because they were pitching with a damaged elbow so long). Some guys return same as always (because the elbow ligament just snapped one day). Some guys never get back to where they were (because they lose a little stuff or command with the new ligament).

I will say this much: Montgomery can’t really afford to lose any stuff or command. He’s never been a big velocity guy (91.9 mph average fastball in his MLB career), so he needs sharp secondary pitches and good control to be effective. Less anything — less velocity, less break, less control — would negatively impact Montgomery more than it would, say, Michael Pineda, who had stuff to spare. Montgomery’s margin for error isn’t very big. Reducing it any further would be bad news.

Chances are Montgomery will return from Tommy John surgery fine and dandy because most pitchers return from Tommy John surgery and go back to being themselves. Some guys, like Matt Moore, are never the same and that’s always a risk. The odds are in Montgomery’s favor though. An immediate return to No. 4 starter level would be wonderful. If Montgomery doesn’t get all the way back there until 2020, that’s okay too.

* * *

I can already hear Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, and everyone else talking about Montgomery’s return being like a trade deadline pickup. Get ready for it. It’s coming. My hot take for the day is Montgomery is probably going to end up making more minor league starts than Major League starts this season, partly because he still has a long rehab stint ahead of him, and also because he’s not one of the team’s five best starters when everyone’s healthy. Will everyone be healthy? Probably not, but I hope so.

Whatever Montgomery gives the Yankees this season gravy. That’s how they have to look at it. I know it’s easy to dream on Montgomery returning in mid-July and being the knight in shining armor who saves the rotation, but that’s probably not realistic, nor is it fair. Expecting a pitcher coming off a major arm surgery to have an immediate impact is no way for a contender to build a rotation. Montgomery’s full return to form is likely to happen in 2020. Anything he gives the Yankees in 2019 is a bonus.

Mailbag: Gray, Harper, Stanton, Yankees MVP, LeMahieu

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Ten questions in this week’s mailbag. Only two more of these to go until Opening Day. Send all your mailbag questions to RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll get to as many as I can each week.

Gray. (Kareem Elgazzar/Cincinnati Enquirer)

Many, many people asked: What do you make of Sonny Gray saying the Yankees forced him him to throw his slider?

Earlier this week Eno Sarris (subs. req’d) wrote a piece on Gray in which Sonny, among other things, said the Yankees made him throw too many sliders. He indicated he was on board with the anti-fastball philosophy, but felt he should’ve thrown more curveballs than sliders. Here’s part of the quote:

“I can’t command my slider that well,” the new Reds starter admitted. “I want to throw my slider in the dirt with two strikes, and that’s about it. I don’t have that type of slider, like (Masahiro) Tanaka’s slider. His slider, the catcher will catch it, and the batter will swing and miss. If I get a swing and miss, the catcher is blocking it in the dirt. When I try to throw sliders for a strike, I get around it and it’s just a sh*tty spinning pitch. I don’t know how people throw sliders for strikes that are still tight, good pitches. I’m at 2-0 and I’m throwing a slider, and either I’m throwing a sh*tty slider in the zone, or I’m yanking it into the dirt and it’s 3-0 and I’m screwed either way.

“They love sliders,” he said of the Yankees. “Sliders are a great pitch. The numbers say slider is a good pitch, but you might not realize how many sh*tty counts you’re getting in while throwing all those sliders. They wanted me to be Tanaka and I’m way different from him.”

Brooks Baseball says Gray threw more curveballs (23.7%) than sliders (15.9%) last season, which doesn’t jibe with the whole “I should’ve been throwing curveballs, not sliders” thing. That curveball rate was his highest since 2014 and the slider rate was right in line with his last few seasons. To be fair to Sonny, he throws several different variations of each pitch, which will sometimes confuse the pitch-tracking systems. Occasionally curveballs will be classified as sliders, sliders will be classified as cutters, so on and so forth.

On one hand, I’m inclined to believe the pitcher in these situations. If a guy says he’s throwing a slider but the pitch data says it’s a curveball, it was probably a slider the system misclassified. On the other hand, Gray also said this …

“In my very last outing against the Red Sox, second to last game of the season in New York, I threw two innings out of the pen, all I did was throw cutters,” Gray said. “I said, ‘F*ck ’em, all I’m going to do is throw cutters today.’ I just threw 94-mph cutters — six up, six down, four punchies, and I thought maybe I’ll make the postseason roster here … but I didn’t.”

… and literally every part of that is wrong (well, except not making the postseason roster). The game was in Boston, not New York. He did not go six up, six down (he allowed a hit). He did not strike out four batters (he struck out three). And he sure as hell did not throw all cutters. Brooks Baseball says he didn’t and my eyes say he didn’t. Here’s the video of that outing. Watch for yourself. “All I did was throw cutters,” is definitely not a thing that happened. Seems like Sonny’s memory is a little foggy. Maybe take his recollection of things with a grain of salt.

Gray’s home/road splits were extreme last season and his curveball/slider split was not meaningfully different at home (24.2%/13.8%) than on the road (25.5%/16.3%). Maybe he only threw that “sh*tty spinning pitch” at Yankee Stadium and saved the good pitches for the road? Eh, whatever. The article focused mostly on what Gray will do going forward, not dumping on the Yankees, but it sure seems everyone is to blame for Sonny’s poor 2018 season except Sonny Gray. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman both took the high road when asked about Gray’s comments and that’s exactly what they should’ve done. A trade was the best thing for everyone. This wasn’t working.

Michael asks: We always said once we saw what Harper got, Stanton’s deal would be a steal. In retrospect, wouldn’t you rather Harper on his deal than Stanton on his? I know it doesn’t have to be one or the other, but the reality is that that’s how the Yankees viewed it.

I would rather have Bryce Harper on his deal than Giancarlo Stanton on his deal, yes. I assumed Harper would wind up with something like $35M per year or even $40M per year. He wound up with $25.4M per year. These are the two choices:

  • Harper: 13 years at $25.4M annually (ages 26-38)
  • Stanton: 9 years at $22M annually (ages 29-37)

The Yankees did get a pretty darn good 2018 season from Stanton, which can’t be ignored. Going forward though, yeah, I’d rather have Harper. The difference in annual salary is relatively small, they’ll be roughly the same age when the contracts end, and you’re getting Harper’s age 26-28 seasons. Those are three peak seasons with big value. If they were the same age, I’d take Stanton on his deal, for sure. They’re not though. Harper’s contract is four years longer but it also comes with three more peak years. Those are the years I want. That isn’t to say I think Stanton will be bad going forward. Not at all. I just expect Harper to be the better player.

Michael asks: Going into 2019, who is the hardest to replace, and therefore most valuable, Yankee? I think there is an argument to be made for a number of players: Judge (talent and production level); Sanchez (position drop-off); Gleyber (most stable MIF option); Severino (unquestioned leader of staff); Hicks (CF defense)?

It’s Aaron Judge. The Luis Severino injury will test this, and Gary Sanchez returning to 2016-17 form would make him essentially irreplaceable, but I still think it’s Judge. He is the Yankees’ best hitter and best all-around player. Yes, the Yankees would plug Giancarlo Stanton into right field should Judge get hurt, but Stanton would not be replacing Judge. Both guys will be in the regular lineup anyway. Judge’s replacement is whoever joins the roster. Maybe Stanton in right field with Greg Bird at DH, or Miguel Andujar at DH and DJ LeMahieu at third, softens the blow. Judge is one of the ten best players in baseball though. He impacts the game in so many ways. Losing him for any length of time would be devastating. We saw it last year. The Yankees weren’t the same without him. Severino, Sanchez, and Aaron Hicks have arguments for being the most difficult Yankee to replace. Judge stands out the most.

LeMahieu. (Presswire)

Jon asks: When you wrote your candidates for leadoff hitter post a couple months ago, I’m not sure if the Yankees had signed LeMahieu yet. Now that he’s a Yankee and they’ve indicated he’s more than likely an every day player (as mapped out recently), does he have a shot at the leadoff role?

The Yankees signed DJ LeMahieu four days after that post when up. Anyway, if he hits enough, every player has a shot at the leadoff role. In LeMahieu’s case, I think the Yankees would only use him at leadoff against lefties, at least initially. He hit .330/.360/.540 (124 wRC+) against lefties last season and .249/.303/.373 (67 wRC+) against righties. His career platoon split is not that extreme (104 wRC+ vs. 84 wRC+) but it is significant. Unless he suddenly starts hitting righties, LeMahieu’s probably not the guy the Yankees want getting more at-bats than everyone else against right-handed pitchers. Against lefties, sure, bat him leadoff. I’d definitely say no against righties unless he’s hitting so much you can’t ignore it.

Ralph asks: Let’s turn this little blurb you guys mentioned in the Devil’s Advocate: The Yankees were smart to pass on Manny Machado and Bryce Harper article into a legit question: I mean, seriously, when’s the last time the Yankees traded away a player they truly miss? I can’t remember.

The answer is Andrew Miller. The Yankees haven’t gotten much impact from that trade yet — Clint Frazier seems poised for a breakout season and Justus Sheffield became James Paxton, though the Miller trade hasn’t helped the Yankees much to date — whereas Miller was a championship-caliber high-leverage reliever for a year and a half with the Indians. (Last season didn’t go too well.) I don’t think the Yankees would undo that trade. From 2016-18 though, they would’ve been better off with Miller than Frazier and Sheffield (and Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen).

Miller was an established big leaguer and the Yankees trading a well-above-average big leaguer for prospects is quite the rarity. The last young player or prospect the Yankees regretted trading away was … Yangervis Solarte? Jake Cave and Ben Gamel are useful pieces who would help the Yankees more right now than the guys they traded them for (Luis Gil, JP Sears, Juan Then), but those guys are fourth outfielders. Meh. Someone like Sheffield, Caleb Smith, Taylor Widener, Nick Solak, Billy McKinney, or Blake Rutherford could become the “one who got away” in time. As best I can remember, the last time the Yankees made a truly terrible trade they regretted for a long time is Tyler Clippard for Jonathan Albaladejo. Now that was a dud of a trade.

Juan asks: Luis Cessa and Tommy Kahnle. Since both are out of options, does it make sense to trade them for similar, lesser-established pitchers with remaining options? Perhaps we could even receive a lottery prospect or two in the deals?

This question was sent in before the Luis Severino injury. The Yankees have to hang on to Cessa as rotation depth for the time being now. In Kahnle’s case, trading him for a minor leaguer — the Yankees have been trading these fringe roster guys (Ben Gamel, Jake Cave) for far away rookie baller pitchers (Juan Then, Luis Gil) the last few years, which is what I assume would happen with Kahnle — and going with someone like Stephen Tarpley in the bullpen might make some sense. The thing is, I don’t think Cessa or Kahnle have much trade value right now, so the best move is probably hanging on to them and seeing what happens. Kahnle rediscovering his 2017 form would be more valuable to the Yankees than anything he could fetch in a trade. Flipping Cessa or Kahnle for a similar pitcher with options is a great idea, except the other team has a say in this, and they’d probably just hang on to the optionable pitchers. That extra roster flexibility has real value.

Doug asks: I noticed at Tuesday’s spring training game that Gary Sanchez had something that seemed almost plastic on his left arm band. What is that?

It’s a cheat sheet, basically. The arm band includes scouting reports and matchup info. “Pitch this guy this way.” That sorta stuff. These scouting report arm bands first starting showing up two or three years ago — the Yankees were among the first teams to use it — and, by last year, pretty much every catcher around the league had one. I screen grabbed this during a game last April. Here’s Sanchez sneaking a peak:

I don’t remember when exactly it happened, so I can’t go back to make a GIF, but I distinctly remember YES Network cameras showing Aaron Boone going out to the mound during a pitching change last year and bringing Sanchez a new arm band, so these things are personalized by pitcher. Catchers have arm bands with scouting reports, outfielders have carried cards to help them with positioning for years now, and the Yankees will give their infielders positioning cards this year as well. There is so much information in baseball nowadays that expecting players to memorize it all is unreasonable. Print it out, give them the card, then let them play.

Rob asks: In your spring training game threads, you list the starters and the available pitchers and position players. I’ve noticed that some position players who don’t start are not listed as available, e.g. Miguel Andujar on March 6 – why is that? Can teams play everyone on any given day, or do they have to designate a subset of their players? If the latter, why?

Anyone can play on any given day in Spring Training. You don’t have to be on the 40-man roster to appear in a Spring Training game. Every player is on some sort of schedule though. They play this many innings this day, go work on the backfields this day, rest this day, etc. It’s all mapped out. On days they aren’t scheduled to play, the big leaguers get their work in and go home. They (usually) don’t sit in the dugout for the game. Whenever you see a projected big leaguer (or even someone on the MLB roster bubble) on a spring lineup card, he’s playing that day. The Yankees won’t make Andujar or Gleyber Torres sit on the bench as an emergency guy, or leave Dellin Betances in the bullpen as an extra arm. That’s what the non-roster players and daily minor league camp call-ups are for.

John asks: Two SS’s coming off of TJS – Didi and Seager. Given the choice, who would you pick for your team going forward, assuming equal contracts?

Corey Seager, easily. I’d take him at twice Didi Gregorius’ next contract and I love Sir Didi. Seager is four years younger and he hit .302/.370/.497 (132 wRC+) with +12.9 WAR in his two healthy seasons (2016-17) before having Tommy John surgery last year. Didi’s best single-season batting average with the Yankees is .287 (2017). His best OBP is .335 (2018). His best slugging percentage is .494 (2018) and that’s as a left-handed hitter in Yankee Stadium. His best wRC+ is 121 (2018). Seager has him beat across the board. He’s younger and a far superior hitter, and he’s a solid defender too. I love Gregorius and I hope he’s a Yankee forever. That said, I would take Seager over him in a heartbeat and not even think twice about it.

Adam asks: Although not directly Yankees related I am curious about how the luxury tax works on suspended players. I assume players do not get paid while on suspension, but do their full salaries still count against the luxury tax?

Suspended players do not get paid and the salary they forfeit does not count toward the luxury tax payroll. Alex Rodriguez was suspended 162 games in 2014 and the Yankees received 162 games worth of luxury tax payroll relief. (They did get charged for the 20 off-days though. That was $3.2M or so.) CC Sabathia has to serve a five-game suspension this year and he’ll forfeit five games worth of salary, or $215,000 or so. That means his luxury tax hit will be $7.785M rather than his full $8M salary.

March 7th Spring Training Notes: First Base, Sabathia, Wade

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The Yankees beat up on the Phillies this afternoon. Estevan Florial hit an opposite field three-run home run that looked like a gap shot double off the bat, but carried over the fence. “I mean, wow. It’s a short list of people that can hit a ball like that. I told that to Reggie Jackson on the bench. He was quick to tell me that he was one of those,” Aaron Boone said to Bryan Hoch. Mike Ford also went deep. Miguel Andujar had two hits on the day.

James Paxton started and was very good, striking out five and allowing three hits in 3.1 scoreless innings before reaching his pitch count. Adam Ottavino struck out three in 1.2 innings. He and Paxton struck out eight of the 19 batters they faced, or 42.1%. Pretty cool. Jonathan Holder tossed a perfect inning and Danny Farquhar had a scoreless inning as well. It was his second Grapefruit League appearance. Here are the box score and video highlights, and here are today’s Spring Training notes:

  • Aaron Boone pretty much shot down the possibility of a first base platoon. “It’s tough for me to envision us having two first basemen, especially when I feel like (DJ) LeMahieu would be that guy that gets backup reps there,” he said. That means either Luke Voit or (more likely) Greg Bird is going to Triple-A. [Bryan Hoch]
  • So far, so good for CC Sabathia during his bullpen sessions. “We are just trying to build up enough time, the knee is fine … I feel great,” he said. Sabathia is expected to begin the season on the injured list as he builds up his arm strength and stretches his pitch count. [George King]
  • Tyler Wade’s versatility will be a factor when the Yankees pick someone for their final bench spot, Boone said. That doesn’t surprise me. Wade has played second base, shortstop, third base, left field, and right field so far this spring. [Lindsey Adler]
  • Aaron Hicks (back) did some running and throwing today, and he’s aiming to be back in the lineup this weekend. Boone said Hicks has “significantly improved,” so that’s good. [Bryan Hoch]

The Yankees are back in action with a night game tomorrow. It’s their second night game of the spring. They’ll host the Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field at 6:35pm ET. Masahiro Tanaka is the scheduled starting pitcher. Tomorrow’s game will be televised live.

Like it or not, the Yanks should use an opener while Severino and Sabathia are sidelined

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Go ahead, give me a good reason why Domingo German should face the top of the lineup in the first inning. (Presswire)

When the 2019 regular season opens in three weeks, the Yankees will be without staff ace Luis Severino and fifth starter CC Sabathia. Severino is dealing with rotator cuff inflammation and Sabathia is working his way back from offseason knee and heart surgery. Sabathia’s delayed start to the season was expected. Severino’s injury came out of nowhere, like most injuries.

“Hopefully it’s as short as necessary, but we need to make sure we give it the time also that’s necessary,” Brian Cashman said to Coley Harvey earlier this week. “He’s an important piece and we’re not going to have him for a period of time. We’ll adjust. That’s what everybody has to do. But it’s obviously a very concerning situation until he’s on the mound for a consistent amount of time to the point that you forget it ever happened.”

Cashman seemingly ruled out an outside rotation addition — “What I’ve got is what I’ve got and we’re comfortable with that. Can’t rule anything out, but I’d say the main focus is what we have,” he said — which isn’t surprising. No general manager would come out and say “yep, we’re ready to sign someone or make a trade” after losing a key player to injury. That’s a good way to crush your leverage.

Realistically, there are four ways the Yankees can replace Severino and Sabathia. One, they could splurge and sign Dallas Keuchel. I wouldn’t bet on that. Two, they could go after Gio Gonzalez, who figures to be cheaper than Keuchel and still offers that Proven Veteran™ track record. Three, they could go real cheap with someone like James Shields or Edwin Jackson. Or four, they could go in-house with Luis Cessa, Domingo German, or Jonathan Loaisiga.

The Yankees tend to promote from within to address roster needs these days — remember how Severino made his MLB debut? the Yankees called him up because they didn’t like any of the asking prices at the 2015 trade deadline — so my hunch is they’ll roll with Cessa, German, and Loaisiga. I get adding depth, but is there any reason to believe Jackson or Shields or Bartolo Colon would give the Yankees better production? Eh, not really.

Sticking Cessa, German, or Loaisiga in the rotation and letting them run with it is the most straightforward move. It is not necessarily the best move, however. I think the best move would be pairing them with an opener. Aaron Boone more or less dismissed using an opener last week — “Look, if we are healthy and have perfect health, you don’t envision that,” he said — but here’s what he told George King following Severino’s injury:

“I could see (an opener) being considered from time to time. I don’t consider it a lot, but I could see it coming into play,” Boone said of employing the opener by using a reliever such as Chad Green to start a game. “There are so many things that go into that for us. A long stretch of games, you may want to give a guy an extra day. When we are healthy and right, I don’t see it that much.”

When healthy, the Yankees don’t have any opener candidates. Sabathia is the best candidate to be paired with an opener, but he has a longer than usual warm-up routine, and that might not translate well to the bullpen. An opener with Sabathia could be a net negative. With Severino and Sabathia sidelined though, and presumably two of Cessa, German, and Loaisiga in the rotation, suddenly the Yankees have two candidates for an opener.

The opener is both a smart strategy and a total drag to watch. The additional pitching changes and constant bullpen monitoring distract from the actual game. Strategically, it’s brilliant. You match up one of your better pitchers against the top of the lineup (i.e. the other team’s best hitters) in the first inning, then turn it over to someone who can get you through three or four (or five) innings while facing the top of the lineup only once. It’s smart. It is.

Cessa, German, and Loaisiga are all young pitchers with recent bullpen experience — they all pitched in relief for the Yankees at times last year — and the Yankees certainly have the bullpen depth to swing this. They could use Chad Green as an opener and still have Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zack Britton, and Adam Ottavino for the late innings. I wouldn’t be opposed to using Betances as an opener and really dropping the hammer.

German really struggled in the first inning last year (8.36 ERA and .283/.348/.667 against) though I don’t think we need to dig up stats to validate the strategy. Generally speaking, the other team’s best hitters bat in the first inning. That has been the case for decades. Top relievers like Green, Betances, and Ottavino are better equipped to retire the other team’s best hitters than inexperienced kids like Cessa, German, and Loaisiga. It’s pretty simple.

The difficult part — and this is what Rays manager Kevin Cash did so well last year — is getting the players to buy in. Throwing Betances rather than Cessa at Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, and J.D. Martinez in the first inning sounds great, but is Dellin comfortable pitching that early in the game? Pitchers are creatures of habit. Disrupt their routine and bad things can happen. There’s an adjustment that has to be made.

Remember, the opener was born out of necessity. The Rays used it last year because they were hit hard by injuries last spring. Nathan Eovaldi was slowed by loose bodies in his elbow and pitching prospects Brent Honeywell and Jose De Leon needed Tommy John surgery. Tampa had Chris Archer and Blake Snell, and that was it. They came up with a creative way to navigate around the pitching injuries and lack of rotation depth.

The Yankees, when healthy, don’t need an opener. Their starters are plenty good enough. The Yankees aren’t healthy though, and barring a surprise signing or trade, they’re going to go into the regular season with two of Cessa, German, and Loaisiga in the rotation. That’s not great. Dipping into that deep bullpen to use an opener will allow the kids to avoid the top of the order once per game, which will increase their chances of having a productive outing.

At this point the opener is a legitimate baseball strategy more than a gimmick. And, with the AL East race expected to be tight all season, every game takes on increased importance. The Yankees are already without two of their top five starters. Anything they can do to make life easier on the fill-in starters should not be dismissed. The opener can make for some ugly baseball, believe me I know, but it can also give the Yankees a better chance to win when Cessa, German, or Loaisiga are on the mound.