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The Yankees were, in the manager’s words Aaron Boone, “kick in the teeth” at Citi Field this week. Here’s a look at some key elements, with reporting and analysis on how concerned the team should be.
Gerrit Cole will probably be fine
I admit, when the scoreboard read 91.5 mph to measure a Gerrit Cole fastball to Marcos Vientos In the second inning on Tuesday, the first thought was that Cole was injured. But talking to Cole afterwards it seemed more likely that he was on his way to regaining his form.
Cole is confident his arm is healthy and attributed his struggles against the Mets to various forms of rust. The drop in speed, which, as he rightly noted, occurred on a night when he also hit 99 mph for the first time this year, was rather the result of a fruitless effort to find the balance between speed and command. .
Despite his ability to fart, Cole’s greatness largely stems from his planning and precision. He has said in the past that the best place for a 100 mph pitch is in his back pocket. On Tuesday, he couldn’t control the high speed stuff, so he slowed it down again, but too much.
Winds’ homer on that slow fastball also highlighted another area of rust: Cole’s typically fruitful partnership with the platinum-gloved catcher. Jose Trevino. Last year, Cole credited Trevino for making significant contributions to his Cy Young performance. But like any collaboration, they need a little time to perfect it after a long break from each other.
Case in point: They knew Vientos has a significant weakness against sliders and curveballs (.217 expected batting average this season against breaking pitches), but they opted to throw him a mediocre fastball instead. When Cole and Trevino are together, they would have made a better decision and had a better chance of getting Vientos out.
Additionally, Cole is working toward getting back to full endurance (he also said Tuesday that he doesn’t feel ready to sit at 96-97 mph for a full outing), but an in-depth analysis of the quality of his pitches Tuesday showed continued progression. , said. He also told me that he wasn’t at all worried about how his elbow would handle hard sliders (I asked him why he threw more cutters than sliders on Tuesday).
I’ve been covering Cole long enough to know when he’s worried and frustrated and when he’s confident. Right now, it’s definitely the latter.
Luis Gil… not so sure
Boone is already tired of answering questions about the health of Gil’s arm and his possible fatigue, but he admitted Wednesday night that it was fair to ask. The Yankees and Gil are downplaying concerns that subtle changes in Gil’s delivery on Wednesday, which resulted in a decline in his stuff, had anything to do with fatigue.
“No, no, no,” Gil said, when asked if his arm felt tired.
The Yankees are monitoring Gil’s health and stamina after he pitched just four innings last year while returning from Tommy John surgery. Despite two straight outings in which opponents rocked the former Cy Young candidate, the team says his arm is not a concern.
It’s a poorly kept secret within the team that the Yankees are considering Gil as a candidate to develop into a potential power reliever in the postseason. This is a type of pitcher they urgently need (incidentally, the Yankees had a preliminary consultation with Oakland about the closer). Mason Miller, according to a source, but that was a while ago and the talks have not progressed; it’s still hard to see Brian Cashman pay an astronomical price for a reliever).
So getting Gil back to effectiveness and keeping him healthy is important in two ways for the Yankees: to help stabilize the rotation now and to build the October-ready bullpen they don’t currently have.
The only thing they can do is monitor Gil and hope that he continues to report good health while they work to improve his results.
The offense is too preoccupied to return to form immediately.
As the Yankees cruised to an 8-3 victory over Atlanta on Saturday, Trent Grisham came out of the dugout to pinch hit Giancarlo Stanton. This became a significant moment in the Yankees’ difficult month and resulted in one of the best teams in baseball ending with JD Davis as his cleanup hitter in a Subway Series game he really wanted to win.
The Yankees were designed to have Stanton and Antonio Rizzo as powerful right-handed/left-handed hitters in the middle of the lineup. Just as Rizzo finally began to hit the ball with authority, he broke his arm. Shortly afterward, Stanton, a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, sprained his hamstring.
Combine that with Gleyber Torres‘strange fights that led to a bench, and DJ LeMahieuThe complete lack of extra base hits this season (he swung better this week, but still), and the Yankees are suddenly the kind of team that can load the bases in the first inning on consecutive nights, but lacks the length of alignment to boost either runner.
The problem is that Boone has no choice but to write these faulty lineups every night, for now. The unrest at Citi Field was not so much a problem, but a function of the personnel currently available.
Aaron judge
Hit the ball far. A lot. Even when everything else is wrong.
Ben Rice ‘seems like he’s been here forever’
Another positive point for the Yankee offense is the quality and maturity of the rookie. ben riceIt’s the at-bats. As one scout puts it, Rice “seems like he’s been here forever.”
Rice, a lifelong catcher, has also looked athletic at first base, moving well on reaction plays. The aspects of the position that require more experience, such as following foul flies to the rail and some exact positioning mechanics and pickoff plays, remain a work in progress. But he has performed well for a rookie.