vs Rays/Blue Jays/Red Sox 6-12
vs Everyone Else 23- 9
29-21, 3rd place, 2.0 GB
Red Sox 12- 6 .667
Rays 14- 8 .636
Blue Jays 10-11 .476
Yankees 12-16 .429
The Yanks are in the midst of a 12-game period that includes . . . three three-game home series versus Toronto, Tampa Bay and Boston. The Yanks will play the Red Sox for the first time [on June 4] 58 games into the year. Nineteen of the Yanks' final 105 games — 18.1 percent of their games — are against their historic rival.The AL East — and perhaps a wild card or two — could come down to how this strong foursome fares against each other. . . .The Yanks are currently the second wild card . . . Corey Kluber's shoulder injury will keep him out at least two months, a reminder that the fear with the Yankee starters was how few innings so many logged in recent years and what this could look like as workloads mounted. Kluber broke at 53.1 innings. . . .The Blue Jays, Rays and Red Sox were three of the seven teams averaging five or more runs a game. The Yanks were one of seven averaging fewer than four. Batting average might not mean what we thought in, say, 1991. But even in 2021 it is going to be impossible to score consistently if eight of the 13 players who have batted most often continue to hit .202 or worse. . . .Now 2020 homer champ Luke Voit (oblique) is out for a while. . . . 2020 batting champ DJ LeMahieu . . . has been a ground-ball machine and is down 100-plus points of batting average from last year. The Yanks have gotten almost nothing from left and center fields . . . Can Gary Sanchez stir? His .158 average is the worst among the 171 players who have batted at least 300 times the last two years. . . .There is a race within the race in the AL East, and — so far — the Yankees have not been a hit.
Aaron Hicks, Luis Severino Contracts Are Yankees Disasters
Aaron Hicks played in 137 games in 2018, a Ripken-esque number for him. The Yankees signed him for seven years at $70 million . . . He has played 145 games in the three seasons since.
Luis Severino started 63 games between 2017-18 . . . The Yankees signed him to a four-year, $40 million pact a few days before rewarding Hicks. He has started five times since, twice in the 2019 playoffs, none in either of the last two seasons. . . .
Those contracts have been disasters . . .
The Yanks are back trying to stay under a luxury-tax threshold, making the $20 million Hicks and Severino cost detrimental to roster construction. The Yanks project to roughly $207 million for this season and the threshold is $210 million.
The Yanks will probably have to add a center fielder this year and, especially if Severino cannot return to usefulness, perhaps a starter. . . . [T]he Yanks will likely have a limited pool from which to choose and/or will have to invest more in prospect capital to get another team to eat dollars. . . .
Hicks will miss the rest of the year after tearing the tendon sheath in his left wrist. The Yanks had traded Mike Tauchman before Hicks was hurt and lost their two minor league depth pieces . . . to injury. . . . That leaves Gardner, at 37 by far the majors' oldest center fielder, as the option. In losing 2-0 to Toronto in the doubleheader opener, the Yankees managed two hits, none by Gardner, who is down to .198. . . . Yankees center fielders are batting just .191 in all.
Gardner was . . . the unquestioned starting center fielder in 2013. . . . Nevertheless, the Yanks signed Jacoby Ellsbury for seven years at $153 million. That was a bad idea. . . .
Hicks, who was hitting .194 in 32 games this year, still has four years at $40 million left after this season.
Severino is owed $11 million next season, then has a $15 million 2023 option or a $2.75 million buyout. As the righty rehabs from Tommy John surgery, he threw two batting practice innings Wednesday . . .
Hicks and Severino were supposed to provide answers and cost certainty for years . . . Instead, they have extended the Yankees’ list of problems.
Ken Davidoff, Post:
Maybe tap the brakes on those "Corey Kluber, World Series Game 2 starter" fantasies?The right-hander's encore [following a May 19 no-hitter] lasted a mere three innings before he departed, citing tightness in his right shoulder . . .Following the game, Kluber attempted to downplay fans' worst fears, saying that this condition didn't feel "at all" like what hit him last year . . . and limited him to a single inning of work with [Texas] . . .The Yankees didn't pay Kluber $11 million, outbidding other aggressive suitors, in the hopes that he'd take every turn in the starting rotation. Rather, they wagered on his upside . . .
Dark clouds began gathering over Yankee Stadium Wednesday long before the rains that canceled the game were expected. The Bombers are the latest MLB team hit hard by injuries.Right-hander Corey Kluber is out at least two months with a sub-scap strain in his right shoulder and was heading for a more complete imaging of the shoulder. To add to that, the Yankees announced Luke Voit has a Grade-2 strained right oblique muscle and he will be heading to the injured list as well. . . .Coming off his first career no-hitter, Kluber struggled to get his shoulder loose Tuesday night. The 35-year old had not sounded alarmed after the game . . .With a rotation full of question marks behind Gerrit Cole, the Yankees needed a veteran starter to bulk up a rotation. . . . They outbid division rivals the Red Sox and the Rays to give the two-time Cy Young winner a one-year, $11-million contract.[H]e will now miss at least eight weeks. . . .
The Yankees expect to be without Hicks for the rest of the year as he recovers from surgery to repair a torn sheath in his left wrist. . . .Hicks, who underwent the surgery Wednesday in Arizona, played just 32 games this season. He hit .194 with a .627 OPS, though he had just been starting to heat up in the two weeks before he hit the injured list.
For a few hours Thursday afternoon, Yankee Stadium sounded like the Rogers Centre — or TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. or Sahlen Field in Buffalo.The Blue Jays have been vagabonds since 2020 due to the pandemic, but they made themselves right at home in Game 1 of a doubleheader in The Bronx.A small crowd for the early game consisted of a rowdy cheering section for Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah, who made his MLB debut and dominated the Yankees to hand them a 2-0 loss.Miguel Andujar mustered the Yankees' only two hits off Manoah, both singles, as the 23-year-old pitcher struck out seven across six shutout innings. He also walked two batters, but did not allow a runner to reach second base.Domingo German nearly matched Manoah, but the two of the three hits he gave up in 5.2 innings were much costlier — back-to-back home runs by Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette in the third inning. . . .The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Manoah had faced the Yankees in spring training and tossed three hitless innings, at one point striking out seven straight. Thursday he flashed more of the same, combining a fastball that reached 97 mph with a changeup and slider that kept the Yankees off balance.
The first time they saw Alek Manoah, the big right-hander struck out seven straight Yankees to start a spring training game. When the lights came on and the game really counted on Thursday, the Blue Jays' young pitcher was even more impressive.And the Yankees offense was just as dreadful.Manoah threw six scoreless innings in his major league debut as the Blue Jays beat the Yankees, 2-0, in the first seven-inning game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.It was the second time this season the Bombers have been shut out, their second straight loss in two days and their sixth loss out of eight games against the talented young Blue Jays this season. . . .The Yankees managed just two hits — err, Miguel Andujar had two hits in the opening game. They could not get a runner into scoring position and struck out eight times. . . .It was another red flag for the Yankees offense.The Yankees have scored just 20 runs over their last eight games and are desperately looking for some offensive help.They've lost Aaron Hicks, who came into the season expecting to be the No. 3 hitter, likely for the rest of the season after surgery on his left wrist. They've had 2020 Home Run King Luke Voit for all of 12 games this season, after beginning the year on the injured list for knee surgery rehab and going back on it Thursday with an oblique strain.The Yankees went into Thursday's doubleheader with the worst OPS at center field (.585) and the lowest WAR among outfielders (0.1) in the big leagues. They were 28th in MLB at first base with a .544 OPS. . . .Manoah threw four straight balls to open the game, but then just powered his way through the Yankees lineup. . . .He was clearly not intimidated.
Alek Manoah: First pitcher ever to make his major-league debut at Yankee Stadium (any version), allow ≤ 2 hits, strike out 7+, and get a win.
— Doug Kern (@dakern74) May 28, 2021
Ken Davidoff, Post, May 16:
At 22-18, they stand on pace to finish 89-73. In a 60-game season, that would be 33-27, their exact record from last year's COVID-shortened campaign.
Not exactly the most inspiring data point, eh? . . .
For the Yankees to get to where they want to go . . . they'll have to fix some areas that look broken. Yet it might prove even more vital for them to maintain some areas that look fixed. . . .
The Yankees totaled 19 runs during their weekend visit to Orioles Park at Camden Yards, a considerable uptick from the five runs they tallied in three days at Tropicana Field. And you thought they had the sweep in the bag when they scored four runs in the first inning, right? Alas, Jordan Montomgery [sic!] registered his worst start of the season . . .
The need for repair goes to an apparent yet surprising area: Center field and left field. With Aaron Hicks potentially done for the season due to a torn sheath in his left wrist and Brett Gardner producing an awful .171/.261/.211 slash line, the call to prospect Estevan Florial could (and should) be coming sooner rather than later. Clint Frazier . . . has miles to go before he can turn off the sirens blaring from his .155/.287/.311 slash line. . . .
All the Yankees have to do is jettison the bad stuff and keep the good stuff, then cross the finish line ahead of their 29 competitors. Piece of cake, right?
Ken Davidoff, Post, May 17:
So what word best describes Giancarlo Stanton's move to the 10-day injured list on Monday?
"Sobering"? Only the truly silly, willfully ignorant of history recent and distant, could have attained intoxication from what Stanton had accomplished to date in 2021.
"Frustrating"? Nah, it takes two forces to frustrate — one to frustrate and one to get frustrated — and again, how could anyone get frustrated when Stanton's track record features more pauses than a Bob Newhart speech? . . .
"Unneeded"? Yup, an unneeded reminder of Stanton's durability issues.
How about a noun, "ceiling"? Because this transaction serves as the latest argument that Stanton's Yankees legacy will be limited . . . by his body. . . .
[Boone:] "He obviously is in very good shape . . . takes care of himself." . . .
[It] has to be concerning for the Yankees that all it took for Stanton to go down was apparently a strikeout against Rich Hill's slow stuff last week . . .
We'll see over the next week how much in front of this thing Stanton and the Yankees are. How much they can avoid more such timeouts. . . .
No matter how much he tantalizes with great runs of exit velocity and dingers, you no longer should be floored by news of his absence.
Ken Davidoff, Post, May 18:
I suppose the Yankees deserve some credit for the manner in which they introduced themselves to Globe Life Field on Monday night, as they put on no airs.
Their offense sincerely, truly stinks.
Out of Baltimore, Aaron Boone's bunch reverted to its standard identity as Major League Baseball's highest-paid group of banjo hitters. They made Jordan Lyles look like Gerrit Cole, while Cole himself looked hung over from his prior gem. It all added up to a lackluster, 5-2 loss at the hands of the cellar-dwelling [Texas team], a second straight defeat to cap a lousy day that also saw Giancarlo Stanton (strained left quad) go on the injured list and Zack Britton experience a setback in his recovery from left elbow surgery. . . .
The Yankees (22-19) now have scored 164 runs on the season, an average of exactly four per game, ranking them 13th in the American League entering West Coast action. If not for their pitchers largely reaching their collective ceiling, this season really could be getting away from them as opposed to merely stalling. . . .
The longer this malaise persists, the more we'll wonder if this is the real Yankees offense. If it is, the Yankees won't be putting on any airs at all come October.
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