Tarik Skubal Rumors Heat Up as Yankees Face Brutal Tigers, Red Sox Stretch
The Yankees stumbled through a frustrating series against the Reds and now face one of the toughest stretches of the season with the Tigers and Red Sox up next. At the same time, Bob Nightengale reports that New York and Los Angeles are viewed as the most likely landing spots for Tarik Skubal if Detroit makes him available. Adam Weinrib and Thomas Carannante discuss whether Brian Cashman would finally make the kind of blockbuster move he's historically avoided, what the prospect cost could look like, and why the upcoming week could tell us a lot about the Yankees' playoff outlook.
Video Transcript
Welcome to the Yankee Schoolyard podcast.
I'm Adam Winer alongside Thomas Caramante.
I'm back.
I'm back in business.
What did I miss?
A lot?
A ton?
The Yankees most important player got injured again, Aaron Judge.
Well, if Ben Rice is their most important player, maybe Cam Schlitter.
Yankees have weathered the same injuries they always weather.
Giancarlo Stanton was gone when I was here.
He's still gone.
He had a setback.
He had the same injury again for a second time, I guess.
Like, it healed all the way and then he got it again.
I don't know.
well, it looks Trent Grisham's gone.
I mean, the Yankees look completely decimated, but they've managed to hang on, hold on.
There was a hilarious viral tweet yesterday where some guy was like, "I gave up watching the Yankees weeks ago.
Like same losses, same shit, different, different year, you know.
It's like watching paint dry."
And everybody got in the comments.
They were like, "If you stopped watching the Yankees a couple weeks ago, you actually missed a whole bunch of exciting wins and actually a lot of good offense."
So bad weekend against the Cincinnati Reds.
Good start.
Cam Schlitter on Friday night set the right tone.
Sunday, Chase Burns, Elmer Rodriguez, when they pushed Gerrit Cole and everybody else back one day, was always gonna be tough to win, so you had to take Saturday, and they got blitzed on Saturday.
Will Warren gave up a three-run shot that broke the game open, an Anthony Volpe error started that train.
Warren's line looks better than his actual start.
it was a woof factory.
It was a terrible weekend, and it sets up a surprisingly pivotal week where the Yankees face two bad teams with great pitching staffs.
The Detroit Tigers are throwing Framber Valdez, Casey Mize, and Tarik Skubal at you.
Yeah, he's back.
He had surgery.
He's already back.
The Red Sox, their whole rotation's good, so you know you're getting a combination of talented pitchers.
It looks like the Yankees duck Ranger Surez, but they get Sonny Gray.
They get, Tolley, Early, young Jake Bennett.
A lot of lefties.
It would be a good time to have a righty hitting catcher of the Ryan Jeffers caliber instead of righty hitting catcher of the Ali Sanchez character.
But that's where we're at, and this is So this is the Yankees playing two teams struggling, you know, but the, the Red Sox are struggling more than the Tigers.
The Tigers actually are a surprisingly potent team right now.
AL's best record in June, second most homers in MLB, second lowest ERA, and again, Skubal back.
so this week and early next week when the Yankees play the Tigers again, you're starting to hear these Tarik Skubal trade rumors.
They're connecting the Yankees to him.
They're connecting the Dodgers to him.
They're connecting the dark horse Braves to him.
We're obviously gonna address that today.
but if the Yankees and their offense, which doesn't have Judge, doesn't have Grisham, doesn't have Stanton, you always knew it was gonna be a little bit empty, but it didn't really look empty.
They blew up the White Sox, of course, over the weekend against the Reds.
They finally look not just mortal, but dreadful.
And so the Yankees, over the weekend, did that thing that we're really used to where you go, "I just wish there was a middle ground between excellent and terrible," between going 0 for 24 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and Sunday.
Like, can't we just go from that peak to maybe a, a competitive middle ground instead of going from the peak to dreck?
but this week they have the chance to determine how active they're gonna be in the Tarik Skubal chase.
They, they have the chance to determine whether Tarik Skubal will be available.
They have a point to prove in Detroit, in Boston, then facing Detroit again at Yankee Stadium next week.
I'm excited to be back now, about a month before the trade deadline, a couple weeks before All-Star.
the Yankees are kind of really learned a lot of important lessons.
Thomas Caramante, I usually say welcome to the show, but I'm the one who needs to be welcomed.
I wasn't here.
You were here telling me what was going on while I was out.
Welcome back, Adam.
Thank you.
it's great to have you back, man.
I need a I can't I did a couple of these alone, which was fine.
but I just need, I need something else.
I need another spark.
Chris Landers was great here.
he couldn't do every single time.
so I'm happy to have you.
Happy to have you talking about the Yanks and, going through everything.
So let's start with the red stuff, 'cause the Skubal rumors is, we'll expand upon that as we- Yeah talk a little bit about the Tigers.
Bad, bad baseball.
Bad series.
Bad baseball this weekend.
Yeah, I mean, and everyone was getting mad about it, and, I think it's just not the time.
The team is too injured right now.
The Reds are backed into a corner, and they couldn't afford to lose to a Yankees team that was this down bad.
We pushed Gerrit Cole in the rotation and brought up Elmer Rodriguez for Sunday.
The, the, the lineup is the lineup, right?
I know we have a lot of bright spots here.
Ben Rice is excellent.
Cody Bellinger is excellent.
Jazz has been rebounding, but still probably not at the level of consistency that we're hoping for.
Um- Well, he hit himself in the, in the penis and balls, so that was interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, almost, almost lost his balls in- Yeah one fell swoop.
But- I would, I would come back for the emergency podcast.
I just, I had a, I had a baby.
I love her very much.
she's sleeping pretty well.
You know, we're, we're learning.
We're figuring it out, the ins and outs.
I would come back from an emergency podcast if Jazz had to have his penis amputated.
I would, Adam.
The worst pain he I forgot.
He, he had a good comment afterward.
Um- Well, and then they were like, "What, what are you gonna wear a cup now after doing this to yourself?"
He was like, "No."
No?
You kidding me?
Yes.
Yes, I would.
J- Jazz, come on.
If that's not enough of a character concern not to give him the 300 million he was looking for, like, if you didn't have enough ammo already, I'm just walking into that negotiation room and I'm like, "You hit your own dick with a baseball and that didn't change the way you behave?"
"You, you're not gonna protect yourself after that?
Okay, great.
I'm not gonna long-term invest in you."
Boonie's like, "Yeah, you know what happened.
Jazzy got hit in the Yeah, that's where he got hit."
Yeah.
Kinda changed, kinda changed our internal calculus there a little bit.
Not sure what kind of a man you are if you're willing to just- you know, twist the other way on that But Jazz, I think we all know, needs to pick it up a little bit.
he's not playing terribly, but again, he was all-star last year, 30-30, and falling short of that at the moment.
The stolen bases are there, but the consistency and the power kind of isn't.
again, slowly coming back, but you look at the rest of this lineup, and you have Jason Dominguez, who's fresh coming off an injury.
so I would s- I would suspect he needs a little bit of time.
He also had, a couple of defensive miscues on Saturday that, left the door open for Will Warren.
He coulda, he threw the ball into the wrong base.
That could've doubled up a runner.
That would've ended the inning, and then Warren goes on to give up, I think, three other runs.
Spencer Jones, a boom or bust prospect, as we know.
Y- you get r- you know, he homered, against the White Sox to, What was that?
Was that off Davis Martin, I think?
yeah.
he, he torched one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, like, we're getting some good moments, but, like, th- this lineup is not, is not anywhere close it needs to be.
Jose Caballero, again, like a solid baseball player, but probably not an everyday starter.
I don't know, a conversation we've had plenty of.
Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe, the list goes on and on.
So this is not, right now And Ryan McMahon, too.
I think Ryan McMahon, again, solid for what he can potentially bring to the table, but we're not fully seeing that for a multitude of reasons, whether it's his hitting mechanics, whether it's the Yankees unable to be at full strength really at any point in the season outside of the first few weeks.
But you can't get mad at this team.
This team is a shell of itself.
There's guys playing positions that they probably shouldn't be playing o- on the whole, and, the, the runners in scoring position situation, it is what it is.
You don't have a lot of guys that hit to contact in the lineup, so how are you gonna get hits with runners in scoring position?
You're not gonna.
they're missing, they're missing three of their best hitters, and y- people wanna complain about Trent Grisham all they want.
You're, you're seeing how valuable he is to this lineup at the top.
Yeah.
Working the counts, breaking the pitcher down, allowing the next guy to do the damage, whether he walks, whether he gets a hit, whether he strikes out.
he was turning it around in a massive way before he hit the IL.
The good news is that I think he's recovering at a pace that the Yankees are optimistic about, so maybe he's back sooner rather than later.
But, you know, we can't, we can't expect Paul Goldschmidt to keep doing what he's doing.
These results are not realistic.
He's already homered in th- in He's already hit more or the same amount of homers this year than he hit all of last year.
Like, we're, we're, we're out kicking our coverage here with this.
So anybody who's upset about the team not hitting this weekend, I mean, you just went five and one on a road trip that you shouldn't have gone five and one on, and then you win a series against the White Sox.
probably should have swept them, but didn't.
Again, so, like, the results here have been overall great.
there, there are some things to discuss in between that are larger issues, such as maybe the defense being locked in, such as the ability for maybe the depth pieces to dig a little bit deeper when in, in terms of situational hitting.
and, and that's something that will come as time goes on.
But you can't, you can't talk to me about this team not winning a series against the Reds when they're, they're down all their best players and they're 16 games over 500.
I just can't do it.
so I think the moral of the story is this: We're gonna rely on guys going on streaks, getting hot from time to time.
Volpe was that guy over the last, you know, week or so.
Paul Goldschmidt's been that guy for a decent while.
Ben Rice has been that guy for a decent while.
Ryan McMahon has found, has found it here and there.
Jose Caballero has found it here and there.
So you just gotta marry all those things together, get healthy soon, and hope it all figures itself out.
But, it just goes to show that the rotation could be as good as it could possibly be.
and you're gonna need help from the lineup, which is why this offense is really important for down the stretch and into the postseason.
Yeah, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the guy I hate.
Like, I hate these people.
In most Yankee seasons, I hate the people who say stuff like this and who treat this as a regular season is audition an- and, you know, the playoffs are a crapshoot, you just have to get there.
But this year, given all the, like, limitations and constraints and injuries, and most importantly, the rest of the American League, the Yankees really do.
And losing regular season games sucks.
Yeah.
It sucks.
It sucks watching a weird panic inning from Aaron Boone, where he treats the sixth inning like the eighth inning yesterday, and pinch hits everybody, and you end up without a bench.
You end up with Paul Goldschmidt popping out on one pitch, and you end up no hits against Risk, and you end up with this Burns ERC match up, and he hangs a 3-1 fastball to Tyler Stevenson, and you lose that game.
And you had to really win the Will Warren game to win the series, and you get blown up there with some, you know, poor Anthony Volpe can't throw from shortstop.
Like, the- these two games were bad.
They, they had a bad series against the Cincinnati Reds that they can't let spiral, but you can't just You know, you don't want a swoon ever.
You don't want a losing culture ever.
You don't wanna fall into bad habits.
But this season, we have, we have all watched the Yankees.
We know they have flaws, you know, mental lapses on the base paths, weird defensive lapses.
you'd like them to be more consistent with runners on base.
You'd like the whole, you know, offense to be, you know, less dependent on just Ben Rice or just Paul Goldschmidt or just Aaron Judge.
You want it to work as a unit better.
I want all of these things too, but- They, they are going to have time to work these things out.
As frustrating as regular season losses can be, as annoying as it is to watch a weekend like that, and going into, again, Detroit and Boston, these are gonna be tougher series than people are giving it credit for.
This is going to be a tough week, with an undermanned Yankees team.
but with all of these flaws, with the bad bullpen, with the third base, you know, vacuous hole, with the iffy shortstop situation where both Caballero and Volpe have their flaws, and Volpe actually might be the hot hand at this point, with, you know, the weird base running.
How do you get picked off so many times?
You know, I'm, I'm bothered by this, the rotation, the injury decimation.
This is the best team in the American League, and it's not cl- this not fantastic version of the Yankees- Yeah is the best team in the American League.
my hot annoying take that I've been trying on for size is I think the second-best team in the American League might be the Blue Jays.
Like, I don't like that take.
I don't want that to be true, but who, who is it?
You, you guys saw the White Sox last week.
They just went to Detroit and got buzzsawed.
The, the Cleveland Guardians are, have a negative run differential.
The, the Rays and Yankees and Mariners are the only teams with positive run differentials in the American League.
And the Mariners just got manhandled by the Red Sox and are a 500 team, and, and they're pitching driven, pitching and defense with no offense.
the, the Rays at home and the Rays on the road are two completely different teams.
They struggled against the Nationals this weekend.
They've been struggling for the better part of a month.
Like, none of the arguments about, like, we must do X, Y, and Z in the regular season, so I know it's real, are holding water to me right now.
The, the amount of I was in the hospital, and the amount of tweets I was getting when the Yankees were losing those series, the splitting with the Jays and losing to the Rays, from people just being like, "This is insurmountable.
They'll never catch up in the East.
This is over."
It was se- they were seven back in the loss column.
They're two up in the loss column now.
It took a month.
They, they pushed it to three, and they played pretty well over the course of this month, but they lost Aaron Judge and they lost Grisham.
They didn't get Stan back and they had no Freed, and the bullpen was ass.
And they gained nine games on the Rays basically.
Like, if they can do that with these adverse circumstances, then think what they can do if they handle the trade deadline properly, if they get pieces back for the second half, if the captain shows up for the stretch run and plays like himself.
Like, the Yankees, for the first time maybe ever in this Aaron Boone era, not that they can cakewalk to the No one can cakewalk to the postseason.
Don't let that thought get in your head.
Then you'll slip up, then you'll genuinely struggle and suck.
But if they just , to Victor Wembanyama it, if they just play normal, if they play to their own capabilities, they welcome people back, and they handle the trade deadline with genuine urgency, and they bring in the people that they need to bring in, and they shuffle roles in the bullpen, they do what they have to do, then they are going to be fine, and they are going to enter the postseason as the American League favorites.
Now, if they take the trade deadline off or they botch it again, or somebody suffers a setback, or their depth is further decimated, they don't take it seriously, they don't act like this is 34-year-old Aaron Judge and there's a lockout next year, we need to actually hop on this.
I'm not saying get Scubal, I'm not saying get any specific person.
I'm saying get who you need to get to fill these holes and become the best version of yourself.
If they lay off the gas pedal and do not do that, and on August 1st I wake up and I go, "This team is no better or no closer to completion," then I'm gonna be annoyed.
Yeah.
But for the first time- Yeah in a while, I'm gonna save my big picture annoyance until after the trade deadline.
Still gonna come on here and do a p- if they have a tough week, I'm still gonna go like, "The fuck?
You go to Detroit and you just suck, and you go to Boston and you can't play at Fenway?"
The Red Sox are 12 and 25 at Fenway.
You can't play at Fenway?
I'll, I'll be annoyed.
I'll be the fan.
I hated this weekend.
It was bad.
But for the first time in a long time, and yeah, the Knicks winning the title helps a little bit because they were two and nine in the middle of January and everybody was like, "What are we doing here?"
This was supposed to be their year, and then they just hit a better gear.
And, and with a coach in Mike Brown, you can't tell me right now, you can't tell me in February you knew Mike Brown was a better coach than Aaron Boone.
You, you can, you can lie to me and tell me that, but you didn't know that.
The Knicks proved that their strategy was correct.
If the Yankees are taking the same approach in an American League this year that is built for them to win, that is watered down, the way they're gonna be favored in every playoff series until the World Series.
Like, I feel good about the Yankees' ability to reach the World Series, but I feel confident that there are many flaws that must be addressed, and with the addressing of those flaws comes a hopeful mindset shift to take everything a little bit more seriously.
They were doing a re- they've been doing a really good job of that this year.
They just need to continue to add pieces and continue to adopt that mindset as the season goes on.
the, the weekend wasn't good.
I didn't enjoy it.
No.
But this, for the first time in a while, I genuinely do feel like this is all leading up to a trade deadline.
It, this is practice for getting the final version of your roster in place for a stretch run where you should be the favorite in your league.
And I think we're confident in this because, again, dating back to spring training, even dating back to last year's trade deadline, the Yankees have been aggressive for their standards.
They're not Dave Dombrowski aggressive, they're not Brewers aggressive, with how they've been with their prospects, in terms of promotions and stuff like that, but they have deviated from their normal conservatism.
So I think there's optimism there that allows us to believe, okay, we're, we're feeling it out.
We do have a really good team.
We have a deep team, and now they have to make sure this roster is complete by the time August 3rd gets here.
On the flip side, this has been the American League discussion since 2023.
You know, that year the Orioles were good, but I think everybody kinda knew the Orioles needed to prove themselves in the postseason before we made any overreactions about their ability to take it to the next level.
They won 101 games, but they lost in the first round.
and then the rest of the AL that year was the Rays had 99 wins, and then the Twins won the Central, and the Astros and Rangers tied for the, West with 90 wins.
So this, like, the, the American League has not had a dominant force at the top of it, like 2024, Yankees made the World Series.
AL was not good that year.
2025, we all sat here and said, "AL's bad.
Gotta beat the AL."
Couldn't get past the Blue Jays.
If the Yankees get past the Blue Jays, could be a different story.
We don't know.
But the Yankees have been living this reality since 2023, and they've only taken true advantage of it once, and then they embarrassed themselves in the World Series.
And I know people don't like to hear that because it's almost two years ago.
but it, it was, it was a true representation of the gulf between a team like the Yankees and a team like the Dodgers.
And the game- Who, by the way, got their ass beaten this weekend by the Orioles, and then you check MLB's power rankings on Monday, and they're right back at the top.
'Cause of course they are.
Yeah.
'Cause the Braves have fallen off and their rotation has holes.
Yep.
The, it's the Dodgers and Brewers and, and I guess Braves and Phillies, and then I guess you'd get to the Yankees.
It- So, like, this is not me saying they've proven they should be taken seriously as a World Series contender.
A- and if you the, the high leverage stuff in the bullpen is a real issue.
You can't just people can't pretend like, "We'll put Ryan Weathers out there, Will Warren will go out there, and then the bullpen will get good."
You look at their Pythagorean record, like, their, their run differential is, is dominant.
They're plus 112 in a, in a league where the only other teams above water are plus 17 for the Mariners and plus eight for the Rays.
Like, but they should be, according to expected won-loss, 49 and 27.
It doesn't surprise me at all that they're three games worse than that, 'cause there's no one I trust in, in a close game.
Like Hedrick, who's being run into the ground.
Fernando Cruz, to an extent, I enjoy Fernando Cruz.
Tim Hill has been on that trust tree for a while.
He's closer to DFA territory than I think most of you are thinking.
He's got a mid-four ERA and, like, a 1.37 WHIP.
I don't think it's gonna happen, but as they start moving people around, Tim Hill might be on a chopping block that you don't want him to be on.
Yeah.
And then David Bednar, of course, I'm, I'm happy about that.
But you're just piecing together Jake Bird is in these high leverage Jake Bird is in, like, three run games.
And I'm like, "Oh my God."
And then I'm like, "Well, him or Duval," then I prefer Bird- Yeah who's not even on the roster right now.
So I, I do think, like, hey, you know, you convert Weathers, that helps.
You know, th- these things help.
If you can move someone out of a rotation, that helps.
But they need serious help, an infusion of real- Yeah people who can handle duty out there for, for them to be taken really seriously as a World Series contender.
And again, if they want to really see what they got, Elmar Rodriguez comes up, they go with a six-man rotation for the time being to give Gerrit Cole rest.
Look, the reality is, is they lost this series to the Reds 'cause they didn't really care, and they wanted to prioritize Gerrit Cole's situation.
I don't know what that is.
Maybe they viewed, beating the shit out of the Tigers this week as more valuable for Tarik Skubal stuff.
We'll get to Tarik Skubal in a minute, folks.
Don't worry.
but I don't know.
Or Gerrit Cole may be needed today.
He's coming off Tommy John surgery.
Like, it's, it's June.
You don't have to worry about it.
But the Yankees obviously didn't care.
They said, "Oh, well, we got Elmar Rodriguez.
He's a good option.
We'll see what he can do."
The Reds offense has been kind of sputtering.
Their bullpen was terrible.
The fact that the Yankees couldn't take advantage of the Reds bullpen two days in a row was a little bit That made my eyes roll.
Yeah.
The Reds have the worst bullpen.
The, the Reds have been on a perpetual meltdown in the bullpen for a month now, and the Yankees didn't weren't even able to get, like, weren't even able to threaten one of the days, so that was frustrating.
But- Aaron Boone pinch-hit, pinch-hit Spencer Jones, pinch-hit for Spencer Jones against Sam Moll- Yeah leading off an inning.
Yeah.
Like, you're so scared of this middling lefty reliever that you gotta take Jones out, bring Max Schuman in.
Yeah.
I don't know what any of this was, but I, I'm just I can't long-term concern necessarily.
But I definitely watched it, and I definitely was like- Yeah "Don't understand that.
Don't like that."
Yeah, so I mean, look, the, we h- hey, if, w- who's the Mike Brown we could bring in for Aaron Boone?
Aaron Boone's the Tom Thibodeau of the, of the Yankees.
It kind of- Um- I mean, it, look, it definitely feels like The, I mean, the Knicks parallel to me is Buck Showalter for Joe Torre, and everybody being like, "That's the best you could do?"
between '95 and '96.
And then, like, veteran clubhouse- understanding, surpri- like, drought-breaking, not '78 to '96, that's a Yankees drought.
It's the same drought we're in right now, pretty much.
the Yankees might be an Aaron Boone replacement away from a World Series.
I think, like- Yeah, it's possible we, we've said this for years, that just, like, I don't think Aaron Boone's the worst manager in the world.
I didn't think Tom Thibodeau was the worst coach in the world, but he hit his ceiling and limitations.
The thing with Thibodeau and Brown and Boone versus whoever replaces him is that I do think Thibs did a great job of teaching these Knicks to push themselves to their own personal limits- Yeah and go beyond it.
And I don't know what Aaron Boone taught these people other than comradery.
Yeah.
Like, I think Thibs was integral in pushing the Knicks to getting their DNA and the, like, the comebacks that only they could do could be because they knew how to dig deeper than anyone else when they were faced with immense odds, because they just never were able to quit under Thibs for even one second.
Now, Thibs had no idea how to manage a bench.
He didn't think it was important.
He didn't think it was important to keep his guys ready.
Mike Brown did.
Mike Brown, better culture fit.
Mike Brown, better fit to get them across the finish line.
I just don't know what lingers from the Boone era.
I don't know what, like Guys seem like they wanna play for him 'cause they wanna save his job 'cause they like him, but he doesn't really imprint upon them.
He's firmly average in my books.
I don't think he's a complete mess.
I don't think he's additive.
Would love to find the guy who's additive That might be what they're missing.
But I- Reverse psychology.
They get a guy they hate playing for and win in spite of him.
There it goes.
Yeah.
Tom Ti- Tom Thibodeau.
Yeah.
Tom Thibodeau.
Welcome to the Yankees bench.
but yeah, so for the pitching situation, Elmar Rodriguez gets optioned.
Everyone's talking about, oh, maybe Joovanni Cruz comes up.
Maybe it's Gary De Los Santos.
I think he's been pitching well.
we've already seen Gary De Los Santos.
There is And it's no offense to him, it's just, like, he was here for a while last year, and it's just not It's not going to help this Yankees bullpen right now in terms of discovering the later down the road solutions.
Joovanni Cruz has already been here.
I think he looks solid.
Again, I don't know if that's the impact move either.
I think that's a depth move for the bullpen, just because of maybe his ceiling.
Carlos LaGrande has to be the move here, in my opinion.
The Yankees have transitioned him to a bullpen role at triple A.
He's been there for, three weeks maybe, something like that.
he's been okay.
Nothing spectacular, but they are managing his workload.
They're gradually working backwards.
He was a starter, and he was giving, you know, five to seven innings.
Now he, he went down to four, three, two and change now.
They're working on getting him into a place where he can be an asset for this bullpen in 2026.
That much is clear.
They don't make that move, they, they are telegraphing their intentions with Carlos LaGrande.
Now, why promote him now when the results have been okay?
Because if you wait to promote him later, you are running the risk of two things.
One is he just continues being middling in the minor leagues, and you never get the true reason to promote him and say, "Oh, Carlos LaGrande's ready.
Let's get him up here in the bullpen."
the other reason is that why are we going to wait to promote him when the games become more important and more pressure packed?
That's not a situation conducive to Carlos LaGrande's development.
Mm-hmm.
Get him up in June, run him out there for the next two weeks, see what he can do in low leverage, multi-inning low leverage situations.
That inherently increases the competition.
He's facing Major League hitters.
He needs to do one of two things: preserve a lead, help keep the bullpen rested.
It's not like we're throwing him into garbage time where nothing matters.
And even if we did, there would still be a task there, and it would be get through one or two innings.
We need you to do it.
So I don't see any reason why that should, th- th- that that's not the corresponding move.
That helps the Yankees discover what they have in a very valuable asset for their next six weeks before the deadline.
And look, if it doesn't go well, then you just option him back and figure out what the next thing is.
And then let's say he has a bad two weeks, you send him back down.
Then he has three to four weeks again to either rebuild his trade val- value or help you reconsider him actually being a piece to the bullpen for the stretch run and into the playoffs.
But getting another redundant piece in here, or something that's not adding swing and miss or velocity to the bullpen really doesn't make sense to me.
It d- again, it's just kicking the can down the line.
Oh, we need a fresh arm here.
Let's get Gary De Los Santos up.
We know he can give us multiple innings.
Oh, we need a fresh arm here.
Joovanni Cruz did okay for us in his, in his one game of action.
let's give him some more runway.
And I support the Cruz argument because I think we should see more out of him, but I just I think the upside that the Yankees believe that they have with LaGrande and the higher upside they will get overall out of LaGrande if this comes together is much more worthwhile.
And then secondly, we'll get into the trade rumors now.
If LaGrande, who's been rumored to be on the Tigers radar for the Scooball deal, maybe part of the trade here is the Tigers are like, "We wanna see him get some MLB reps.
So if you want Scooball, we need to see what this guy can do at the MLB level."
And again, if it doesn't go well, he goes back to the minor leagues.
You figure it out.
You have time.
Time, y- you are not working against time right now.
You'll be working against time in, in four weeks.
So I think you bring him up, and again, part of Aaron Boone's job, put him in the right situations to succeed.
Learn how to manage the bullpen.
There's nothing to really learn from this bullpen right now, as you were saying.
Like, I like David Bednar.
I like Fernando Cruz.
I like Tim Hill.
I like Brent Hedrick.
David Bednar could be a setup man at this rate.
Fernando Cruz, we're seeing a great year out of him.
I love him and I love his energy, but, I think he's seventh inning guy, sixth inning guy on a playoff team.
Fireman.
Tim Hill.
Yeah, Tim Hill is great.
A little bit erratic lately, has been doing some weird stuff.
probably not your top lefty option.
Nothing against him.
I love Tim Hill.
I want him on this team.
Not your gas can lefty option to get out a lefty hitter on a, on a World Series team.
Brent Hedrick, love the guy.
Don't know if he's gonna last all year.
He's blowing by career highs in innings pitched.
And then like you said, you have these other options in the bullpen, Paul Blackburn, Ryan Yarbrough, Camilla Duval, Jake Bird, who are just, "Yeah, we'll throw him in and we'll see what happens."
And Camilla Duval, at this rate, you're not gonna get rid of him.
You can't get No one's taking that salary.
He needs to be the last guy in the bullpen.
Bring him in for all low leverage.
He's great in low leverage.
Down, down three-nothing, you need an, inning and change out of him, he's breezing through it.
Up five-nothing, you're getting a clean inning from Camilla Duval.
In any high leverage late game situation against the middle of the lineup, the man is failing.
I wish I had the patience of some of you saints too.
Like, Camilla Duvall can only be unlucky for so long before- Mm-hmm I pivot to just like, I get it, I see the metrics, I understand bounce back could happen.
can I j- am I allowed to be tired of seeing him come in and pour gasoline on every game- Yeah he enters in high leverage?
Like, I get- Yep that this is, this isn't going the way it should be.
He should be better than this.
Every time he comes in, Paul O'Neill's like, "God, Michael, how does anybody hit this guy?"
I don't know, but they do every appearance.
So we're good now, actually.
It's so good.
We're good now, actually.
Yeah.
Like, I get that it should correct itself, but it is June 22nd and it hasn't.
Yeah.
So we're good now.
The problems there were diagnosed too.
He's throwing the slider too much and he's throwing the slider too much up in the zone, and he had a small window here where he was succeeding.
the slider was thrown a lot less and it was down in the zone.
But at that point, if he's throwing that less, then maybe his other pitches are coming a little bit more predictable.
I will say, the Benintendi grand slam, that's a really hard pitch.
I don't know how Benintendi hit that.
I, I don't.
I don't know.
Benintendi has been bad for years, he just beat Duvall to the spot.
I, I, I do- I don't know.
I th- but that's the other thing, it's just not working with Duvall.
It's just not working.
He fucki- yeah.
He executes a pitch, it's 102 miles an hour, it gets pissed on, it's just like, okay, it, it is what it is at this point.
But he cannot be coming in inheriting runners, he cannot be coming in in a one or two run lead with, you know, the top of the lineup or the middle of the lineup, on, you know, as the next three batters.
It j- it's not gonna work.
So if you have Duvall as a 102 mile an hour sinker baller as the last guy in the bullpen, now we're talking.
That's, that's where you start structuring the bullpen to be more of a World Series caliber-esque unit.
and fill the pieces around him.
You need to solidify some sort of or- of, protocol for inning six through nine, and the Yankees don't have that right now.
It's a guessing game.
you, you have eight and ni- like eight and nine is Bednar, and then one of the three guys that I mentioned previously.
but I think it needs to be a little bit more ironclad than that.
And again, Yarbrough and Blackburn, their time's up in, in two, three, four weeks, whatever it is.
They're, they're no longer gonna be needed.
and, and you could even argue they haven't been needed for this long, because it's prevented the Yankees from making actual decisions about the, the future of the bullpen by, oh, you know, we paid these guys and they're gonna, they're gonna keep the staff fresh and they're gonna help out the rotation in the bullpen.
They haven't given length, they've been pulled too early, and they haven't gotten enough garbage time in my opinion.
Yes, this, this week they kinda have.
or over the last two weeks they kind of have.
But in the beginning of the year it was very confusing with how they were both utilized, and the Yankees have themselves in a situation now where the bullpen's kinda sucking wind.
So anyway, back to La Grande.
If that's a legitimate trade situation that you're gonna get yourself into and you really wanna get Scooball.
I don't know why anybody here, by the way, is against getting Tarik Scooball.
Yeah.
You know?
Just in a vacuum.
Yeah.
Like, the, the cost is probably gonna be The, I, I also just like, the cost- You need to beat the Dodgers How high is the cost gonna be?
Like, what's the cost for a World Series?
I didn't like- Yeah trading Dante Di Vincenzo and Julius Randle either, but then I Or five first-round picks.
Hey man, the Knicks really overpaid for Mikal Bridges.
They did.
They did.
But guess what?
Mikal Bridges was a starter on a championship team.
Yep.
What's the goal?
Exactly.
And the other thing is that the, it's the bigger picture aspect of it.
We could sit here and we can argue, the Yankees don't need starting pitching.
No.
They don't.
They have a really good starting staff.
But what they do need is really good players who can combat the best lineup in the sport.
And if there's no, there's no hitter out there that they're gonna be able to acquire for a price that they like.
If there's a And remember, bullpen arms cost the most out of anything because that is the one ingred- well, the starting pitching is, is right there too.
But bullpen arms are the most costly pound for pound, right?
Because you're getting the least amount of value from a, from a reliever in terms of the overall, I guess, you know, the, the fungibility.
They, they can be really good one night, they could be really bad the other night, and we've seen multiple relievers come to New York and completely crumble- Yeah because it's a different game.
So the Yankees need to be careful with who they acquire because not only are they going to need a reliever who is lights out, I, I see the comments are talking about they need a lights out closer.
I do not disagree with you.
Where is that closer coming from?
Aroldis Chapman- I don't know wants a personal apology if we- Yeah.
You know, I'm not trading with the Red Sox for Aroldis Chapman.
No.
And I'm not apologizing to Aroldis Chapman for Aroldis Chapman deserting the Yankees before the playoffs.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Never.
He- the, the amount of playoff games he's ruined, the, the amount of rain delays he shit on.
Fuck that guy.
Next.
Yeah.
Um- Not even, not even considering him.
So then who's next?
Yeah.
Who else is available?
Yeah.
Who's next?
So then you're looking at that, you know You're looking at that, I would compare it to like maybe what the Padres did two years ago when they got, like Jason Adam and, somebody else.
Forgot who it was.
They went all out and they got like guys who were really good- Tanner Scott.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Tanner Scott, Jason Adam.
they got like set up men vibes and then they just lengthened the bullpen as a whole because going after a top closer in the game, you know, the Yankees have dealt from the o- other side of that before.
They had the Cubs sell part of their future for Aroldis Chapman to get them a World Series.
we saw what the Padres gave up for Mason Miller These are not realistic acquisitions.
And look, I, I, again, I, I, we can have a conversation about this from what the comments are saying.
I don't know how Scubel is not, Yerry got recalled.
Goddammit.
So stupid.
I don't know how Scubel is not the answer to beating the Dodgers.
If you have Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler, Max Freed, and Tarik Scubel, that I don't- I'm not saying it unequivocally beats the Dodgers.
That's the closest you're going to get to beating the Dodgers.
I don't know what other, what other recipe there is to do that with what the Yankees have, what, what they possess and, and then what's available out there.
Well, it's this- it's, it's this annoying thing where, like, if you get Tarek, literally Tarek Scubel for two months, and you face the Dodgers in the World Series and they beat Tarek Scubel in game one, then it's kind of just like, t- tip your fucking cap.
Yeah, whatever.
Like- Like, the Dodgers did it to us again.
Like, what, what, what else were they supposed to do at that point?
Yeah.
I, and that, that's where I want to be, where it's like, "Oh, well."
Not what could have been.
Yeah.
Not, "Oh, what if you left Gerrit Cole in for another inning?
What if you went to Tim Hill instead of Nestor Cortes?
What if you did it, what if, what if Gleyber Torres doesn't bobble this ball?"
Like, I don't wanna be in that mindset.
I wanna be in, "We fucking threw everything at them, and they beat us.
They beat us four to three," and I, I don't- It's Verlander, it's Verlander 2017.
Like, different sort of- Yeah and it's Cliff Lee 2009, and Cliff Lee every year after.
Cliff Lee 2010 with the Rangers is actually a better example of just, like, look, the Yankees never do this.
They don't do the re- they don't do- Yeah the high price rental.
They don't take on Justin Verlander's salary.
Scubel's making, like, 9 million, which becomes 18 million with the tax or whatever.
That's hefty.
A- and the Yankees tend to care about that.
So this is not what they do.
Yeah.
I would be very surprised if they do pay the price for Tarik Scubel.
'Cause in order to outbid the Dodgers, and Bob Nightingale over the weekend said Yankees and Dodgers, and then there was a thought that it was the, the Braves are a good dark horse.
And then you'll also have people telling you, taking the step back from the insider's reports and saying, "Think logically.
Who really needs Scubel as a difference maker, and who's more likely to overpay for a rental 'cause they just don't care to even have the opportunity to re-sign them?"
The Rays, the Brewers, et cetera.
The teams that could really level up by saying, "Somehow, some way, we're a great team, but what if we had freaking Tarik Scubel, and who cares?
We regenerate-" Yeah "prospects every year."
If the Brewers, Rays, or Dodgers went all in and traded their number one and two prospects for two months of Tarik Scubel, they would beat the Yankees offer.
But- Yep I don't think I mean, if that, again, if that happens, that's also a tip your cap situation.
W- the Yankees aren't gonna do that.
They're probably not gonna trade Lombard Jr. in, in a Tarik Scubel package.
And if they, if they decide not to, that becomes an inflection point again, 'cause again, Verlander we didn't, and then we saw him twice.
Cliff Lee we didn't, and then we saw him, got eliminated by him.
odds are high that if you do not g- if Tarik Scubel is available and you do not offer all you can offer for him, and someone else does and someone else gets him, you'll probably see him, he'll probably eliminate you.
Probably.
Not 100%, but it's more likely than not.
And then the story of the season is, again, it was costly, it was expensive, it was scary, but there was something for us to do to increase our chances of winning the World Series exponentially and decrease somebody else's, and we didn't do it.
And we, in, in the Astros instance and the Rangers instance, at least it was like, "Hey, Astros have never won a World Series.
Rangers have never won a World Series."
These are teams going all out to their upper limits to say, "We've seen the Yankees dominate this sport for 30 years.
Now it's our turn.
We're gonna take it."
And the Yankees were saying, "Okay, fine.
If you're willing to pay that price and that's how far you're willing to go just to beat us, we get it.
Let's see if it works."
And then it did.
It worked both times.
The Yankees didn't get- Yep the, what they, they got outfoxed.
In this instance, you would not be able to comfort yourself there.
The Dodgers will have become the Yankees, more than likely.
It could be the Rays, it could be the Brewers.
I don't think it will be.
I think it will be the Dodgers or Braves who are too- Could be the Blue Jays.
Yeah.
Th- these are teams that have won the World Series more recently than the Yankees, not even close.
if it's the Blue Jays, they got to the precipice last year.
They would be trying to get to the mountaintop this year.
Mm-hmm.
but again, just ask yourself, you know, depending on what the Yankees do and don't offer, would you be okay if Tarik Scubel went to the Blue Jays?
Regardless of know- like, regardless of knowing what your package is.
And then if you know that the Yankees were like, "We wouldn't go as far as Lombard Jr." But the Blue Jays went, like I don't know what they would be able to piece together.
it would obviously include Arjun Nimmala, their number one prospect.
It probably wouldn't include Trey Savage.
That would be kind of insane.
Yeah.
But, you know, would you, would you be willing to do that knowing you took Lombard off the table and the Toronto Blue Jays took no one off the table, and now an 86 win Blue Jays team is eliminating you in the ALDS 'cause they have Tarik Scubel twice?
Yep.
I, that's, that's where my head is at.
It's like, it's, it's a preventative attack almost.
What is, what is that term?
If Scubel goes nowhere, if Scubel goes nowhere, I'm not gonna be upset- Preemptive the Yankees didn't acquire him.
Yeah.
Preemptive.
Yeah, no.
If Scubel, if Scubel's a Tiger, I'm not gonna be like, "Ah, Yankees-" No "you should've pushed harder."
If Scubel goes anywhere else, I'm gonna be screwed- Yeah as an impact.
Yeah.
It, it's a preemptive attack 'cause it makes the Yankees that much better, and then guess what?
If you get Scubel, what does that do?
I'm not saying it's the best move ever, but it gives you maybe the ability to trade Will Warren for an eighth inning guy.
It, it gives you the ability to keep Will Warren and then maybe trade Elmer Rodriguez and/or Ben Hess for an eighth inning guy.
Like, I, I don't know.
We- we're not- Yeah there yet, but- That allows you to just focus on, we need to focus on the next two months.
We know what we have for next year.
We have Gerrit Cole, we have Cam Schlittler, we have Max Fried, we have Carlos Rodon, and then we can figure out the f- we have Ryan Weathers, and then we can figure out the depth after that.
Whether it's we move Warren or Rodriguez or Legagne, whatever it is.
you boost your rotation for the next two months, you prevent somebody else from getting better, you use the leftover assets to acquire another thing that you need.
But you can't tell me right now that you would rather the Yankees sell out their farms, 'cause they will.
They will have to sell out their farm system for another three bullpen pieces.
For the bullpen pieces that you fans want.
I'm a fan too, I want high leverage bullpen pieces.
You will have to give up a lot to do that.
So you can mitigate it by getting arguably a top three starter in the league.
I mean, he's been top one for the last two years, but- Yeah this year's been a little bit different.
You can mitigate that by getting somebody who will guarantee give you six, seven innings every start.
A, more times than not, one or fewer runs.
That will take pressure off your bullpen.
That will give you more flexibility with the personnel you have, and then you can work around all of that.
So, and again, I won't be able to sleep at night if the Dodgers or the Blue Jays get him.
That, that, that's really what it is.
The Brewers get him, hat tip to the Brewers.
They're going for it.
They wanna, they wanna battle, go toe-to-toe with the Dodgers, burn themselves out in the NLCS, like, that's what they have to do.
That's the move that they will have to make if they truly think that they're gonna be able to win the World Series.
But if the Yankees have an inside track here and the Tigers like the Yankees prospects and the Yankees are sitting here saying, "We like these guys," or, "We love these guys, but we're also not married to them.
We have options in-house to get us by for the next few years."
like, you know, it leans into the Volpe conversation too.
They're not quitting Anthony Volpe, you know?
They're, they're just not.
every time Anthony Volpe does what he's just done over the last week, it renews hope in the front office and then they give him an extra three weeks of runway, and then the cycle repeats itself.
Time is a flat circle.
But, yeah, I mean, I think that everybody just needs to realize the cost of the relievers that you and I both want are going to be You are going to see a similar package of prospects in totality leave the Yankees if you were to go to get three high leverage bullpen arms, or one Tarik Skubal, one high leverage bullpen arm.
Yeah.
That's just, I think that's just the, that's the, that's the world we are living in.
And they're gonna have to maybe offer Will Warren for Tarik Skubal anyway to beat somebody else's package.
Yeah.
Whether or not Lombard's in there, because the, the top of the Yankees farm system, like, I enjoy Spencer Jones.
He's somehow, he's become a little integral to this current Yankees roster, and he's also not in that top caliber.
It, you're gonna have to overload it with Major League talent.
Clark Schmidt, I wonder how tradable he is, not for Tarik Skubal, but just in general, given that he's working his way back.
He's supposed to be here for the second half, at some point maybe September.
But there's a non-tender decision in his future.
I think he only has one more year of team control after this.
and next year, who knows what next year even looks like.
Yeah, he, he's a free agent after 2027.
So, like, are they gonna pay him $7 million for the lockout season, or are they gonna trade him this off-season?
So if they're gonna trade him this off-season, is there somewhere that would value that year and a month of Clark Schmidt Milwaukee?
I mean, it, you know, I don't know.
It all depends.
A contender-to-contender trade.
Real major leaguers are gonna change hands at this year's trade deadline, especially given all the uncertainty about next year.
you're gonna want, you're gonna see teams holding on to prospects because they cost $0 right now as they're trying to figure out how they can navigate a potential imposition of a salary cap.
Probably not gonna happen, but also we don't know what's gonna happen.
The uncertainty is lingering.
So you're gonna see guys like Warren and Schmidt and Weathers get dangled instead of prospects in some cases.
Anthony Volpe could easily get traded.
Like, he is a, he is right now in the middle of one of the best stretches of his career.
It still hasn't been good enough to solidify any Yankee fans' opinion that, like, he's the future in any capacity.
So they might, I mean, you, the Yankees are gonna look for a right-handed catcher.
They're definitely looking at Ryan Jeffers, who's been injured with a hamate issue for a month now.
But they want him, and they should want him.
He is completely game-changing at that position.
To go from no right-handed catcher to a career triple A backup right-handed catcher who puts bat on ball, but that's really all he does, to a guy who hits 300 with 25 home run power, like, that is a completely lineup altering move they have potential to make.
Volpe could go in that trade.
Warren could go in that trade.
You're gonna see some strange names change hands.
Elmer Rodriguez certainly could go in that trade.
I've been, I wouldn't say disappointed by Elmer, just confused by Elmer.
this stuff has looked like I thought it would, and I thought the most likely thing to translate was the command between triple A and the majors.
He just has full innings where it's just nowhere near the plate.
Like, he, he has collapsed meltdown innings, and sometimes it's the first inning- Yeah and sometimes it's the fourth, but- Yeah you know, it's like a good old-fashioned Aroldis Chapman inning.
You know from the first pitch of the inning if he's gonna walk two and, and go right down the middle on 3-1, 'cause he's got nothing.
so that, is that permanent?
No, I'm, I'm, I'm not not giving him a runway for improvement.
But if someone asked me for Elmer Rodriguez, I would say, I'm not desperately trying to say.
I love the people who are like, "Must trade him now."
Don't devalue the assets.
The asset's already a little bit devalued.
We've seen it.
There, he, his value's lower now than it was before his call-up.
So would you rather try to rehab his image a little bit, or would you rather sell at 78% of original cost?
I don't know.
but let's not act like he's not already a little bit devalued.
You're gonna be seeing strange names in these rumors, for Jeffers, for bullpen pieces.
It's gonna be controllable bullpen pieces too.
It's gonna be, like, the Marlins seventh and eighth inning guys, 'cause the closer, the bonafide closers, first of all, there aren't that many in the world s- right now.
I mean, look, I, I'll, I'll pull it up right now Pete Fairbanks is someone you're gonna hear.
Yeah He has a 6.14 ERA and his fingers get numb- If- in cold weather.
Is that someone you want?
It's not someone I want.
I, I, yeah, again, I think the options are not there, and it's a top heavy it's always a top heavy market.
So let's see, you want a closer, right, folks?
Cade Smith, not going anywhere.
Mason Miller, not going anywhere.
Bryan Baker, I don't know who the fuck that is.
He's on the Rays.
Rays.
He's not going anywhere.
He's not going anywhere.
Yeah.
Durn not going anywhere.
Riley O'Brien maybe, but I also wouldn't take a chance on that.
Paul Sewald has 18 saves.
That's fucking absurd.
I'm not- Clayton Beater is like, Clayton Beater coming back is more likely than most of these things.
Yeah.
Iglesias, Varland, Bednar, Chapman, Jacob Latz, Andrs Muoz, who's been awful.
Sir Anthony Dominguez not getting traded.
Lucas Ersig I guess you can make an argument for, but that's not that, that, that was a guy who had a good 1.5 years and is kind of back to where you'd expect from- Sir Anthony Dominguez has also been abominable.
White, White Sox fans are cursing him out for the closer experience.
Yeah.
He blew a game yesterday again, and they all knew he would.
Which is crazy.
He has an opponent's batting average of 196, but he's, he's got a 3, 3.86 ERA.
Yeah.
you want Devin Williams back, folks?
Don't think so.
Uh- Luke Weaver back is a thing people are throwing out there.
Possible.
I don't find that particularly likely, but it- it's possible.
It's not likely 'cause of the money, but it's possible.
again, Tigers discussion, I'd package a deal with Kenley in there.
I like Kenley Jansen a lot.
I think that would be helpful, and that would give the Yankees the ability to do eighth and ninth with Bednar and, Jansen, depending on what they like.
But I, I mean, I don't think that is an option where you're like, "Oh, we have Kenley Jansen, we're fucking fine now."
You're like, "We have Kenley Jansen, we're better, but we know Kenley Jansen, like most closers, melts down," and I don't know.
Dodgers not trading Tanner Scott.
They're definitely not trading him to us.
Brewers not trading Trevor McGill.
Wouldn't want him anyway.
Mark Leiter Jr. Mark Leiter Jr. is a 4.85 ERA.
Yeah.
Is definitely a Yankee target.
Helsley.
like the again, like it's very top heavy, and the top heavy, like, guys are not going any- so you need bullpen fodder.
You need guys to bridge the gap to Bednar, to Cruz, I guess, if that's the way that you're gonna go.
Like, you need an eighth inning guy.
That, that's the end of the story.
I'll do a little, I'll do a little we were right, we were wrong too to, like, both massage our ego and then put, you know, g- give us, uh- Yeah push us back a little bit.
We were right.
Robert Surez would've been a great signing for the New York Yankees.
He has an 0.56 ERA and 30 innings- Oh, yeah as the setup man in Atlanta.
But we were wrong.
I was wrong at least.
I wanted Brad Keller real bad.
He has a 4.15 in Philly, and he has not looked like the Swiss Army Knife he was last year.
Basically a hit per inning.
So relievers are really tough to predict.
but the most predictable thing possible was that Angel Chavez and Cade Winquest were not the answer for the Yankees.
they weren't.
Both those guys were bad.
Did we think that they were?
No, I'm just saying, like, we knew we you know, it's impossible to know with certainty- Oh which relievers you should be targeting, but it's easy to know which you shouldn't be, and those were two that we sought.
Yeah.
yeah, sometimes it's, sometimes it's easy, and it, it f- again, it felt like one of those situations where it was like, "This is a layup.
Why aren't we doing this?"
And we didn't do it, and we tried to get creative, and then getting creative ended up just it just wasted time.
That's really what it is.
Brian Cashman did not make a signing that we're punching holes in the walls for.
He didn't surrender any prospects that we're ruing the day we're gonna get rid of.
But it's just like, why'd we do this when we are the Yankees and could have cut corners?
I don't know.
but if I take, I'm trying to filter for holds.
Does that, is that even a stat on MLB if I go to expanded?
I don't know.
Do they have that?
Yeah, holds.
Here we go.
JoJo Romero, I like that.
we talked about him.
We were yelling about that all off-season.
Yeah.
That was a thing in the off-season.
Apparently, he might be back on the block.
and then you have a bunch of contenders in here who are not gonna so you have the Car- JoJo Romero leads the league in holds.
Then you have Erick Zabowski on the Guardians, Jason Adam on the Padres, Tyler Rogers on the Blue Jays, Eduard Bazardo on the Mariners- Mm-hmm Kevin Kelly on the Rays, Dylan Lee on the Braves.
Brad Keller is injured on the Phillies.
We wouldn't want him anyway.
Cleveland, Cleveland, San Diego.
I don't want any part of Ryan Stanek.
Justin Turner on the A's.
Never heard of him, but- Never heard of him maybe, maybe could be good.
Sam Bachman on the Angels is, is fool's gold.
and then, yeah, and then Fernan- you get to Fernando Cruz.
So you know, like that, that's where, that's where it is.
if you can get a bullpen piece from the Padres, that would be ideal.
They fall out of the race, maybe they sell a couple of assets out of their bullpen.
they have a number of guys who would be good fits for the Yankees.
But again, the, the, the, the, the surefire fits are not there.
And if they are there, then they're gonna be super expensive.
So that, that's, that's where my head is at with the bullpen.
We see it every year.
Look at what the Yankees did last year.
They took advantage of Bednar's market because he was optioned at the beginning of the 2024 season.
Was it 2024?
Mm-hmm.
He was optioned at the beginning of the 2024 season 'cause he fell off.
The Pirates needed to sell.
There wasn't hellbent interest on David Bednar because he is doesn't have a lot of velocity, and he doesn't have as much swing and miss as the most elite guys.
And the Yankees trade with the Pirates all the time, so they took advantage of that.
They took advantage of Camilo Doval's depressed market because of how he fell off so hard since 2023.
They took advantage of Jake Bird's elevated everything and said, "Oh, we can rework him and fix it."
So that's where they went on last year's deadline.
They got creative, and two out of the three options did not work.
So they had a 33% hit rate on that.
They can't be doing that this year.
They know it, right?
This is no secret, but that, that's how difficult it is.
And if you wanna go after the top guys, you gotta pay top dollar.
I'd be gunning for Jojo Romero at any cost, and figure that out.
And then maybe you get Maybe LeGrand sorts himself out.
maybe Ben Hess gets the bump to the big le- like, I don't know.
Maybe Giovanni Cruz is an option.
Like, they have time.
They gotta figure it out, but it's just, it's not self-explanatory.
This is where it gets difficult.
Oh, it's a bummer.
It's very annoying.
and, and again, all these teams, the Cardinals are a little too good.
The Padres are gonna sell really, like they maybe should sell Jason Adam- They are a little bit but they never do.
all these teams are, the Yankees are being connected to like CJ Abrams in a splash deal.
The Nationals are over 500.
The whole NL is over 500 chasing a wild card.
So I'm It's impossible to sort out.
I think the offers you're gonna see are gonna be confusing.
It'll be nice if somebody got the ball rolling early.
Last year we came out of Father's Day with a Rafael Devers trade.
This year we came out of Father's Day with a Rafael Devers controversy, but no trade.
So we'll just have to see.
This is a big week for these Yankees.
Again, they are facing Tarik Skubal twice in a one-week span.
They're facing real pitchers in Boston, and the Red Sox have struggled at Fenway Park all year to a bizarre degree.
Bumping the rotation back gets us an extra Cam Schlittler day at Fenway Park, so that's kind of fun, in front of the only fan base easier to rage bait than Blue Jays fans.
But this is not a week.
This is another week where I think if the Yankees tread water, that's gonna have to be okay.
Like, this is not gonna be easy.
This is gonna be a real challenge.
And again, the Tigers have been one of the best teams in the American League in June silently, 'cause they've been- Yeah as far as like 16 or 17 games below 500.
So if you're not paying attention, I get it.
But the Tigers are throwing Framber Valdez, who's been really boom or bust this year.
Casey Mize, who's been injured but mostly great when healthy.
And Skubal this week, who since coming back from surgery, five earned runs allowed in 11 and two-thirds innings.
Not peak, but still Skubal.
You get him this week, you get him at Yankee Stadium next week.
So are you gonna trade for Skubal?
Is he even gonna be on the market?
It's kind of up to you.
You play the Tigers six games out of 10.
So it's up to you whether or not you're going to allow the Tigers surge to continue, or put them in the grave and make them sellers, or whether you're just gonna split those six and teach them nothing and teach yourself nothing, and then end this 10-day stretch with no clarity.
That's on you.
It's on the New York Yankees.
I think this is a, this is a week where every da- there are no days off.
Even Jake Bennett, the young lefty, is certainly not a day off.
The Red Sox offense looks pretty weak most of the time, but you all know to throw the record books out the window when the Yankees and Red Sox play each other.
I know.
Yankees are four, four and one against the Red Sox so far this year.
That's great.
That's in the past.
Clean slate this week.
so I, I mean, again, with this lineup and these holes and these injuries, e- every week, every series should be tough for the Yankees.
But these are two teams that I think a lot of people are overlooking as a soft part of the schedule.
Yeah.
They're throwing pitchers that make it very clear this is not soft, not what you think it's gonna be.
I think treading water, you should Any fan should be fine with four and three this week.
Three and four, five and two would really impress me.
Below three and four, I think we have to have a conversation.
Even knowing that the regular season's gonna be full of these potholes, and that you're not gonna look good every week, and that it's tough to survive these things, and sometimes it comes back and bites you, I think anything less than three and four, we're gonna have to have a real conversation.
And anything less than three and four, and the Detroit Tigers are probably licking their lips and taking Tarik Skubal off the market.
Yeah.
th- this, there is no I, 'cause I will go back to the beginning of the year when everyone was shitting on us for beating teams below 500.
There is no soft spot of the baseball schedule.
Sorry, th- there's just not.
When your goal- There also used to be just, like, dog shit pitchers.
I tweet Remember when you used to just enter a series with a last place team and you'd be like, "Who are we facing?
5.84 ERA, 6.32 ER-" Got it.
Like Sean O'Sullivan on the Royals is the guy who I'm always like, "Oh, hell yeah, there's a, the guy with a 10.12 ERA in this series.
Nice."
That doesn't happen anymore.
These bad teams have better than average rotations in, by and large.
Yeah.
And it's just like baseball, the, the nature of baseball is weird.
It's 162 game season.
There's random weeks where guys are playing out of their mind.
There's random weeks where guys turn into pumpkins.
There's random weeks where rivalry, the, the rivalry fuel takes over and it completely flip- flips the script.
There's r- look at the Tigers.
They, they lead all of baseball in home runs in the month of June.
This was the worst fucking team that you've ever seen play in April and May.
Now all of a sudden they're turning it around.
so I'm not writing anybody off at this rate.
I'm not subscribing to you only beat bad teams.
the league, the American League is not great, but the American League also isn't garbage, you know?
Like, the bottom of the NL is trash.
You have, the Rockies who are abominable.
You have the Giants who have talent but have con- have been abominable.
Very much.
You have the Mets who are an absolute travesty in every way.
and then you have the NL Central, which is good but not great, you know?
Like it's, there's, there, there's been so many ebbs and flows in that division.
The Cubs were wo- had two 10 game win streaks, then they, then they went like four and 25. you have the Cardinals who are good but not great again.
The Brewers, I think are in a league of their own.
the Pirates are show- starting to show their true colors.
The Reds have fallen off a bit.
So, the American League is just straight up mid, and if the Yankees can handle stiff competit- And that's what makes it almost a little bit worse because if the entire league is mid, everybody knows they could fight for a playoff spot.
Yeah.
The only team that's really out of it at this point is who?
The, uh- The Angels?
That's, that's it The Angels, the Royals, the Rockies.
You're gonna pick the carcasses of these terrible teams during The Yankees will get another Rockies reliever this year, I guarantee it Yeah, but that's the thing, I don't want any of those guys.
No.
I don't want anybody from the Angels, I don't want anybody from the Royals, I don't want anyone from the Rockies.
That's it, so- But we're gonna- I mean, we- We're gonna get some guys from those teams.
Yeah.
But in the, in the AL, like, even if you have the Angels and the Royals, who are pretty much, they're, they're done, they're, just sticking a f- fork in them essentially, they still have really good talent.
Like, they have Bobby Witt Jr., the Royals have Bobby Witt Jr.
I know he's, he might be hurt right now.
The Royals have, the Angels have Zach Netto, and Mike Trout when he's healthy.
So it's like, there, there's not an, there, there's, you can't just start walking all over.
It doesn't work like that in baseball.
and I think people just need to understand that.
So I'm not, and never looking at the Yankees schedule being like, "Oh man, really easy stretch coming up."
I just stay quiet when I see a gauntlet of 12 games where it's like, holy fuck, we have the Dodgers on the road against the Astros, back home against the Red Sox, and then the, on the road against the Rays.
Like, I don't like that.
But yeah, I mean, facing less, less scary teams is helpful.
But I'm not sitting there saying, "Huh, we got the Tigers and the Red Sox, dude.
Wrap it up.
9 and 0."
Never happen.
Literally never happens if you watch baseball.
Yeah.
They're food, like Josh Hart says.
No.
They're, they're gonna play A- and at least the Yankees are not going to Detroit and Boston in April.
Gonna give them credit.
They always seem to end up in these frigid towns in the w- like, wearing hoodies and, and- Yeah like, l- you know, m- black mask, wet ski mask weather for Jazz Chisholm or whatever.
This isn't a bad weather time to go to either of these places.
It's also nice to get these Fenway games off your schedule.
We have no idea what the post trade deadline Red Sox are gonna look like, but I'm just gonna throw it out there that if they sell, with the pitching staff that they have, inserting literally anyone in place of some of these underperforming offensive players, they could impr- getting Roman Anthony back.
Like, just the f- just 'cause your People are saying like, well, you wanna face the Red Sox later in the year.
Destabilizing whatever the hell is going on in Boston might make them better by default.
Yeah.
So I don't think you guaranteed wanna face the post deadline Red Sox as opposed to the pre-deadline Red Sox.
but they're throwing arms at you, the Tigers are throwing arms at you twice, and the Yankees have the arms to match, which is great.
Mm-hmm.
You can't usually say that.
We're not walking into any of these series going, "Can't win that one."
We've done that plenty in the pa- oh, and we got shitty fifth starters going, all right, so chalk that one up as a loss.
We don't have any of those.
We can compete in any of these games too.
They're just going to have to continue to tread water until the transformative trade deadline and some of these injured players start to return.
And, and yeah, it's gonna be a little bit annoying at times.
I wish it wasn't.
but if you're riding with the full 162, this month plus until the trade deadline, probably the most in the last couple years where you're gonna have to convince yourself to shake off the games that don't feel right.
Because th- it's, what's really going to matter is who's on the field in August, September, and October, and what's really going to matter is what internal and external decisions did the Yankees make to maximize their potential peak performance in the months that determine the story of this season.
And so I'm gonna get much more annoyed at that kind of stuff than I am at on field.
that said, losses suck.
I wanna stop losing.
I wanna take two out of three in Detroit.
I wanna put my foot on this series, and I wanna go to Boston with a head of steam.
So let's try to win some baseball games.
We will see you on Thursday at 2 PM Eastern here on the Yanks Go Yard podcast.
I'm Adam Weinrib.
you can find me on Twitter still for some reason @AdamWeinrib.
Thomas Caronante, where can the people find you?
I am @Tommys_takes.
We're also on TikTok, I'm at @TCFansided.
You're a, aweinrib?
What are you?
I think that's my, I think that's my name, yeah.
Yeah?
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