Yankees Survive Ben Rice Injury Scare, Send Volpe to Purgatory in Ridiculous Weekend vs. Orioles
The Yankees just wrapped one of the weirdest, most chaotic series of the season and somehow dominated anyway. Adam Weinrib and Thomas Carannante break down a wild weekend vs. the Orioles, including a scary (but thankfully minor) Ben Rice injury moment, Anthony Volpe being sent back down, and what it all says about how this team is operating right now.
Video Transcript
Podcast, the Adam Weiner alongside Thomas Carante back today and the New York Yankees had a 4-game series against Baltimore that wrapped around Friday to Monday for some reason, 1 more of those games still left.
The 1st 3, win, win , win.
Check them off, keep checking boxes.
The Orioles, uh, Pete Alonso overhauled the lineup , all that stuff, supposed to be better this year.
So far, so meh, and, uh, the Yankees both.
survived 3 games and survived the Ben Rice scare, and survived a decision point, an inflection point on Anthony Volpe, they made the right decision.
Plenty to talk about from the weekend, plus, of course, this morning we woke up to the sad news that John Sterling had passed at 87 years old.
The voice of a generation doesn't even do him justice, cause he was the voice that Transcended multiple generations, everyone from the age of 7 to 70, listened to John Sterling, you can even raise that up to 80, 90, 100.
If you're in a car, if you like the radio, if you live and breathe baseball, you listen to John Sterling during the dynastic era, the best era that any Major League Baseball team has had in the modern era, and hopefully, the Dodgers will get out of here.
Here someday and we can continue to lay claim to that.
We'll talk about the weekend in baseball.
I think we should probably just start with John Sterling, Thomas, just because we keep kicking it, uh, to the back of the show.
I mean, it starts to feel kinda weird.
So plenty happened this weekend, so much we have to discuss, but also, it's been only 2 years since we said goodbye to John Sterling and, and sent him into retirement and Uh, he always sort of was a mercurial man, mysterious personal life, and, and it's sort of not surprising that just one day out of nowhere, we, we get this horrible news and the tributes have been flowing all day from everybody, obviously.
Yeah, uh, very sad.
Um, I think, I don't wanna say that I felt like something was off, but I, I, I think collectively, everybody wondered why the retirement was so abrupt two Aprils ago.
Um, and then, uh, he, John Sterling, had suffered a heart attack in February, which then had everybody alarmed as to how he would be progressing.
In the coming months, and unfortunately, uh, we don't know.
I don't think any other details have come out since this morning.
We, we don't know the, the cause of any of it, but, um, 87 years old, 36 years as a Yankees broadcaster, what was the, he had 5060 consecutive games from 1989 to 2019, um, 8 World Series, um.
I, uh, I loved him.
I, I, I, I remember like vocally defending him on social media because people had nothing better to do than to You know, criticize him at some, you know, like, he made some mistakes in the booth, like, you know, he was in his 80s, like, I don't know what you want from, like, he was, he was in his 80s doing a better job than somebody in their 30s would, um, and people would find a way, um, with the, the rise of the internet, making it, um, an unpleasant experience for all, but I mean, are we not listening to some of the announcers out there right now who are much younger and much more inexperienced, who are just so much worse, making the same mistakes in more embarrassing fashion.
Matt, Matt Vasurgeon yelling Santa Maria on blind drive doubles off the monster or whatever, like, also, there are, of course, the lifeless announcers that there are, there are not many storytellers like John Sterling, and you hit the nail on the head that, like, John Sterling, Vin Scully, these are people who worked forever and did it, like, no one had ever done it before them and we'll never do it again.
We're not gonna have radio announcers like this.
And then went into retirement and sort of, Very swiftly passed away, it felt like.
Yeah, I think that, uh, in my mind, Vin Scully is tops and then John Sterling is one A, and I know Yankees, Yankees haters won't.
Um, really, uh, agree to that, but when you look at the, the breadth of work that he had, um, when you look at how beloved he was, um, when you look at the fact that he, uh, was, he created so many trademark moments with his ability to storytell, with his ability to, uh, you know, come up with all these catchphrases, with his ability to, um, endear the fan base with his, you know, his Uh, his sign-off with the Yankees win.
Um, I don't know how he doesn't have any awards.
I know he has Emmys, uh, based on, uh, you know, his work with Yankeeography and his, his, um, and, and his various other ventures, but the fact that he doesn't have a Ford C Frick Award, I, I learned that this morning.
Like, I just assumed he did because he had been, I, I don't know how, if that's applied, um, once you're retired.
Um, I'm not sure though, cause I think Don Orcillo might have.
No, it's, it's not.
That's the Tom Hamilton of, of Cleveland fame has it.
I think he got it last year, and Tom Hamilton's incredible, and Tom Hamilton deserves that award, but John Sterling at any point from 2008 to present, could, could have easily won that.
Yeah, and, um, I saw some facetious tweets out there being like, oh, now everybody on Twitter today is gonna pretend like they listen to baseball on the radio.
Um, OK, first of all, OK. Second of all, like, I, I listened to a, I'm 36 years old, I listened to a ton of baseball on radio.
Um, when I, uh, didn't have cable, I purchased the, and was poor, I purchased the, the MLB radio, um.
Uh, package for the Yankees.
For, yeah, it was like a year or two where I was doing it just because I, you know, was freelance writing and didn't, you know, didn't have enough money to drop 150 or whatever it was on cable or pay for the whole MLB or you couldn't pay for the MLB package if you were in the market, so my only option was cable.
I listened to John Sterling on the radio, you know, I used to drive at night all the time, um, back in the day, so I was very much in tune.
Um, to John Sterling, loved every radio broadcast, made sure that I was, uh, sometimes I would listen to the broadcast, um, with the TV on mute, because, uh, early, early on when I, like, would watch 162 Yankees games , I didn't really like the Yankees broadcast on the YES Network.
I just, uh, I wasn't a fan of it.
Um, and I would just have the radio on with the game on.
Um, and I thought that was, uh, I thought that was better.
So, John Sterling certainly meant a lot to me.
I think he meant, he, he, he, he should mean a lot to many Yankees fans, again, spanning multiple generations, called, like, this is, this is arguably, not arguably, this is the greatest, the, the mid 90s to early 2000s is the greatest stretch of baseball, um, in the last 60 years, and then the last one before that was the Yankees again in the late 50s and 60s.
So, the fact that John Sterling lasted as long as he did, oversaw that era of baseball, um is ingrained in the fan base forever.
He is the voice of the Yankees for this lifetime.
Like, we will die, maybe somebody else will come after him, but this lifetime, there will be nobody else that matches him, um, and he deserves a lot more respect than I think, uh, the general baseball community gives him.
It, it's just crazy, it's all him, like, and, and I know for Yankees, for people who do not like the Yankees, they're not gonna like the Yankees win, obviously, why, why would they?
But it's, like, if you're going to be a franchise like the New York Yankees and you're gonna be rooted in history and you're gonna have this bombast.
In victory, then it was a perfect way to echo the end of these games.
The fact that the Yankees don't already play that in stadium after victories is crazy, and given the amount of cacophonous noise that happens in the ballpark, there's been so much written about wrap between, you know, some loud ass sting, Travis Scott between pitches or whatever.
Rest of the season, we're playing John Sterling after wins, we're never forgetting John Sterling, and, and let's just throw that into in perpetuity.
Rest of the stadium.
We're playing John Sterling after wins, right?
Like, enough is enough already.
I, I don't need to, this isn't, this is inarguable.
Um, it was creativity, it was the streak, right?
He was there every day from 1989 to 2019, I believe, and he took a series off, but it was, it was the creativity, it wasn't just the relentlessness, like, Burn Baby Burn, Jettarian, uh, A-bomb from A-Rod, Thriller from Godzilla, Text Message, like, whether you thought some of these were silly or you loved some and hated some, everything.
Like, the Yankees would acquire a new player, and you would say, what is John Sterling gonna say?
It's become so ubiquitous that it's almost impossible to remember that this was him, but all rise is John Sterling, like, and, and that's gonna live on.
Decades, centuries, and one of the greatest right-handed hitters in baseball history has the All-rise Foundation now.
Like, he's gonna go into the Hall of Fame to all-rise.
John Sterling might not get that award, and you know what, he probably is gonna get it now.
That's the worst part.
He's gonna get nominated.
He's gonna win, um, but.
Like, even if John Sterling never gets that, you know, broadcaster's award and makes the Hall of Fame broadcasters wining, all rise is going in .
It's going on the plaque, right?
Like, it, it can't be avoided.
Uh, only Judge and Jeter became adjectives like Judgy and Jettarian, I think that's cool.
Um, but Sterling got to do one last playoff, yeah, Sterling got, uh, Boon Loganian, I don't remember that one, Sterling got to do one last playoff ride with us in 2024, which was crazy, um, even after he retired, and so if you watched the Stanton home run in game one of the World Series, it's him at his best, even if you were a little worried about him in the earlier rounds, even if it's tough to watch the Soto home run now, I think you still should.
Um, there's nobody.
Yeah, like you said, um, you know, skill, tacticity, and whatever historic value, he called a 60 point Larry Bird game against the Hawks, like, he did NBA, he had a whole life before he came to the Yankees at, like, 50, and then did it again and was more iconic than ever, like, he called the Rick Camp home run for the Braves in extra innings against the Mets at, like, 18 innings.
Game in the eighties that was so famous and legendary, um, the Brocius and Tino home runs.
I mean, MLB tweeted Sterling's best calls, you remember him or whatever, it's 22 minutes long .
So just, uh, listen to the podcast.
Thanks for joining us on the Yansco Yard podcast and then listen to that.
Go ahead and listen to 22 minutes of the New York Yankees winning baseball games with John Sterling at the mic, it's absolutely crazy.
Yup, and not to mention , he appeared on a Yes, broadcasts and um that was always seamless, and he, again, he had multiple other partners in the radio broadcast booth over the, um, you know, the 36 years, and uh it always felt natural.
He was a welcoming presence, he was, um, you know, a, a , a steady, a steady voice and a, a steady guide for the entire game.
Um.
And uh that's, that's an incredibly difficult thing to do, for, for 3+ hours, you know, pre, pre-pitch clock era when some of these games will go upwards of 4 hours, um, and you had to fill the gaps with anecdotes or analysis or just engaging your partner on the air.
Um, again, I challenge you to go out there and listen to some of the radio or even, you know, the, the Apple TV broadcast , which I know frustrates a lot of people.
It's like, Night and day compared to a lot of this, so, um, we'll be appreciating John Sterling far, uh, far long after he's gone.
Yeah, it's, um, again, that, that, like, MLB compilation just reminds you of the long drudgery, there's a great one, the Jason Giambi Grand Slam, obviously against the Twins in the rain or whatever, bases are low, the Yankees win this game 13-12 on the Grand Slam and The bases are loaded and then Sterling starts it by going, just a little, they're just a little single away from getting closer to tying this game, just a measly single or whatever, it's so funny, you know, knowing what's about to happen, but just the, the fact that you have to take it step by step.
In baseball, these used to be 4+ hour slogs and, and he used to truly build that narrative tension, so that, like, what he's hoping for in the booth is a single, knocks in 2, he gets another 10 minutes, he gets another 15 minutes on the mic, he gets to talk you through this piece by piece, and then Jason Giambi shocks the world, it's a grand slam, the New York Yankees win, and pandemonium ensues, but that's the metaphor for what he did every single day, uh, relentlessly.
Creativity and just bring, again, edging it along, inching it forward, just a little single will get us a couple of beats closer, will give us a chance, uh, and he always gave the New York Yankees a chance.
So, shout out to John Sterling, I can't believe we just did this like 2 years ago for his retirement and uh we will truly never forget him and we hope weigh in in the comments with your favorite John Sterling moments and all that good stuff, and we'll, we'll circle back on Thursday, probably talk about him again cause he's the best.
Um.
And the New York Yankees had a good weekend outside of this, and uh also made some strong decisions and adds to that increased urgency we've been talking about lately.
Here's some scores from the Yankee series against the O's this weekend, and again, we know there's one more tonight, but 3 out of 3 over the weekend.
Uh, the Orioles cut it to 5-2 in the seventh inning on Friday.
They cut it to 6-4 in the seventh inning on Saturday.
They tied it 3-3 on Sunday and had the Yankees up only 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth inning.
Shout out.
To Brent Hedrick for some good work.
Anyway, the final scores of these games were 7-2, 9-4, and 11-3.
Pete Alonso went nuts, homered in the opener, homered in the second game, and it barely made a dent.
What was this ?
Um, I, you know, I think we saw some offensive woes in the Texas series to an extent against great pitching.
Obviously, this is the Orioles' top prospect making his MLB debut yesterday.
This was Cade Povich on Friday, Kyle Braddish on Saturday, but Tack on runs, relentless late offense, and uh yesterday could have been gross, you know, Ben Rice gets hit on the wrist by a pick-off throw, shakes it out, hits a bloop double, scores, then leaves the game, in comes Goldschmidt.
Suddenly, Max Fried is underwater, the bases are loaded with nobody out after they take that 3-1 lead, and uh Fried gives up a single bases.
Still loaded, nobody out 3-2.
Double play, game tied, and from that point, the Yankees fought, clawed tooth and nail, go ahead and pull away late, Jason Dominguez is somehow your hero.
Yesterday's game looked like 6 different baseball games, but ended with a similarly lopsided score.
Rice just a contusion, probably not gonna play today, probably gonna be fine on Tuesday.
If he needs another day, fine, give him another blow, but they seem to have.
Escape disaster and they just sort of put their foot down on the American League East this weekend, but not really because the Rays are unbeatable.
Yeah, what are the Rays doing, man?
It's unbelievable.
It's crazy stuff.
I mean, good for them.
Um, they play hard and they have a really good manager, and that's, yeah, that's 75% of baseball.
Um, talent will carry you the rest of the way, but they're, they're, they're getting the job done.
Um, I am, I was so upset , I couldn't podcast on Thursday.
I got surgery last Wednesday, um, and, uh, because I've been so pleased with this team, even though they lost the finale against the Rangers, um, I think what they have been doing, both on the field and off the field.
Uh, in terms of performance, and in terms of messaging, and just moves in general, has been exactly what everybody has been asking for.
And we know most of the time, we know, we understand it's unrealistic for the organization to listen to the fans, right?
It's just The Dodgers can do it because they can just spend money at the wazoo and it doesn't matter.
Um, the Mets can do it, same type deal.
Uh, look how that's working out for them though.
Um, it doesn't always, and look, we've revisited some of the moves that we thought the Yankees should have made in previous years or the trades they should have made, and they age poorly.
Um.
No, we're, we're not always right, but what we do want them to deliver upon is just their power to exercise influence over easily controllable things.
And that is, again , sending the right message with younger players, um, it's, uh, Allowing people to earn more reps and win jobs based on merit.
Um, it's, it, it just, uh, has to do with playing the right guy in the right position at the right moment in time.
And over the years, the Yankees have felt very robotic, very repetitive, very mundane.
Um, and their talent , as we talked about over the years, has carried them so far.
Joel Sherman had the famous rant in 2024, where it was, you know, the Yankees will out-talent you, and then when you reach the moment where somebody needs to step up and somebody needs to deliver the final blow, that's where they're mostly lacking.
And then we watched what happened in the 2024 World Series, and It looked like two completely different teams on the field, unfortunately, uh, two completely different managers on the field as well.
Um, I know that we could be susceptible here to early season Yankees voodoo, yeah, which they do a lot.
They, they dominate at the beginning of the year, and then Then come June 15th, it is a bottom feeder team for 6 to 8 weeks, and then we're back in the doldrums, and then we have to dig out of the hole, and then it's a nail-biting race until the end.
Um, I don't think, and I'll go on the record right now, I don't think that that will be the case this year.
I, I really don't, with what I'm seeing in the, the early responses.
Um, some of the stuff has been silly, right?
Like the Yankees hold a players' meeting to Ensure that they will play hard and go for sweeps.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Um, like, I, I appreciate it, but also, OK, um, Aaron Boone has pledged to Not change the lineup every other day, and end up with 150 lineups in 162 games.
Love the progress there.
Um, I, I think overall, everybody's still worried about the bullpen, but the manner in which the offense has delivered the individual performances, both starting rotation and bullpen, and also whoever's been called upon in any given night in the lineup, um, The way that they've responded in the early going has been everything anybody could have asked for.
So, there's, there's no way anybody can, can complain at this point.
Um, and then finally, the messaging from, I think the front office has been the strongest.
Starts with the Dominguez move last week, um, continues with him playing consistently and him getting a chance to deliver.
Um, he made a lot of hard contact in the first couple of games he was here, the results weren't there, and then we see it come, uh, all together yesterday and over the weekend.
Um, but, yeah, I was, I really wanted to talk about the Yankees last week cause they were, uh, they, they had me in really good spirits with how they performed in Texas and just on that road trip in general.
Um, and now you add in 3 extra wins and the Anthony Volpe decision, which we'll get into.
And uh it's, it's the best possible start you could ask for, and if not for the Braves right now, I think the Yankees are the talk of the town.
Well, no, according to someone in our comments, the team is still putrid, and the rhythm will be thrown off when Cole and Rodon are back.
They're in a marshmallow part of their schedule.
So hate to hit you with this one, but actually the 23 and 11 New York Yankees absolutely suck ass.
You are wrong, uh , they are dog shit.
Look, the American League at this juncture, not great.
Pretty weak and pretty wimpy.
So, I can't go victory lapping any of these, and if you wanna say they're in a marshmallow part of the schedule, I can't deny that reality, but point number 1, there is no non-marshmallow part of their schedule if the American League sucks this bad, like, all of the season is gonna kinda look like this, it's gonna be up to them to maintain motivation, they're gonna have an occasional challenge from a top tier team, but by and large, those weeks are gonna be broken up with get right opportunities.
Second, If, in that case, given that there's pretty much mostly marshmallows out there.
It actually might be one of the toughest parts of their schedule to go Fenway for 3, Houston for 3, Texas for 3, divisional opponent at home for 4, and the Orioles with no time to breathe.
Uh, the Red Sox at this moment suck.
The Astros at this moment would be the worst team in the American League if not for the Red Sox, and the Texas Rangers threw out Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi and and Jack Jack Leiter in a 3-game set.
So, uh, it's not gonna, like.
Yeah, there are teams that, like a team like the Marlins, who the Yankees faced at home, yeah, theoretically, less intimidating than the Red Sox, like, even if the talent disparities, I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm gonna, at Fenway is not easy, even if they're playing poorly.
That, that's not cupcake.
So, when Chris Landers was on the show on Thursday, we basically just had an open plea.
For, like, we just have a normal ass June, please?
Cause right now, we're seeing really all we need to see and, look, the comment that's aggressively critical of the Yankees is not wrong that the bottom of the order is not doing what it should, and Trent Grisham has been remarkably unlucky for one, but also playing extremely poorly for a month plus.
There's room for the Yankees to improve, and that improvement could come from George Lombard being Called up to play third base.
Uh, Ryan McMahon went oppo so many times this weekend for doubles, for long fly balls, and it was a reminder of how bad a ballpark fit he is and how weird it is this year.
He's been a net negative defensively, he's, like, -3 and now it's above average.
God bless, good night and good luck, but the sooner the Yankees can upgrade third base, the better, I would say.
Rotation, you know, having Rodon and Cole, I would go ahead and argue that, look, even if there are some growing pains there briefly, I would say that you're thanking your lucky stars for what you've gotten out of Ryan Weathers and you're excited to put him in the bullpen at this point.
Uh, Elma Rodriguez, solid debut, unspectacular, trending towards not that great.
I'll take Rodan and Cole there in his spot, whether he goes to the minors or whether he goes to the bullpen.
Uh, those are not just like square pegs being fitted around holes, those are upgrade opportunities, but that takes us to Anthony Volpe, who.
In years past, would have just been on this roster today.
May 4th, rehab clock is over, we're bringing him up, we're not thinking about Jose Caballero, or even worse than that, we're looking at Jose Caballero's metrics in the way that most people are right now and saying, it's gonna, it's gonna get worse, he's not gonna be this all year, you know, 7-Eleven OPS hitting 259.
The metrics indicate he's a worse hitter than this, he's been getting lucky, so let's get him out of there, let's get Volpe in, we'll preempt it.
This time around, the Yankees are not preempting anything.
They are taking the Caballera that has been the engine on the field so often so far this year, and defensively, he's been great, and they're just saying, keep it going.
Anthony Wolpe is working on a new swing, he has an excuse.
The OPS at the minor league level is like 624 last I checked, he's hitting 250.
Defense has been fine, he's had those in and out moments.
We talked about that weird low light last week at Triple-A.
Anthony Volpe is what he is as a Major League commodity at this point.
Year 1, disappointing, year 2, very disappointing, except for the World Series and playoff run.
Year 3, Yankees screwed him up with the labral tear and putting him through shoulder pain, never should have played through that.
But we can't deny that the season was also bad.
Yankees' fault, but not a good year, coming off 3 bad ones, right?
So, I think he deserves a last chance.
To win the starting shortstop role.
I don't know if Jose Caballero is the starting shortstop on a World Series caliber team.
Certainly not long term, I wouldn't bet on that, but right now, what does putting Anthony Volpe in the lineup today at the Major League level accomplish?
Uh, do you wanna talk about disrupting chemistry?
They, they all love Anthony Volpe, and there was a piece that said this yesterday, like, no one in the locker room is rooting against Anthony Volpe, but right now they have a starting shortstop who's playing really well.
They're 23 and 11.
They're first place in the AL East, they're first place in the American League.
You, you don't sit down the starting shortstop for someone who is officially a developmental project.
If they wouldn't acknowledge it in the past, they better acknowledge it now, and they did.
He's a Triple-A cause he's a Triple-A player.
Hopefully, he figures it out and ascends to the starting shortstop role, we get to see some version of Anthony Volpe that was promised back in 2023, but right now, you can't give him that.
And they, and they didn't, and we didn't really have to worry about it, cause they made it clear they weren't going to.
I, I don't even think that this is like a, um, a knock on Anthony Volpe.
I just, I, I think it's the Yankees making the correct decision.
Um, is, uh, I've long said Jose Caballero is not the Yankees' long-term starting shortstop.
I'm not sure he's a starting shortstop if this team goes on a deep playoff run and into the World Series, but The Yankees in, again, years past, very robotic, very uh formulaic in what they're doing, devoid of vibes, devoid of the human element.
I took the right step forward here.
Anthony Volpe.
is coming off major shoulder surgery.
Whether he was ready or not, there was zero reason to rush him back to the major league roster.
Cause remember, there is gonna be a big roster crunch at some point.
Gerritt Cole coming back, Carlos Rodan coming back.
Anthony Volpe at some point coming back.
Um, there's not a whole lot of maneuvering to be done right now.
And the Yankees don't need to force a decision with Volpe when they have time on their side, and they have minor league options on their side.
The fact of the matter is, Anthony Volpe didn't start playing until what, April 15th, something like that.
It was April 15th or 16th.
2.5, 3 weeks, cause remember, he got a few days off, so he's probably accumulated 2.5 weeks of play or something like that.
That is not enough for somebody coming off shoulder surgery, revamping his swing mechanics.
And being cautious on the injured shoulder because I, I haven't seen him dive yet, and I know that there was a lot of, there was a lot of chatter about he can't dive until like mid-May.
Now, yeah, don't know if that's still the case, but if they have time on their side, there's no like this shouldn't, in my opinion, this shouldn't be a headline grabbing move.
This shouldn't be people talking about what's Anthony Volpe's future with the Yankees now.
This is all turned upside down.
It's simply, the Yankees have a shortstop, who's playing well, who better profiles as a super utility player, but is playing out of his mind at the moment.
And the Yankees have a young player who they are confident in, who has yet to really prove himself, and needs to get back on track and put this injury behind him.
So, this is just, this is, I, I feel like it's, it, it should be a standard move and it's not because it involves Anthony Volpe and it involves the Yankees kind of, uh it's a bit of a departure from their, their normal line of thinking, but it's the most responsible move for everybody involved, because Anthony Volpe is, let's not forget, he is not lighting the world on fire with his stats in the minor leagues right now.
Across 13 games, he's gotten 44 at bats, he's batting 250 with a 624 OPS.
Like, it's Uh, is it what you want to see?
I mean, no, it's, it's pretty much exactly what he's been doing at the major league level in some capacity.
Um, but we're not expecting those numbers to be inflated after he's working his way back.
He still has many defensive questions with his Range, with his arm strength, with his ability to consistently make the routine plays in tense moments, and there is, again, no reason for the roster construction to get upended at the moment, when Jose Caballero is hitting the ball well, and he's making all of those plays that I think a lot of us are wondering, would Anthony Volpe make that play if he was starting right now.
Um, the fact of the matter is, is that Whatever has happened with Anthony Volpe is not Anthony Volpe's fault, it's the Yankees' fault.
Anthony Volpe should not have been given infinite runway over the last 3 years.
Like, we've, we talk about this every other week on this podcast.
Um, so, do, I, I, I, like, does he potentially feel that this is a betrayal of sorts?
I mean, I would, based on how I was treated, if, if I was him for the last 3 years, like, I'd be like, what the hell?
I'm ready to go, I'm fully healthy, I'm feeling good, like, the stats might not be there, but I mean, I'm fine.
Um, Oswald Peraza hitting 283, I mean, yeah, yeah.
Unbelievable, but I think that you combine this with the Dominguez decision, Dominguez.
Had to kind of earn his place back starting the year in the minor leagues, and then had to prove that he was gonna be able to contribute at the major leagues.
You throw this in with the Elmer Rodriguez decision, which I, I, I think is excellent, even though his debut wasn't the most special thing ever.
I, I, I'll take 4 innings and You know, he's a couple of bounces away from getting out of that scoreless, you, you never know.
The kid needs Major League experience.
The Yankees are pushing the envelope and they wanna make sure that all these guys get the reps that they need and the exposure that they deserve before whatever happens.
They need this pipeline of depth to last throughout the entirety of the season, to avoid that summer swoon, to make that playoff run.
Um, and again, Anthony Volpe spending another 23 weeks in the minor leagues doesn't do any, it does no harm to anybody.
It gives him more time to get acclimated, it gives the Yankees more time to evaluate their situation.
Maybe Jose Caballero goes on a massive slump, and then they realize, oh, it's all regressed back to the norm.
Now we can welcome Volpe back and figure it out.
Maybe somebody goes on the IL, maybe the Jazz goes on the IL.
I don't want it to happen, knock on wood, and then they need another middle infielder and Volpe gets the call.
Um, They, they have all the pieces in place to be successful, and the fact that they're just not blindly going with, oh, this is the move that we wanted 6 months ago, and that's the move that we're gonna go with, I think speaks volumes to how the thought process has changed.
Um, and it makes me think, Maybe they're reading Yanks Go Yard, who knows?
Which makes me upset because if they're reading Yanks Go Yard, I wasn't able to write for the past 5 days, so, like, I, I gotta apologize to the front office cause I would have written a lot of nice things because I liked everything that I saw over the last week, week and a half, and I got as much as I could in there, but now we're at, you know, the Volpe decision, which happened yesterday, and I think it made a A ton of, uh, uh, a ton of waves throughout the Yankees community and I wasn't able to be there, but I'm on the record right now stating it.
We're here now.
I mean, if they're reading Yankso Yard, it does beg the question, like, what were you guys doing for the last 6 years?
Were you not, were you not reading it or were you reading it and not caring?
Cause we, we told you to do a lot of stuff, and then you've only recently started to do stuff.
I, I saw people saying, like, It was, I, I don't know if people were being facetious or not, but I saw a lot of people being like, was this the Yankees' plan all along to just pretend they were gonna bring Volpe back?
No, of course it wasn't.
Anthony Volpe was their starting shortstop for 3 full years.
They made him play through shoulder injury that required surgery last year.
This was not their plan all along, they were gonna bring him back when healthy.
Then they started winning baseball games, and Jose Caballero proved himself to be better in the short term than Anthony Volpe.
And, and now we're here, that's all that happened, like, and they made the right decision.
Now, is this insane to say?
Probably, uh, there was a Jason Dominguez injury situation last week too that you missed, and we were wondering whether or not he was gonna get his temporary Yankees elevation ruined by being hit on the elbow, and thankfully, that did not happen and he played and starred yesterday and got the game belt.
But Dominguez is now up, at least until Giancarlo Stanton gets back, at which point we'll all have to be wondering what, what goes, I mean, Max Schumann could go down, Dominguez could stay, then what?
Volpe, uh, and Spencer Jones, who might have gotten the call if Dominguez was down, hit two home runs yesterday, one went 117 miles an hour, the other one was a grand slam, and I think it went 110.
He's now knocked in 37 runs and 111 at-bats.
He still strikes out like a maniac, but he's up to 261, 366 OBP 952 OPS at Triple-A.
Uh, Anthony Volpe will be teammates with him.
Anthony Volpe will also be teammates with George Lombard Jr. Who so far in five games is uh 4417 at Triple-A with 3 walks and 5 K's, no steals, 1 caught steal.
All OK, saying acclimated, he scored a round ball through the hole, uh, that was basically an out scored from first on like a dribbler, which is an insane thing and his defense, people already believe is big league ready, the bat maybe close, maybe not quite.
Gotta show us something in Triple-A, not gonna get the chance unless he does, but, uh, Jones knocking on the door right now.
Lombard, when top prospects move to Triple-A with the Yankees, they typically come up pretty soon after that if they prove their worth.
Anthony Volpe, purgatory, uh, working on a new swing, trying to figure it out, not the starting shortstop in the New York Yankees anymore, a Triple-A player.
Is it crazier to say that Lombard and Jones both have more of a chance of contributing to the Yankees in the second half than Volpe does?
What say you?
Man, uh, I mean , from a Yankees front office perspective, I would say that that's crazy.
From our perspective, I think that that's the totally normal take.
I, I, I don't know how many, I think 3 times over the last calendar year did I write about Uh, George Lombard, you know, sounding the alarm on Anthony Volpe sooner rather than later, and it happened, um.
I think last year, last July when he was promoted to AA, he got off to a scorching start, um, which coincided with Volpe's cortisone ejection.
Um, and I was like, my God, if this guy has another hot 3 weeks at AA, like we're talking AAA.
Um, he cooled off, so I think that was, um, Uh, that obviously was the first, uh, the first scare that Volpe avoided in this regard.
Um, but then, uh, Lombard started to, you know, figure it out towards the end of the year, then Volpe undergoes surgery, and then we find out Lombard's invited to spring training.
So, that's one.
Lombard, or that's another one.
Lombard at spring training, Anthony Volpe injured.
What's gonna happen.
Then Lombard has a really good start to spring training.
Homers off Garrett Crochet, um, has a, has a few other impressive moments, shows that he could play defense at second base, third base, and shortstop.
And then you're sitting there and you're like, oh my God, like this is actually happening.
And then you start the season with him at Double-A this year and he's tearing the cover off the ball and the Yankees forced the issue and bring him up to Triple-A.
I think Spencer Jones is a trade candidate.
It's just, it's over at this point.
I don't know where he fits in on this roster.
I think the only other logical explanation is that um the Yankees trade Trent Grisham at some point.
And then maybe take a chance on Jones.
Uh, but I just, I don't see them doing that for whatever reason.
I, I don't think they're gonna replace somebody who they were confident in and invested $22 million in, and will Essentially replace him with a boom or bust prospect, um, who they don't know how he's gonna perform.
I confidently know how Spencer Jones is gonna perform.
He's gonna hit a ton of home runs, he's gonna strike out an absolute ton.
He's gonna walk and he's gonna be very helpful on the defensive end and on the base path.
So like, it is what it is for me.
I, I would be happy with him at the Major league roster.
It's just It's just a logjam they have at this moment.
Um, I would say though, Lombard.
is maybe ahead of Volpe.
And I think that that's something that the organization is maybe coming to terms with, especially because of Lombard's versatility, and, uh, and the fact that um he, depending on where Volpe is with his swing mechanics and his comfortability, like, Lombard could be ahead of him.
Like, Lombard was outperforming him at AA.
I I don't think that that's like anything to That's not anything to buy stock in, because again, Volpe is recovering, so it's not fair to say, oh, Lombard's performing better, so that means he's better.
No, Anthony Volpe underwent major surgery and is going through the motions and trying to figure things out, but at this rate, in terms of what you need out of the player, Lombard, in the second half of the season, in September when rosters expand, is the better fit for what the Yankees might need.
Injuries could change all of this, right?
You could have two injuries and then Volpe's coming up, and then somebody else is coming up, and then it's not really a discussion, but with the current roster construction, this is an important topic of discussion, and it does create potential, you know, issues for when the Yankees have to make these decisions.
Yeah, Trent Grisham, I don't think is going anywhere, I think you're right, and the Yankees do have the luxury of full season of Spencer Jones at Triple-A if they need it, hopefully, if if there's an injury, he will be next man up.
Although, with Stanton recovering, Dominguez is kind of that next man up, so he may be double next man up, but.
Can we, we can react normally to the Trent Grisham thing, like, It's more likely than not he gets better over the next couple of months.
I absolutely, people getting upset about what he's doing, it's just like, what are we talking about?
People are upset with everything.
People are upset with his performance so far, which, by the way, has been fine, not very good, not so many clutch hits this year.
Always, and that's what he did all of last year, and I also can't believe how many people are minimizing last year just because they're worried about what he looks like in the future when his Yankees future is one year.
But it's more likely than not he gets better very soon.
If he doesn't, then the predictive metrics were wrong and he's continuing to have an unlucky season.
If he does, then the predictive metrics were accurate, as they often are.
There are, of course, people who never match the metrics ever.
Yeah, like Andrew Heaney, it's just never gonna happen.
He's never gonna be the guy that the metrics that he should be.
But Trent Grisham, we saw it last year.
We know what the metrics can mean for Trent Grisham's breakout, and, and what type of player he could be, so.
He could struggle through the remainder of the season and bum Yankee fans, a certain sect of Yankee fans, but there are people acting like predictive metrics and bad luck are not a real thing.
They are.
There are people acting like on the other side that he's already having a very good season.
He, he's not, but it's been acceptable.
They're not gonna remove him from the role just because of this.
And if he's, if he's bad for the.
Next two months, then smite me, fine, but odds are in his favor that he will turn it around.
I don't think we're gonna see Jones quite yet.
Uh, Lombard v. Volpe is maybe the more normal, you know, and nuanced discussion, but Jason Dominguez, by the way, also in this mix, deserves love.
Got the game, got love, got the game belt yesterday.
I thought his season was over.
When he got hit on the elbow, I didn't think we would see him again until Stanton came back, at which point, I didn't think we would see him again at all.
I thought he would go down to Scranton and just be stuck there again, uh, because Jason Dominguez got the most damning.
Sentencing that you can get of just being like, not, you're not a guy.
Every time we call you up, you can't be here.
So you're not a guy anymore, I don't have to think about you.
Sad, but true , like, not even what can we trade him for, what kind of asset is he, where does he fit in the future picture, it's just like.
Got surgery at the end of 2023, when we wanted to call you up in 2024, you were hurt.
When we did call you up in 2025, you were bad, and then this year we tried it again and an accident knocked you out of a baseball games.
So what do you want us to do?
We can't think about you anymore.
But he transcended that, hit a home run that you looked kind of a short.
but would have been gone in 30 of 30 ballparks, so shout out, Jason, it would Dong, hit a rocket double down the line twice, uh, and was the player of the game in a game that he started, kind of, you know, minimal impact in the first half, massive imprint on the second half, 105 WRC plus and very limited sample.
I feel good.
I feel better watching him, watching him from the right side than I did at any point last year.
So, even if it's here for a good time, not a long time, even if Giancarlo Stanton is already working out and all that stuff, uh, we'll see what happens with Dominguez v. Schumann v. Volpe indirectly, but I am excited that he is alive and he is here.
Yeah, a couple of, uh, hits, uh, right-handed hits as well, um, which is the one of the elements that we've needed to see out of Dominguez.
I think the, the lefty hitting was never a question and the fact that um we, we saw a massive day from him yesterday that essentially got, you know, the, the Yankees' distance from the Orioles late in the game, like, that counts for something for me, and he, I think he had Like I mentioned earlier, he had a lot of hard contact against the Rangers and was hitting it right at defenders or just it got unlucky.
I know that that's not an excuse, but when you're talking about getting the call immediately from the minor leagues and you're putting bat to ball like that pretty aggressively, like that's an important, he's not swinging over things and he's not making weak contact.
He's hitting the ball in the screws and he, he missed out on a couple of opportunities.
Um, as for, you know, his future is, again, the Yankees are in a situation where they have a lot of good depth and they need to manage this properly, and it's gonna be, it's gonna ebb and flow based on availability and, and based on who's performing the best at any point in time.
Um, but yeah, the Trent Grisham stuff just bothers me simply because Like, what do you, uh, is it the Yankees fan, you're gonna make me defend the Yankees now, and you know, I don't like doing this, but Is it the Yankees fan disease where everyone just demands, it's gotta be an all-star at every position and it's gotta be an all-around, like top 15 player at every position.
Once we get Trey Grisham out of here , we'll really be cooking like the dude who hit 30 home runs last year and came through more often than basically anyone not named Aaron Judge in crucial situations was nearly an all-star like that, we gotta get that guy out of here.
No, we don't have any patience.
They're 23 and 11.
We have no patience for Frank Grisham.
And that's the thing, like, we should be happy that, not happy, but we should be relieved that Trent Grisham's rough stretch is coming in the midst of a 23 and 11 run for the Yankees to start the season.
We, we, we talked about this before the year.
We needed one of two things to happen.
Trent Grisham either needed to get off to a hot start and put this $22 million qualifying offer behind him so everybody could shut up, or if he was gonna get off to a slow start, he needed to bring some element of the game to the table that was changing the way that the Yankees played.
And the Yankees would need to be winning.
And that's exactly what's happening.
The Yankees are 23 and 11, no, his batting average is not there, no, his OPS plus isn't there, but in high leverage, he's hitting 267 and 1.
OPS and he has 2 homers and 9 RBIs.
He's flipped the script on multiple games so far this year.
He's been responsible for probably uh 3 wins, if, if we're talking about his bat coming through in the big moment.
Um.
And he's playing pretty good defense.
I know there's been a couple of missed fly balls, but guess what?
In the context of it all, it hasn't impacted the game .
So, like, that has to count for something.
Um, the fact that he is drawing walks at the rate that he is, he has 21 walks compared to 22 strikeouts, his on-base percentage is, I, I think over 130 points higher than his average, which is exactly where it should be if you're not making enough contact at that point.
So, like, Am I the biggest Trent Grisham fan in the world?
No, but I, was I the biggest fan of the qualifying offer decision?
No, I wanted Jason Minguez in this outfield to start this season, whether or not his defense was ready because in my opinion, the only way that he was gonna get better is by playing defense at the major league level.
Triple-A was not going to change that for him.
It is what it is.
Trent Grisham accepted the qualifying offer.
It squeezed Dominguez off the roster.
Now we're looking at more depth.
Now we're looking at Trent Grisham having to Deliver upon the price tag that's attached to him for this year, and we're a month in, and he's doing fine.
He's, there, there hasn't been any detrimental moments, there hasn't been any, uh, in my opinion, I've watched I, I probably missed like 4 games this year so far.
there hasn't been any moment where I'm like, I can't believe this guy's on the team.
This is, this is disastrous .
Um, he's clearly valued in a multitude of ways, uh, by the organization, um.
And look, yeah, you're right.
If this if this stretch of play continues and he's batting sub 200 in mid-June , let's have another conversation.
I'm totally fine with that.
Like I said, May 15th should be everybody's line of demarcation, unless, of course, the Yankees start at 11 and 23 instead of 23 and 11.
Then it would be a much different, uh, discourse going on right now.
But then underdog would be flying to sell the team banners over.
Hal Steinbrenner would be tarred and feathered.
He'd be, he'd be giving 4, Zoom calls, uh, at the, this would have been his 4th Zoom call on May 4th, um, talking about how the players need to, uh, figure it out themselves and then it can't be all in the front office.
But, um, Trent Grisham, again, like, we're, we, we should be looking at this through a, a, a lens of luxury.
The Yankees were able to afford Trent Grisham at the price point.
There was a belief that he would have been acquired for that much money or more over a longer period of time if he would have hit free agency.
Do I necessarily agree with that?
I don't.
And it wouldn't have, it wouldn't have ruined my life if he had left the organization, but he's a Yankee in 2026.
We are Trent Grisham fans until further notice.
He's been a fairly, I don't wanna say uh fair, he's been a moderately productive leadoff hitter on one of the best offenses in the league.
So, if Aaron Boone felt implored to remove him from the leadoff spot because of how bad he was playing, that again would be a different story and it would be a different topic of conversation, and our tenor might be a little bit different.
But he's doing what he needs to, he's seeing a ton of pitches.
It's the stuff beyond the box score.
He's seeing a lot of pitches, which is then allowing Ben Rice and Aaron Judge to see more, and they are both the front runners for MVP right now in the American League.
So, You wanna pay the 22 million to Trent Grisham if it's gonna elevate the reigning AL MVP and then an emerging young player who's now arguably entering the MVP conversation.
I know Ben Rice has a lot to prove before that conversation gets serious, but uh, the, the Trent, it's, it's just ridiculous.
Trent Grisham is playing fine baseball.
He's doing a lot to improve the conditions of everybody around him, and again, clutch.
If anything, Matters in New York, it's clutch, and he's been clutch for a multiple occasions over the first month, and that should be enough to earn him the grace to bat 167 for another two weeks.
Counterpoint, he dropped the fly ball in the sun yesterday with the Yankees up 11-3 in the ninth inning, so he should actually be shot, gotta be shot into the sun, in fact.
Um, he made a business decision up 11-3.
I hate this guy, he could not see the baseball.
He made a, I don't wanna get hit by a baseball decision.
Um, I also do, I mean, you bring up Ben Rice and Aaron Judge jockeying back and forth in the MVP race.
Obvious, obviously, it's early, May 4th, right?
And and Rice is out tonight with, with that thumb and good, he should sit, that's not surprising.
If he has to sit tomorrow, he should.
Um, unless we learn something else, which we might, but as of now, it seems fine.
Um, Judge and Rice motivating each other has been my favorite subplot of the season.
I think it's officially a real thing.
I don't think it's like, hyperbole or a joke or just something that we're picking up on as fans, but that isn't happening in the, in the dugout.
It's fun loving.
It's, you know, tongue in cheek, but it's not a coincidence that when Rice Homer Judd, it's like, I, I'm gonna go Homer now, like, I, I, they're, they're going back and forth, and it's very intentional.
It's not like Aaron Judge isn't trying to Homer in other at-bats, not what I'm saying, but you can see they feed off each other, that if Rice gets that, and by the way, Rice's swing on a curveball is good enough to make you question why anyone throws a curveball.
In the zone ever.
Like, it's crazy.
You, you just remember when Rice tattoos a curveball to the porch, you're like, man, a curveball just sucks.
You should never throw a curveball.
Obviously, that's not true, but Rice just, like, he sits, he waits back, he hits it 412 ft at 110 miles an hour, and it's like, oh my God, he's shit on another curveball.
Um, but he goes deep early yesterday.
And you can tell Judge is itching to get up, so that after the game, they can go back and forth in the postgame going, you know, I, he's, you know, Judge did this with Jazz a little bit with the stolen bases.
Last year, it didn't feel as authentic for many reasons, as it does now.
It really does feel like Judge and Rice are going back and forth on this one, and the sky is the limit for this pairing, and dare I say, it feels more natural than Judge and Soto.
Yeah, I, uh, I, I love the energy.
Again, it's, it's, it's the energy thing, right?
Where, like, these guys are having fun competing with each other, almost, and they're getting, uh, they're getting satisfaction out of that, and it's translating to the beating down of the opponent.
So, again, whatever it is, whatever is working , the Yankees are pressing the right buttons right now.
Aaron Boone's not messing too much with the line.
I love Aaron.
Again, are they listening to Yanks go yard?
We said 3 weeks ago, why isn't, why not just bat?
Ben Rice 2nd and Aaron Judge 3rd.
Why does it matter if you have two lefties to start off the, the game?
Like, why are we thinking so hard about this?
Just play your best guys, let it all unfold.
If it doesn't work, you have the luxury to change .
Change it.
That's the thing.
That's why the frustration with the, the constant line-up changing was there for Yankees fans because it's like, why don't we just try something for an extended period of time and then if it doesn't work, we have the personnel to make the changes.
It's not like, you know, where the, like, you look at the race stats, right?
They're 29th and 30th in like every major offensive statistic.
Like that's a team that should be tinkering with the lineup constantly.
The, the Yankees are not in that position.
They don't need to keep moving guys around.
They don't need to be experimenting.
And if you look at, even look at the bottom of the Yankees lineup, it's like what, McMahon, who's not been great, but has had a couple of moments and seems to be Maybe finding his footing.
Won them a baseball game a couple of weeks ago, like, yeah, say what you will.
Yeah, exactly, like, again, just get a couple of clutch moments, buys you weeks, buys you months.
Um, Caballeros at the bottom of the lineup, he's tearing the cover off the ball.
Austin Wells has not been great, I'll be the first one to say that, but another guy who Who has had 34 hits and high leverage in, in tough spots and has helped lead the Yankees to victory over the last couple of weeks.
So, and I'm, I'm not the biggest Austin Welles, I mean, I was the big, I, I was a really big Austin Welles fan and the, the offensive consistency over the last, you know, year and a half has been pretty discouraging, but um you hear Max Freed talk about Austin Wells after the game and how important he is to Uh, dictating the, the outing for him, and how he knows what buttons to press with his starting pitchers, cause he knows what's working, he knows what's not, he knows when to challenge.
So, um, uh, uh, yeah, the bottom of the order, like, again, the argument is the bottom of the order is not supposed to be good.
Our issue at the bottom of the order is it just can't be a black hole.
And it was a black hole with Volpe, with Volpe back there when he was eventually moved and with whatever iteration of Aaron Boone decided that week with bat 789, like, those guys were the, the, whatever combination it was, that was always the problem.
Going 1 for 9 every game, going over.
For 8 every game, like, that can't be, but you're having, again, consistent, somewhat consistent performances with guys seeing pitches, with guys working walks, with guys getting clutch hits, and that's the most you can ask for from the bottom of the lineup.
You're not getting the same production from 789 as you do from 1 through 4, it's just never gonna happen.
So, um, if these guys are gonna be fueled by, you know, playing off each other and with Stepping up when the moment calls for it.
That's, that's the missing element of this Yankees team for the last 10 years.
And, and everyone should be far more appreciative that we're seeing that in the early going than not, like, obviously, yeah, uh, uh, it has to sustain.
I'm gonna sit here and tell you, I'll be the first one to scream about it in the beginning of July, when everybody's gone ice cold and they're hitting, you know, 190 with runners in scoring position, and everybody's high leverage metrics are in the toilet.
But we're not, that, that, that's not the case right now.
Now, we're setting the tone for what's hopefully a long and successful season with a, a new characteristic that can take this team above and beyond the competition that has plagued them for however many years it's been.
Yeah, I, I mean, Ryan McMahon, 289 in his last 15 games with a 500 slug, like, obviously the plug could be pulled at some point, and it will be, I think, based on what we've seen this year, like, they're not, they're not messing around here, and they weren't.
Give him credit, like they asked the DJ LeMayhew thing last year too, like, this, this dates back a little bit, they act, they ate Marcus Stroman's money.
They, they made some tough decisions last year financially, not really on field.
Uh, they didn't make the one that the Yankee fans just go crazy over Volpe.
They just, they just, they have a complex over Volpe.
So when he starts last year, they get increasingly more insane and ignore what's going on around it.
That said, they obviously didn't make the lineup decisions and bullpen decisions that prioritize taking every game seriously last year.
They also didn't make the roster decisions that allowed that.
They danced with Stroman and Carrasco.
For way too long, uh, so I would say it was a mixed bag last season where it had been terrible in the past, and this year it's been pretty fantastic, almost uniformly.
We'll, we'll see where it lands Grich this year.
Don't forget about that.
Gritchi gone.
Randall Grid just gone, May 4th, and even when I said that on a previous show, like.
That I think he's the kind of guy who, if it's not working, they'll just cut bait, cause what tie do they have to Randall Griczyk other than trying to get a dude who mashes from, you know, who mashes lefties this year.
And even when I said it, I was like, I was a little anxious.
I was like, are they really gonna go to Dominguez over this veteran, like, how much we're gonna be saddled with this dude, but too many injured dudes, too, too many necessities, too many moves that had to be made, and he, he's not gonna survive, you know, maybe he'll go somewhere else and play well, but It came down to Gritzeer pitching, and they, they went with pitching.
I, I'm gonna also just.
Close this by saying, couple more moves, a little more urgency they could show.
Unfortunate for YES Network that they picked a picture of Carlos LaGrande when they put the graphic up yesterday, but Giovanni Cruz made the three-man updating the farm.
He, he's got an 0.69 ERA at Triple-A right now, and I know people wanted to do gotcha journalism on the whip, but, like, it's 0.77, like, he's also limiting base runners to, to a wild extent.
They need to see , according to Aaron Boone, they need to see him get better at holding runners on, and that is crucial, crucial if he's gonna be appearing in high leverage situations for the New York Yankees, uh, and I guess maybe it would help him to put some runners on.
Maybe they'll tell him to intentionally walk people cause these AAA games don't really matter, but.
Middle relief if he comes up for now.
He's not gonna immediately be an 8th inning guy.
No.
If there are people wondering how he's gonna fit in on the roster, like, look at the roster, you, you and Tim Hill going in the 8th inning in Texas, and he did the job, like, Tim Hill's not a setup man.
Brent Hendrick pitches every day.
Brent Hendrick shouldn't pitch every day, Camilo Duval.
In this series, you're the Orioles announcers going, golly, why is the ERA so high?
He looks insane.
I know, uh, but it is.
I mean, that Camilo Duval is another one of those guys that you, you wanna talk about unlucky and what, you know, whether the metrics indicate they'll bounce back or whether the metrics indicate this is just who we have.
Camilo Duval, I think this is just who we have.
Stuff's crazy, sometimes it'll get you through an inning, 123, sometimes he'll.
Two guys give up a 3-run home run.
More often than not, he'll get 2 outs, give up a solo home run, and then leave.
That's just, that's just what he does all the time.
You'll be like, man, 1 on 1 with a cut, how does anyone hit this?
Oh, that guy hit it, cool, it's gone.
You, you gotta put him in with a 2-run cushion at least, not an eighth inning guy, they don't have one.
Fernando Cruz is your jam, dude.
Brent Hedrick is your second-best reliever right now.
So, maybe if they called up Giovanni Cruz.
He would fit there eventually.
Maybe Ryan Weathers becomes someone you can use in that situation.
Maybe Elmer Rodriguez becomes someone you can use in that situation.
I don't know how it's gonna unfold.
All I know is that I'm not terribly worried about him holding runners on, given that, I, I think they're gonna be using him in the 6th or 7th, or maybe with a 4 or 5-run cushion or 4 or 5-run deficit if they were to bring him up and bring him in.
So, I'm on board with just, hey.
I, I don't know, I'm not expecting a miracle worker, but, like, bring him up, bring him in now, what are we doing?
Uh, so, yeah, what are we doing?
It's time.
Yeah, what, uh, I mean, the bullpen honestly hasn't been under a magnifying glass because of.
The, the run production.
So, we haven't been, you know, shitting our pants as much.
Um, but if you look at, you know, the decisions that are coming down the pipeline, there's, there's stuff here, right?
Like, there's Jake Bird, who gave up another inherited runner, uh, I think it was this weekend.
Uh, I, I don't know , uh, Whether you like him or not, I don't know.
The Yankees have, um, the Yankees are optimistic about his stuff.
Maybe he's just kind of, uh, a promising guy for Like the last , one of the last arms in the bullpen that you can yo yo between AAA and the big leagues, like maybe that's what the Yankees wanted, and that, and that's the, the ceiling for Jake Bird.
I, I don't know.
Um, but you look at the rest of this bullpen, like, again, Ryan Yarborough, not really a factor, Paul Blackburn, mostly in garbage time.
Um, Brent Hedrick, who is really good, but we have to have the conversation of how long are you gonna be here, buddy.
He's being used every day, and he has pitched in, I believe, a combined 75 innings over the last two years, so he's not even averaged 40 a year.
And he's essential to the operation.
He's the only guy you trust.
I mean, Tim Hill you trust, like an uncle with a warm handshake and a cigarette, but I don't want Tim Hill with 2nd and 3rd, no outs in a one-run game, if I, if I can avoid it.
Yeah.
Um, you have Elmer Rodriguez, who's gonna get optioned.
Um, you have, uh, I, I, the the Duval conversation is not gonna go away until he posts like 4 or 5 scoreless outings, and I don't know if he's capable of that.
So, as you can see here, there, there are a lot of moving parts and there is, there's flexibility for the Yankees, for example, if they really wanted to bring some more guys in to option a couple of guys, Bird's one of them.
Um, uh, Rodriguez is another, and they have option, they have an option to cut guys loose, like if they don't view Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarborough essential to the operation anymore, like, they're gone.
They're making $1 million.02 million dollars a year.
The Yankees just paid a million dollars for Randall Gritz to hang around for 40 days.
Like, these are expendable players, and if they're serious about upgrading the bullpen and like pushing everything back once Gerritt Cole and Carlos Rodan return, then, you know, there's gonna be a lot of interesting decisions to be made, but I, I think Cruz at this point, like, what more does the guy have to prove?
And if you have the flexibility to just bring guys down and bring them back up, like, bring them up, see what he can do.
I think it's time, Jake Bird, you are on notice though, my friend.
Did he do anything else this weekend?
I forgot.
Uh, he finished off one of the games Friday night, I think, he like landed a nasty.
Sweeper and then didn't land one at all.
He, he got us through, yeah, sorry, he gave up an inherited run.
When did he give up the inherited run?
Was it Saturday?
that was on, that was, he pitched Friday and Saturday.
Yeah, yeah, Friday he was better than Saturday, I believe.
Yeah, Friday he went one inning, uh, with a walk and a strikeout.
Saturday, one inning, one hit, one walk.
I assume that he gave up a run.
Saturday they brought him in, they brought him in with the bases loaded for some reason, and he got an immediate double play from Alonso, uh, and then he, it, it was a, it was like a, Yes, no, why inning, where, like, they brought him in and it's like, well, this is gonna be a grand slam, this will be 6-5, and then he gets a double play from Alonso, it's 6-2, and you're like, whoa, epic job by Jake Bird, and then he walked the guy and then he gave up a hit down the line by Basayo, and then he got out of it, so, it ended 6-3.
And it it's the exact ending where you're like, I don't know how to feel about that, like, incredible job with the Pete Alonso thing, and then you created another secondary jam and gave up a a crucial run in a game that I thought was gonna get dicey.
So, uh, he's first man out the door, he landed a couple of nasty sweepers and finishing off Friday's game, but he also flopped a couple of times, got stung by one that he just left over the plate.
It's, it's all over the place from Jake.
Yeah, well, and I mean, look, uh.
That, that gives the Yankees, again, flexibility.
If, if he's not, if he's not able to find a semblance of consistency, I, I don't, bringing him in with the bases loaded is crazy to me, but maybe that's all they had for personnel-wise.
But again, if he can't find the consistency, he'll, he'll be optioned.
The Yankees obviously are not afraid to do that.
They did it a couple of weeks ago.
Um, I guess I'm wondering now, which I will check quickly before we log off here, does Camilo Duval have options?
Whew.
The answer is yes, he has 2.
Yeah, I thought so, um, is that a preferred move?
No, the man's making $6 million this year, but again, if you are trying to win, if you are trying to give as many reps and looks to players who are more deserving than Kamil Duvall, if he does not perform consistently for the next 1 month or 2 months, then something's gotta be done there.
1.08 whip and 6.75 ERA.
Uh, what an experience it's been with Camila Doval.
Uh, and what an experience it's been with you all.
Appreciate you joining us for both a John Sterling tribute.
Uh, that we did not, you know, nobody wanted to do that today, but of course, we had to, and, uh, you know, John and Susan forever.
There will be plenty of great John eulogies going out today, tomorrow in perpetuity, both depressed to hear them and excited to hear them cause it's joyful to hear John Sterling.
Uh, thank you for joining us in the comments.
Again, decision may be coming on Paul Goldschmidt this summer, that's a good call.
I was just thinking about this yesterday, how I wish there were an option where they could just bring Paul Goldschmidt into the room and be like, Gonna have to release you, but how about this, how about you retire right now and stick around as a coach?
Hang out with us.
Yeah, I don't wanna lose him from the locker room, and I also don't know if he would wanna resume his career if the Yankees cut him loose, and I would be willing to bet that he would not, unless Arizona came calling or unless the Cardinals stay in a playoff race, and he can go somewhere where there's familiarity, but I highly doubt he would just be like, so long, guys, I'm gonna be a Detroit Tiger.
I feel like he will just.
Fade out and then send the one year too late farewell message like DJ LeMayhew.
So, if it doesn't pick up, I wonder if they could just be like, we got a spot for you on the bench.
Bench coach adjacent, thank you for sticking it out.
You know, we'll see you tomorrow, but you're not on the team anymore and you're not an active baseball player.
Maybe, um, but not at that point yet, still has value at some juncture, I hope.
Big hit yesterday, big blooper.
Um, I'm Adam Weiner, you can find me on Twitter at Adam Weiner.
We will be back on the podcast on Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
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We appreciate you guys tuning in and listening and reading, as always, Thursday, new podcast.
Let's go for the series sweep today.
I hate the Orioles, dude, they suck.
Team sucks.
Yeah, they, they kinda suck.
And Shane Boz today, who like, That's one that's gonna bother me for a while, the fact that everybody ganged up to tell me that that was a genius extension and, and a genius trade, like, when I've seen Shane Boz pitch for several years now and it's like, the same occasional 6 shutout innings, more often than not, 4 innings, 3 runs, 8 K's, 2 walks, 3 walks, and I'm like, you know, I've seen it, so maybe somebody figures it out, but the Orioles haven't done much figuring it out on the pitching side lately, and Even Trevor Rodgers has been bad this year and is now on the IL with a bad illness or whatnot, so, they unlocked one guy and he then relocked himself in an airplane bathroom, and so, maybe Shane Boz gets it together, but it feels like if you leave the Rays and you still haven't been fully unlocked yet, then what are we doing here?
Um, but nonetheless, the Orioles traded 4 prospects for him and then paid him, and everyone was like, great move, great move, live arm, electric, maybe.
And maybe he's great tonight, but I still don't have a lot of faith in him being a real difference maker in the short and long term, but we'll see it tonight.
I would love for the Yankees to sweep, it would make me feel good, but I also did like their 3 wins over the weekend, that also made me feel good.
So here's to feeling good all the time.
Like Kramer said, Duret in his, um, we will catch you on Thursday, catch you on the website in the interim, and rest in peace, John Sterling, the Yankees win.
Rest in peace.
