Yankees Trade Deadline Thoughts, Max Fried Dominates Heading Into Pivotal Off Day
Adam Weinrib and Thomas Carannante discuss Fried's brilliance, why the offense remains the biggest concern despite outstanding pitching, Thomas' aggressive vision for a franchise-altering deadline centered around Zach Neto, whether Mason Miller is truly worth the Yankees' top prospects, Spencer Jones' growing MLB case, and the latest trade rumors around Kevin Gausman, Aroldis Chapman, and the rest of the league.
Video Transcript
Welcome to the Yankee Schoolyard podcast.
I'm Adam Winer, alongside Thomas Carignan.
Today, we root for a baseball team that's won seven of their last 10 games.
What?
They don't hit at all.
What?
The starter's ERA is kind of up and down.
Ryan Weather is giving you five earned runs every day.
Will Warren, the closer now, can't close out a game.
Surely they must be facing these terrible offenses.
N- it's, it's the Nationals, number one in runs scored in the NL.
It's the Pirates, number two in runs scored in the NL.
It's the Dodgers.
They just went seven and three against those teams.
So the Yankees are good then, right?
They're like back on track.
A- are you watching these games?
The offense is exasperating.
There was a reason they ranked towards the bottom in WRC+ for the last two months.
Things need to change.
The trade deadline is coming.
It This is an odd time to be a Yankee fan watching this team, and not just because the Boston Red Sox won 15 straight games heading into last night.
They lost yesterday, by the way.
Sellers?
Deadline sellers?
Feels like it.
Eh, cash in Chapman and Sonny Gray.
Losers, if you ask me.
But yesterday, a strange day.
Two games, another double header.
Double header Sunday, double header Wednesday.
The Yankees split both.
Yankees won the night game in both after losing the day game.
The Yankees got exactly what they needed to see from Max Freed yesterday, who deserves his own podcast segment, and he's gonna get it, but the Yankees had a horrendous showing from the offense twice.
They won last night's game because of the unsung bullpen heroes.
They also got a clutch Ben Rice home run in the first game that forced them to use the key members of the bullpen in the first game, and kind of screwed them for the second game.
They overcame that, thankfully, and took home the dub.
The bullpen, this is why, again, weird time.
We all know we need more swing and miss in the bullpen.
We all know we have dead weight in the bullpen.
We all know the trade deadline's important for the bullpen.
And quietly in the last like, three weeks, the trust tree has expanded from just three guys to kind of five in Paul Blackburn, who definitely belongs there, and Angel Chavez, who's taken the sixth inning in a bunch of close games lately and shut it down.
So like, I'm gonna say 4.5 on my end.
You may disagree, and also Fernando Cruz may be dropping out of that trust tree, but it's a really weird time to be watching this team.
And now they go on the road to Philly, and they go on the road to Chicago, White Sox and Cubs.
That's a full week in Chicago.
How fat will they get?
How much Chicago food will they consume?
Will they, you know, try the culinary Will they try maybe some five-star restaurants?
Maybe Charlie Trotter's.
I don't think that's open anymore.
Or are they just gonna do straight grease bombs?
I mean, that's up to them.
They gotta control their BMIs in Chicago for that long.
I don't know how the Cubs and White Sox do it, doing their home games there.
But, here come the Yankees.
The schedule doesn't lighten up at all.
They are pitching exceptionally well for the most part against really good offenses, and they aren't hitting worth shit.
So we've got some trade deadline thoughts.
Thomas, you have a trade deadline plan, and the annoying part about the trade deadline plan is it involves some slam dunk wins, some things that you, you're just like, "If they do that, they'll get better."
But then you look at it and you sort of go, "Oh, well, you know, at the end of this, the, the Red Sox and our rivals are probably gonna do these things, and we're gonna be more content to rest on our laurels."
But we'll talk about these games first.
We'll talk about the controversial ending last night.
We'll talk about the Yankees taking two out of three in a series where like, last night's game should technically probably be still going.
But it's not, and the Yankees won, and seven-three in their last 10.
Can't argue with results.
Can't argue with process, and that's why we have a podcast.
Yeah.
I like this team.
I don't love this team, and I think that that's fair, and I'm not gonna be I'm not an anti-Yankees guy.
I'm not, coming on every one of these episodes and writing every single article, in opposition to what they're doing.
But there is a lot of There's a lot that still needs to get better, and I think it goes to your point that you're talking about the bullpen right, right off the jump.
What matters for New York?
The postseason matters for New York.
Is Paul Blackburn a seventh inning guy in the postseason for New York?
I, I just don't think so.
He could be, but is that really where, where you wanna I- is that the risk you wanna take when October rolls around?
I don't know.
For me, I mean, I know.
For me it's, it's no.
But for the grand plan, it, it, it could.
I don't know.
For the Yankees in general, I don't think there's ever been any doubt that this team can win regular season games.
We've seen them do it for the better part of our entire life, and the modern Yankees typically do win a lot of regular season games, and then they flame out in the postseason.
So for everybody out there who is trying to paint a rosier picture because the Yankees are able to succeed in this manner without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, Max Freed who just came back yesterday, I think that there is a, a, a number of positives to take away from how they've generally been able to perform outside of that 5 and 15 stretch.
But are they getting enough contributions from the supporting cast members to forecast something later down the road when the Yankees lineup potentially gets healthier?
I, I'm not so sure.
I think the offense is still stagnant.
I think that the star caliber players who are a tier below, in theory, Judge and Stanton, are not carrying their weight and doing what they need to do, outside of essentially Ben Rice, who, did not earn that billing until this, really this year.
So I Th- th- they need to do a lot of work at the trade deadline.
We're gonna talk about that, and I think this Pirates series kind of encapsulates a lot of things.
First of all, you barely edge by the Pirates.
Even in the first night when you get f- four runs in the first inning, Ryan Weathers gives it all back, and then it's a ping-ponging effort.
And you still need David Bednar to close it out w- with his best efforts.
Um- The five game where every run was scored before the fourth inning is not normal.
Yeah.
This is not normal.
That was not normal.
No.
No.
And they had a You know, they had more opportunity to stack runs.
They didn't Game, the double header.
First, game of the double header yesterday, extra innings nonsense.
Gerrit Cole home run was.
I'm not I have no issue with how Gerrit Cole's been performing this year.
I think it's overall been great, but, when you're asking your pitchers to essentially be perfect with a razor thin margin for error, th- this is what happens, and this is what the Yankees are doing.
So, and then you look at- This is, this is annoying, but, you know, yesterday, the Gerrit Cole game, he pitched well enough to win.
He was brilliant.
He struck out 11.
Yeah.
They didn't win, and you'd much rather they go down three-nothing than have to fight that out- Yes in extra innings, 'cause then you lose the whole bullpen for the second game.
And pessimistic Yankee fan in me pops in.
I can't have been the only one who n- we know, we just talked about this with Cole against Max Muncy.
When they opt for theatrics, they usually face plant, get their asses kicked, and get the rest of the Like, even the Cam Schlitter quote that's going around now when he was like, "The Red Sox," I don't know why they're talking from their position in the standings, and now the Red Sox are closing that gap in the standings- Yeah and now that's gonna come back to haunt him.
I mean, it's on him and the rest of the team to make sure it doesn't.
But that's theatrics, that's a big swing, and now you're having people throw that back at you.
Yesterday, when they announced Fried as a surprise, put out the photo of Cole and Fried in the dugout and say, "These are your pitching probables for the double head By the way, you thought we had a bullpen game?
No, it's Max Fried, bitch.
Like, his rehab start is tonight at Yankee Stadium."
My first thought is, "Oh, so they're gonna get swept in this double header obviously."
After the Max Muncy, like, "We're taking my ace out, or actually am I?
No, he stays in," and then immediately gives up the home run.
It felt the same to me.
And when they lose the first game the way they did s- you know, s- using the entire bullpen, rotting the flesh so that they have to go to Will Warren in the closer spot last night, I was like, "All right, so obviously this is how this transpires," and we shouldn't take these big swings.
But Max Fried was so good, and they got saved by a lot of stuff last night, thank God.
Well, that's the point I was gonna make.
They needed Max Fried to literally be perfect.
Max Fried was on a 60 pitch limit.
He went 57 pitches in five innings, struck out seven batters, didn't give up a run.
If Max Fried gives up a conservative two runs against a good offense in his first start back since May 13th, the Yankees more than likely lose this game- Yeah based on the position that they might have been put in if they had to dig out of a hole.
So that's where, that's where I am appreciative of this group of starting pitchers, and am grateful for the talent that they possess.
But again, you cannot play this tightrope game down the stretch and into the postseason over and over and over again.
The starting pitching, as we saw last year, broke down a little bit in the playoffs.
Max Fried, Carlos Rodon got shelled.
You need an offense that's going to punch back and say, "You know what?
Our starter gave up three, three runs, four runs in the first two innings.
Fuck it.
We're putting up a five."
And they don't do that.
And they, and, and that's, that's the issue.
So, again, I, I believe in the longevity of this team being able to last throughout the regular season, potentially win this division, and get favorable playoff seeding.
But in, in my honest opinion, th- they are going to need home field advantage, and they're gonna need the chips to fall in the right place for them, and that goes with Aaron Judge's injury, Giancarlo Stanton's injury, and then trade deadline performance.
But in this one, Pirate series, on top of the razor thin margin for error in essentially in all of these games, we had controversy.
We have Jose Caballero pitch clock controversy, which I, I'm not understanding.
Maybe, maybe anybody in the chat here can, can, can give us some insight.
And then you have- I mean, this is definition Yankees bias.
Like, we'll tell you.
Yeah.
100%.
It just, it literally is.
It's one guy bias.
Yeah.
It's, they're angry at a man.
Yeah.
And then you have Ryan O'Hearn, probably safe last night after that replay review.
So I- Yeah, he's safe.
Yeah, I, I don't know, maybe that was, a nice little kickback from MLB after the Caballero stuff.
But, again, you look at that last night, if the replay doesn't go in the Yankees fashion, in, in the Yankees advantage, th- they lose that game maybe.
Marcelo Zun is coming up at the bases loaded, with Tim Hill on the mound, and Tim Hill hasn't really been great.
Will Warren gets the first two out.
That, Will Warren comes in as a closer, which, hello, how about that for either pre-trade deadline or later down the road, for the Yankees planning.
Comes in, gets the first two outs, and then runners on first and second immediately because he can't shut the door.
So yes, again, happy they won, but you look at everything leading up to it.
They had a call go their way.
They had i- insane starting pitching, and assistance from the bullpen, right after Fried's outing, and they needed essentially things to be perfect to win the game.
But let's go back to Caballero, because in the first Well, we had the benches clear on Monday because Dennis Santana got pissed off- Yeah at Jose Caballero.
Um- Former Yankee- Yeah and guy who fought someone in the bullpen in Detroit last year, Dennis Santana.
Not a clean bill of health there, but he didn't like Caballero's antics.
Nobody does.
Nobody does.
The point of them is that pitchers are not supposed to like it.
So there you go.
Yeah.
There's another guy who doesn't like it.
Yeah, and I think that, you know, the Blue Jays cried about this.
Did the Orioles cry about this earlier this year?
I forgot who.
There was another team.
It's everybody's favorite thing to cry about.
Yeah.
And like, is it It can't be fun for the opposing pitcher.
I'm sorry we didn't roll out a pillow and a blanket for the opposing pitcher here.
It's also, like, the tiniest annoyance of all time.
Yeah.
Like, it, it's a guy who read the rule book and who came up with a very frustrating tactic that doesn't seem to be moving the needle in either direction really.
No.
Like, there aren't any pitchers who are blowing games against Jose Caballero and then screaming at the heavens like, "Pitch clock," and Jose Caballero is hitting, like, 212 So- Yeah does he need to be doing this?
You know, that's up for debate.
Is Jose Caballero a starter caliber player on a World Series championship team?
Probably not.
Is he better than Anthony Volpe?
He probably is.
I got so annoyed again at Anthony Volpe last night, who ultimately hit a big single, big insurance run, just because I'm watching the game and it hit me again that the problem isn't that he's bad, the problem is that he's equally bad every year.
He has the same season every year, just like- Yeah the Yankees have in 2023, '24, '25, and '26 when Volpe's been on the team.
Yep.
And it just sort of hit me looking at the stats being like, "This is insane.
This guy is doing this again."
Yeah.
And this guy's misplay is starting the seventh again.
Yep.
How is it possible that it's identical?
So Caballero right now is your starter.
The George Lombard conversation I expect people to bring up in the comments.
We can probably touch- Yeah on it a little bit when we talk about the trade deadline packages.
But he's your starter right now.
He's got an an- he's less than ideal as a starter, and he's got an annoying tick that is within the MLB rules, and that's really as far as this needed to go.
And somehow then yesterday Major League Baseball decided we're so annoyed by this we're not changing the rule, we're just saying that you can't do this thing anymore.
Which- Yeah is biased against the Yankees.
It doesn't matter.
It's not like they're not saying you aren't allowed to have home field advantage 'cause you're too good or like giving a competitive advantage.
It just literally is them being like, "We've seen a guy on the Yankees do this too much and it's starting to piss us off and we have to talk about it.
So guess what?
You can't do it anymore."
Are we gonna rewrite the rule book?
No.
No.
You're just gonna We're gonna tell you that you're, you can't do something that is legal 'cause we don't like you , which is very cool.
Yeah, I don't lo- And the, the issue that I have with it is that, Well, the, the rule bo- Well, first of all, we learned after the game yesterday that the chi- the crew chief, said that the umpires were instructed to not issue a warning to Caballero and instead to issue a violation to him immediately if they felt he broke the pitch clock rules.
So what are the pitch clock rules?
The hitter has to engage with the pitcher with eight seconds remaining on the pitch clock.
Mm-hmm.
And the hitter cannot be doing anything overly or noticeably deceitful to throw the pitcher off their timing, their rhythm, whatever it is.
So Caballero is merely waiting until the eight second mark to engage.
There is He's not making any movements in the batter's box.
He's not doing anything like abrupt or, you know, uncharacteristically bizarre.
He's just standing there waiting to engage with the pitcher when there's eight minutes, eight seconds left on the clock.
And the umpires apparently all year, because there's been multiple instances of there being an argument, have I think just subjectively viewed this as like whether they're impatient or not, they're like, "Oh, this is, this is a distraction.
This is deceitful.
I'm ruling that this is, this is a sh- automatic strike."
When in reality that's where you kind of can't have a gray area with how the umpire is going to rule on it, because how are you gonna leave a subjective call up to, you know, 30 plus, you know, 50 plus different umpires?
It makes no sense.
And again, I think the larger point that we need to understand here is that Caballero has been doing this since the day the pitch clock came to Major League Baseball.
There is video evidence of him doing this as a member of the Did you know he played for the Mariners?
I bet some Yankee fans have no idea he played for the Mariners.
He was on the Mariners.
Aaron Boone did.
Yeah, finger-wagging Cole was against Jose Caballero.
Yeah.
He hated him too.
And guess what?
You're allowed to hate it.
I think that's the, the overarching theme here is that's his strategy.
The hitter should have some sort of advantage with the pitch clock.
'Cause also let's not forget, the second the hitter engages with the pitcher, the pitcher is allowed to take all the fucking time he wants.
They can engage at 12 seconds, the pitcher can stand there for 12 seconds before delivering the pitch.
And that was something that I had noticed earlier in the year.
I forgot who it was.
Kevin Gausman might have did it to us a few times- Ah, yeah where I'm just like, "What-" He hates this stuff.
Yeah.
"Well, why is he standing there?
There's, there, there's nine seconds left.
Just, throw the ball."
and I didn't think much of it because I was like, "It's the pitch clock.
This is the rule.
It is what it is.
Like, if you wanna be annoying, be annoying, whatever."
And then Boone mentioned it on Talking Yanks yesterday where he was saying there's been plenty of pitchers this year who run the clock down from 10 seconds, and after the hitters engage with them and they wait and throw the hitter off of, you know, their timing because everybody has their, their little ticks and quirks when they're lining up in the batter's box with their leg kick and their hand adjustments and the bat wagging or whatever it is.
So that's where it's like, okay, so the pitch clock only exists to benefit pitchers.
The pitchers can control and dictate the pacing of the game, and the hitters have absolutely no say over it.
So Caballero, I mean, I, a- again, it's not rocket science.
Every hitter can do this.
It's not a loophole, it's nothing.
The rules just state the hitter must engage with the pitcher with eight seconds remaining, and yesterday Caballero engaged with nine seconds remaining, and he was told that he, quote, "Can't wait three or four seconds anymore."
That's what the umpire- Yeah said to him.
And there was no other explanation beyond that.
He just said, "You aren't, y- you are not doing this anymore."
and that is, that's not what the rule says.
The rule says you, you can wait as long as you want.
If you engage with the pitcher at 16 seconds, you can Or, I'm sorry, if you step into the batter's box at 16 seconds, you can wait to engage with the pitcher for another eight seconds.
That's just what the rule states.
So, it's clear Yankees bias because this was never re- this was never a league-wide issue until Caballero arrived at the, after, you know, probably a few weeks after the trade deadline last year.
Um- And there, there's no reason this should be national news.
Like the Blue Jays complaining about it is what it is.
Like, you guys are fucking 10 games under 500, no one cares what you think.
Any other pitcher- Yeah who, any other pitcher or manager who takes acceptin- exception to this is just, they're not playing the game.
They, they, they're trying to, they're, they're trying to disrupt the opposition with an argument that is, i- in my opinion, futile.
Have MLB change the rule, great.
They're, they, they can do that, but, right now, is, if, if we're leaving this up to subjectivity to umpires and MLB is trying to just stifle the hitter's ability to wait for the clock longer, i- i- it's clear that the fact that they waited three years to address, or this 2023, 2024, this is now the fourth year that it's happening, I, it doesn't make any sense to me.
No.
And it's like, again, it happens every time Jose Caballero plays a baseball game.
Mm-hmm.
And it's not, I can't believe i- only the Yankees, only us, we would have to do constant discourse on which not good enough shortstop is better, which we do every Volpe v Caballero.
Neither is an MLB starter at this point, but we still have to do that.
And now we have to do like, is it illegal for the last man in our roster to be annoying?
Like, i- it isn't.
And, and he's being targeted because he's a, a pest and is the juice worth the squeeze?
Like, I, I mean, I've, I've enjoyed Caballero more than I've hated on him.
I don't think his talent is accurately reflected by his statistics.
And then people will throw that back at me and be like, "Well then, what, what, what reflects it, my man?"
Because statistics are the only thing that exist.
They're counting numbers to show his impact.
And you're correct on that.
Again, he is not If you ask me, can the New York Yankees win a World Series with Jose Caballero installed as the de facto starting shortstop for almost every game of a World Series run?
I don't think that's good enough, especially given the rest.
It's like you can hide him, you can, you can have a light-hitting shortstop who plays fun defense and is a little annoying if you have eight studs- Yeah and the Yankees don't.
Right now they can go out and get some studs at the trade deadline, and then that equation changes, and then you can win with Jose Caballero as your starter.
But right now we're talking about a controversial player who isn't quite good enough, but this is the pl- point in the season we're at.
And the league has decided that this is the point in the season we're at, because they decided that it's too much of opposing Opposing pitchers are too bothered by him- Yeah that they now had to step in and be like, "Actually, the rule we constructed that he's taking advantage of, it doesn't apply to him."
Anyone else can do, if you can figure out some other stuff to do, anyone else can do it, but if people start yelling at Jose Caballero, it's Jose Caballero's fault.
Which, again, not my favorite Yankee.
No.
But objectively, objectively MLB is looking like, "This Yankee's bothering too many people.
Tell him to shut up."
That's what's happening.
And I don't see that much focus being placed on other creativity throughout the league.
Which is why, again, like you said, this, last night might be the first time the replay rules have ever worked as written in our favor, but the rule as written was used against Jose Caballero.
Yeah.
So yesterday they took the rule in the MLB rule book and said, "That doesn't apply to you though, because we're bored of you."
And then thankfully, to end the game, they took the rule as written in the MLB rule book, you need clear and concrete evidence to overturn a call on the field, and thank the first base umpire who botched two of these yesterday.
He botched the Volpe one that got overturned blatantly to start the seventh inning rally that Paul Blackburn extinguished.
And then he botched the final out of the game.
But not as much as Jazz Chisholm botched it, because Jazz Chisholm had the final out of the game in his glove and took a step sideways and then took a half step towards first base and then double-clutched with the ball in the weird hand and then sort of looped it to first, and it got there late.
It got there late.
Ryan O'Hearn was safe.
He beat it out.
But because the call on the field was out, and because there really is no clear and concrete evid- You ask me with truth serum, I tell you I think he's safe.
Yeah.
You ask me without truth serum, because I'm on the podcast right now and I don't have any truth serum, I tell you I think he was safe.
But it's the one instance where people were posting screenshots last night, Pirates fans, to be like, "Yeah, replay, out.
Right."
But the screenshots they were posting had the ball in the glove.
It was, you couldn't overturn it.
And it's just like it's, it- That's the, that- This is so close, even via screenshot, that you can't overturn it.
Yeah.
Yeah, the, the, the moral of the story was that the, it's one of those things where the ruling on the field, again, was not confirmed.
It stood, because there was I, I don't I, I guess if I'm sitting there trying to make the call, I, I, I would've said he was safe, because I don't think the ball was fully in the glove.
But I, then you're talking about- Yeah semantics at that.
Like, the, the, i- it's Then you're getting too technical with the ruling, like if the ball is touching the leather or not.
And I don't think there's an in-glove view.
Yeah.
Like, I think a smart first baseman closes the glove as soon as he possibly can- Mm-hmm so that you can't even on slow-mo replay see how- Yeah far into the glove the ball is.
Yeah, but I, and, and that was, that was one of those things where you got lucky that the umpire made the call that the wa- the way that he did.
So I don't know.
But yeah, again, I mean, Jazz, what are you doing?
It's a, it's a tale of two seasons where he's either saving the Yankees' ass or doing something that is just like, come on, dude.
Um- The crazy pop out catch he made in the Dodgers game right before he hit a two- Yeah.
Oh, God when it was run two.
And like, are we, are we on Earth?
Yeah.
Are we, are you out of your mind?
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, the, th- this Pirates series I think was fun.
It had a good amount of controversy.
We had the benches clear.
We had, hot mics on that, Caballero-Boone umpire situation.
Last night was I think a little bit nerve-wracking, but at least it added some entertainment value.
Yeah, let's not forget, you wanna compare Volpe and Cab- not you, but like people still, people still arguing about this.
Like, I don't even understand why.
People wanna argue about Volpe, Caballero.
Volpe makes an error in the seventh- And then doesn't scoop the ball from Ollie Sanchez on the stolen base attempt.
So his run, the runner that should have been out was Volpe's responsibility, goes, gets to first- Yeah and then goes to second, which is not his fault, but then goes to third because that's his fault.
So he's lucky he got the single to put the Yankees up by two, which kind of changed the dynamic of the game.
But that's the impact that he makes.
And I keep seeing this.
I keep seeing this.
I don't know why.
Everyone is talking about Anthony Volpe's base running value, which is, sure, okay, great.
You wanna talk about his base running value?
That's awesome.
He has not stolen a base in a month.
The last time he stole a base was a calendar month from yesterday.
So I don't under- what is the base running value?
He has 18 runs scored on the season.
I, I wi- he, I would love to see the, the, the taken extra base stats too.
He wears two mitts on his hands, and he still slides feet first.
His base running is not good.
And if you wanna talk about Caballero, like yeah, Caballero, no one The, the biggest discussion we had at the beginning of this year with Volpe and Caballero was that some Yankees fans were overrating Caballero because of how, average he is compared to Volpe, who Volpe is typically taking- Just despise Volpe, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Despise Volpe, or again, Volpe does a lot of detrimental things in game that kill the Yankees, whether it's not moving the runner over, whether it's the horrid, two outs with runners in scoring position stats, whether it's the shaky defense, whether it's the inability to take the extra base or actually steal or whatever it might be.
Caballero is seven RBIs away from matching a career high, and he's only played 87 games.
He ma- he has 44 career RBI in 139 games with the Rays two years ago.
So he's, he's driving in ru- he got a clutch two run double in the first game of the series to, that, that changed the entire game.
He single-handedly won a game against the Rays a couple weeks ago with his two home run effort.
Anthony Volpe never does that.
He's literally never done Anthony Volpe has never had a game where he was, he was the, the, he was the offensive generator, where he, "Oh, if we didn't have Anthony Volpe that game, we don't win that game."
It has never happened.
So there's differences in terms of the between the lines in the game.
Yeah, if you look at the stats and you just go based on baseball reference or like cherry pick your baseball savant stats, I totally agree with you.
They're, they're almost the same player.
But that's not how baseball is viewed.
Caballero makes, Caballero has 23 stolen bases this year in 87 games.
Volpe has seven, and Volpe, again, is supposed to steal.
Volpe has seven in 48 games.
It, it, Caballero has three times the amount of stolen bases in less than double the games.
Y- th- you're not gonna tell me that Anthony Volpe is more impactful than Jose Caballero in any single way.
And I, I, I, Caballero, full disclosure, is a bench player.
He is my first guy off the bench if I am managing a baseball team.
That's, that's what he's doing.
I like the edge.
I like the fact that he, tries to be annoying and likes to be a disruptor and it d- like, ha- goes all out with his effort on the baseball field.
Like, I think that's something else, that maybe is not factored in here.
I know Anthony Volpe works hard too, but, I think Caballero's o- overall just baseball demeanor comes out a lot stronger.
And at this point we've just, we've reached the juncture where you can no longer just say, "Oh, well look at the OPS and look at the OAA and, and look at the base running value."
It's j- it's not that anymore.
For me, the Volpe thing is a Gary Sanchez thing, where it's like sometimes the Yankees let talented players go, and I'm like, "Man, if they figure it out on their new team, I'm gonna be so mad."
Gary Sanchez, I was like, "If he figures it out somewhere else, great, I don't care.
He has to leave."
Yeah.
And Volpe, it's the same thing.
If Volpe becomes an all-star on the Texas Rangers, great.
I did it for four years.
It, it'll be mildly annoying, but like great, gotta go.
Gotta get somebody who is, is different than that.
Yeah.
Anybody.
That somebody could easily be George Lombard Jr. Who the buzz is that they are considering his promotion now.
Now would be a nice time for that to be tested.
I just feel like, and well, this, this feeds into the trade deadline, it also just feeds into the larger conversation.
'Cause now we're heading to Philly, we're heading to Chicago.
These are good teams, not great teams across the board.
White Sox are one of the best teams in the American League, but the American League is bad.
The Cubs are a really streaky team.
If you want hope that the Red Sox lo- you know, winning streak will be lost to history, they had a 15 game winning streak.
Couldn't get that history making 16th though.
Tough break.
Ooh, that's gotta eat at you.
You know, you were just so excited for three weeks about 15, but y- that 16's actually really important.
So in a way, you failed tremendously.
The Yankees going seven and three with this roster and this offense is actually more impressive than the Red Sox winning 15 in a row, according to science.
But, that got busted.
They face the Blue Jays this weekend.
That's fun.
Either the Red Sox or Blue Jays lose every day.
No problem.
No playoff for Blue Jays.
Easy.
Vindicated, by the way.
Again, I'm just taking a left turn, but, we were so anti Dalton Varsho trade on this podcast.
And by we, I think I mean me mostly.
Like, I was very anti Dalton Varsho being a difference maker.
And then last year the Blue Jays made the World Series and were like an inch away from winning it, and Dalton Varsho had a chance to win the World Series with the sack fly in game seven, but he grounded out.
And now Dalton Varsho's having a terrible year offensively and defensively in his walk year, and Blue Jays fans have turned on him.
And so now I ask the question, which was my question all along, are you better, do you have a better chance to win the World Series with Dalton Varsho and Alejandro Kirk behind the plate?
Or Gabriel Moreno behind the plate, who they traded for Varsho, and re-signing Teoscar Hernndez, who they let go to bring Varsho in?
And Twitter told me better chance with Teoscar and Gabriel Moreno yesterday.
So- Shout out to that take, which has aged well, then really poorly, and then pretty damn well now.
Vindicated, Dashboard Confessional.
Anyway, to the trade deadline, I would make changes now.
These are teams- Yeah these are good teams, but also winnable games on your schedule.
Phillies, good, not great.
White Sox, division leader, but far from perfect.
Cubs, two 10-game winning streaks this year.
That's what, that was the Red Sox point.
Now I'm back.
The Cubs have two separate 10-game winning streaks, but they're still the number one wildcard team, they're still pretty good.
Not, there's no pitching.
There's Colin Ray and David Peterson and Jameson Taillon.
It's crazy.
And they're, I mean, they're incredibly injured and the rotation's falling apart.
So the Yankees have a chance.
Obviously they're walking into two tough r- three tough road environments.
They're facing good solid teams, all three playoff teams right now.
But all three teams that should be in the Yankees league.
Except for the Yankees offense is in a horrible spot.
So that's why today was smelling a little bit to me like And this would've been more the case if they had lost last night instead of won last night.
But remember when the Mets beat them a couple years ago in 2022 when they were just dead in the water, and then 12 minutes after the game, Jack Curry was like, "The Yankees are trading for Andrew Benintendi, by the way."
That felt like today to me, and now we're on the show and nothing has happened yet, and I thought we might be talking about something, and we're still just speculating.
'Cause Spencer Jones is in the lineup yesterday batting third as the 27th man in the double header.
And it kind of felt like a last, like, "Eh, you know this guy Spencer Jones who we're floating.
You know, he can bat third.
You know, you ever think about that?
That could be interesting to you as a secondary piece."
Whether it's Lombard Jr or like, look, Tyler Hardman is, has 20 plus homers and a 900 OPS, is crushing at triple A.
Like, you can't tell me he's a little more interesting than Ahmed Rosario right now.
Can't we, can't we find some 40-man roster room and, and maybe a DFA?
Camilo Doval had a, could've been called on in the ninth inning of a two-run game with a depleted bullpen yesterday, but they brought in a starter.
And not just a starter, they brought in Friday's starter.
He was supposed to pitch Friday's game, and they moved the rotation around after the off day to accommodate Will Warren closing yesterday 'cause they didn't wanna bring Camilo Doval in.
Jake Bird's not coming back before the trade deadline.
I don't think you'll see Camilo Doval in a game that matters whatsoever before the trade deadline, so there are roster spots to play with.
The time for change is now.
I see the chat blowing up about it's gonna be Jeffers and Kirby Yates and some assorted garbage.
Kirby Yates is a possibility.
Jeffers would be great.
But you sort of have a bigger ideal deadline plan, and you're ready to kind of go for it and, and I know your man Zach Neto is front and center here.
Yeah, I mean, I don't It all depends on what, what your view of this is and what the future of the Yankees looks like.
For me, the future of the Yankees is less of an importance on prospects and more of an importance on the Judge/Cole window.
And I know we're sick of talking about it because it's, it's an unpleasant conversation because Judge and Cole should have a World Series by now.
And it's, it, it, it puts the Yankees in a tough spot because every year it seems like they are remodeling this roster in some capacity, right?
Whether it's the off season or whether it's the trade deadline, nothing is really working.
And I don't know.
I mean, I, I think we can kind of say it, it's just a result of a lot of half measures, right, from Brian Cashman and the front office.
Very rarely is there a cutthroat move or a cutthroat signing, and I think that there, there just consistently is not enough to support Aaron Judge and, you know, a- and Gerrit Cole and the rest of the group.
So they've done a great job with the starting pitching.
I don't think there's any need there.
Even if you have Carlos Rodon here, like, it is what it is.
You, you, you have the luxury.
You, he's your number four starter, great.
Now full disclosure, the Yankees not winning the 2024 World Series is, is squarely on Judge's shoulders.
If Judge has any sort of positive performance there, they win the World Series.
So I'm not gonna fully fault, the, the front office and Aaron Boone for 2024.
But we know that there's moments in between where you play Alex Verdugo every day, you give Anthony Volpe the unlimited run, et cetera, et cetera.
And then you end up where you end up and it's an embarrassing performance.
Some of the reason people stupidly blame Matt Blake for all this stuff too is that- Yeah it's that Cashman and Boone thing where if it's all reclamation projects, then some of them are gonna fail.
So like- Exactly he worked his magic with Hedrick and Angel TV looks like a success story.
But Jake Bird gave up 1,025 OPS last year on the road and 520 something at Coors Field, and he was still like, "I think I'm gonna do that."
And you can't fix that.
That guy's unfixable.
Camilo Doval, the reason he was available is 'cause he's unfixable.
Matt Blake failed twice.
He succeeded with Hedrick, Blackburn, TV.
How many?
Yeah.
Like, Matt Blake is good at his job, but if you could just supplement some of these Matt Blake projects with some home runs- Yeah which is what we're asking for at the trade deadline, it makes it easier.
It takes the pressure off.
Yeah.
And look, a 30% success rate from Matt Blake is a fucking win.
Like, the, you can't How many guys are you gonna bring in that are like, "Well, you gotta reinvent his entire pitch arsenal and we have to figure out a way to give him high leverage innings"?
It's like, what?
That- You have three weeks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, we're bringing him in at the trade deadline and he has to be good by October.
And if you lose a, a game in August, people are gonna be furious with you, so.
Yeah.
So I, I, I think that the Yankees for the, like every year we see Brian Cashman make these deals, right?
He cleans out a portion of the farm system.
It's usually like this middle portion where it's not quite the top five guys, but it's maybe somewhere anywhere between number 6 and 18, and then he clears a path for the next wave of guys coming up that either they believe in or they were recently drafted or they were recently acquired.
Um- And I don't think that that's a bad strategy because you're getting value for guys that, A, you don't think are a fit anymore, or two, are heading to the Rule 5 draft.
So it's a sound strategy.
And again, Brian Cashman is largely good at his job, so I, I know a lot of people criticize him, but the fact of the matter is, is that he's a long tenured executive.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
He just needs to be less conservative.
So be less conservative this year.
Why?
You have a lockout coming up.
We don't know how long it's gonna last.
We don't know what's gonna happen.
You're staring down the barrel of who knows what's wrong with Aaron Judge, right?
I think everybody's being a little bit overly opt- They're like, "Oh, Judge is returning this year, no question."
Like, people on Twitter were telling me that the other day, and I'm like, you don't know that.
We want him to.
I want him back tomorrow.
I hope he's back tomorrow.
I hope they surprise me with an announcement that he's back next week.
It's just, we don't know.
So you're working with that.
Giancarlo Stanton, is he coming back this year?
What if he doesn't come back this year?
Is he gone next year?
Do they figure out a way to just get him off the books?
I don't know.
And then again, you have the aging questions with Gerrit Cole and Max Fried.
So what are you going to do?
My opinion is clean out the entire farm.
You have assets here that people want.
Do you, You can get a Major League ready shortstop right now that can produce at a high level in exchange for George Lombard Jr.
So why would you not do that?
Why would you not get a Zach Netto if you can, if, if you can entice the Angels to part with him at that point?
I think the Angels are ma- maybe not gonna be aggressive in blowing everything up, but I think if they get the right offer for a player like that, you have Zach Netto for three more years, two and a half more years or whatever it is, that plays right into the Judge-Cole window.
The goal is to win a contract.
The, the goal is to win a World Series within the last two, three years of th- these contracts because Judge's dip is going to come at some point.
Gerrit Cole just underwent elbow surgery at age, what is he, 35 now?
So it, it's, no one's getting any younger and the situation's not getting any better.
So first of all, see what the Angels, if the Angels will entertain a George Lombard for Zach Netto situation.
You get Zach Netto in there, you figure another team takes on Anthony Volpe's contract, that rids you of a lot of salary obligations.
Go get Shea Langeliers.
I want no part of Hunter Goodman.
I'm sorry if anybody here wants Hunter Goodman.
I want no part of him.
Strikes out a lot, ton of swing and miss.
I, I, I don't think that he's a product of the Rockies environment because he obviously hits better on the road.
But the amount that you're gonna have to surrender to get him because of the cost control, like, team friendly deal and all that, is gonna be way too much.
So go after Shea Langeliers, where the Athletics rejected, or I'm sorry, he rejected a contract extension from the Athletics in the 80 million range.
Clearly there is a disconnect.
The A's are not where they need to be.
The A's need pitching.
Guess what the Yankees have?
A ton of pitching prospects.
Maybe not Major League ready at this point, but enough to, enough to say, "All right, you don't, this guy's not working out for you.
You, you guys are however many games under 500 at this point.
They were 14 last time we talked on this podcast.
Here's, here's two top 10 pitching prospects and a lottery ticket.
Go for it."
I saw a report that Carlos La Granite is apparently untouchable in trade talks.
I don't know to believe that or not.
Nobody should be untouchable.
I think his, his, his elbow's untouchable 'cause it's too swollen.
Yeah.
You can't touch it 'cause it's in too much pain.
Yeah, it's his sho- it's his shoulder, right?
His elbow?
It's his, it's his shoulder.
Yeah, got it.
Yeah, no, it's also, it's also his elbow.
It's also his elbow.
Have you seen this shit going around about, like, Dax Kilby too?
There's like a He's had a hamstring issue all year.
Yeah.
Giancarlo Stanton style.
And there's a guy on Twitter who keeps being like, "I don't know why it's only being announced as a hamstring.
There's a lot more go- going on there."
And people are like, "Okay, then tell us, whiz it," and he just does- doesn't respond.
That's the world we're in right now.
What is it?
I, I don't know.
Stop teasing.
If you have information, tell somebody.
Otherwise, let's move along.
But- Yeah the Yankees farm is horrifically injured, and if the window is now, then okay, these guys can move.
Yeah, and, and look, I think the Ya- don't forget here, I'm not like anti-prospect or anything, but the Yankees just got arguably the steal of the draft in Hunter Deets, and if he progresses in the manner that they believe he is going to, I think he's already, what Baseball America had him at, like number eight in the top 10?
Yeah.
Hold on.
It was, him and Sean- Yeah him and Sean Duncan, the, the second rounder who we paid through the nose to get- Yeah who's recovering from Tommy John.
We're I think eight and nine- Yeah on the new top 30, and, the catcher/center fielder Yeah that I don't understand yet was number 12.
Yeah.
So yeah, really interesting.
Yeah.
So I mean, I, I think Elmer Rodriguez is an asset.
I don't think he's like, he's gonna get, he's not singularly going to get you a one for one or for anything, unless maybe you want a bullpen arm.
But you have George Lombard Jr, Dax Kilby, Elmer Rodriguez, Carlos Cerrone, Ben Hess.
I think Spencer Jones and Jason Dominguez have enough value to, again, build the roster to get you something, but you're not getting, you're not getting a Mason Miller out of that.
Bryce Cunningham, Chase Hampton, Thatcher Hurd, Pico Cohn, Kyle Carr, Kayden Kent, Henry LeLane, all these guy, Brock Selvidge, all these guys have taken nice Jay Savin has been having a good year.
Who was, I just saw a tweet from a guy I never heard of, Xavier Rivas?
Yeah.
Having a good year.
Like I, number 23.
DJ Gladney.
DJ Gladney is hitting bombs at double A. Yeah.
Like, this is a pretty un Like, he just hit his 17th of the year.
Like, DJ Gladney having kind of a, a Dylan Lewis style breakout from last year.
Yeah.
Like their asset farm, and they'll use a lot of it.
Yeah, and I think that they should because I just don't know if, I don't know how much time they have and I don't know what this off-season's going to look like, so why are you gonna box yourself in and say, "Well I-" The lockout's lasting longer than we anticipated.
Trades can't happen.
We don't know what these free agents wanna do, so now you're gonna have an incomplete roster for 2027, and then have uncertainty for then, and then potentially have to do more re- remodeling and reworking at the 2027 deadline, which famously never works out for the Yankees anyway.
So try it this time.
Zach Netto, Shane Langeliers, guess who else is on the block apparently 'cause of rumors?
Not because of rumors, but what rumors have said.
Wandy Peralta.
I d- I think I, I don't think Mason Miller's unattainable.
I think the Padres might trade him.
But again- Mm-hmm that's somebody You can't go after the guys who are going to cost every single top prospect you have at a position that's not giving you daily value.
Zach Netto, Shane Langeliers give you daily value.
If you have to s- if you have to surrender top three prospect for either of them, I, I just think you do it.
You have another two, three years with both of them, that maximizes your window.
G- Wandy Peralta, the Reds gonna be open for business.
You have Brady Singer as a depth starter there.
You have some interesting bullpen arms on that team.
I don't know what you can get or who you can get, but that's another one where I think the Reds might be interested in, you know, one of your top 10 pitching prospects and a couple of other guys for a reliever and Brady Singer.
And that, that's how you patch it up.
Mm-hmm.
You get two right-handed hitters in this lineup that are able to crush lefties in Netto and Langeliers, and that you get a- and you pa- remember, it's patching up areas of the roster that are deplorable right now.
Shortstop, bad production.
Catcher, league worst production.
So if you're getting even any m- minimal upgrades from that, you're in a really good spot.
I think that, that that's the way you go, and then you really have to be careful with the bullpen arms that you go after, 'cause those are gonna be expensive, and that's where you can't be spending, spending top dollar, in terms of prospect capital.
I think there'll be enough available out there.
If you could do a, if you could do a, you know, the, the, the Padres, if they're trading these guys, I don't know how legitimate it's going to be because if they deconstruct the bullpen around Mason Miller, I don't know how much sense that makes for them.
Yeah.
Th- there's Morejon and, and, somebody else is in there I think that was garnering some interest.
It's like how many- Jason Adam is a free agent- Yeah.
Yeah at the end of the year.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, I think so.
How many of these guys are you gonna trade, you know?
Like they're not emptying their entire bullpen.
But either way, there's enough out there where you can make it work.
And yeah, if you trade eight of your top 10 prospects, is it gonna hurt?
Sure.
It's, it's, I mean, it's not ideal, but you're now gonna be well set up for next year.
You'll have the international free agent period to sign some prospects over then, and then you have next year's draft, and you don't have to worry about top prospects taking over positions at the Major League level at that point.
So just go for it now and figure it out later.
And, AJ Preller is insane, so you never know what he's gonna do, which is why- Exactly the, like Mason, the Mason Miller for controllable pitching rumor stuff has Yankees Twitter in a choke hold, 'cause we have controllable pitching, but then, like, that's not the end of the conver- It's not like, "Oh, call it in," you know?
"Will Warren for, Mason Miller, and then we'll, we'll just call that a day."
Like that is g- he'll be in the package, so will Lombard, so will Elmer Rodriguez, maybe Dax, maybe not.
Like you're clearing out a ma- you're giving away a Major League contributor and your number one prospect, or at least you should have to, 'cause Leo DeVries is what it cost last year, and he is a top five prospect in baseball.
So Lombard isn't even that pedigree, but less control of Mason Miller, you can maybe even make the argument that you shouldn't have to give up Lombard because you've lost a year compared to when you gave up DeVries.
I get it.
But it's not just like, "Will Warren, Ryan Weathers ought to do it.
We'll call him in.
We'll send him."
You know, "You guys go west.
We'll bring Mason Miller here."
And also Mason Miller obviously a difference maker.
He's the best closer in baseball.
But it's, that's why it's, it's really hard to obtain a closer, on the trade market.
It's way easier to obtain one using money- Yeah which is why I made the argument the last couple years that when a top tier closer hits the market for money, the Yankees have money.
They shouldn't be that scared to use it, 'cause otherwise you have to use it, you have to use assets to get a closer like Mason Miller.
Instead of, you know, $100 million is like, "Man, should I sign a closer or should I sign a first baseman?"
You don't have a salary cap, so you can sign as many people as you- Yeah need to or want to.
Prospect capital, you have a, there's a cap on the, the ability of you to create prospect capital.
You can build as much depth as you want, but it's not easy to have enough pieces that you can trade away for a Mason Miller and still be okay.
So if I woke up after the trade deadline and Mason Miller was on the Yankees, I'm not like, "Ah, no, no!"
But you know, it's not easy to figure out how to get from here to there, and there are many other issues that the Yankees have to manage.
And adding swing and miss in the bullpen is a priority, but- Yeah not such a priority that it's like, "I think we should gut the farm for Mason Miller right now."
Yeah.
And we sh- like he's a player I'd kill to have healthy, but it's really tough to get to envisioning it as a possibility at the end of the week.
We're a week and a half away.
And I will just say this, there is no basis here, but, like why is Mason Miller available?
AJ Preller just gave up everything he had last year to get a player he coveted who has fulfilled his role.
There's no unlocking Mason Miller.
Mm-hmm.
He's been unlocked.
He's a weapon.
He's disgusting.
There's nobody better.
What does the elbow look like?
Why, why is he available?
'Cause he's a luxury item on a team that's 500?
I mean, he was a luxury item that AJ Preller was willing to give up everything for last year.
And the Padres aren't You know, they're, they're middling.
They intend to compete every year.
There's not this ownership mandate to cut revenue.
Like last Like when we got Juan Soto, there was an ownership change and there was a strange It was like this, in his fi- in his walk year, it makes more sense to get rid of Juan Soto than to keep him because of the financials.
Mason Miller's not in his walk year.
He doesn't cost that much.
There's no mandate to cut him.
Why is he available?
If it's realistic to get him, you have to ask yourself what is wrong with him.
Yeah.
That's sort of my final Again, that comes from nothing, but it's like- Mm-hmm why on God's green earth would Mason Miller be available?
The Padres are fine and they intend to compete next year and be strong.
So unless you're giving up a franchise-changing haul, which I don't think anyone is willing to do for a closer, or there's something wrong with him.
Yeah, I mean, I, I think that, that You're, you're completely right.
I, the only reason he might be like, he's like a, he's like a shadow guy on the trade market right now because AJ Preller is like, "Well, what if the Brewers offer me a ton of prospects?
That could be fun."
Yeah.
And the Brewers prospects usually Like maybe that's the thinking or I think the more pessimistic version is like how long is this guy's elbow gonna ha- hold up for?
Yeah.
I- And again, it's not even like a dig on Mason Miller.
The guy throws like 105 and everyone's- Yeah elbow is bad, 'cause like that's a crazy thing- Yeah that the body shouldn't do.
Mm-hmm.
All valid.
I think that, the Padres can still remain in contention and do what they need to do by parting with a Maura Hone, a J- or a Jason Adam or a Wandy Peralta, and all of those would fit the Yankees great.
The Yankees don't need a ninth inning guy.
I now have full trust in David Bednar.
Call me stupid, but, this two-month plus run, I think he's settled into New York.
The rollercoaster efforts are a little bit behind him.
I think it took some, acclimation and just like, you know, getting all this stuff behind him.
Don't forget, he was demoted at the start of 2025 in Pittsburgh.
He was in triple A because he was struggling.
Um- He also threw an incredible curve ball to Shohei Ohtani the other day after- Yeah the announcing booth said he basically stopped going to the curve ball.
And just a promise to the listeners and viewers, I told you in mid-May when he lost that game on the Tyrone Taylor hanging curve ball home run, I said, "No matter what the Yankees did from this point forward, that loss would still stick with me and bother me."
I'm not forgetting it even if they move on from it.
I'm bringing it back.
I'm not forget- I didn't forget it.
Still bothers me.
Shohei Ohtani swung over that curve ball.
Tyrone Taylor hit it out.
You kidding me?
All right, there we go.
Yeah, I mean, whatever happened, the Yankees ruined his curve ball for the most part.
Maybe it works out and then he's using it a little bit less now, I hope.
But I have full trust in David Bednar.
So unless there is a world in which the Yankees view a super bullpen as their way of getting to the World Series or winning the World Series, then that would be the appropriate move to go out and get Mason Miller.
But I think it's clear that they don't think that that is the case because the last couple years they've built a bullpen off of a bunch of reclamation projects and they kept them as is, and they've tried to pat, to, to, patch up the offense because the offense was not generating enough runs consistently.
They were not hitting as successfully as they should be with runners in scoring position.
I understand the cumulative numbers are there, but when you watch the Yankees against a tight opponent or against a really good opponent in a tight moment, they, they usually come up short and the other team ends up getting the better of them.
It, it just is what it is.
So the Yankees problems in the postseason, as we've seen for however long, w- it, it was never pitching.
Even when their pitching was not great in 2017, the issue was that the offense couldn't score enough runs against the Astros, and the Astros didn't have the best pitching themselves.
They had solid pitching, but it wasn't anything to, you know, have the Yankees score one run across four games.
You know, one run in each of those games.
So th- they have to know at this point it's lineup depth and it's relentlessness.
So that's why it's like, okay, Mason Miller out there, great if he is, but I want a Maura Hone, I want a Wandy Peralta, I want a Jason Adam.
I want to keep building the bridge to David Bednar.
I want to protect Brent, Brent Hedrick's arm.
He is at max capacity.
He's thrown a career high in innings.
We're at July 23rd.
He has the most scoreless appearances in Major League Baseball.
I love it.
I love watching this guy.
I don't know how long it's gonna last.
It, it could be done tomorrow for all we know.
Tim Hill, I love Tim Hill.
Party might be over there.
It, it just, it just might be.
So, you really need a supporting cast around David Bednar, and you can do that without, again, going after Mason Miller.
And Mason Miller is The price of Mason Miller is going to severely inhibit your ability to get even one of Like call my, call my trade deadline plan too aggressive and, you know, too pipe dreamy, I get that, but the Yankees need one of those guys.
They need Langeliers or Neto in some capacity.
Doesn't have to be those exact players, but it needs to be players of those caliber in order to get the lineup deeper, a little bit more tougher on opposing pitchers.
'Cause right now, again, even with Jose Caballero in the lineup, I like Jose Caballero, i- is 7, 8, 9's dreadful.
And every night on the broadcast you have these announcers.
I understand we're not in the '90s anymore, we're not in the early 2000s, but all these baseball players talk about how the, how important it was back in the day for the 7, 8, 9 guys to turn the lineup over and how that changed games and how that chased pitchers from games and how that disrupted bullpens.
The Yankees don't do that.
They are allowing starting pitchers to go deeper into games.
They are giving bullpens second chances.
The key here is offense and acquiring the right guys to fit in this lineup.
And then you work around the bullpen construction, work it around David Bednar, Brent Hedrick, and, who am I forgetting who's been pitching great?
Fernando or Brent Hedrick?
Yeah, well, Fern- I think Fernando Cruz i- is hit a rough patch, but I, I do trust him.
I think, again, we talked about it last episode or the episode before, he's just been, "Hey, you're going out there and it's another, it's another fucking pipe bomb situation, so you have to get out of this."
If they take a few of those off of his plate, I think he's a much better pitcher and he's not in this rut that he is right now.
So get a couple other guys in here, take him out of the spotlight for a month or two.
By the time the playoffs come around, you'll be able to call on him in the eighth inning with two runners on and one out, and he'll get you out of that jam.
You can't, you just can't do it every night.
Bednar needs to be able to cross the bridge in the comments.
You mean he should die?
What does that mean?
Luke Weaver mistake letting him go, first of all, yes.
But second of all, we gotta remember what Luke Weaver was when he left.
He recorded one out in three playoff appearances last year.
Yeah.
Really bad.
One out across three.
He was completely broken.
He had a four and a half ERA in the second half.
I'm glad he got back on track.
I'm, I do think it probably would've happened here too, but there were some complicating factors upon his exit last year.
Would I welcome him back now?
100%.
That would also be great.
Yeah.
To pay that money after what he did would Every Yankees Twitter would've fucking lost its shit.
And then you don't pay for Bellinger probably, who's been pretty bad without Judge, and I know all of these cascading things.
But the lineup is worse and Luke Weaver's here and, and Yankees- Yeah Twitter's probably pretty mad.
Trade deadline from across the league, Kevin Gausman no trade is out.
He can block a trade to eight teams, but not the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, or O's.
Interesting given that he created this no trade list when he was signing with the Toronto Blue Jays, so I guess he loves AL East drama.
There was a rumor that Aroldis Chapman and the White Sox was close to being a deal before the Red Sox started ripping off their winning streak.
And, no, that's not true, according to a second insider, secondary report, and then also the Red Sox are good now anyway, so it doesn't matter.
Comment saying David Bednar is not great in high leverage.
Is that Cruz or Bednar?
'Cause every Bednar outing is high leverage and he's been great for two months, so I will push back on that as well.
I'm not really sure what that means.
But, uh- again, please clarify.
The needle's not moving across the league, and the only issue so far The, I mean, the, the clearest trade deadline just like thing hanging over a- all of this is like Neto and Langeliers would both be great additions, winning players, gritty grinders, dudes who could turn the lineup over.
It's dudes who maybe if the spotlight's off them, they're even better.
They're better leaders.
Doesn't it feel like it's more likely that both of those people go to the Red Sox than go to the New York Yankees?
And then we'll all just be saying like, "Oh, that was obvious," but we didn't do it and then they did.
So, so cool.
Yeah, I, I like the idea of some of these other guys.
I just, I'm not sure it's gonna happen.
I, like I would love Gausman as a depth option, to be honest with you.
Uh- Oh, he, he's their dog.
Like, uh- Yeah we hate him 'cause, he's on the team that infuriates us and the team- Yeah whose fans talk the most.
The, the Tor- the Red Sox fans are obviously what they are, we know that.
Yeah.
But Blue Jays fans lead the league in claiming you're talking about them when you're not, and then talking about you, doing what they say they hate to you, and acting like that's warranted.
I had Blue Jays fans in my mentions yesterday screenshotting the Red Sox place in the standings behind the Yankees.
And it was like, I haven't talked about you guys all year.
You guys are 10 games under 500.
When's the last time I talked about the Blue Jays?
When's the last time I talked to you?
But here you are cheering on the Red Sox coming behind my team.
What moves you to do that?
Blue Jays fans love doing that.
It's been awesome that they're You know how bad you have to be to still be 11 games behind these Yankees?
These Yankees basically- gave everyone three weeks.
They were like, "Just catch up to us."
You know, all you have to do is win eight games.
Just catch up to us.
And the Blue Jays were like, "Nah, I think we're gonna lose ground on you."
The Yankees gained ground on the Red Sox yesterday for the first time since June 24th.
June 24th to July 22nd, the Yankees did not gain ground on the Red Sox.
There were days where they didn't lose ground, but they didn't gain ground for about a month, and the Blue Jays ended up 11 and a half games behind the Yankees.
If they make a charge in the second half, it is what it is.
I'll own it.
I'll wear it.
But again, I'm not talking to you.
You guys are the ones talking to me.
I'm not going onto your feeds and being like, "Ha ha, remember last year?"
I don't, I'm not thinking about it and, but you guys are, and that's fine.
And- They're down bad.
Yeah, they're falling out of it, and I would take Kevin Gausman.
I'm not letting the fact that these Blue Jays fans are insufferable distract me from the fact that Kevin Gausman would be fun to have, and would be worthwhile down the stretch of an AL East stretch run and into the postseason.
And if he's my number four starter, he's got an edge.
He's got that mentality.
It would be very enjoyable to be able to swing a rental trade for Kevin Gausman after all that.
Yeah, I mean, I would try to trade, like a dream scenario again is like get, trade Carlos Rodn for something.
Don't know what that would be, and then get Kevin Gausman in the rotation and then figure out a way to get a couple of other bullpen arms.
I think that would be a sensible, swap.
It would save the Yankees some money.
It would give them flexibility elsewhere.
I don't know if it's possible.
Something tells me Like here, for example, the Giants, I know they did that swap with the Mariners to get Robbie Ray.
But if there was interest in getting Robbie Ray coming off like Tommy John surgery, there's gotta be interest in Carlos Rodn in, for something.
I don't know what it would be, but there's, there, there's creative ways and there's a lot of heavy lifting to be done.
I'm, I'm, I'm not upset, but I wish they would have done one thing by now.
Yeah.
Maybe just like, you know, a sixth inning bullpen arm, just to get somebody new in here.
Maybe they have faith in Giovanni Cruz.
I don't know.
Either way, it's going down to the wire.
There's a lot of moves the Yankees need to make, and I think that all we can say is That if they stand pat in any capacity or don't make an impact addition, th- they're in trouble for the remainder of the year.
They'll get to the playoffs, but they will be gravely in trouble when they get there.
Yep, still feels that way, and the time is now.
This is an off day.
I was hoping that something would happen before the podcast, during the podcast, after, et cetera.
It didn't.
We're still waiting.
Maybe it's Lombard, maybe it's something even bigger than that.
Again, just final shout-out before we sign off to Max Fried, who was just so fucking awesome- Amazing yesterday.
And that's, like, the best, in my opinion, the gold standard.
He was a l- he was not himself earlier this year for most of his starts.
For good reason.
He was clearly injured.
I, this, the Seattle start the second game of the year that he pitched, the Fenway start, which was eight shutout, and last night are the three best starts.
He, the three best, most consistent appearances and the best he's looked all year.
And yesterday he was hitting 99 and, and he just looked crisper than he basically had the entire season.
Seattle game and Fenway game are the only real contenders.
To be doing that in a rehab start, to have a 60 pitch limit and get through five at under 60 pitches- Yeah and probably still could throw a side session afterwards to get to, like, 65 and expand yourself, he couldn't have been better.
So Fried, Cole, Schlitter, and Rodon coming back and potential deadline addition, these are the reasons that you're excited about the New York Yankees moving forward.
These are the reasons that they c- this is what Red Sox fans were saying in May, and they were correct.
They're like- Mm-hmm with a rotation like this, you just need a league average offense.
Same.
If the Yankees have a rotation that includes all those guys healthy and dealing, you just need to get the offense up to a level where it is 12th or 13th best in baseball, not 27th, 28th.
And right now you've got black hole, black hole, black hole in seven, eight, nine.
That's unacceptable.
So make changes before and after the trade deadline.
Not one or the other.
Both.
Make changes.
Help us.
One swing and miss bullpen arm, two or three bats, that could be bullpen.
I don't care if it bumps on Ed Rosario off the roster.
No.
Honestly, I- And Ed Rosario and, and Ed Rosario and Volpe should probably be off this roster by the trade deadline.
Yeah.
I've had a good time by and large with Ed Rosario.
It's not working at this juncture.
He can't play defense.
No.
Max Schumann is here, that's fun.
Um- Yeah but, like, I, I can't sit here and be like, "We can't upgrade that."
No chance.
Mm-hmm.
So see what you I mean, again, no limit to the amount of bats you should acquire, and don't let the presence of some currently roster players stop you from getting them.
And if you can get a depth starter, get a depth starter too, and make y- your catching situation better.
You don't have to trade Austin Wells, you just need a starter who isn't Austin Wells.
And we'll see you plenty before the trade deadline.
Yes, we will.
We'll be back to, debate and misinterpret comments and read them out of order, next week several times, Monday and Thursday at 2:00 PM Eastern.
That is before the trade deadline.
There's been a QR code on the screen the whole time that we haven't addressed or told you what it is.
Wow.
You can subscribe to the Yankees Gatorade newsletter there.
Mm-hmm.
So just scan that.
I've gotten scans on the episode before, it's made me feel good.
You see it light up and I go, "Oh my god, somebody scanned the QR code.
Very cool."
there's a custom newsletter on Tuesday, probably more as we head towards the trade deadline, but automated newsletter every other day.
We appreciate it.
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TikTok is, another thing- TikTok, TikTok that we all have.
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I think it's AWeinrib, and I don't even know if Like, does anyone go on T- it's Adam Weinrib, cool.
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Appreciate all the time and efforts from you guys.
And, have a good weekend.
Yankees-Phillies, I don't know, I'm not feeling too terrible about it.
Would I be surprised if we got swept?
Not really.
But I think, we should be, we should be okay.
I, I really do.
I think, yeah.
I, I consider, I think all the next three series or so, we're like, should be okay.
We should have some fun.
These are not opponents oil.
Yeah.
They're quality teams.
So Will Warren, Jesus Luzardo.
Will Warren's numbers are better than you'd think, but Luzardo's a better pitcher.
Schlitter against TBD on Saturday.
It's sort of weird to not see Zach Wheeler there.
I'll take I, I think Cam Schlitter has a good chance to have a strong outing.
And then Ryan Weathers was awful in his last start.
He's facing the guy who started the All-Star game.
But Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger both smashed, Ruby hits off Christopher Sanchez.
Yeah.
So, this does not scream series win to me, but let's see how the Yankees are able to muddle through and handle business.
And if you sort of trip into victory on Friday, then the whole thing looks a lot different.
Mm-hmm.
So, at White Sox, quality team.
At Cubs, a quality team, and that's why changes should be made now so that on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park, I'm not like Will Warren also is not starting that game, by the way.
I'm, I'm sorry.
I'm not sure why I said that.
Yeah.
It's what it still says on, uh- Yeah, he is yankees.com, but it's Schlitter on Friday, so, um- Okay we all know that, because Will Warren pitched yesterday.
So I think it's Schlitter on Friday.
If you win that, you set a nice tone for the series.
It's better anyway, because the thing I just read out is, not encouraging if Will Warren loses that game.
So let's see what they do, but that's why you gotta go into Friday night not saying, "Okay, we're facing an all-star," you know, "We got the same shitty lineup."
That's why you need Lombard or a trade acquisition or Hardman or somebody in there.
A catcher who is not Austin Wells.
Ali Sanchez is gonna be starting at Jesus Luzardo, I guess.
But, fix it.
Figure it out.
Yankees are close.
They're not terrible.
You're not gonna catch me doing a hog dale on this stream, just telling you this is the worst team of all time before they reel off a couple of wins and then suddenly- And then shitting on the player who gave up runs.
Yeah.
Hope to never see you again as part of a very You won 15 in a row.
Hope your career is fucking over, buddy.
Yeah.
You know you can't go to a bar in Boston again without me shooting you with a crossbow.
Okay, cool.
You shouldn't do that kind of content.
That's bad.
But we'll see you on this podcast on Monday with better content, we think.
We appreciate everybody joining us.
Let's, again, win, stack wins, change the lineup, get better pieces.
Move along, be the New York Yankees.
Thanks everybody.
