Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
BetweenthePinstripes asks: Which AL team would be the toughest opponent for the Yankees in the playoffs?
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It’s well known how mediocre the Junior Circuit has looked this year, and while the Yankees are unfortunately playing down to that level themselves as well it at least means that there isn’t an overwhelmingly threatening matchup to look out for. That is, of course, depending on how much you’re buying into Boston’s sudden charge back into the picture. The Red Sox used a four-game sweep of the Yankees at the end of June as a launching pad to spring into a 15-game winning streak, claiming a slim lead for the final Wild Card spot and putting themselves within shouting distance of the Yankees and Rays.
Boston’s offense isn’t anywhere close to what was expected entering this year — Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony haven’t factored in at all and Jarren Duran has been outright bad, while Willson Contreras has been the big addition for the lineup and Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu have done enough to keep them afloat while contributing on defense. The real strength of the team has been their pitching staff: offseason acquisition Ranger Suarez has been the ace the team needed with Garrett Crochet missing most of the year, Payton Tolle has taken a major leap in his first full season in the majors, and Sonny Gray continues to thrive in his post-Yankees career. Former Yankee Aroldis Chapman looms in the back of their ‘pen enjoying a renaissance season where he’s simply dominated, and former Yankee farmhand Garrett Whitlock rebounded to serve as a fantastic setup man beside him. Have the Yankees woken up a team that was expected to be competitive this year but just struggled out of the gate, or are they enjoying a hot stretch over the summer that they can’t sustain? The field certainly didn’t punish their sluggish first three months as Boston now sits with the second-best run differential in the AL, and there’s a very real possibility that they line up as the Yankees’ first postseason matchup whether that’s in the Wild Card Round or the ALDS.
Unfortunately for New York, their other threat also sits within their own division. The Rays may not be running away with the AL East, but they’ve held onto the top spot for a while now and have proven to be a thorn in the Yankees’ side. The core of their offense is a greater threat than Boston’s, led by the powerful bat of Junior Caminero and featuring plus performance from Yandy Díaz and Jonathan Aranda with Chandler Simpson proving to be a nuisance every time the Yankees have faced Tampa as well. Their rotation is no slouch either, with Shane McClanahan back in the fold looking like he never missed a beat alongside Drew Rasmussen building off of his breakout 2025. Nick Martinez has stepped into the rotation and become a strong No. 3, though his expected stats tell a story of regression waiting to hit. I think Boston is the scarier threat to face in a short round like the Wild Card while Tampa would be more annoying in the ALDS, but either way they sit one and two on the board of teams to look out for.
As for the rest of the field, I just don’t see much competence coming from the Central or West this year. The West in particular is a mess, with no one capable of running away with a division begging to be taken. The Mariners have been major disappointments, the Rangers have been middle of the pack on both sides of the ball, and the Astros are fighting against rapids just trying to breach a .500 record. The Central has been better but not by much, with the White Sox surprisingly ahead but feeling like a team that would put the wild in Wild Card. Cleveland is always around but uninspiring, and Minnesota is technically in the mix but has felt like a team that knows they should sell for weeks. Things could get shaken up dramatically at the deadline, but of this bunch I only see Seattle having the pieces to put something truly crazy together, and they might just be better off waiting to promote their own top prospects rather than deal any of them.
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ConorGallogly asks: We have Rodríguez, Beck, De los Santos, Cruz, Hanner on 40-man and in AAA, plus Castro just called up, and Lagrange, Reyzelman, and Cohen in AAA, but not on 40-man. Does any player listed, or any other current minor leaguer make our playoff roster this season? How many starts do we need outside of Schlittler, Cole, Fried, Rodón, Warren, & Weathers for the rest of the season? Can Rodríguez cover them effectively?
If the team stays healthy, then the most likely one of this group I can see making a playoff roster is Yovanny Cruz. He looked mighty impressive in his short stints in the majors, and his minor league numbers have been excellent enough to warrant another look whenever the team desires. They haven’t pulled that trigger often though, insisting on running out Camilo Doval and Jake Bird with regularity when at least one of them could easily get booted from the bullpen at this point. The Trade Deadline will likely bring with it another arm or two, and the rotation will be slimmed down to four come October meaning some of those starters will get used in relief as well so I don’t think the likes of Elmer Rodriguez or Brendan Beck have a shot this time around. Carlos Lagrange was a possibility to get fast-tracked for the bullpen, but his initial struggles combined with his shoulder injury will probably shut the door on that opportunity.
The most interesting name of the group is Bradley Hanner, a reliever picked up over the offseason and stashed away in the minors for depth purposes after pitching in the Twins and Guardians’ organizations without reaching the majors. Hanner’s been extremely effective in Triple-A for the RailRiders, pitching to a 2.30 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 43 innings, and with an opt-out in the contract looming the team chose to add him to the 40-man roster while sliding Aaron Judge over to the 60-day IL. That begs the question of what will happen to his roster spot once the Captain is healthy again, but if he manages to get a shot before then perhaps someone else will take the blow. I’d still rank Cruz as a likelier addition to the roster than Hanner based on him actually appearing with the team this year, but both are a bit of a long-shot currently.
Lidbit asks: Yankees third base situation is atrocious: DJ $15 million, McMahon $16 million, Rosario $2.5 million. Collectively well below MLB average offense and the defense? Well the Yankees have lowest third base fielding percentage in MLB! Not counting the other night’s McMahon muff! Aside from the Josh Donaldson fiasco, how does this rank among Cashman’s recent misadventures?
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It’s up there as one of the worst-rostered positions we’ve seen the Yankees roll out throughout this competitive window, though I think that letting a concussed Anthony Rizzo provide next to nothing for as long as they did was a worse mishandling than what’s going on at the hot corner currently. However, I think it’s as bad as it is mainly because the faults of each player cascade into the other: relying on DJ LeMahieu in 2025 to be an everyday part of the lineup when he hadn’t shown those capabilities in years (to say nothing of extending his contract an additional year to spread out the luxury tax hit) was an obvious error that led Cashman to seeking a warm body that could at least field the position. That in turn led to overexposing Rosario when McMahon’s struggled at the plate in April and May, which let pitchers figure out how to deal with him while simultaneously hurting the team’s defense. If the LeMahieu aspect of this equation was wiped clean for this year and his contract was off the books a year earlier it looks a lot less messy and would probably give them the room to try and find a fix at this year’s deadline, but with as much money tied down as there is already other positions simply have to take priority.
Johnny1944 asks: Will Stan ever heal?
Allegedly, though I have no idea what he’ll do if he ever does make it back onto the field this season.
