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.
OLDY MOLDY asks: Why not sell what little that they have to sell after the Belli news? Punting allows them to also go easier on the arms of Cole, Rodon, Fried, and Schlittler. Play all the kids for two full months and determine what needs exist to chase in the offseason. The AL sucks so bad they still probably make a wild card.
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There’s not enough time left on the clock to afford punting the ball away. Is it ideal that Aaron Judge‘s return date is a complete mystery at this point, leaving it all up in the air if he’ll even be able to play again this season? No, of course not. But he’s not getting any younger, and neither is Gerrit Cole, so with two of the most crucial pieces of the Yankees’ championship odds in the last years of their primes they need to consider being aggressive more than they need to contemplate a soft sell. Besides, the team as constructed is still competitive, so why not augment it and give it a real shot? Even if Judge and Bellinger don’t factor into the stretch run at all, they’re hanging within punching distance of not only first place in the division but the top spot in the American League. That’s a critical spot to aim for — bypassing the Wild Card series entirely and lining up the elite rotation that they have to go against a beleaguered opponent is the best odds they can give themselves to stand out in the dismal field that is the AL this year.
On top of all of that, who are you selling and who are you calling up? It’s easy to say that they should just ship off all the players that have underperformed, but it takes two to agree to a deal and they aren’t going to give away players for nothing. George Lombard Jr. is an obvious standout at Triple-A and could become a factor in this year’s playoff race regardless of the moves the front office makes, but who’s joining him to save this dreadful lineup? The catchers in the organization that are close have already been up here and struggled, Marco Luciano‘s had an interesting revival down in the minors but the jump from Double-A back to Triple-A already took him down a peg, how would he look returning to the majors and what happens if he still looks similar to the .590 OPS bat he was with the Giants? Oswaldo Cabrera got a cameo already this year and unfortunately looked dreadful, and I don’t think extended playing time would prove anything different. The Yankees’ strengths down in the minors are largely with pitchers, and they’re already excelling there in the majors. To convert that into meaningful improvements for the major league roster, they’re going to have to work some trades to get bats not sell them.
The idiot that said, “Harper is coming” asks: Is there any chance the Yankees could look to move Jazz Chisholm back to 3B if the best trade options call for it? Our old friend Gleyber Torres might be a good fit for that same situation as well. Any interest in that option?
Chisholm’s been a mixed bag at second base defensively this year, but the track record looks way worse if you move him around the diamond. His stint at third base in 2024 was an accommodation for his new team trying to fit him into their game plan, and he managed to hold his own there but he made it clear that he preferred second base. Inexplicably, the Yankees trotted him back out there again in 2025 in favor of DJ LeMahieu‘s last gasp with the organization, and when they finally read the expiration date on his defense they reluctantly moved Jazz back to second. That second stint wasn’t pretty, and I can’t imagine it would be any better if they forced him to move back a third time — to say nothing of what it might do in the locker room if it upset Chisholm to be forced off of his natural position once more. Jazz has had his boneheaded plays, but overall I’d say if there’s an opportunity to upgrade the infield it should be with a player that belongs at the position they’re aiming to upgrade rather than playing musical chairs again.
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As for Torres, while he’d be an offensive upgrade for sure it would come at the cost of either playing him out of position or burdening Jazz with that same problem as we just discussed. Torres has never played third base at the major league level, and with his play at shortstop being (deservedly) heavily critiqued I don’t know if I want to see him attempt that shift again here. As someone who was a believer in his second-half of 2024 form and has had to watch the offense’s frighteningly light contributions of late I wouldn’t hate a reunion, but I don’t know if the stars would align this time.
On a related note though, I do find it fascinating how many of the recent former Yankees have popped up on the radar this year as trade candidates — whether its Torres, Clay Holmes, or Luke Weaver, it feels as though the Yankees made accurate-enough assessments that both players and the team would benefit from moving on, but failed to stick the landing with the replacements for the holes they left. Any one of them could feasibly return at this year’s deadline, but there’s also enough reason to believe that none of those trades are likely to actually materialize. There’s always plenty of hand-wringing whenever a former Yankee finds any amount of immediate success (just look at the reactions to Oswald Peraza‘s start to the year), but I have to imagine that this batch of guys are genuine candidates for regret on Brian Cashman’s part that it didn’t work out keeping them here. Perhaps this is just musings ahead of what will surely be a busy couple of days, and wondering who if any could join those ranks.
Lidbit asks: The Yankees have the worst record in extra innings in the MLB as they are a pitiful 1-8 despite having an excellent overall win list record. In my mind, the stems primarily from terrible situational hitting… What’s to blame for the terrible extra innings record and whose to blame for poor fundamentals?
They’re the worst in the league in extras and it’s frankly not even close, but like trying to read into RISP performance I don’t know if there’s much to say about the actual record. The offense has stalled itself out plenty of times over the course of the year, so expecting them to do much even with a runner gifted to them on second base has been setting ourselves up for disappointment. The fundamentals start and end with Aaron Boone in my opinion though, as it’s been a recurring problem throughout his tenure. Sometimes they’ve cost the team massively, while at other times it’s gotten glossed over or they’ve managed to slug their way through their miscues, but they’ve always been lurking underneath the surface. Boone runs a very player-friendly clubhouse and we’ll never know exactly how much he holds his players accountable for their mistakes, but I have to hope he’s stricter to them about plays like Ali Sánchez‘s critical error on Wednesday night in person than he is in the media. I don’t need him to go on tirades for the press to prove that it’s being addressed, but the answer he gave simply isn’t based in reality — there’s no reason to risk the throw that Sánchez made with the game right in front of them at the plate, and the same can be said of many miscues that they’ve had on the field.
