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.
The idiot that said, “Harper is coming” asks: Do you have any ideas on who could be the back end of the bullpen partner with Bednar by the end of this season? Is it someone from within, or someone acquired in trade? And who?
How about we consider options for both, since there are plenty of candidates
to talk about. Internally, the Yankee bullpen has seen its greatest success with its firemen, the pitchers rushing into jams in the middle-to-late innings or evading some self-created trouble. Brent Headrick and Fernando Cruz are the staples here, but the revamp that the team gave their bullpen at the deadline hasn’t worked out quite so well in supplementing them, forcing them to take more and more responsibilities on their shoulders. These might be the names we’d want to elevate to full-time set up duty, but they run the risk of burning them out by the time summer arrives if that workload continues.
To give one of them room to shift into that role, the Yankee could elevate Yovanny Cruz (1.72 ERA in 15.2 innings at Triple-A) and mix him into the middle-inning cacophany. There’s also the impending rotation crunch to consider, as Carlos Rodón and Gerrit Cole’s return will push one of the regular starters this season down into the ‘pen. Ryan Weathers seems the likeliest candidate, with Will Warren flashing some potential middle of the rotation development this season. In either case, Fernando Cruz seems the better candidate for a traditional set-up man, as Headrick has excelled at stranding runners this season whereas Cruz has looked better being given a fresh frame to work through.
Externally there’s many avenues the team could take, but they’re cloudier at the moment with so many AL teams jumbled up in the standings. With just four teams sitting above .500 and the bottom pairing of the Astros and Angels only three games out of the final Wild Card should the season end today, getting many of those mediocre teams to commit to selling will take some time. Even a would-be easy candidate in the Phillies a mere week or two ago look more lively after firing Rob Thomson and winning eight of their last ten games. However, nice as it’d be to trade for Jhoan Duran they might not be able to shop at the top of the market (though with how aggressive they’ve been in playing their best options this year, who knows). Milwaukee’s Trevor Megill was a name floated over the offseason, but he hasn’t gotten off to the best start and the Yankees might be gun shy about dealing with the Brewers after the Devin Williams saga last year. A candidate I think could shine with some Matt Blake spin is Miami’s Tyler Phillips, a swingman who has gotten some chances late in games for the Marlins and showcases potential, but has worked a bit too many walks. Ultimately, it’ll come down to who separates themselves from the pack and if there are teams that could contend but would be willing to retool for next year before we can get any definitive names, but the good thing is that there will always be someone willing to deal out bullpen help.
OLDY MOLDY asks: Should we stop believing that Spencer Jones will get called up before September or can he hit enough dingers to force the issue?
I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Spencer Jones’ day has come, as he was promoted today and will likely see some action over the course of this weekend. The bad news is it came at the expense of Jasson Domínguez, who crashed into the left field wall on Thursday and was put on the IL for a low-grade AC sprain. With Domínguez already taking the place of Giancarlo Stanton on the roster after he was put on the IL, the door was open for Jones to finally make his MLB debut. How long will his first stint in pinstripes last? Undetermined for now, as a Stanton injury can always snowball into a significant amount of time missed and Domínguez looked to be in severe pain on the play that took him out of the game, but the mere fact that he’s here in May is a sign of two things: the team believes he deserves a test against Major League pitching, and they’re willing to run the roster that gives them the best chance to win every day.
Jones may not get much playing time at the moment — the starting outfield of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Trent Grisham is still intact and Grisham is finding more and more green grass to land on after getting incredibly unlucky at the start of the year. The avenue for a starting gig just isn’t there yet, but the team is willing to disrupt Jone’s tear at Triple-A (he owns a .958 OPS with 11 home runs in 33 games played) to field him over a more conventional stopgap. It makes sense that the role would be realized once it was made for Domínguez, who similarly had gaps in his game that the team wanted him to work on in the minors, but it is still a surprise to see and could prove to be a signal that other top prospects can contribute this season should they continue making the case.
Trent Grishams Mustache asks: Will Volpe get all of SS reps in AAA with Lombard playing 3B and maybe 2B or do they prioritize Lombard and have Volpe cross train at 2B?
For the moment it looks like this will be the case, though our own John Griffin made the case recently for why the Yankees should consider shifting Volpe around, and noted in his article that Aaron Boone walked back some initial comments on his demotion about locking him into the role saying “right now, he’s going to play shortstop.” So for now Volpe will get comfortable at his old position while George Lombard Jr. flexes his defensive prowess by covering second and third base, which he did earlier in the year when Volpe was rehabbing with him down in Somerset as well. If Lombard is being seriously considered for a role in the majors this season it makes sense that they’d give him that chance to win a spot through versatility, but Volpe’s track record implies that he’d be closer to a call-up and could also use the practice if Lombard long-term looks to be the shortstop of the future. It’ll be an interesting case to monitor, but as of right now nothing out of the ordinary is happening down on the farm with those two.
