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.
jmack175 asks: Is there a scenario where McMahon would be released at the deadline if a stronger option presented itself? Or will his remaining year and salary, or Cashman’s narcissism prevent that?
There’s a non-zero chance of it occurring, but I wouldn’t bet on it just off of a couple of bad
weeks. The Yankees are highly hesitant to cut bait with anyone they’ve invested into, and it would take a longer prolonged struggle to produce much of anything to get to the point of dumping off McMahon. DJ LeMahieu got to that point only after several seasons of injury-plagued ineffectiveness, and he was also prohibiting Jazz Chisholm Jr. from playing his more natural position. The Yankees acquired McMahon for his defense first, and while he’s had some mishaps in the early going our own John Griffin went over the topic recently to showcase how a couple unlucky breaks can cause some statistical noise before things stabilize over the long run. The bat, of course, has to be better than a .319 OPS, but it wouldn’t take much to jump back to respectable numbers — if even a couple singles find their way through the infield, it’d sure make the bottom of the lineup look a little less dead.
qmerkel asks: Why not just have Domínguez take all at bats from the left side of the plate? The results can’t really be any worse than they currently are from the right.
Because switch-hitting is a skill that they believe Domínguez can develop, and a valuable one at that. The signs were there in spring training that Domínguez has worked hard to improve from the right-handed batter’s box, and he while he hasn’t had many opportunities to display them in the minors yet he’s already gotten on the board with a homer from that side in four at-bats. The bigger concern is his defense, which hasn’t looked promising down on the farm, but the talent has always been there with the bat and I think it can carve a path for Domínguez eventually — and being able to become a more-versatile threat in the lineup will only help.
OLDY MOLDY asks: Do we really know Winquest exists?
We do now! Only because of a roster cut though, unfortunately. Estevão touched on the inevitability of Winquest getting cut for Luis Gil’s callup the other day, and sure enough that was the result of his Rule 5 selection — never getting into a game with the Yankees before getting designated for assignment. Whether another team will pick him up under those same Rule 5 restrictions or he’ll return to the Cardinals remains to be seen, but in the end it wasn’t like rostering Winquest came with much opportunity cost: the team took a flyer on a player that could’ve been helpful if they needed it. Is it a little strange that there were zero scenarios that Aaron Boone ended up utilizing him? Sure, but it’s also not entirely shocking that they didn’t end up using a pitcher that hadn’t been above Double-A in his career. They paid a small pittance to get him into their building and see if they like his stuff, and maybe down the line he becomes a regular member of the bullpen without the requirement of rostering him through a full season. Now that the portion of the year with built-in off days is through, the trial period is over and the extra roster spot becomes too valuable to pass up on, but there were merits to the choice of going with Winquest.
