Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. The season is unfortunately over, which means we’ll be rolling the mailbag back to bi-weekly shortly,
but for now we’ll remain at our current pace to go over the postmortem. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
munibill2 asks: Why has Boone buried Domínguez on the bench? The Martian has been an effective bat, and yet Boone has stubbornly stuck with Stanton against tough righties.
Jasson Domínguez sat throughout the playoffs until he got to pinch-hit in the ninth inning of ALDS Game 4, which feels like an apt comparison to his regular season in a way. Domínguez was expected to take a leap forward with Alex Verdugo no longer on the roster occupying starting time in left field, but the emergence of Trent Grisham overshadowed him completely as the center fielder took more and more starts away with Cody Bellinger sliding over to left field to compensate. Should he have seen more of the field? In an ideal world, he would’ve at least gotten in more pinch-hit or pinch-run situations, but the Yankees were well and truly out of it for both of the first two games in this series and then stormed ahead in Game 3 and wouldn’t have wanted Domínguez out there defensively. They wouldn’t swap him for Stanton because then their lone backup outfielder would’ve been José Caballero, who is far more effective as an infielder and was also their other threat to steal a base late in a game.
Ultimately, the opportunities just weren’t there unless Aaron Boone wanted him out there in place of Grisham, which may have been justified given Grisham’s ice-cold performance in the ALDS, but that’s with the benefit of hindsight. Boone chose to ride the starters that produced the best offense in baseball, and they unanimously went cold aside from Aaron Judge. There have been postseasons where I think Boone’s decision-making cost them, but I wouldn’t say he pushed the wrong buttons in this one. Domínguez now enters 2026 in a near-identical place as he entered 2025, because the likelihood of retaining both Bellinger and Grisham is slim to none. Will he finally wrest away full starting time, or will someone else jump into the picture? That remains to be seen, but the clock is running for the Yankees to figure out what they have with their former top prospect.
jws85 asks: Unless the plan is to move Judge to first base, why would Tucker be of interest? Also why would they be associated with starting pitchers, they will have seven with Cole and Schmidt coming back.
Kyle Tucker would be a target for the Yankees if they wanted to pursue an upgrade over Bellinger, or at least go with a more consistent and sure thing. Bellinger slightly outproduced Tucker this season, collecting 4.9 fWAR to Tucker’s 4.5, but that mark has been Tucker’s guarantee for the last half-decade at this point, producing no less than 4.2 fWAR since 2021 whereas Bellinger has seen his highs and lows throughout his career. Tucker is also two years younger than Bellinger, an important distinction if they are both going to receive long-term contracts this offseason. Tucker’s second-half swoon may have cost him millions from the projected $400 million contracts industry folks were tossing around, but he’s still going to command a hefty pact as the crown jewel of this free agent class (and he can still raise his value with a deep and productive postseason run). I’m not sure whether the Yankees will seriously pursue Tucker, but they’ll absolutely be checking in on his market and comparing it to what Bellinger’s asking price is — if the AAV is close enough, they may be willing to go for the longer deal and sign the better long-term player.
As for starting pitchers, it’s true that the rotation will be stocked again with Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt returning, but we don’t know how effective they’ll be immediately, and neither one will be ready right out of the gate. Cole is estimated to return around May, and Schmidt won’t be seen until the second half of 2026, leaving a lot of time where the current rotation would have to stay healthy, and as we all know that just never happens. Someone is going to go down for a spell, and potentially someone will be out for a long while — while I don’t anticipate the team shopping for high-end starters, getting more depth never hurts.
treatycity asks: You’ve been scouting the Yankees all year. A-Rod said that the Yankees had five DH. In your opinion name the five suspects. Does No. 99 become the Yankees’ DH in ‘27, or at least partially even if in good health?
I don’t think Judge will need to move to DHing by 2027, but next year may see him continue to need time there, especially if he needs offseason surgery on his elbow. I don’t anticipate Judge needing to sit out a significant portion of the year even if he did need to go under the knife, but if he does then the logjam to find starting time there becomes complicated because the Yankees do have a few people that need the role open. The obvious one is Giancarlo Stanton, who admirably worked on getting back in outfield shape for a spell when Judge initially returned from his injury but is very much still a full-time DH. The team also had Ben Rice there when Stanton was out in the first half, though he should have more time at first base and some part-time catching duties to keep him busy now. A-Rod probably also counted Paul Goldschmidt among those five DHs as he spent some time there (though for the life of me, I don’t know who his fifth was), but Goldy’s contract is up for 2026 and I don’t foresee the team re-signing the veteran, so that’s one piece of the puzzle cleared up.
Larry D. asks: Am I wrong thinking the Yankees need to go hard after Paul Skenes? Yes the cost would be high, but I would be willing to give up just about any young players/prospects outside of Schlittler to get the deal done.
We touched on this around the Deadline this year, but don’t get your hopes up for Paul Skenes in a Yankee jersey, at least anytime soon. The team doesn’t have anywhere near the prospect capital to make a trade of that magnitude worthwhile for Pittsburgh, especially if we’re holding out for a player that has burst onto the major league team like Schlittler. The amount of team control Skenes still has makes it unfathomable, even for the more loaded farm systems in baseball to attempt a trade right now. Another year or two down the line and maybe it starts to become feasible, but you’d still be looking at several top-100 prospects in baseball, with a few of them being upper-echelon blue chip prospects, as the only price tag that makes sense. Given Pittsburgh’s ineptitude and frequent position as the basement-dweller of the NL Central we may get to that point, but right now it should be totally off the table. By all means, let Brian Cashman try and call again, but if the Pirates are in any way actually hearing him out that would be shocking.
