It is truly hard to believe that in one short month the Yankee have gone from one of the superior teams in baseball — comfortably ahead in the American League East and seemingly in need of only some fine tuning at the trade deadline — to a junker leaking oil everywhere and at a loss as to how to fix it all.
Similarly, the Mets at that same June 12 juncture, enjoyed the best record in baseball and had no idea how one seemingly mild hamstring strain to Kodai Senga would catapult into a gusher of injuries throughout the entire pitching staff that would knock them out of first place and force them to stagger into the All-Star break with a bunch of Triple-A mediocrities.
No sooner had we commended Brian Cashman for pivoting so brilliantly last winter after Juan Soto’s defection with the additions of Max Fried, Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Devin Williams, then the Yankees began springing leaks everywhere in mid-June. Top reliever Luke Weaver got hurt, later followed by Mark Leiter Jr. and Fernando Cruz in the bullpen, and No. 3 starter Clarke Schmidt went down for the season after Tommy John surgery. In addition, the infield never recovered from the season-ending ankle injury to Orlando Cabrera that left a huge void at third base that was further exasperated by Anthony Volpe’s all-around regression at shortstop.
So what’s a GM to do?
Earlier this week, Cashman acknowledged the Yankees’ list of needs expanded somewhat over the last four weeks and, as such, vowed to be aggressive at the trade deadline. The problem, he said, there could be an overabundance of buyers as opposed to sellers. That would appear to be the case with the Arizona Diamondbacks and their much-coveted slugging third baseman, Eugenio Suarez, fifth in the majors in RBI as of Friday. Even though the 33-year-old Suarez is a free agent after this year and would essentially be a three-month rental, the D-backs, who were five games out in the wild card standings and three games under .500 going into the weekend, have been telling clubs they still feel they have a shot at the postseason. And even if they don’t, they’ve let it be known the price for Suarez — his rental status notwithstanding — will still be high. In the Yankees’ case it would probably be a top prospect of the caliber of Spencer Jones, who is currently tearing it up at Scranton after being promoted to Triple-A a couple of weeks ago.
By releasing DJ LeMahieu and moving Jazz Chisolm back to his natural position, second base, the Yankees hope they solved a lot of their defensive issues in the infield, but, if not Suarez, there aren’t a whole lot of other quality third base options on the market. Because of that, they were prepared to toy with internal options, including J.C. Escarra, much-traveled rookie Jorbit Vivas, recently signed Jeimer Candelario, who they assigned to Triple-A, catcher/third baseman Jesus Rodriguez, presently hitting .293 at Scranton, and even LeMahieu. But LeMahieu informed them he would not play third base even for a couple of days a week and that was what prompted them to just release him.
As for Volpe, who is clearly lost at the plate, it would have probably been best for him if the Yankees sent him back to Triple-A until after the All-Star break for a hopeful re-set, much like the Rangers did last week with their former first round draft pick, Josh Jung. But Cashman is fiercely protective of his homegrown players and remains insistent that Volpe, given more time, will start to resemble the Gold Glove shortstop and .286 postseason hitter he was last year.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Volpe Thursday night against Seattle — when he went 0-for-4, failing twice with runners in scoring position and was booed lustily when he struck out in the eighth inning — his baseball instincts took over and he wound up winning the game with a spectacular head first slide into home, eluding the tag by Mariner catcher Cal Raleigh. The fact is Cashman has too many other holes to fill — another starting pitcher, another couple relievers, and maybe another outfield bat — than to waste valuable prospect chips on a stopgap shortstop.
As for the Mets, one can only hope Thursday’s embarrassing doubleheader loss — in which Carlos Mendoza ill-advisedly started David Peterson in the first game and left himself with retreads Brandon Waddell and Justin Hagenman to navigate through the nightcap — was their nadir. Senga and Sean Manaea have returned to the rotation and Brooks Raley is reportedly close to returning which would give the Mets their first high-leverage lefty reliever since A.J. Minter went down for the season in May with a torn lat.
But baseball ops chief David Stearns still has his work cut out for him. The perpetually injured Jesse Winker went down again after just two games Thursday meaning the Mets still need a left-handed outfield bat, and even with Jose Butto expected to be back after the All-Star break, Ryan Stanek’s recent string of ineffectiveness has created a need for another high-leverage reliever.
In any case, neither the Yankees nor the Mets are the surefire World Series contenders, needing just a little fine tuning at the trade deadline, they thought they were a month ago.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
The management purge in Washington might have been only half as bad if Nationals GM Mike Rizzo had gone along with owner Mark Lerner’s edict to fire manager Dave Martinez. Forget about the Nationals’ dismal and greatly disappointing last-place status in the NL East, Martinez was a dead man walking when he publicly blamed his players while steadfastly defending his coaches for the team’s performance, but Rizzo refused to fire him and so ownership essentially said “OK, then you have to go too.” One of the longest serving GMs with one team, Rizzo, who took over as president of baseball ops in 2009, had a mixed record in and around being the architect of their one and only world championship team in 2019. On the plus side, Rizzo was a master trader, acquiring two of the key players on the 2019 team, Trea Turner and Howie Kendrick, in deals for next to nothing. And three of the Nats’ best players this year, All-Stars James Wood and shortstop CJ Abrams, plus No. 1 starter MacKenzie Gore, all came from San Diego in the August 2022 Juan Soto trade. On the minus side, Rizzo’s amateur drafts have been less than stellar, one first round bust after another since 2016, the latest being Dylan Crews, the slugging outfielder from LSU taken as the second overall pick in 2023 who is hitting .206 in 76 big league games so far. Another big criticism of Rizzo was the blind spot he seemed to have when it came to the bullpen. During his time the Nationals have never had a very good bullpen — even the 2019 championship team had one of the worst bullpens in the majors with closer Sean Doolittle posting 4.05 ERA — and this year the Nationals’ bullpen ERA of 5.79 ranks last in the majors. As for a successor to Rizzo, in all probability, interim GM Mike DeBartolo, who is now entrusted with the selection of the No. 1 draft pick Sunday, will likely remain for the same reason Rizzo lasted as long as he did. The Lerners are known to be notoriously difficult to work for and, as such, it’s not a job that a top quality exec would have any interest in. … Don’t know if this a record, but we can’t remember if there was ever a season in which five teams had interim managers — in this case Washington, Baltimore, Colorado, Pittsburgh and the Angels…In the absence of my colleague and pal Bob Raissman, allow me to anoint “Dweeb of the Week” status on Juan Soto, he of the nearly $62 million annual paycheck, for whining about missing out on a $100,000 bonus for making the All-Star team.
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