Less than one-sixth of the season is in the books, but the Yankees already find themselves looking at a six-game gap in the AL East. GM Brian Cashman acknowledged that the start is concerning, telling Ken Davidoff of the New York Post that “we urgently need to stop the bleeding now.” But doing that is more a matter of minor adjustments and improvements than significant changes to the roster or field staff, the veteran executive suggests — at least for now. “We’ll continue to do the work necessary to put ourselves in position to succeed, and eventually that worm will turn. In the event things don’t turn I’m going to have to make it turn and be forced to do things that weren’t part of the game plan, whatever that would be,” Cashman said. “The best answer would come from this mix of players.”
- Perhaps no Yankees player has scuffled as badly as third baseman Chase Headley, who has been among the worst regulars in baseball. In Cashman’s view, Headley isn’t so much a victim of batted ball luck as he is simply struggling to hit the ball with authority (as his lack of a single extra-base hit would suggest). “He’s getting his walks, and thank God for that because it would be worse [without them],” said Cashman. “He has not been able to impact the baseball like he’s capable of. We have problems all over, but … he’s definitely someone you can point to and say we have to figure it out. He’s struggling the most.” While Headley has dealt with back issues at times, Cashman says that’s “definitely not an issue” right now. Headley is in the second season of a four-year, $52MM free agent contract.
- The Blue Jays are in better position than their division rivals from New York, but also have played beneath their high expectations in the early going. That doesn’t mean that manager John Gibbons is at risk, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Instead, Toronto’s new front office is focused on finding a way to improve the results from the bullpen, per Heyman. Gibbons is under contract through 2017 under a reworked deal he agreed to this winter.
- The Red Sox are finally in position to call upon reliever Carson Smith, as he’s officially been activated from the DL. Smith has been expected to hold down a significant late-inning role since coming over this winter via trade, but first had to battle through a flexor strain. Boston will undoubtedly hope that Smith can avoid further elbow complications.
- Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will be delayed yet again, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports, as he will undergo sports hernia surgery this week. Now, it’s not clear that Harvey will have a shot at making his next regular season, minor league appearance before passing the two-year anniversary of his last. Harvey is still just 21, and remains a highly-regarded prospect, but has yet to move past the Class A level due to a litany of injuries. He’s expected to begin working back to action in July.
- Meanwhile, the Orioles got promising news on closer Zach Britton, as MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via Twitter) that an MRI revealed no major cause for concern. The southpaw relief ace is hopeful that he’ll avoid the DL entirely after turning his ankle recently.
The Headley issue highlights the lack of depth the Yankees have, who cant plug in a Shaw-type contributor when their big aquisitions fall off. Lets see how this Torreyes guy is and maybe I eat my words.
Headley was a big mistake. Outside of the one outstanding season he had in SD, he is a very pedestrian player. Torreyes looks like he’ll be a good utility infielder but he isn’t a long term answer at 3rd. Headley needs to pick it up because the Yankees most likely are stuck with him.
Yeah, I never get why teams pay so much for the outlier season that a player has. They deserved to get burned by this one.
Kinda hard to have 8 other players in the minors who can fill in the place of a regular with great success like a Shaw type contributor. Had it been another position player other then Pablo would they have the same kinda replacement as Shaw in there system? Sure they can for a few different positions but to cover all the bases does not happen often in any organization.
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Brock Holt can play anywhere, and play well.
Huge Yankees fan, but Headley wasn’t worth 52 mill for 4 years.
“He has not been able to impact the baseball like he’s capable of.”
The PC-Corporate culture that has taken over most of MLB’s ownerships, front offices and managing/coaching staffs, along with the players focused on getting their stats and subsequently “marketing their bands”, is killing what used to be fun for fans – i.e. keeping up with the sport. It’s like watching and listening to Mr. Whipple.
The guy can’t say, “he isn’t hitting the ball hard”? Next we’ll hear quotes about the batters “exit velocity” so we can repeat it and think we’re superior to any fans in the history of baseball.
Boy, Vin Skullys’ retirement is truly the end of an era. One in which following the sport was so pleasurable.
There’s been generational beefs since the beginning of baseball itself. Don’t think for a second that the era you found so “pleasurable”, didn’t come under fire from the old timers before it.
While I agree to an extent, that he just used unnecessary words to say a simple thing, I’m not sure why you’d have a gripe this exit velocity. It’s not anyone else’s fault if you aren’t interesting in understanding the developments in analysis. That’s on you.
Weird time to bring up a issue.
The “developments of analysis” LOL As a friend of mines’ late mother used to say about things like this – “you know how to make a short-cut long”. You think a professional coach or manager after playing and coaching baseball for 30 years can’t tell if a ball was hit hard or not, and what that means for the batter? To me (and many retired players and managers I know), this is just going through life on training wheels.
No, it’s not a generational thing. My relatives in their teens and early 20’s are put off by the song-and-dance.
You might be too young to relate, but rock n’ roll was spontaneous for decades. Now everything is remixed, re-engineered, choreographed, and marketed to a point that there is no there there. Same thing is happening with MLB. Sorry to see it, but what is is. There are other things in life to enjoy and participate in.
And may I add…..
Marketing studies that show peoples attraction to MLB are alarming to those administering MLB. Young audiences are becoming less interested every year. Interest in the sport is not growing. MLB attendance peaked a few years ago, and is slowly going down. Some believe the answer is to dump statistics and information on fans – i.e. observe how the networks cover the post-season with 3-5 announcers that besiege that audience with stats, possibilities, stories, and the dissection of literally each pitch. I turn the sound off. Ratings show that most fans turn the game off.
MLB thinks it needs to add features to appeal to the young – particularly technological features. That picks up a small percent of people that are turned on by them. But the demographics of younger people buying into MLB have been going down for well over 20 years, and they continue to go down each year. The new Commissioner is trying to do something, but it’s like an aging team throwing money at free agents – it’s not going to get them where they want to go.
Pay structure is a nightmare with guaranteed salaries that are only way to get players. The league should be incentive based contracts with set base tiered salaries. Teams could still guarantee a base salary for a number of years but good players will only make big money. Will stop the sandbagging after signing multi year deals. Teams won’t get destroyed by bad contracts anymore because majority of salaries are incentive based. Would make the sport great and competitive again.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t agree with that. This is capitalism, and players should be permitted to earn whatever their talents allow them to earn. Owners charge out of sight prices for tickets and concessions, media pays for and then charges consumer enormous sums for broadcasting, and the taxpayer subsidizes it all. You know very well that even if teams were able to pay the major league minimum for everyone, your price would not decline. Teams pay what the market bears, and that’s the way it should be.
I think I agree with you there Mike.
Teams needs to be taking more responsibility for the money they give out. If they choose to offer a contract that isn’t fiscal or logical, that’s on them.
Yes, it sucks when it looks as though players dog it after they’ve got their money. But that’s on teams to do their due diligence.
Take a look at the Sandoval saga – what did the Red Sox expect? He’s had weight, motivation and attitude issues for years. The Red Sox putting a contract in front of him was a mistake from the beginning. Own it.
If teams don’t want to be stuck with an albatross, don’t offer the money in the first place.
I guess it makes sense that an entertainer should make 200 times the amount of the cops that everyone wants to protect them and 20 times the doctors that they want to save their lives. If the salaries were in order then maybe prices wouldn’t be outrageous for everything involved with going to a game. How about year to year contracts? The salaries are crazy last 10 years. Look at what batting averages are that will net you 12-15 million a year, maybe 285-290. The pitcher with a 4.00 ERA gets 4 year 40-45 million guaranteed. They need incentives to play hard every year, every game and money is only motivator. I don’t mind paying high prices for good seats as long as product gets better as prices and salaries rise rather then standards lowered for performance. Also hard for GMs to predict who will dog it in the next 5-7 years of their career.
Put arod at 3rd base for 1 game and see how he does
Ed Duffy
Enough already with how good Brock Holt is….please.
A Utility ball player at best that would be exposed over anything over slightly 100 games played in a season.
If he was so good, he’d be starting 140+ games per year.
He’s a .3 WAR player. Not making the difference that Red Sox Nation makes him out to be.
Get over him man.