The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve placed first baseman/designated hitter Kendrys Morales on the 10-day injured list due to a strained left calf. The Yankees, who optioned lefty Stephen Tarpley to Triple-A last night, have recalled outfielder Mike Tauchman and left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. from Triple-A as well.
Morales, 35, hasn’t hit well since being acquired from the Athletics. He’s stumbled to a .177/.320/.242 line through 75 plate appearances with New York while splitting first base/DH duties with Luke Voit. Morales looked like he could be at risk of losing his spot with the Yankees when Didi Gregorius returned and the team needed to open a 40-man roster spot. However, the organization thought enough of the veteran Morales that they instead opted to move Troy Tulowitzki to the 60-day IL and option Thairo Estrada to Triple-A instead.
It’s been a rough season overall for Morales, who has followed up a solid 2018 season at the plate (.249/.331/.438) with a .194/.313/.253 effort in 201 plate appearances between Oakland and the Bronx. The IL placement will keep him in the team’s plans for the time being, but Morales will need to eventually start swinging a better bat if he’s to stick around on a Yankees roster that should soon be getting several key sluggers as they return from their own IL stints.
No Ken do.
His presence boosted clubhouse Morale(s).
Really! I thought the clubhouse was Morale- less
Really? I thought that the clubhouse was Morale-less
I thought he made the clubhouse Morale-less
Decided to give up on “really”?
Put Gardy there too
…I mean…
Another Yankee injured, maybe they should go by the name of New York ILees?
That was so bad
Sometimes I really do miss the downvote option
I just…now it’s the backups of the backups of the backups? Maybe we need an exorcism or something?
Morales was so terrible for A’s, 1 homerun in 34 games. Matt olson came back healthy after and 11 hr in 36 games
He sucked for the Yankees too. I think his injury came from him going 3 for 5 against the Mets Tuesday. He just wasn’t used to running to first.
Few days ago an article was written about Stroman possibly a candidate to become a Yankee. Depending on what happens with Stanton and Judge, they may want to think about Justin Smoak. Voit is not good defensively. Smoak could tear it up in that ballpark also. Watching Voit at 1B is a bit rough.
Voit is fine at 1b. Much better than last year. No gold glover but he won’t kill you defensively.
This. The only reason they picked up Morales was because they have 100 injuries, not because Voit sucks. Kendrys would have been cut once Stanton and/or Judge came back anyway
Not to mention DJL can play first as a defensive sub late in games if needed.
Voit’s fine as a hitter. Come October when you are nowhere to be found I’ll drop by to say I told you so. Voit is not to be trusted at 1B. He will kill you defensively. Lemahieu may be needed elsewhere so he’s not a guaranteed insurance policy.
Can’t wait! Have you watched him at all this year? He does the job just fine. His defense is very far from a pressing issue for the Yankees.
The whole Yankees defense is a pressing issue.
I been preaching Smoak since the off season
Justin numbers: H47 HR12 RBI33 0 AVG.229 OBP.369 OPS.803.
They are not bad, but I rather have Voit and save my talent for trade for Ace Pitcher. Max Scherzer.
I said it would depend on Stanton and Judge’s health, because Voit can DH.
What talent do the Yankees actually have in their farm to acquire Max Scherzer. If the Nationals were willing to trade Scherzer they’d be looking at a return contenders such as the Dodgers, Astros, and the Braves would offer that would blow away any Yankees offer.
“Strained left calf” – yeah sure.
Sorry to hear about the injury, but I now wonder if the front office is manipulating the system? I have been a Yankee fan since 60, and I cannot remember this many injuries for one season. Everyone knows how cheap Hal is when it comes to running the club, but has he taken it to the medical and training staff too?
You are crazy Jim if you think they WANT to have the likes of Judge, Stantion,Sevy etc on the disabled list.
Steve Donahue has been the Yankees trainer forever, doubt it’s anything he and his staff are doing
“How cheap Hal is”
Didnt know having a payroll consistently over/near $200MM is being cheap. If you want to look at cheap owners, look at the Rays and Pirates. Its so misguided to think that Hal is being cheap because he didnt make the mistake of signing Harper.
Agree. Hal and the FO being cheap is one of the dumber things making the rounds lately.
The yanks are in the bottom when it comes to spending compared to their revenue.
bj allow me to spell this out for the hundredth time. To go over the lux tax takes away draft picks and slot money.
That’s because if the luxury tax and loss of draft picks associated
Strained left calf? He needs to rest or he might rupture his achilles lol
Morales is a game time decision for Golden State tonight.
I’m so saddened by this news
You should want EE so he can carry your parrot for you.
Yankees are notorious for signing has been players who end up on the DL. It’s sick to watch. They have a whole team on the IL right now and they’ll go out and get another player
OK, the previous article Adams talks about Castellanos… “Castellanos hasn’t hit that much in 2019.” His slash is .263/..315/.454. In this article he talks glowingly about Morales’ hitting… “Morales, who has followed up a solid 2018 season at the plate (.249/.331/.438)…”. They have an identical OPS of .769 with Castellanos having a higher batting average and Morales having a higher BB average. How can one be “solid” while the other guy that’s hit better is “hasn’t hit that much”?
Your bias is showing again.
OPS of .566 for this season is not solid anywhere, and especially for where Boone had Morales in the batting order.
That’s his OPS for this year… Adams said Morales had a “solid” year last year.
What bias? A Kendrys Morales bias??
If you even think for a second that its a Yankees bias you are the biggest fool on this site. Its not even the case that Morales had his “solid year” with the Yankees (since he was on the Blue Jays) and it is the case that “Morales, 35, hasn’t hit well since being acquired from the Athletics. He’s stumbled to a .177/.320/.242 line through 75 plate appearances with New York”. Btw, Morales has an OPS+ of 112 last year, thats solid. Not crazy good by any stretch, but solid. Castellanos has an OPS+ of 101 this year, which is a significant difference from 112 and a significant decline from the 128 OPS+ he had in 2018. These are reasonable factors to conclude that someone isnt hitting well (in case you missed it, the factors are: hitting at an average level and hitting below the players own standards).
I swear, if you even talk about the Yankees this guy Melchez starts to tear up in frustration. M8, stop being such a bitter weirdo ffs
I didn’t think for a second about Yankee bias… you did though. I was talking about the negative bias towards Castellanos. The only data given were the slash lines and they were almost identical. He said “solid year” for Morales and “hasn’t hit that much” for Castellanos. Nowhere did I mention New York… Kendrys has hardly played for New York and what he has done has been terrible. This site is constantly talking Castellanos down. Last year they called his fielding “unplayable”. His defense was bad, but it wasn’t “unplayable”. He played all year in right last year and so far this year. He wasn’t terrible. It’s not like he couldn’t catch the ball or he couldn’t throw… he just gets bad jumps. This year he has improved… just like I said he would because he’s new to the position. This site wrote him off. It’s a shame when a nobody like me sees more in a player than these “professionals” do. They spend too much time looking at the data and not watching the game.
You’ve mentioned a Yankee bias in previous posts on other articles. You didnt have to outright say it again for me to reference it. I also really doubt they have some irrational hatred towards Castellanos.
It seems like every article has you upset and its always about some minute slight that you perceived to be their intention.
1) adjusted for context, Morales’s line was 10 points higher by wRC+
2) everything is relative and context matters; here, he’s talking about an aging veteran who had a decent bounceback year and is a 25th man on the roster … in the other post, a hyped young player who was being dangled in trades with a high asking price
3) Steve is from Minnesota, why would he care to prop up the Yankees?
Good riddance – he’s not coming back ! Terrible stint w Yanks & only had 2 good games AB.
Bring in youth from AAA instead
Still has a great eye and great walk rate. Just can’t hit his way on base. He’s probably relegated to 1B/DH fill-in duties with multiple teams for the rest of his career.
Where is Logan Morrison ????
at least Mike Tauchman’s back, I like him