The Yankees were on a record wins pace early in the season. They hit a midseason lull and tailed off a bit down the stretch, but a strong month of September locked up the AL East title in convincing fashion. Their reward: a first-round bye as the AL’s #2 seed and an ALDS matchup with the Guardians, the Central division champs who dispatched the Rays in two games in their Wild Card round.
Here’s the roster the Yankees will roll out for this set:
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Miguel Castro
- Gerrit Cole (Game 1 starter)
- Domingo German
- Clay Holmes
- Jonathan Loaisiga
- Clarke Schmidt
- Luis Severino (Game 3 starter)
- Jameson Taillon
- Lou Trivino
Left-Handed Pitchers
- Nestor Cortes (Game2 starter)
- Lucas Luetge
- Wandy Peralta
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Designated Hitter
Injuries are much of the story for New York. Notably, infielder DJ LeMahieu is not on the roster, as he continues to battle a right foot injury. The veteran hitter was reinstated from the injured list on September 30 after missing three weeks with toe inflammation. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (Twitter link) that LeMahieu has a fracture in his foot/toe area that inhibits his ability to swing. While the Yankees aren’t ruling him out for the entirety of the postseason, he won’t be an option for this series and could be sidelined even if New York advances.
In LeMahieu’s place, the Yankees welcome back Matt Carpenter from the 60-day injured list. Carpenter has been out since the second week of August with a foot fracture of his own, his occurring after fouling a ball off his foot. While the 36-year-old hasn’t played in a game since the injury, he has taken live batting practice in recent days. Manager Aaron Boone informed reporters this afternoon he’s likely to deploy Carpenter as a left-handed bench bat but didn’t entirely rule out the possibility he sees some defensive action (Twitter link via Yankees Videos). Signed to a major league deal after being granted his release from a minor league pact with Texas in May, Carpenter ranked at a .305/.412/.727 clip in 47 games before going down.
There’s also a fair bit of intrigue in the bullpen. It was surprisingly revealed this morning that Scott Effross would require Tommy John surgery. He’s of course not on the roster, while Aroldis Chapman has been left off after missing a team workout last week. Boone told reporters that Chapman has been throwing in Miami over the past few days but “for now, he’s staying away” from the team (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Clay Holmes is on the roster after not pitching since September 26 due to a shoulder issue.
DL LeMahieu may not but what about DJ?
This is the first I heard it was a fracture. Couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t getting better over two months. Too bad. He was at about a 130 OPS+ and on pace for a 6 rWAR season entering August. He basically went 0-for-August after that. He removes a more diversified type of hitter from the Yankee lineup.
@RobM, had the same thought about why it wasn’t healing. I wonder if this will require surgery, although a toe fracture seems like it should heal on its own with rest. Maybe they should have completely shut him down at the start of August. He played through a lot of pain and 0-4’s without getting better. No drive in his swing.
IL LeMahieu
Beltran gonna have those trashcans ready. Judge had his best season ever with the help of Beltran and those cans.
Weak troll attempt. You must be a Tampa fan.
Or just not a fan of Beltran and cheating.
Or just an annoying fan who needs new jokes.
Hey Rocker, give it a rest. You saying Judge cheats? Trash cans and all? Gimme a break
I mean if you have a brain you can put it all together. Beltran has cheated his entire career and taken it from team to team with him. He worked in the booth for NY with all the cameras at his dispense. Yeah, I can put that together pretty easily. A career cheater cheats, doesn’t look good when Judge has his best season with Beltran on board. Hard to ignore when you realize Beltran was there.
Rocker, so your entire argument is based on the fact he is a game analyst for the YES network? This is beyond dumb. This is akin to saying John Smoltz or John Kruk are feeding information to their teams LIVE while they are in the middle of a broadcast.
Yeah pretty dumb comment. Someone will see his comment and recite it as fact to a dozen people. Lame.
The low IQ runs strong in this troll.
Half of those pitchers have already been overused. But it’s not like they have other options. You go with what got you there. Even if you burned them out to win a few extra meaningless games. But we will see what happens. There’s still some good arms on the staff. It’s up to Dr. Boonedoggle to manage it.
Sooooo, Locastro, Hicks, & Marwin over the future of our organization in Peraza? What in the world are they doing?! In what way do any of those three provide what Peraza could? He’s got excellent defense (better than all 3), a good bat (better than all 3 probably), and he’s fast (faster than 2/3).
Well, hopefully this doesn’t blow up in our face…
I came here to comment on this but the shortbus troll Rocker distracted me with his stupidity.
WHAT IS GOING ON? Why is Hicks still on this team let alone on the ALDS roster? Are we trying to lose the game.? Do we not even care anymore?
I was surprised about Locastro. With Hicks and Gonzalez, it comes down to the “experienced players thing”.
Experience! Who cares? They stink. Now we go into Cleveland with a seven batters since Hicks and Gonzalez are about as close as you can get to an automatic out. Add in Higgy and you make this six.
Good news, though, they junked DJ. His season should have ended two months ago.
Joe, I get experienced players thing, but if we have to rely on Hicks’ or Marwin’s experience to win this year…it’s over already. We should be getting Peraza that experience now because he’s allegedly our team’s future. And, I know this isn’t your argument, but an observation of their reasoning.
Plus, Hicks’ play on both sides of the ball does nothing to impress. It’s like the dude at work who knows exactly what to do, but gets out of his work any way he can…it does nothing for the team.
Regardless, this is a clear illustration of one of the Yankees biggest problems, perennially – they don’t get their youth movement into games and keep the ineffective but high-priced guys on the field. No way anyone can convince me both Hicks and Gonzalez are better suited than Peraza. I hope this comment bites me in the buttocks and Marwin and Hicks go crazy – but I doubt it.
No argument from me Clipper. I’m just giving the company line.
Hasn’t been talked about as much as others, but the LeMahieu contract is a stinker. And there are still four years left on it.
Yankees lost already with only one hitter (Judge], not closer. No DJ L nobody else hit,,Locastro!!!,,Gonzalez,,Hitck !!!, Higachi !!!,Donaldson !!! Bader!!! Isiah,,,Stanton !!!,, ufff hard to swalow
Stop drinking boxes of wine and feed your cats already.
Are the Yankees starting to look vulnerable here? Bullpen took a hit, DJ is out, even October stalwart Chapman isn’t around to fill in that bullpen hole.
Just seems like several things are going wrong at the wrong time here.
Halo: I wish you were right about “starting” to look vulnerable, but honestly, they’ve looked pretty vulnerable during their entire second half in different ways. This is just another chink in the armor, unfortunately.
Yankees lineup looks like they don’t expect to Guardians to score many runs this series. Yankees hoping to win 1-0 and 3-2 games.
IKF boots his first chance with Ramirez on deck. I’d rather see Peraza out there, both for his glove and his bat.
LeBooner will remind us of how great a SS IKF is while fielding these questions after the game.
Honestly, Gaurdians in 4 or 5 ?
Years?
Games
Why the hell wasn’t JD running?!?!
In other news . . . why did Servais bring Ray in to pitch to Alvarez instead of just putting Houston’s best hitter on with an intentional walk? Any ideas?
After the HBP, I knew they were going to lose.
only thing I can think of is he didn’t want to put the tying run on second and the winning run on first… also, pick your poison, lefty Ray vs. lefty Alvarez who needs an extra base hit to tie the game or lefty Ray vs. righty Bregman who homered the previous inning and only needs a single to tie the game…. or leave in righty Sewald (who was losing his command) to pitch to righty Bregman with bases loaded.
I didn’t like the move. Walk Alvarez and let Seward go after Bregman. But maybe he was saving Sewald from bearing the weight of it all. Good chance that he will need Sewald again while I doubt he will put Ray in at the end of another game. Just a guess.
Cashman’s stubbornness still prevails. No Peraza. IKF’s error prolonged the 1st inning which excellerated Cole’s pitch count.
Who’s going to spin the records?
Y
The Yankees will beat the Guardians however they will loose to the Astros. There is also no way they beat the Dodgers. The Dodgers would sweep them in 4. Yankees are not built to beat the Astros and Dodgers. Those teams are so much better. Yankees don’t do well in short series. Aaron Judge will be wearing a Phillies uniform next year
Yankee
They had a weather forecast two days ago telling them there was an 80% chance of a rainout today. The same forecast told them that yesterday would be clear. I don’t know why the obvious remedy of moving the game date up one day wasn’t taken.