The Yankees announced Tuesday morning that they’ve reinstated center fielder Harrison Bader from the injured list. He’s missed the entire season thus far due to an oblique injury. Franchy Cordero was optioned back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a corresponding move.
Bader’s return gives the Yankees a plus defender who can slot into center field on an everyday basis and also deepen a lineup that has struggled for much of the year. While Bader hit just .217/.245/.283 in 14 regular-season games with the Yankees following his return from another IL stint last summer, he erupted with a .333/.429/.833 batting line and five homers in just 35 postseason plate appearances. He’s also a career .245/.317/.405 hitter overall during 1764 regular-season plate appearances (97 wRC+).
For much of the season, Bader’s looming return seemed like it’d be the catalyst for the Yankees to make some degree of changes in the outfield, but any such decision is now pushed back a week or so, with Aaron Judge on the injured list due to a hip strain. There’s hope that Judge can return early next week, however, at which point the Yankees will have to determine how they’ll allocate outfield playing time. Bader and Judge will presumably take regular reps in center and in right field, leaving the Yankees with a collection of Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Cabrera, Jake Bauers, Willie Calhoun and perhaps the currently-optioned Cordero to split time between left field and at designated hitter.
Bauers was only just selected to the 40-man roster from Triple-A after a huge start to his season in Scranton, but the other four have struggled considerably at the big league level in the Bronx. Hicks, in particular, has floundered at the plate but is also signed through the 2025 season. Calhoun is out of minor league options and is hitting just .220/.250/.244 through 44 plate appearances himself.
Bader’s return also bears monitoring given his status as an impending free agent. The manner in which he produces and is able to remain healthy over the course of the ensuing five months will play a significant role both in his earning power and in the context of the upcoming free-agent market. The 30-year-old Bader is slated to join Cody Bellinger and Enrique Hernandez as the top center field options on the market this winter. Hernandez has been playing primarily on the infield this year thanks to injuries elsewhere on the Boston roster, however. Bellinger is out to a strong start with the Cubs but will need more than just one good month to erase the offensive swoon that defined his 2021-22 seasons. Bader’s own return from injury will help form that market.
That’s not fair to Franchy he deserves a real chance let him start every yankee game until the break
He sucks
anyone on the roster “suck” less??
Hicks Cabrera and Bauers are all better
All 4 of these guys have a negative WAR so far this year. Whole bunch of mid. Literally costing the team games.
So does Franchy. So wouldn’t you rather go with people with at least somewhat of a track record or more potential.
I mean Bauers play 1/2 an inning so…
The Yankees haven’t been to a World Series since 2009! Cole, Stanton and Judge account for $115,000,000 of yearly payroll dollars for many years to come! How Cashman is still the GM is beyond stupid! Every year their are obvious holes in the roster that a 5 year old could see! The Yankees always have and will continue to OVER pay their players! The farm system is nothing but hype and as long as Cashman is running the show expect more of the same!
Try using exclamation points for some variety in your punctuation.
I guess he missed the virtuoso performance of mr. Volpe today. quite impressive. And Bader is not Babe Ruth, no one is saying he is, but at least he puts a professional in a lineup that has been seriously thin in that department recently with all the injuries, and therefore should be an improvement
Heh heh heh heh!
HEH! HEH! HEH! HEH!
You could have all four in left at once and they’d still misplay a routine fly ball
Harrison Bader and Josh Donaldson: the only 2 bright spots on the entire Yankees team.
Hahahahaha there are not bright spots on that team.
He banged almost 20 HRs last season despite missing almost 3 dozen games and he already banged 1 HR in only 5 games this season and him and Bader are the only players on the entire team with a winning mindset.
What team did you used to play for?
You mean bald spots.
Like clockwork, the playoff choker Aaron Judge fell off a cliff both in terms of performance and durability right after signing that idiotic mega contract for a fragile 31 year old oversized playoff choker.
Stanton has a worse contract. Have fun paying that through the 2028 season
28 season is a buyout that will definitely be triggered.
How naive to believe that Bader will make any contribution to the Yankees offense. This guy is a glove first player with little to contribute at the plate.
If Harrison Bader were making his debut with any other team, do you think they would have spoken so glowingly about him?
In 2021 when Bader was coming back from injury, they couldn’t complete an entire paragraph.
“Bader is finally set to make his 2021 debut after missing the first several weeks of the season with a forearm injury. He earned the lion’s share of starts for the Cardinals in center last year and batted .226/.336/.443 with four homers 125 plate appearances. Dylan Carlson has handled the position this season, but he’s capable of lining up at both corner outfield spots. ”
Now they have an entire article.
Ah… to be a Yankee…
He banged numerous HRs last season despite missing almost 80 games.
He also banged almost 20 SB last season despite missing almost 80 games.
@Mel. Who’s they? Your example between that older article and this one is probably written by two different writers during two different times in the season with two different teams. Post the link to your MLBTR article to prove me wrong because I think you are cherry-picking your evidence to prove your point.
mlbtraderumors.com/2021/04/cardinals-place-adam-wa…
April 29th… only off by a couple days.
have you seen our offense? diedrich bader would be an upgrade
Disgruntled Yankee fans should stop attending games. That’s probably the only way to make Steinbrenner jettison Cashman and Boone.
Agreed. Imagine wanting to pay $100 for seats and $20 for a grotesque chicken finger basket so you can watch a bunch of bargain bin Cashman acquisitions fill in for all the $20 million dollar a year injury prone stars who are on the IL.
Imagine wanting to pay $100 for seats and $20 for a grotesque chicken finger basket
=============================
Just out of curiosity, have you ever done that?
I only ask because the next Thursday game against TB has some really cheap tickets, and you can buy a chicken finger basket across the street at McDonalds.
I live in Alaska now but grew up in NYC. I clearly got sick of dealing with people 🙂
Well, I can never root for anything positive for the Yankees, but they do deserve a break from the injuries. It might not look like a lot, but Bader should definitely help.
I like Bader. He’s a solid defensive CFer. They should have gone out and signed Bellinger also for LF. That lefty bat in Yankee stadium… he’s great defensively too.
Aren’t Yankee fans always disgruntled, even if they are winning?
No, they aren’t.
His British butler calls him Master Bader.
“Beat” me to it. 🙂
The Emperor calls him Darth Bader
I was a little surprised to see that Bader has piled up 11.6 bWAR in just 537 games. That’s a good rate of production, 3+ bWAR per full season. He gets hurt a lot and the offense comes and goes. But the glove has always been valuable over his career.
I’m happy to see less of IKF hit bc he has yet to have an extra-basehit.
Bader’s return is just some allowance from grandma it will not cover the whole loss the Yankees experiencing right now.
Let the winning begin. Hader gonna knock ’em around for singles, doubles and triples like nobody’s business- clutch home runs despite not being a power hitter? Count on it. Gold Glove defense? In the bag.
One Man WAR machine. Gonna produce 0.9 WAR per game from here on out. Gonna put us on a 150 and 12 pace for the rest of the season.
Like Dustin Pedroia, Derek Jeter, Magglio Ordonez, Suzuki, etc. all rolled into one.
Stop calling your arms, “banged!”
Yankees are awful and it brings me so much joy. The days of them being the richest team playing against part time butchers and carpenters are over.
I’d love to see the Guards sweep these losers. Unfortunately, Cole is our daddy and will have our pathetic offense look worse than they did against German last night. Go Guardians!
Was Hal Steinbrenner adopted? He accepts mediocrity in a way that makes me wonder if he has any of George’s blood running through him. This team may be a seller by the trade deadline, and maybe they can unload Stanton to a contender.
I am looking forward to a future that has Spencer Jones and Jayson Dominguez patrolling the OF along with Aaron Judge. Hopefully sooner than later.
You are missing Estevan Florial
The Yankees traded Tahiro Estrada to the Giants for cash considerations and see how useful Estrada has been for the Giants.
The Yankees (Cashman and pals) usually make the worst trades in all of baseball
Bader late than never.
BMI = 28.5. Yankees big boys, always injured. Sad.
You’ve already used that one. Get new material. Better yet, take some time off.
Sorry, but it’s obviously the reason for all these injuries. Players are simply bigger than they need to be. It’s not a contact sport! You don’t need extra weight.
PS – the BMI is outdated for measuring risk of disease but not for risk of injury.
Wow the Yankees are such mess. Remember when they had a bunch of rookie deal players like Voit, Urshela, Gary, Severino, Torres, Judge, etc. all playing good and Stanton wasn’t an awful contract. Now it’s a team of aging and overpaid underperforming veterans with awful resource allocation.
That’s the Yankees for ya. They pump a bunch of money, thinking pinstripes will provide some sort of magical power and make stupid rules like must be clean shaved. How about revamping the scouting and GM department so The Yankees stop looking like the Cowboys of baseball.
Pretty much sums it up. Miss seeing guys like Brett Gardner, who although never great, could at least always catch the ball and hit even a little bit
As a RS fan, I really appreciated Gardner. He was a great LF, occasionally laid down a bunt, stole a base, pulled one down the line for a HR. Nice player.
He was like Darren Bragg, but for ten times as long.
I admired Harrison Bader as a player then I watched an interview and he talked about… his clothes. Stupid Yankees!
With Bader returning from the IL, the Yankees payroll currently on the IL dropped from $151.7M to $146.5M.
Great. Another light hitting outfielder. Problem solved.
This thread proves that Yankee haters are 100X worse than Yankee fans. I think you’de have to go back a month or two, maybe three to find as many nasty comments from Yankee fans.
@utah am I wrong about what I’m saying tho? Although I am hating I’m also providing facts.
Yeah these trolls are really getting out of hand lately. We have one here with multiple accounts and having conversations with himself (again). I don’t post as often anymore bc it’s difficult to sift through all the muck and have actual baseball convos.
The worst part is that they all make the same tired comments every time. You would think they could at least have some originality. It’s like seeing a hack comedian tell the same bad jokes every open mic night because they get a laugh out of the three drunks at the bar
My same old tired comments happen to be right. They’re too big for their breeches. Unnecessary weight, whether fat or muscle, unnecessarily increases the chance of injury. And the Yankees love their big boys. Heck, even Volpe is bulked up past a BMI of 25. Nobody’s trying to tackle you, you don’t need to be bigger!!!!! Performance better? Maybe a little bit. But at what cost? Is it worth it?
You weren’t the only person I was referring to, but if the shoe fits. Also, suggesting that guys like Bader and Volpe are too big is laughable. Are you familiar with modern nutrition? You don’t see too many athletes built like SpongeBob anymore
@Why The BMI bit is a tiring after three years. I have yet to read a single article or research paper correlating high BMI in pro athletes to more frequent injuries. One would think it takes a little more than a person with no qualifications and a handheld device to work for a pro training and conditioning and rehab dept.
You want to rag on Boone and Cashman? Fine.
It’s early so don’t sweat it. Yanks need to right the ship or they could be about 12 games back of the Rays later this month. If not, Yanks will be looking up at Orioles hoping to sneak in for the last wild card come late summer.
I hate to break it to you. The Yanks aren’t beating the Astros, Dodgers, Rays, Braves or Diamondbacks. Heck, even the pathetic Mets have a better chance at beating them.