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Yankees Notes: Shortstop, Judge, Gardner, Coaching Staff

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There are plenty of opportunities available for the Yankees, widely expected to be one of the league’s more active teams this winter. After dipping below the luxury tax threshold to reset their penalties in 2021, it seems the club is poised for a big offseason.

Early comments from general manager Brian Cashman have stoked that fire, with the baseball ops leader telling reporters at last week’s GM Meetings the front office has some financial leeway. Owner Hal Steinbrenner echoed that sentiment, telling David Lennon of Newsday that Cashman’s suggestion is “accurate.” The New York chairman declined to delve into specifics about where the club’s budgetary limit might land, but he didn’t downplay the possibility of some noteworthy moves.

The most straightforward path to a big winter would seem to be dipping into the free agent shortstop market. Not only has Cashman already professed a desire to upgrade the position, he’s confirmed the club has been in contact with the reps for multiple free agents. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network tweeted this week that the Yankees and incumbent Dodgers were among the clubs with interest in Corey Seager, while Yankees’ brass has expressed a willingness to consider Carlos Correa despite his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

It remains to be seen whether the Yankees will be willing to commit anywhere in the neighborhood of the $300+MM guarantees it could take to land Seager or Correa though. The club has two of the game’s most promising shortstop prospects — Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe — rising up the minor league ranks. Matthew Roberson of the New York Daily News reported yesterday that the Yankees were more likely to pursue a stopgap option than to play at the top of the market at the position based on the belief that Peraza and/or Volpe could take the reins in the not too distant future. If the Yankees were to eschew the star free agents at the top of the market, Andrelton Simmons or Freddy Galvis could profile as short-term options to stabilize the infield defense.

Whether the Yankees should be willing to sit out this offseason’s shortstop class is up for debate, but doing so could allow them to allocate more funds towards locking up star outfielder Aaron Judge on a long-term deal. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Judge to command a salary in the $17.1MM range in 2022, his final season of arbitration eligibility. The three-time All-Star is slated to reach free agency next offseason.

Judge has already expressed openness to an extension. Cashman told reporters (including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com) this evening the club was willing to talk about a long-term deal with Judge’s representatives but hasn’t yet opened talks. Locking up Judge at this stage of his career would no doubt require a massive investment. The 29-year-old has already banked a significant amount during his run through arbitration, and he’s coming off a stellar .287/.373/.544 showing across 633 plate appearances.

A reunion with Brett Gardner would require a far smaller outlay but could eventually be on the to-do list. The Yankees have continued to bring the fourteen-year veteran back in recent seasons, but the 38-year-old is currently a free agent after both sides declined their ends of a 2022 option. The Yankees haven’t discussed a potential reunion with Gardner’s reps in the early stages of the offseason, Cashman said (via Hoch), but the GM said his belief is the career-long Yankee intends to continue playing.

In non-player news, Cashman also expressed a desire to expand the coaching staff. The Yankees are planning to hire three hitting coaches and an additional pitching instructor (Hoch link). That’s become an increasingly common approach, particularly this offseason. We’ve already seen teams like the Brewers and Orioles hire two hitting instructors as co-hitting coaches, with an assistant working underneath that top duo. The Yankees parted ways with previous hitting coach Marcus Thames at the end of the season.

Aaron Judge Hopes To Finish Career With Yankees

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Aaron Judge does not offer any two-headed equivocations when asked about his desire to remain with the Yankees long-term. Per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, Judge was pretty clear about his intentions, saying, “That would be a wish of mine, a goal of mine, to finish my career as a Yankee. If it was up to me, I would be a Yankee for the next 10 years, for sure.”

Of course, we’ve heard this sort of thing from players before. We’re not six months removed from Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez offering similar pull quotes about their time with the Cubs, and they’ve all now played home games outside of the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. As we learned from those Cubbies, the decision to stay in one uniform long-term isn’t strictly up to the player.

Granted, there’s no reason to think the Yankees would be in a position to deal Judge the way the Cubs sloughed off their stars, but he could be heading into his final season in the Bronx regardless. Judge will enter free agency after the 2022 season. And while the Yankees do not have any financial issues that should seriously threaten their ability to keep Judge, they do have a couple of hefty contracts on the books.

Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton have guaranteed contract for at least five years apiece beyond 2022, and if the winter plays out as expected, there may be another $100MM-to-$200MM deal on the books by the time spring training begins. It is largely assumed that, now that they’ve finally moved Gleyber Torres to the keystone, the Yankees will come away with one of the the winter’s top free agent shortstops,

Theoretically, reaching a long-term accord with the Yankees should be easy, though we know that’s hardly ever the case. The Yankees haven’t stayed successful by giving money away to every player that likes the cut of their jib in pinstripes.

Of course, Judge is a star by just about any measure. The 6’7″ outfielder has posted no worse than a 140 wRC+ in any season of the last five, including a 148 wRC+ mark last season. Sure, he has yet to replicate his 52 home run, 174 wRC+, 8.3 fWAR Rookie of the Year campaign that put him on the map in 2017, but in the four seasons since that breakout, Judge ranks 19th among all batters in total fWAR and tied for sixth by measure of wRC+.

Judge is also an underrated defender, an unequivocal plus in right field as well as a bit of an optical illusion because of his size. He racked up 11 defensive runs saved as a right fielder in 2021 while proving himself capable of manning the middle in a pinch. Judge played 158 innings in center, though with a mark of -2 defensive runs saved and -0.8 UZR.

The other drawback to a long-term deal for Judge is that the California native will turn 31 in April of the first year of any new deal that he signs. Judge has been durable in that he’s been a significant contributor in every season of his career. On the flip side, 2021 was just the second time Judge appeared in at least 70% of New York’s regular season games. There is risk, therefore, in signing Judge to a long-term pact, though if Judge is as enthusiastic as he seems, that calculation will certainly be part of GM Brian Cashman’s winter planning.

Yankees Notes: Boone, Gardner, Judge

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The Yankees’ season ended in last night’s 6-2 loss to the Red Sox in the AL wild card game, and speculation immediately began about the Bronx Bombers’ next steps.  It has now been 12 seasons (a eternity by Bronx standards) since the Yankees’ last World Series appearance, and a return trip won’t get any easier in 2022.

“We’ve got to get better in every aspect because it’s not just the Red Sox and the Astros now in our league,” manager Aaron Boone told ESPN’s Joon Lee and other reporters.  “Look at our division — the Rays are a beast, Toronto.  There’s some teams in the Central that are better and better, teams in the West that are better and better, teams that have closed the gap on us.”

Whatever moves are made during the offseason, perhaps the first question on many fans’ minds is whether or not Boone will still be the one managing any new faces.  While Boone has an outstanding 328-218 record in his four seasons as manager, it hasn’t resulted in a contract extension from the original deal he signed back in December 2017.  That original contract was for three seasons and a club option for 2021, which the Yankees exercised, though Boone spent the year in lame-duck status without any guarantee for a longer tenure.

“I haven’t had any conversations about [my contract] with anyone, so we’ll see,” Boone said.  “I love being here.  I love going to work with this group of players….Whatever does happen, I’m at peace with.  I know that I can hold my head high.”

Brett Gardner is the last player remaining from the Yankees’ 2009 championship team, and after spending his entire career in New York, the outfielder told ESPN’s Marly Rivera and other reporters that “I hope I am back next season.”  The ball is in Gardner’s court to some extent, as he has a $2.3MM player option for 2022, and the Yankees have a $7.15MM club option (with a $1.15MM buyout) available should Gardner decline his player option.

Gardner has played each of the last three seasons on one-year guaranteed contracts, with the Yankees opting to decline club options following the 2018 and 2020 seasons.  Since Gardner delivered a below-average (90 OPS+, 93 wRC+) offensive season by hitting only .222/.327/.362 over 461 plate appearances, it seems hard to see the Yankees retain him at that $7.15MM figure, even considering Gardner’s long history with the team and his still-solid baserunning and outfield glovework at age 38.  It’s possible a new deal could be worked out for something between the $2.3MM and $7.15MM price points, though Gardner might prefer to avoid the uncertainty of offseason negotiations and just lock in his player option, even if it means a substantial pay cut.

Aaron Judge can look forward to a nice raise (from his $10.175MM salary in 2021) in his third and final arbitration year, as the star slugger enjoyed another big season.  Judge hit .287/.373/.544 with 39 home runs, and though he spent 11 days on the COVID-related injury list, Judge’s 148 games and 633 PA represented his highest totals in either category since 2017.

It all makes for a very nice platform for Judge in extension talks, as Judge is scheduled for free agency following the 2022 season.  “I want to be a Yankee for life,” Judge told Tyler Kepner of The New York Times and other reporters last night.  “I want to wear the pinstripes the rest of my career and represent this great organization and bring a championship back to the city. But you never know what the future holds for you.”

After Judge was hampered by injuries in 2018-20, his ability to stay on the field this season should to some extent lessen any concerns the Yankees might have about Judge’s chances of staying healthy into his 30’s.  (Judge will be 31 on Opening Day 2023.)  Judge has been one of the sport’s most fearsome bats even in his injury-plagued years, and he has also become a fan favorite in New York and the face of this era of Yankees baseball.  It remains to be see, however, whether Judge’s track record results in an extension with a franchise that generally hasn’t agreed to many contract extensions in the Hal Steinbrenner era.

While pure dollars aren’t really the issue, the fact that the Yankees stayed under the luxury tax threshold this season and reset their tax payment status could be a hint towards a willingness to work something out with their popular slugger.  When the Yankees last ducked under the luxury tax line in 2018, they responded with a pair of extensions with Luis Severino and Aaron Hicks the following spring.  Of course, the fact that the Yankees have thus far gotten very little return on those Severino and Hicks deals might also have perhaps hardened the team’s resolve against extensions.

Yankees Activate Aaron Judge

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The Yankees have reinstated Aaron Judge and Kyle Higashioka from the Covid-19-related injured list, per a club announcement. They’ve also added recent trade acquisition Clay Holmes to the active roster. In a series of corresponding moves, the Yankees placed righty Yoendrys Gomez on the Covid list, optioned outfielder Estevan Florial and righty Albert Abreu to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and transferred right-hander Michael King to the 60-day injured list.

Judge returns to the Yankees’ lineup batting second and will hope to help spur a rally in the standings for a Yankees club that currently trails the Red Sox by nine and a half games. The Yankees are a much more-manageable three and a half games out of the second Wild Card spot in the American League. The 29-year-old Judge has had another excellent season when he’s been on the field, batting .282/.375/.526 with 21 home runs in 360 trips to the plate.

Higashioka, meanwhile, has given the Yankees some power and a strong walk rate in a limited role as a backup. His .196/.278/.433 slash doesn’t exactly jump out, but he has more pop and a better walk rate than most reserve catchers you’ll find around the league.

King’s transfer to the 60-day IL rules him out until early September. He went on the 10-day IL back on July 8, and his 60-day minimum stay on the IL is retroactive to the date of the initial placement. In 48 1/3 innings this season, King has pitched to a 3.72 ERA with a 47-to-21 K/BB ratio.

Yankees Select Three Players, Place Luke Voit On Injured List

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The Yankees announced a series of roster moves before this evening’s game against the Red Sox. New York selected the contracts of outfielder Greg Allen, catcher Rob Brantly and infielder Hoy Jun Park (previously reported). As expected, All-Star outfielder Aaron Judge, third baseman Gio Urshela and catcher Kyle Higashioka landed on the COVID-19 injured list. (Manager Aaron Boone implied this afternoon all three players had tested positive for the virus as part of its spread within the Yankees clubhouse).

Additionally, first baseman Luke Voit has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to July 13, with left knee inflammation. Fellow first baseman Chris Gittens was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take his active roster spot.

Allen and Brantly each have a decent amount of big league experience, although neither has played in the majors to this point in 2021. Allen, a switch-hitting outfielder, suited up for the Indians and Padres between 2017-20. He’s only managed a tepid .239/.298/.343 line across 618 MLB plate appearances, but he’s an elite runner capable of covering all three outfield spots. The 28-year-old has had a strong season with Scranton, hitting .272/.409/.369 over 128 trips to the dish, drawing 15 walks and rather remarkably reaching base via hit-by-pitch nine times.

Brantly, a lefty-hitting backstop, has appeared in parts of six major league seasons for four different clubs. He appeared in one game with the Giants last year but hasn’t accrued more than 36 MLB plate appearances in any single season since 2013. The 32-year-old has hit a stellar .270/.391/.477 with six homers in 133 plate appearances with the RailRiders this year and will be on hand as Gary Sánchez’s  backup while Higashioka is on the shelf.

As part of the 2021 health and safety protocols, players selected to the big league roster as replacements for players landing on the COVID-19 injured list can be removed from the 40-man roster without being exposed to waivers. Thus, each of Allen, Brantly and Park can be taken off the 40-man and returned to Scranton without being offered to other teams upon the returns of Judge, Urshela and Higashioka.

Voit’s IL placement is unrelated to the Yankees’ COVID-19 situation. It’s the third stint of the season for the slugging first baseman, who’s had a disappointing 2021 campaign because of health woes. The diagnosis of left knee inflammation is particularly alarming since Voit began the season on the IL after undergoing surgery to repair a meniscus tear in the area. (His second stint was due to an oblique strain). Voit will undergo a lubricating injection and is looking at potential platelet-rich plasma treatment, Boone told reporters (including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). The team didn’t provide a timetable for his return, but it seems he could be looking at another significant absence given the skipper’s comments.

That should leave first base to Gittens, who was selected to the roster during Voit’s second IL stint earlier this year. The 27-year-old didn’t perform well over his first 25 MLB plate appearances, but he’s had a downright monstrous season in Triple-A. The right-handed hitting slugger has mashed at a .359/.519/.718 clip across 104 plate appearances with the RailRiders this year.

Latest On Yankees’ COVID-19 Situation

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JULY 16: Testing today has turned up zero new positive cases, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). However, Boone added that six Yankees players have been confirmed positive within the past week and are expected to miss at least ten days, suggesting that follow-up testing on Judge, Urshela and Higashioka has confirmed their positive results. Friday’s game against the Red Sox will be played, with yesterday’s postponement to be made up as part of a doubleheader on August 17.

JULY 15, 5:20 pm: Judge is indeed the Yankees All-Star in question, The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham reports (via Twitter).  Gio Urshela, and Kyle Higashioka are the other two Yankees in COVID protocol, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets.

JULY 15, 5:05 pm: Rafael Devers and other Red Sox All-Star representatives were asked to undergo additional COVID-19 testing after being told that one of the Yankees’ All-Star reps tested positive, ESPN’s Marly Rivera (Twitter links) reports.  This would indicate at least one of Aaron Judge, Aroldis Chapman, or Gerrit Cole — Cole was replaced on the All-Star roster but was still present during festivities.

JULY 15, 3:39 pm: Tonight’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees has been postponed due to a COVID-19 situation within the Yankees’ clubhouse, as originally reported by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link).  Major League Baseball released an official announcement about the postponement, noting “positive COVID-19 tests within the New York Yankees organization.”  There isn’t yet any word about a make-up date for tonight’s contest, and it isn’t yet known if any other games in the scheduled four-game series could be in jeopardy.

Speaking with The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler (all links to Twitter) and other reporters, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said the club has six ongoing COVID-19 cases, all of players.  Cashman confirmed that the three players currently on the Yankees’ COVID-related injury list (left-handers Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta, and righty Jonathan Loaisiga) all tested positive for the virus, while three other potential cases are pending confirmation of positive results.  ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that “at least two” of the positive COVID tests were delivered by Yankees position players.

Most importantly, Cashman indicated that the cases appear to be asymptomatic, saying “As of right now, everybody is ok.”  The Yankees as a whole have passed the league’s mandated 85% vaccination rate , though Cashman said that only “most” of the six players had received vaccines.  Cortes, Peralta, and Loaisiga had all been vaccinated.

Cortes and Peralta were placed on the COVID-19 list earlier today, while Loaisiga’s placement came back on July 10.  Loaisiga has yet to rejoin the team from their road trip in Houston, Cashman said, as the right-hander has been quarantined.

This is the second time the Yankees have been hit with a COVID outbreak this season, after eight players and coaches tested positive for the virus back in May.  (New York manager Aaron Boone told Adler and other reporters today that Gleyber Torres’ positive test at the time was actually a false positive.)  That outbreak didn’t result in any postponed games, as while COVID-IL placements have still been rather common this season, today’s Red Sox/Yankees matchup is the only the eighth game of the season to be postponed for COVID-related reasons.  The other seven postponements all took place prior to April 19.

MLB Announces All-Star Starters

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Major League Baseball announced the starting lineups for the 2021 All-Star Game this evening. The starting lineups are determined by fan vote. This year’s All-Star Game will take place in Coors Field on Tuesday, July 13. The starting pitchers and reserves will be announced at a later date.

National League

American League

*On the 60-day injured list

AL West Notes: Judge, Angels, Athletics, Kelenic

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The Angels had trade talks with the Yankees about Aaron Judge this winter, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports, though it sounds as if the discussions were little more than due diligence.  “It was the lightest of flirtations,” as Olney put it, “and perhaps a door-opener for other names.”  No details about the specific nature of the talks were mentioned, though it’s safe to assume the Angels explored some bigger outfield names like Judge before eventually landing Dexter Fowler in a salary-dump of a trade from the Cardinals.

Needless to say, a Judge trade would have been arguably the offseason’s biggest blockbuster, and it’s fun to speculate about what exactly Los Angeles would have had to give up to land the slugger.  (Cue the inevitable “Judge for Trout and Ohtani sounds about fair” jokes in the comments section.)  The Angels and Yankees were somewhat imperfect trade partners since both shared a need for starting pitching, which could be one of the reasons negotiations didn’t get very far.  Since getting under the luxury tax threshold seemed to be the Yankees’ primary offseason goal, finances would likely have played some factor in a hypothetical trade, though obviously the Yankees wouldn’t have just given Judge away to clear his relatively modest $10.175MM salary.  Olney also observed that discussion about Judge’s future in the Bronx will soon become more prominent, as Judge is only under team control through the 2022 season.

More from the AL West…

  • In figures released on Friday, the Athletics’ plans for their new ballpark at the Howard Terminal site in downtown Oakland will cost $1 billion for the stadium itself, and roughly $12 billion for development projects in the surrounding area.  (Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times has the details.)  The bulk of the costs would be covered by the team and private developers, though the A’s asked the city to provide $855MM for infrastructure improvements.  That money would come from taxes related to the project, but a statement from Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf said that while “the city is willing to bring to bear its resources to help make this vision a reality…today’s proposal from the A’s appears to request public investment at the high end for projects of this type nationwide.”  The Athletics have requested that Oakland’s city council vote on the project before the end of the summer.
  • Mariners star prospect Jarred Kelenic will make his MLB debut at some point this season, though while GM Jerry Dipoto told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand that Kelenic “is going to get here soon…I don’t expect that’s going to be in a matter of days.”  Enough time has passed in the season that the Mariners have gained an extra year of control over Kelenic’s services, a tactic mentioned as part of the infamous comments made by former team president/CEO Kevin Mather during a rotary club speech in February.  As expected, Dipoto made no mention of service time considerations, noting that the M’s wanted to see Kelenic get more experience facing left-handed pitching.  The GM also said that “when you break camp with a team, committing to those players for the first 30 or 40 games, it would be unfair to judge what they do without giving them that sample to work with.”  Looking at Seattle’s current outfield options, Mitch Haniger is off to a red-hot start, Taylor Trammell hasn’t hit but has looked strong defensively, and Kyle Lewis only just returned from the injured list.  Ty France is also hitting well and has taken most of the DH at-bats, but France could also see more time at first or second base when the time comes for Kelenic’s promotion.

AL Injury Notes: Judge, Mariners, Orioles

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A few injury updates from the American League:

  • Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge wasn’t in their lineup against the Orioles on Wednesday because of soreness in his left side, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com writes. Manager Aaron Boone doesn’t seem all that concerned, as he said, “With the off day tomorrow I don’t want to take any chances.” Still, it’s notable in light of Judge’s extensive injury history. He missed a large amount of time in 2018 after suffering a fractured wrist on a hit by pitch, which was obviously just a bad break, but then sat out a combined 92 games from 2019-20 because of oblique, rib and calf problems. Judge has been excellent when healthy, though, and has begun this season with an eye-popping .364/.391/.636 line with two home runs in 23 plate appearances.
  • Mariners center fielder Kyle Lewis is progressing in his recovery from a bone bruise in his right knee and could make his season debut during the team’s April 16-20 homestand, Corey Brock of The Athletic tweets. The injury has prevented Lewis from building on last season’s American League Rookie of the Year-winning campaign, in which he batted .262/.364/.437 with 11 home runs and five stolen bases over 242 plate appearances. The Mariners have mostly used Taylor Trammell in center during Lewis’ absence.
  • Sticking with the Mariners, first baseman Evan White exited their game against the White Sox on Wednesday with tightness in his left quad, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. The team replaced White with Jose Marmolejos. White was off to a less-than-ideal start to the season even before the injury, as the 24-year-old has collected just three hits in 24 plate appearances and struck out seven times. The Mariners signed White to a six-year, $24MM extension before last season, but he wound up struggling to a .176/.252/.346 line with a 41.6 percent K rate in 202 PA as a rookie then.
  • Orioles outfielder DJ Stewart might be back in their lineup this weekend, according to manager Brandon Hyde (via Joe Trezza of MLB.com). Stewart hasn’t played yet this year on account of a hamstring issue that has shelved him for a little over a month. The 27-year-old lined up in the corner outfield in all 31 of his appearances in 2020, and he put up an unusual .193/.355/.455 batting line with seven home runs 112 trips to the plate. Despite a low batting average and a 33.9 percent strikeout rate, Stewart’s ability to draw walks (17.9 percent) and hit for power (.261 ISO) carried him to an impressive wRC+ of 124.

Yankees, Aaron Judge Avoid Arbitration

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The Yankees and Aaron Judge have agreed on a $10.175MM contract to avoid arbitration, reports USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter link). That falls in line with MLBTR’s projected salary range of $9.2MM — $10.7MM. Judge is a client of PSI Sports Management.

This was Judge’s second of three trips through the arbitration process and marks a slight pay bump from last season’s $8.5MM mark (prior to prorating salaries). The power-hitting outfielder will be eligible for free agency after the 2022 season.

Judge was hampered by calf injuries last year but remained plenty productive when he was able to take the field. He popped nine home runs in just 114 plate appearances en route to a .257/.336/.554 slash line (140 wRC+). The 28-year-old figures to reprise his role as one of the sport’s most fearsome sluggers in 2021.

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