Easter Sunday has come and gone, and Monday marks the Yankees’ first off-day after their first three series of 2022. Their current road trip continues Tuesday night in Detroit, and they will enter that series with five as a magic number: their record is 5-5, and Tigers DH Miguel Cabrera could join the 3,000-hit club during the series with five more knocks.
Ten games is just 1/16 of the season, but what better time than an off-day for five absolute overreactions to the Yankees’ .500 start?
No. 1: Gerrit Cole’s contract will be a bust
The ace has somehow become the joker of the Yankees’ rotation, cueing up even more fervor that he made his bones by cheating. Somehow, Nasty Nestor has a 0.00 ERA in 9 1/3 innings and a negative FIP, but even with him out of the mix, the Yankees’ 2-4 starters have a collective ERA of just over 3.00 – almost half of the 5.59 ERA Cole has in two starts.
Blame Billy Crystal, Spider-Tack, Mercury in retrograde, or whatever you want – through two turns, the $324 million man is the Yankees’ fifth-best starter, and the rest of them faced at least one of Boston or Toronto already, too.
No. 2: It’s Peraza time at short
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who was supposed to be a defensive upgrade and a decent offensive player at short, is 6-for-30 (with half of those hits in one game) and hasn’t looked much like an upgrade defensively – which says a lot given the alternative is Gleyber Torres, who is also struggling offensively and has looked like his usual shaky self in a handful of innings at shortstop.
Meanwhile, Marwin Gonzalez, who made the team because he could play almost anywhere and had a strong spring, started one game at short (and made it two plate appearances before being pinch-hit for himself), and has been either a pinch-runner or defensive replacement after Kiner-Falefa was pinch-hit for in his other three games (including one where HE pinch-hit for IKF).
If the Yankees are going to continue to choose to build an ill-fitting infield puzzle, it might honestly be time to try top prospect Oswald Peraza as the everyday shortstop and move Kiner-Falefa into the utility role. Peraza is only hitting .217 in Triple-A so far, but the glove is MLB ready, and if you’re going to get a virtual zero offensively, letting a piece of the future at least get a chance to show what he can do might not be a bad idea. Peraza can always be sent back down if he struggles in favor of Jose Peraza (or even Gonzalez, if he clears waivers and goes to AAA), but it might be worth a shot.
No. 3: The Joey Gallo trade was a bad one
Aaron Hicks looks like himself, Giancarlo Stanton is raking and has looked good in the outfield so far, and Aaron Judge. Gallo, meanwhile, has four hits (all singles), has struck out the third-most on the team behind Stanton and Josh Donaldson, who at least had his seminal Yankee moment on Opening Day, and has a nearly 50 percent three true outcome percentage WITHOUT a homer.
Gallo has always been a Gold Glove-caliber defender in the field and that guy at the plate, but if he’s not hitting for power, he’s another easy out in a lineup with Kiner-Falefa and a catcher hitting 8-9. Tim Locastro is a good defender, Hicks is likely headed for a corner sooner or later, and Judge looks okay in center – so the Yankees shouldn’t be afraid to keep Gallo on the bench more often if need be and utilize their other four in various alignments.
No. 4: Aroldis Chapman can’t be the Yankees’ true closer
Chapman’s first three appearances saw him pitch three perfect innings, with five K’s and 29 of 38 pitches thrown for strikes. His last two? He walked the bases loaded with a 3-0 lead against Toronto (which Mike King of all pitchers got him out of without a run allowed), and then entered with one out and the bases loaded in Baltimore and walked in the winning run.
Thankfully, Aaron Boone removed Chapman from Thursday’s win over Toronto after three batters, but he can’t feel great about his closer after he blew a game by walking Ramon Urias, a .179 hitter who was 0-for-5, on a 3-2 pitch.
Jonathan Loaisiga was hung out to dry Sunday, but with him and several other powerful arms in the ‘pen, the Yankees need to have the temerity to have more games like Thursday’s, where Chapman didn’t get a leash despite being the closer.
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No. 5: Jose Trevino should be the everyday catcher
If the priority behind the plate is defense and defense is relatively equal, then outside of the Cole-Higashioka pairing we’ve seen for two years now, the starting catcher needs to be the hot hand in the batter’s box.
Higashioka had seven homers this spring, yet has four total bases and a -17 OPS+ with his .120/.120/.160 slash line). Trevino, meanwhile, is 5-for-10 with two RBI and a much better strikeout rate. Higgy is what he is at 32 – a Mendoza Line-level hitter with pop (20 homers in 412 career at-bats) and while Trevino might also be what he is at 29, he has a better track record offensively anyway.
Ben Rortvedt might end up being the Yankees’ catcher of the immediate future, but for now, they need more than a zero in the ninth spot, especially if IKF remains the shortstop and hits eighth.
BONUS: Aaron Boone is an underwhelming in-game manager
Remember what I said about how Boone handled Chapman in the Toronto game? Somehow, despite having Lucas Luetge ready and Jonathan Loaisiga laboring, he didn’t make the same move with Loaisiga Sunday, and it led to Rougned Odor’s game-winning hit in the eighth inning. Maybe Boone’s analytic mind remembered Odor was better against lefties last year (.227 vs. .191) and overthought it?
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