The Yankees picked up a much-needed laugher on Tuesday night, exploding for a 12-1 win over the Mariners to begin their west coast trip, but there is still plenty of ground to make up.
As of Wednesday morning, the Yankees sit just two games above .500 and 9.5 games out of first place in the AL East, the product of a highly disappointing season so far. But FOX MLB analyst John Smoltz doesn’t believe New York should be buried just yet, so long as the rotation can get healthy and back to the productive form it was at in the first two months of the season, before the offense finally started to come around.
“I still maintain they’re gonna get those numbers on the back of the card to change drastically, but there’s a lot of pressure on them now to hit because they’ve had some injuries to the rotation,” Smoltz told Moose and Kim Jones. “When they built this ballclub, this was guaranteed ‘stay healthy and you’re in the playoffs.’ I’m not giving up on that mindset if they can get healthier in the rotation, but you’re gonna see them beat the tar out of some teams, and that could run into a little streak here.”
The rotation took a hit with the loss of Corey Kluber, who had been brilliant before his shoulder injury, and Luis Severino’s groin injury delayed a return from Tommy John surgery. But the rotation as a whole has been far weaker in recent weeks, with Gerrit Cole, Domingo German and Jameson Taillon all struggling. Taillon looked much better on Tuesday night, his longest outing of the season, but until the team is able to finally start clicking both on the mound and at the plate, the deficit in the division isn’t likely to become any more manageable.
“[The season has] gone sideways because offensively, they haven’t hit some of the mistakes,” Smoltz said. “The Yankees are built to get to the postseason based on their offense and bullpen. When both of those are in a bit of a hiccup right now, you’re gonna see the results, that they are what they are.”
Aroldis Chapman has been a big cause of the bullpen hiccup, though he finally tossed a scoreless frame on Tuesday with the game well in hand. Tuesday’s outbreak for the offense could be another false prophet and another misleading landmark in a potential catalyst to turn the season around, but Smoltz believes if the Yankees can get back to their slugging ways, the schedule will allow them to get right back in the race.
“Bad news is they’re 9.5 out,” Smoltz said. “The good news is they got the teams ahead of them right after the All-Star break to make up that slack in the league. If I was a teammate I’d be saying ‘we’ve got a great opportunity out of the break, let’s get to the break in relatively decent fashion and let’s take care of business.’”
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