Keith McPherson was at Yankee Stadium Tuesday night watching Aaron Boone continue to play his platoons against a lefty starter – meaning DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza, and Jose Trevino instead of Ben Rice, Oswaldo Cabrera, and a hot Austin Wells – and the Yankees sputter all the way around.
“Freshly back from yelling and screaming and trying to will these guys to victory, and they had the opportunity to win this game multiple times, with all the fans out for John & Suzyn T-Shirt night,” Keith said. “We thought we were kicking off the homestand with a party, Judge and Soto go back-to-back and-a belly-to-belly…but tip your cap to the Guardians, because they’re a scrappy bunch. They have a bunch of random guys in the lineup, but they play heads up baseball, a tighter, crisper game, and scratch and claw for every inch.”
And one thing became clear to Keith watching that: the Yankees need to stop trying to be the Rays and play platoon advantages, and instead simply play their best overall lineup.
“There are a lot of Yankee fans with something to say about sitting Austin Wells consistently playing DJ LeMahieu – well, the Yankees have struggled against left-handed pitching, but I’m disappointed with the infield defense, and you failed a test against a team that took you to five games in the ALDS two years ago and you could meet in October again,” Keith said. “The Yankees have a Lamborghini and a Ferrari batting second and third, Juan Soto is the generational Lambo and Aaron Judge is the most valuable Ferrari, but boy, do they have a bunch of hoopties, clunkers, and lemons around them.”
When the Yankees were successful early, the lineup was pretty consistent, but that may have been out of necessity; DJLM was hurt and Anthony Rizzo was healthy, so it was a quasi-platoon at catcher but mostly the same other eight a good chunk of the time – Jahmai Jones got all of 47 plate appearances in four months and one start before June 1, and Trent Grisham had 48 plate appearances in April and May.
Now, it’s playing matchups, even if it seems doing so plays ‘inferior players’ or benches hot ones just because they hit from a certain side of the plate, or simply puts someone out there every day that isn’t performing no matter what.
“DJ is in a bad one, hitting .167 his last 29 games; he had the one good week, and I said that just bought him a month and it’s not good enough – and they’re just gonna keep running out their guys that they gave contracts to and try to squeeze everything out and get a return on their investment,” Keith said. “Even though we all know it’s not good enough! These are the dog days, and the race is back and forth, and you can’t have losing streaks against these teams. It’s not good enough, man.”
So the trade deadline may be over and there’s very little reinforcement on the IL or in Triple-A, but at least the Yankees need to try SOMETHING, in Keith’s eyes.
“We haven't seen a dominant stretch from this group, a solid stretch of baseball where they put all facets and phases of the game together, and there’s so many holes and question marks and things to worry about,” Keith said. “Trent Grisham has had too many moments of being casual, Verdugo has been reduced, and you can’t tell me DJ deserves to keep playing. Bring up Jasson Dominguez and put Ben Rice there, or hell, if Trevino is catching, put Wells there. Oswaldo Cabrera makes great plays, Wells is a beast, and it’s so infuriating – it just feels like we’re getting punked or pranked with this lineup. It has to be better in a league where no one's gonna win 100 games.”