Vol. 17, No. 13
March 10, 2025
It’s not unusual for a team built around older players to suffer a spate of injuries. Even with that baseline expectation, though, it has been a rough week in Tampa. DJ LeMahieu, coming off a career-worst season at 35, has a left calf strain that will sideline him into April. Giancarlo Stanton, last seen carrying 25 other guys to the World Series, has tendon injuries in both elbows that have kept him from swinging a bat since January.
Finally, Gerrit Cole got knocked around Thursday and is now waiting for a second opinion on his right elbow. The Athletic’s Jim Bowden reports that Cole has been told he needs Tommy John surgery. Cole himself said he is “concerned” after feeling discomfort following Thursday’s outing. Remember that Cole missed most of the first half of 2024 with nerve inflammation in his pitching elbow. He returned to make 17 starts and mostly pitched well in the Yankees’ run to the Series.
The Yankees have integrated younger talent into their roster with more success than they are given credit for. Luis Gil won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 2024. Austin Wells was third in the voting. Anthony Volpe has been a top-ten glove man at shortstop across his two MLB seasons. Jasson Dominguez should join that group this year. Gleyber Torres wasn’t a Yankee prospect for long after coming over from the Cubs, but he gave them 16 WAR in seven seasons for very little money. These aren’t the 1982 Bronx Burners.
That group may not be enough, though, if the starter they need the most cannot ring the bell. We’ll know this week whether the power structure of the AL East has shifted.
Lineup
C-L Austin Wells
RF-R Aaron Judge
CF-L Cody Bellinger
1B-R Paul Goldschmidt
2B-L Jazz Chisholm Jr.
SS-R Anthony Volpe
LF-B Jasson Dominguez
DH-L Ben Rice
3B-B Oswaldo Cabrera
The thing is, LeMahieu and Stanton are replaceable talents. The infielder hasn’t been good since 2022, and the DH not since 2021, postseason heroics notwithstanding. Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza, one-time shortstop prospects lapped by Anthony Volpe, will get chances to revive their careers at the hot corner. Stanton’s absence would give the Yankees the opportunity to play their best defensive team while letting the 33-year-old Aaron Judge take more reps as the DH.
About the defense...let me get off a rant I have been sitting on for a while.... The hell is this team doing with Jasson Dominguez? Dominguez was a center fielder coming through the Yankees’ system, making every one of his starts in his first two pro seasons up the middle. In 2023, the Yankees began moving him around, perhaps to provide more options for getting The Martian to The Majors. Dominguez still made 62 of his 109 minor-league starts, and all eight of his MLB ones, in center before blowing out his right (throwing) elbow and undergoing Tommy John surgery.
When Dominguez returned from surgery last year, he still mostly played center: 29 of 42 starts. To this point, no one had suggested Dominguez was a liability in center. When the Yankees called him up, though, they chose not to upset their existing alignment and played him mostly in left. The Yankees, when Dominguez was in left, literally had an entire outfield of players not playing their best position: Dominguez in left, Judge in center, and Juan Soto in right.
Now, I understood, to some extent, the desire to not upset the apple cart in September. Judge might have taken well to going back to right, but asking Soto to move back across the pasture would have been a delicate ask. Maybe you lean, in that case, in favor of protecting your veterans. I defended the subsequent choice to play Alex Verdugo over Dominguez throughout the playoff run. That really was the Yankees’ best team, and it was the only responsible choice when it came to handling Dominguez.
Six months later, Judge is 33, Soto is a Met...and Dominguez is still in left field. The Yankees have been prioritizing Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham in center, in part due to their signing Paul Goldschmidt to play first. Dominguez is still struggling in left, but it’s the decision to even play him there that is ridiculous. Center field is a young man’s game, and while Dominguez may eventually move to a corner, he’s an average center fielder now, at 22. Bellinger is 29 and while once a plus center fielder, is not any longer. While he hasn’t played left for all but a couple of innings since 2017, making a move from one corner to the other is standard for someone Bellinger’s age.
There is no question in my mind that the Yankees’ best alignment has Bellinger in left, Dominguez in center, and Judge in right. That the Yankees are playing the older, declining defender at the harder position while forcing a core prospect to a corner...it’s like the Reds are running the show. I keep waiting for Nick Senzel to work his way into this mess.
(Now, I’m also the guy who pointed out last spring that Trent Grisham had been more valuable than Stanton for the past few years. If the Yankees want to play Grisham in center, Dominguez in left, Bellinger at first, and use Goldschmidt as a bench bat, I’m alright with that, though I’d just as soon see Grisham in left and Dominguez still in center. The Stanton injury opens up options and may make this corner of the roster better for it.)
I just don’t see whatever the Yankees are seeing here, why they’re messing with their top prospect and a player they’ve been building up since I was sending the Newsletter by paperboy.
Bench
CF-L Trent Grisham
IF-R Oswald Peraza
OF-R Everson Pereira
C-R Alex Jackson
Assuming Stanton and LeMahieu are out for a while, the Yankees will probably treat DH as a way station for their veterans, despite the considerable cost of doing so. We’ll see if Ben Rice -- that’s Gen Z for “Kevin Maas” -- can lay claim to at least half the job. Dominic Smith is in camp, as is pinch-runner Duke Ellis, plus a pretty ugly set of NRIs...Roster Resource went with forever prospect Everson Pereira, so what the hell.
Alex Verdugo is still a free agent. I’m just saying.
Rotation
SP-R Gerrit Cole
SP-L Max Fried
SP-L Carlos Rodon
SP-R Marcus Stroman
SP-R Clarke Schmidt
The Yankees won’t miss LeMahieu and Stanton. Cole, though...there’s no replacement for what Cole is supposed to bring to the table. Already down Luis Gil for at least three months, and waiting for Clarke Schmidt to make his spring debut, the Yankees were in need of starters even before Cole pulled up lame. I’m listing him here to avoid having to decide who replaces him -- Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco are up next. Chase Hampton, one of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects, is also out for ’25 after Tommy John surgery.
Bumping everyone above up one slot and sliding in Warren or Carrasco for Cole is a four-win hit, maybe more.
Bullpen
RP-R Devin Williams
RP-R Luke Weaver
RP-R Fernando Cruz
RP-L Tim Hill
RP-R Ian Hamilton
RP-R Mark Leiter Jr.
RP-L Allan Winans
RP-R Brent Headdrick
I guess that Nestor Cortes trade hits different now. It was a good move at the time, and I don’t think any team can reasonably make every choice predicated on “what if we lose two-plus starters in March?” Devin Williams might be the best relief pitcher in baseball, and even with the innings hit you trade a #4 for that every time.
It’s not as if the Yankees don’t need relievers, too. Jake Cousins is out with a strained forearm, which never seems to end well. Scott Effross threw one pitch and strained his hamstring. Jonathan Loaisiga has thrown 21 innings in two years. NRI Tyler Matzek strained an oblique. The front of this pen is excellent, and the last two spots might be filled with lesser-known members of the extended Steinbrenner family. I picked a couple of guys based on innings pitched so far. If you have strong opinions about Rob Zastryzny for the second lefty and out-of-options righty Yoendrys Gomez for the last spot, it’s time to go outside.
The Yankees looked like they had a high floor a couple of weeks ago. Take 300 innings of good pitching off the table, and suddenly they’re in the wild-card mix, and not the good part of it. The Yankees were American League champs in 2024 and their fans wanted to fire everyone. What do you suppose happens when they miss the playoffs entirely?
Lifetime Best Ball Freeroll Drafts
These launched around noon on Saturday. We filled the first one in an hour and five of them before the day was out. There are six going as I write this, and I imagine we’ll get six more going by midweek. These are hosted by SportsHub and colloquially known as BB10s, for the usual price point of $10. They’re points leagues, and “best ball” means you make no moves all year; the computer sets your best lineup each week retroactively.
Thanks to SportsHub and Greg Ambrosius for all their support.
I’ll have more from these drafts in a day or two, but for now, here are my first-round picks:
#1324: Drafting #8, Juan Soto; second choice was Francisco Lindor. I’d have taken Mookie Betts, but he went at 1.7.
#1326: Drafting #10, Francisco Lindor over Kyle Tucker and Julio Rodriguez. There are a lot of outfielders at the back half of round one and the start of round two, so I can justify this, but it’s close.
#1328: Drafting #3, Bobby Witt, Jr. I have him #1 overall, so I am thrilled to get him here.
#1330: Drafting #8, once again left with the Soto/Lindor choice, once again take Soto.
#1341: Drafting #3, BWJ went #2. Boo. I went high-floor with Jose Ramirez, and I think I made a mistake passing on Elly De La Cruz. There are a lot of shortstops, but EDLC is a possible league winner.
#1354: Drafting #8 (oh, come ON), Lindor went second, so this time I had to take Soto over Gunnar Henderson. That’s not a pick I’d have made a week ago, but I have become a total and complete coward when it comes to injury risk in the early rounds. Any hint of a problem, such as Henderson’s intercostal strain, and I’m out.
To participate in the next batch of drafts, get some drafting reps, maybe a few bucks, and the very limited honor of waxing me, sign up for a Lifetime Subscription to the Newsletter. Access to these annual freeroll drafts is just one of the extras Lifetimers get, all to go with a long-term discount on the Newsletter itself.
If you want to participate in a draft, you’ll want to get in by midweek this week to ensure a spot -- these all have to wrap by Opening Day, March 27, so I think I’ll cut off the drafts by next weekend.
Not a Lifetime subscriber? As I did last year, I will participate in at least one $50 Draft Champions league with subscribers. Details to follow.