New York Yankees Surprise with Oldtimers & Youngsters
A Competitive Blend
The New York Yankees are now a blend of the old—see CC Sabathia and J.A. Happ—and the young and inexperienced, most of the rest of the squad. Mike Tauchman, Mike Ford, Gio Urshela, Tyler Wade and Kyle Higashioka are Triple-A performers up in the big show because of injuries. Yet, the Yankees are winning. Six games in a row to reach a 14-10 record, and despite their dismal start, they’re only 1.5 games behind Tampa Bay, which is not the same team without Austin Meadows.
Last evening, the Yankees defeated the Los Angeles Angels 6-5, in a game they trailed 5-0 after four innings. CC Sabathia allowed three home runs, none to anyone named Mike Trout, although Trout made a spectacular catch on the dead gallop, twisting his body so he could extend his left arm behind him as his momentum carried him in the opposite direction just before the ball, smacked by Brett Gardner, would have bounced up against the center field fence, scoring one if not two runs.
This was a pivotal play in the seventh inning of the game since the Yankees had just tied the score and two men were on base at the time, and Tyler Wade would have easily scored to give the Yankees the lead had the ball dropped. Instead, after Trout’s throw back to the infield, Wade was tagged off second base when he briefly lost touch with the bag for a fleeting second and was doubled off second on a rarely tried hidden ball play, ending the inning and the threat.
Underlying the inning were three walks and a Baltimore chop that Tyler Wade beat out. Not the kind of prodigious hitting that the Bronx Bombers have been known for over the years. But, this kind of small ball and plate discipline bodes well for a team not scoring many runs and still without some of their best hitters.
And What About Pitching?
On the other side of the ball, the younger Yankee pitchers, the pitchers who had been in Triple-A over the past year, have pitched well in this series and throughout the first 24 games.
Last evening, Jonathan Loaisiga pitched three scoreless innings and won his first game of the season. His innings were vital to the victory.
The game before, the second game of the series with Los Angeles, Domingo German, who was so unpredictable last season, continued his stellar efforts this year, tossing 6.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits, and lowering his season ERA to 1.75. While admittedly a small sample, German is already 4-1 this young season in five starts. In 28 innings he has allowed 13 hits and eight walks against 28 strikeouts for a 0.82 WHIP, which leads the American League, along with a league-leading .143 batting average against. An impressive beginning.
The other pitcher who may have broken out this season is Luis Cessa. He has thrown 11.1 innings in seven games, allowing eight hits, seven walks and striking out 13, working to a 1.59 ERA.
These three pitchers have quietly assumed integral roles on the Yankees pitching staff, and are important reasons why the Yankees are doing so well. The three of them have thrown 47 innings the Yankees’ first 24 games. A not insubstantial number, pitching to a combined 1.91 ERA.
While the older fellow, CC Sabathia, and J.A. Happ, have thrown 45.2 innings between them over nine starts, or five innings per game, for a combined 4.90 ERA.
The Need for Balance, Smarts and a Gio Urshela
Clearly, every team strives for balance. A blend of youth and experience. But with the Yankees’ injuries so far this season, they have to consider themselves fortunate indeed that they added younger depth pieces to their 40-man roster.
Particularly Gio Urshela. He was traded to the Yankees in August 2018 from the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations, and then stashed in Triple-A on the Scranton Red Barons. At first, Urshela was not on the 40-man, until it became clear the Yankees would need a long-term answer to Miguel Andujar’s early-season injury.
To bring Urshela up to the majors the Yankees had to move him onto their 40-man roster, and then onto the 25-man major league roster. With Andujar missing 21 of the team’s first 24 games, Urshela has become an important piece, especially defensively at third base, where he fields his position with unusual assurance.
Gio Urshela is a depth piece, the kind of player every good organization stocks on their Triple-A team, in case of disaster at the big league level. Right now he is an important contributor on a team that seems to have found itself. While he is not flashy, he does the little things that win games.
The Role of the Front Office
What makes for an effective General Manager? Anticipating his team’s needs? Brian Cashman has certainly done that. Besides Urshela, the trade for Mike Tauchman falls into this category. The trade was consummated when injuries made it clear the Yankees would need another outfielder late in spring training. It was an exchange of minor leaguers. Nothing sensational, but solid. And in both cases, the Yankees have received production that made the difference in several victories. Not Hall of Fame contributions, but good offensive and defensive numbers.
There are other young players waiting in the wings, ready to contribute. Michael King could be one, if he is recovered from the stress reaction in his right elbow, diagnosed in February. Had he been healthy, he might have made the Yankees out of spring training.
Albert Abreu and Domingo Acevedo, two of the harder throwers in the Yankees system are currently pitching in Double-A for the Trenton Thunder. Their names have been mentioned as bullpen support for later this summer.
Clarke Schmidt, who has recently been mentioned prominently in several newspaper articles, was the Yankees’ first-round selection in the 2017 baseball draft. He is pitching well for the Single-A Tampa Bay Yankees farm team after recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2017.
Every team keeps tabs on experienced players, but the way the procurement system has worked in the past, and remnants of it still linger, players—hitters and pitchers—were rewarded with excessive contracts based on past production. As opposed to the analytics revolution in baseball today, which focuses on expected, future production, allowing teams to offer short-term contracts.
So, every team needs young, affordable pieces in their systems, otherwise, they might be forced to extend unwise contracts to the Dallas Keuchels and Craig Kimbrels of the world, who still hope they will receive their eight-figure paychecks. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.
Regardless, teams are forever on the lookout for bargains in other minor league systems that can be wrested away at minimum cost. Luke Voit and Gio Urshela are two examples of this philosophy that have paid off for the New York Yankees so far this season.
And Then There Is Expediency
Mike Tauchman was an expedient move. And the acquisition of Cameron Maybin from the Indians (after the San Francisco Giants released him last month) is another such move, in response to Clint Frazier’s placement on the IL. The Yankees are running out of healthy outfielders.
So, it seems teams sprinkled with youth and experience may find an engine to fuel their competitive fire. The problem is deciding which of these players are for real and which are suspects who waste the best-laid dreams of management with stat lines reeking of missed opportunities, failed initiatives and further misadventures in the minor leagues.
The major leagues are full of these players hanging on by a thread. Hoping. Just like Cameron Maybin. He was once a top prospect who became a suspect quickly when he did not live up to expectations. Now he has become a placeholder, kept around in the minor leagues for, just in case, not talent. Which is why he’s back in the show, for a short while. Just in case.
