AMAZIN’ YANKS
What Bombers have done with so many injuries this season is, well, amazing
Perhaps it’s time for the Yankees to claim the “Amazin’” tag for themselves. For what they’re doing this year, running away with the American League East despite a mindboggling 25 different players going on the injured list, and doing it with unsung castoffs like Mike Tauchman, Cameron Maybin and Breyvic Valera who weren’t even on their team at the start of spring training, is nothing short of amazin’. Maybe not as amazin’ as the ’69 Mets, but pretty close when you consider the entire starting rotation has been inconsistent or worse and their 2018 leading home run hitter and highest paid player, Giancarlo Stanton, has barely played all year.
They haven’t missed him a lick. In fact, they haven’t seemed to miss any of their regulars when they’ve gone down with injuries on what has seemed like a daily basis. Is there anyone who doesn’t think Aaron Boone has done one of the greatest managing jobs of all time this year?
Beyond that, Brian Cashman is hands-down Scavenger of the Year.
Much as the Yankee legions were let down by Cashman’s inability to improve the rotation at the trading deadline (in the end there just wasn’t anyone out there worth sacrificing top prospects to acquire), his success at plucking useful, productive players off other teams’ scrap heaps has been uncanny. You start with Luke Voit from the Cardinals and Gio Urshela from the Blue Jays last year, infield cornerstones all season until Voit went down the other day with a core injury (whatever that is). Then at the end
of spring training, Cashman made an under-the-radar trade with Colorado, acquiring Tauchman, the 28-year old Bradley U. product who’d languished five years in the Rockies farm system, for an A-ball pitching prospect. A month later, he purchased Maybin, another all-purpose outfielder, previously released by the Giants, from the Indians. In both cases, Cashman was looking to add outfield depth, primarily defensive depth since Tauchman and Maybin can play all three positions. Even he could not have envisioned the offensive contributions Tauchman (.294/9 HR/ 36 RBI/.910 OPS in 59 games) and Maybin (.312/ 5 HR/.890 OPS in 100 plate appearances) have provided. Moreover, they’re said to be among the most popular players in the Yankee clubhouse – Maybin with his perpetual smile and Tauchman with his low-key, unfazed demeanor.
“When guys get up here, they know they are going to play,” Tauchman said Monday after his two-homer game against the Orioles. “They know the team is rolling. And culturally, when you’re here, you’re going to be counted on and you have the full support of the team.”
Because of the way he has performed, it would appear Tauchman’s yo-yo days to Scranton and back are over. Likewise the Yankees have no maneuverability when it comes to Maybin, who would have to clear waivers before they could send him down again. Which brings us to Clint Frazier, who has suddenly become an outcast in the Bronx. When Voit went on the IL and the Yankees brought up career minor leaguer Mike Ford from Scranton, Frazier posted a picture of himself sitting forlornly, a red hoodie covering his face, in what looked to be a parking lot in Scranton. He had the look of a homeless man, which was probably the whole idea.
While his bat might still make him a prime trade chip, Frazier’s inability to catch fly balls, along with his abrasive personality, has rendered him the forgotten man in the Yankees’ outfield picture. Two guys who weren’t even on the team at the beginning of spring training have breezed past him and become keepers with their overall contributions to the team.
And to think, Cashman got Urshela for cash, Maybin and Valera on waiver claims and Voit and Tauchman in trades for three pitchers, Chasen Shreve, Giordany Gallegos and Philip Diehl. Of the three, only Gallegos is having any impact in the majors this year as a decent middle reliever for the Cardinals. That, you’d have to say, is pretty Amazin’.