Problems run much deeper than Carter
CHRIS Carter’s locker remained with his nameplate and the accoutrements of an active player in the Yankees’ clubhouse, a vivid reminder of just how here today, gone tomorrow the game can be.
Many of his now ex-teammates arrived Saturday morning not even aware Carter had been designated for assignment past midnight after a game delayed Friday evening by rain then extended to extra innings.
In the turn-the-page world of baseball, Carter’s replacement, Tyler Austin, received hugs of hello. Aaron Hicks bellowed from across the room, “T.A. is in the building.” Chasen Shreve stuck his cellphone into a media scrum, pretending to be part of the pack interviewing the Yankees’ new first baseman.
The face changed. The results did not. Austin had a Carter-ish performance with two strikeouts and a double-play grounder. And by the time this 8-1 loss was complete, those who remained from the announced crowd of 40,225 also had moved on, with Tyler Clippard now having fully replaced Carter as Bronx Enemy No. 1.
But the Yankees are not going to outrun their current problems by designating one underperforming veteran at a time. They now have lost nine of 11, fallen out of first place and very possibly revealed they already have played the best they are going to in 2017.
What the Yankees did for the first 10 weeks is proving unsustainable. They used just five starters. They had two players performing at MVP levels and another eight or so like All-Stars. Now? There is a lot of regression to the mean. And perhaps worst of all there are growing indicators the division might play out how expected, with Boston just a grade better than the rest of the AL East.
For the Red Sox are in first place now and it does not feel like we have seen their best gear yet, as we have the Yankees’. There should be more offense — especially power — coming, particularly from Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez. Rick Porcello and David Price might not replicate their Cy Young past, but Boston can expect better than it has received to date. Plus, any third-base solution would improve upon Pablo Sandoval and company.
The Red Sox went into Saturday at 41-32, the same as last year after 73 games. They had the AL’s best record thereafter en route to 95 wins. Perhaps there is enough pathology with the Red Sox — not strong connection between baseball operations head Dave Dombrowski and manager John Farrell, too much post-Papi malaise — and they never will maximize what remains the best 1-to-25 talent in the division.
But can the Yankees keep up with even a watered-down version of the Red Sox?
Two of their key potential wild cards have vanished, with both top pitching prospect James Kaprielian and top hitting prospect Gleyber Torres having Tommy John surgery. And expecting miracles from the minors is not a sound in-season strategy anyway.
Fans were clamoring for Austin while Yankees officials hesitated, worried that, yes, he was hitting at Triple-A, but he also was swinging and missing a ton. On Saturday, Austin said he “let the game speed up on him.” At best, he is probably a marginal upgrade on Carter. What the Yankees really need is the fragile Greg Bird to get healthy and play like he did in the final two months of 2015 or this past spring. That would bring desirable lefty diversification to the lineup.
Jacoby Ellsbury began a rehab assignment Saturday, and for as much as he has been trashed, Ellsbury would enable the Yankees not to overexpose/exhaust Hicks and Brett Gardner. Adam Warren has begun to throw and his value and versatility have been underscored in his absence. Rookie Jonathan Holder has been thrown into deeper water and not handled it well, and Clippard (12 runs and 10 extra-base hits in his last nine outings over 6 2/3 innings) has been, in his words, “terrible right now.”
The Yankees also could use a return from CC Sabathia. His replacement, Luis Cessa, was fine Saturday. Yet even in striking out eight in five innings, he made too many mistakes ahead in the count, including walking Delino DeShields to open the game after getting ahead 0-2 (DeShields eventually scored) and serving up a two-run homer to Carlos Gomez on a 1-2 pitch.
But waiting for injured players — like counting on prospects — is not the best policy. They either will be slower to heal than expected or others will go down.
General manager Brian Cashman could trade to upgrade the product. But remember in the offseason he did not want to invest big in Chris Sale — who went to Boston — not wanting to give up a package headed by Torres when he felt his team was not one piece away from a championship. What will he feel it is worth to improve this version?
He has seen the best of the Yankees for 10 weeks and the worst the past two. There are five weeks until the deadline for these Yankees to reveal fully exactly who they are in 2017.