Tyler wary
Yankees expect announcement on first baseman suspension this week
The Yankees expect to lose first baseman Tyler Austin to a suspension this week for his involvement in a brawl with the Red Sox on April 11. Austin, who charged the mound after being hit by a pitch from Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly, was handed a five-game suspension and had an appeal hearing Thursday.
MLB could possibly announce a decision as early as Monday.
“We do anticipate a decision this week, when that is I don’t know. Hopefully it gets knocked down a little bit,’’ manager Aaron Boone said following Sunday’s 5-1 win over the Blue Jays. “It’s never a good time to be playing short and not necessarily looking forward to that. We know it’s coming and will do the best we can.’’
Austin has 11 hits in his last 28 at-bats (.478) after going 1-for-3 with a walk Sunday. Losing his bat will hurt a lineup that the icecold Neil Walker will likely join at first base when Austin serves his sentence. Walker has started 10 games at first and four at second this season.
➤ Austin signaled to the Yankees dugout to take a look at a play at first base in the eighth inning on a ground ball to short on which he was called out. The Yankees challenged the call and when the play was shown on the center-field replay board, the crowd booed the call made by first-base umpire and crew chief Ted Bar
rett. Subsequent replays drew the same reaction.
However, following a review, the word from MLB was that first baseman Justin
Smoak had a sliver of his spike on the bag with the ball in his glove.
“There was a shot a split second earlier where it was kind of borderline whether they were going to overturn it,’’ Boone said. “It was one of those if he is called safe he is probably safe. If he is called out, I haven’t looked at all the replays yet, but that is my understanding of it.’’
➤ David Hale doesn’t have the profile Gleyber Torres does, but the righthanded pitcher does have one thing in common with the Yankees’ top position player prospect: They each arrived in The Bronx on Sunday.
Hale, 30, was summoned from Triple-A Scranton/WilkesBarre to provide depth for a bullpen that has been leaned on heavily. In three starts with the RailRiders, Hale went 0-1 with a 5.52 ERA. He was signed as a minor league free agent in late January.
“He gives us length,’’ Boone said of Hale, who was a thirdround pick of the Braves out of Princeton in 2009. “As much as [ Jordan Montgomery] picked us up [Saturday] and we have [ Luis Severino] going [Sunday], we have still used our pen a lot.’’
Boone, who lost Adam Warren to the disabled list with a back muscle problem Saturday and had Domingo German throw 47 pitches on Friday night, needed somebody for more than an inning.
“We feel Hale is the guy who is stretched out,’’ Boone said of the right-hander, who worked six innings in his first Triple-A start and 4 2/3 and four in his following outings. “He is a guy with experience and can come in and pound the strike zone.’’
Hale has a 10-10 record and 4.48 ERA in 66 big-league games (20 starts). He last appeared in the major leagues working two games for the Rockies in 2016. Hale spent 2017 with Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City. Infielders Tyler Wade and Jace Peterson were jettisoned to make room for Torres and Hale. Wade was optioned to SWB and Peterson designated for assignment.
Wade hit .086 (3-for-35) in 13 games for the Yankees after making the team out of spring training. Inconsistent playing time due to a string of lefty pitchers started by the opposition, a twoday flu bug and Ronald Tor
reyes’ hot bat led to the demotion.
➤ There is a chance Clint Frazier could play in Single-A games for Tampa this coming week.
“I think he has finally passed all of the concussion protocols and MLB has to sign off on it,’’ Boone said of the outfielder who suffered a concussion banging his head against a fence on Feb. 24 in a spring training game. “There is a chance he could be playing in games with Tampa [Monday] or Tuesday.”