San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Ex-players from 102-loss club litter Yankees’ roster
NEW YORK — If the Rangers and Yankees ever get on the field this weekend — and based on the weather forecast, there are no guarantees — Texas manager Chris Woodward is liable to do a double-take.
At least once over the course of a three-game series now tentatively scheduled to be played over two days, he’s likely to see a Yankees lineup across the field that has more of his 2021 opening day starters than he does.
“I love those guys,” Woodward said of Joey Gallo, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino, who were sent to the Yankees in three separate trades during an eight-month stretch starting last July.
“They were three guys who we empowered to be part of our leadership and our culture. It’s a little bittersweet. But it’s part of the industry. I think it’s worked out pretty well for everybody.”
It’s a bit odd to think the perennially pennantchasing Yankees would add three pieces from a 102-loss team, but Gallo, Kiner-Falefa and Trevino have been able to slide into ensemble roles in New York rather than assuming leading-man responsibilities.
That allowed the Rangers to go out and invest in players they were more certain could handle both performance and leadership responsibilities — like star infielders Marcus Semien and Corey Seager.
So how have things worked out? A look at how Gallo, Kiner-Falefa and Trevino are doing in New York and how the Rangers have replaced them:
Gallo: He has started just twice in the last week due to groin issues, which occurred just as he was starting to emerge from an awful slump to
start the season.
Gallo has seven hits, including all three of his homers this season, in his last 26 at-bats, dating to April 22. Nevertheless, he’s still slashing only .188/.288/.344/.631 for the season. All three of his homers have been with the bases empty.
Kiner-Falefa: In New York, the Yankees simply want Kiner-Falefa to do what he does best: field
the ball. The Yankees have slotted him in the bottom third of their batting order for all 23 of his starts, 21 of them coming eighth or ninth. Compare that with last year when the Rangers had him hitting first or second in 132 of his 156 starts. A .700 OPS, such as Kiner-Falefa is sporting, plays a lot better at the bottom of a stacked lineup than it does at the top of a weak one.
Trevino: After the Rangers acquired Garver, it became quite clear they had extra depth at catcher and that Trevino would be the odd man out.
Backup Jonah Heim is a switch-hitter with power and actually even better at pitch-framing than Trevino. A late spring trade sent Trevino to the Yankees for out-of-options reliever Albert Abreu.
Abreu has had command issues since joining the Rangers and ended up on the IL this week with a sprained ankle when the team was faced with having to trim the roster more for the activation of Jon Gray. So the jury remains very much out on the return from that deal.
Series opener rained out again
The series opener between the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees was postponed for a second straight day on Saturday because of a forecast for sustained rain in the area.
The postponement was announced nearly four hours before game time. The Rangers and Yankees will make up the game Monday at 12:05 p.m.
They had been scheduled to play Friday night, a game that was rained out nearly eight hours before the scheduled first pitch. That game will now be played Sunday as part of a single-admission doubleheader beginning at 12:35 p.m.
This weekend marks Texas’ only scheduled trip to Yankee Stadium this season.
New York is now scheduled to play 23 games in 22 days and will have only one day off while playing 29 games over 29 days through
June 5.