Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to bring in Scott Proctor.
Never has our crippled and crusty past shown more relevance than with the 2026 Yankees, a veritable carbon copy of last year.
Sherman, set the Wayback for April 13, 2025 - one year ago, to the day:
At 7-6, the Yankees sit in 2nd place in the AL East, one half-game behind the Hateful Rays. They started 2025 with a three-game sweep, then fell into a mini-funk. Soon, they'll wake up, launching a 5-game win streak that will elevate them into 1st by May 1. They'll finish April five over .500, at 18-13.
Their breakout April surprise will be Trent Grisham, a career .216 hitter and 4th OF, who - on this date last year is hitting .344 with 3 HRs, and winning Aaron Boone's favor. Grish will finish April at .292 with 8 dingers, a month nobody anticipated and that he will never repeat. (To be fair, he will hit 10 HRs in August, though hitting .243.)
Today, in 2026, Grisham is hitting .133 without a HR, with 4 measly RBIs - disturbingly closer to his career numbers. This weekend, in Tampa, he was dropped from the leadoff spot, down to the bottom of a batting order that should be nicknamed the Edmund Fitzgerald. ("Fellas, it's been good to know yaaaa!")
As everybody knows... the Yankees' re-signing of Grisham became the fulcrum point of last winter. As soon as Grish accepted their $22.5 million, one-year qualifying offer, any plans for a 2026 rebuild flew out the window. Suddenly, Jasson Dominguez had no place on this roster. Neither did Spencer Jones. The franchise's two most interesting prospects were either stowaways or trade chum. The front office didn't have the guts to deal them - the Yankiverse was roiled enough, as it is - so they became Scranton Railriders.
This weekend, The Martian continued to dominate Triple A: He went 2-4 yesterday and is batting .354. He seems to be wasting his time. Jones, on the other hand, has four Golden Sombreros and looks disillusioned by the swings and misses. This weekend, he went 2-8, to push his BA above .200. He has two home runs.
It's too early to dismiss the 2026 Yankees, who, despite losing five straight, are tied for 1st with Tampa and Baltimore. Like last year's team, they have squandered a season-opening sweep, which could have provided a bit of separation from Boston and Toronto, their two main Babadooks.
If this continues as a rerun of 2025, it means a long, hard slog, which might not offer a happy outcome.
Soon, something will happen to this team. It sleepwalked in Tampa, and the front office will shake things up. Or an injury will create pressures - and opportunities - for players who are currently stuck in time. Whatever happens, I say, bring it on. It cannot come soon enough.
Yankee fans do not want to relive 2025. Somewhere out there, Scott Proctor is torching his glove and jersey at home plate, and he is laughing. Fellas, it's been good to know yaaaaa.
Duque, I don't share your optimism about something happening "soon". What keeps haunting my memory is Stephen Drew:
ReplyDeleteAvaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!
Remember the blog titled "Scott Proctor's Arm"? Back when the LoHud blog had that dude - Peter Abraham, a good guy - who left to cover his favorite team, the Sox? And we all remember River Avenue Blues. That's the end of my sorry story.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this current malaise is a mini-swoon. The collapse this year is happening real early. Which meaneth that it will be a down year. Even with great starts in previous years, the annual collapse meant that they ended up with mid-nineties win totals. So this year, a terrible start, so that means they'll likely finish below .500. Maybe even worse, much worse. But we'll see....
ReplyDeleteThis team stinks.
ReplyDeleteBut Proctor reminded me of a Yankees Classic I saw the other week. I'm half paying attention, and then the Yanks bring in a reliever. And it's Steve Howe! Mr. Seven Suspensions himself.
I sniffed in remembrance of his Yankees career.
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DeleteSteve Howe sweated more than even Aroldis Chapman. Of course, his snorting of powdered nose candy likely had something to do with his profuse perspiration problem. After he retired from baseball, he became a guitarist and lead vocalist for the band YES :) (Not the TV network. That would be Bernie Williams).
DeleteGrichuk only hits Yankee pitching. So why bring him in?
ReplyDeleteJust an excuse to keep Dominguez in the minors. They want to keep him under team control as long as possible. They hate developing prospects, particularly anyone with superior talent. They're risk averse. And they don't even want to win because it might upset the apple cart. Guys like Grichuk and Grisham allow them to spend money for a high payroll and not have to worry about developing talent or winning anything but a wild card berth.
Keeping Dominguez in the minors after what he did in the majors last year was just a bad look. Like Achilles, who prayed to his goddess mother for the Greeks to lose whilst he sat out in anger at Agamemnon, do you think Dominguez is making sacrifices to the baseball gods for the Yankees to lose?
Well, Yankee management wanted to lose. Looks like they're going to get their wish. Whole lotta losing goin' on!
ReplyDelete@Hammer...exact example on how Yankee FO overrates players...
ReplyDeleteThere's a light
ReplyDeleteOver at the Steinbrenner place
There's a light
Burning in the fireplace
Adding pain and sorrow
To the darkness in everybody's life
I wish the front office ANALytical anuses could realize that if they bring the Martian up earlier, it would save them $$$.
ReplyDeleteSure, his service time starts earlier, but the 10 year bloated contract they'll sign when ge reaches free agency when contain more years where he's still productive. They can then jettison him in favor over the newer, cheaper guy.
It 180 from their current approach, so it'd probably work.
Great thought, Rufus.
Delete"It's 180 degrees " -- damn phone keyboard 😤
ReplyDeleteGreat graphics on the "Chisholm's not dumb" post, JM.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it's worse than that. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the game situation or the force-out rules.
I have no idea if Chisholm is dumb or not. But what he doesn't do is pay attention. That's not someone you want to give a big, long-term contract to.
What the Yanks need to do is trade him, now, before his season gets even worse—and before he walks off the team at the end of the year without us getting anything for him.
Nah. Hold onto him for the rest of the season and give him a qualifying offer. No way he accepts, because he can get more on the open market.
DeleteCope' That approach has always worked for this, uhm, like, you know . . . Yankees administration
Delete