For the Yankees, a season-defining logjam approaches... and where is the Bard of the Bullpen?

 Bong-water ponderings from an off-day...

1. After a winter of healing, Anthony Volpe is knocking on the clubhouse door, and we're still in our pajamas. By now, we were supposed to have a place for Volpe, a path for him, a plan that didn't involve pissing on Jose Caballero, who deserves to be our everyday SS. 

The Cabster's .267 average is second on the Yankees, and, as usual, he leads the AL in stolen bases. Volpe won't beat those numbers. (He'll hit more HRs, but is that what we need?) Moreover, Volpe led the AL in errors last year. I doubt he expects to have SS handed to him. But something's gotta happen.

The brain trust keeps floating this line that Caballero is a utility man, which - after further review - is so demeaning that it's almost racist. In fact, Volpe should stay in Scranton and learn 3B, because no matter who plays SS, the emerging nation known as George Lombard Jr. is soon to arrive, and somebody's gonna get traded for a bullpen lug nut.   

2. Fear the worst. This week, the juju gods gave us a glimpse: The Martian took a pitch to the elbow, only hours after the team jettisoned Randal Grichuk. (We're still awaiting scanner results.) If the Yankees do end up moving Volpe or Caballero, rest assured that somebody will quickly tweak something, and Cashman will be on the phone to Paul DeJong. 

3. For now, as the wranglers used to say on Wagon Train, "It's quiet... too quiet." And it is. Everywhere you look, Yankee nemeses - the Redsocks, Mets and Astros - are floundering. (Houston, at 12-20, didn't even make the AL chart on the right.) It's quiet... too fukking quiet. 

If history repeats, May will be a shit show. Giancarlo will be out much longer than announced. Ben Rice will come back to earth. The bullpen will get overworked, and Boone will be Boone. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon will return, but something seems off. It's not as if either is dominating in the minors. I'm not sounding alarms - rehab outings mean nothing - but is it too much to expect shutout innings, when they're doing Double A? 

4. No sirens. This is not a critical weekend, or a critical week, or even a critical month. But every win we bank in May will stand tall in September, when we're staggering drunkenly toward the end. Last year, we couldn't beat our rivals, and the tie-breakers killed us. It sure would be nice to knock down Baltimore this weekend, so they don't get ideas. With Boston in a funk, the O's represent our biggest adversary. Let's take them as they come. 

4. I miss Luke Weaver, the Bullpen Bard. I hope the Mets panic, clean house, trade him for phlegm, and the Yankees somehow get him. Yes, he's been a disaster across town. He should have never left the Bronx. Meanwhile, he remains one of the most thoughtful - and funniest - players in the game. He is the future of YES, if the Yankees are smart. Last night, after surrendering a horror show, game-losing HR, he spoke directly to flame-sputtering reporters. This is what he said.

"I've been sitting here trying to think about what to even say to you guys and what you're even going to ask. At the end of the day, this pursuit of perfection is an ultimate pressurized failure mindset. "Everybody wants to be the hero because we care and we want to win really, really bad. I just don't think success lives in that realm. It truly doesn't. I sit there and feel the weight of the world, like I let the team down. "We sit there, and we tell you guys, 'It'll come. This is the game. This is the law of averages.' But those words just don't hold the same weight when you continue to lose, day after day. The encouragement and motivation to pursue being the best person and best baseball player you can be is the only answer."

Wow. He's fukkin' Pete Buttigieg!