So the New York Yankees made it through their first full week of Spring Training. While much has been made of Giancarlo Stanton’s calf strain, and Aaron Judge still being bothered by that shoulder/pectoral of his, some good came out of last week.
Montgomery Makes His Case
With the Yankees needing to patch things together in their starting rotation until James Paxton and Domingo German come back in June, there’s added pressure being put on the young potential starters called to Spring Training. Jordan Montgomery is putting himself head and shoulders above the rest.
With 6 K’s over 6 innings pitched, Monty is currently outperforming our $300+ million aces, Gerrit Cole (who has 4 over 4.4 innings pitched).
Yank’s Getting Back to Winning Ways
After dropping the first 2 games of exhibition, it’s cool to see the Yankees fire off 6 straight wins after the draw against the Pirates. While a 6-3-1 record of purely exhibition matches aren’t anything to get too excited about (as exhibition games don’t count toward the 162 game regular season), it’s cool to see this happen after the brew-ha-ha surrounding the ALCS.
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Higgy Feeling the Heat?
As I suspected, Kyle Higashioka is floundering this spring. Iannetta, Thole, and Kratz are all outperforming Higashioka this spring, performing better defensively than Higashioka (who does have an error charged against him), and are on base more than Higashioka. The only catcher performing more poorly than Higashioka is projected starting catcher Gary Sanchez.
Now, again, it’s Spring Training. The New York Yankees are not going to be sending Sanchez down to the minors because of a bad spring performance. But someone like Higashioka, a career minor leaguer aspiring to be a backup, maybe feeling the pressure if he can’t turn it around sooner rather than later. Iannetta is currently in possession of the best batting average on the team this spring.
A New Path for Andujar?
Depending on how bad Judge’s shoulder is, the New York Yankees may need to find replacements for BOTH corner outfield spots for some time to start the 2020 campaign. While still getting used to the outfield, Andujar is looking competent in the outfield. And, depending on how bad Stanton’s calf ends up being, and whether or not it is a recurring season-long fiasco, Andujar may see most of his playing time coming out in the left field.
Garcia Looks Good in Spring Performance
Giving up 2 runs in 2 innings pitched against the Braves, Deivi Garcia still looked impressive for someone not legally old enough to drink in the states yet. The battle for the 5th spot in the rotation is sure to heat up over the next couple of weeks. Especially with the rumors about Steven Matz.
Let’s look forward to the next week of games for our boys in pinstripes.