Andres Chavez
The New York Yankees spent Wednesday beating the brakes off the Panama national team in an 11-1 blowout. Then Thursday happened. The Minnesota Twins didn’t just beat the Yankees in a game called after seven innings due to rain; they dismantled them in a 15-0 laugher that served as a cold bucket of water over the head of anyone getting too comfortable with that 9-2 spring record.
It was ugly, it was sluggish, and it exposed the thin ice the team is skating on while Anthony Volpe nurses that surgically repaired labrum.
The Ryan McMahon Gamble
Let’s talk about the elephant in the infield. The Yankees are obsessed with making Ryan McMahon a shortstop. I get the logic. He’s an elite defender at third base with five Gold Glove nominations under his belt.
But moving a guy with three career innings at short to the most demanding spot on the dirt at age 31 is playing with fire. On Tuesday, he fumbled a ball. On Thursday, it was a throwing error that turned a difficult play into a run-scoring disaster.
You could hear Aaron Boone’s frustration in the dugout. McMahon is a ballplayer, sure, but he lacks the natural internal clock for the 6-hole. He probably should have held onto that ball. Instead, he forced a throw that didn’t need to be made.
Spring training is for experimenting, but there is a fine line between versatility and vanity. If José Caballero is the guy for Opening Day, let him play. Forcing McMahon into a defensive pretzel might just result in him snapping something—or worse, losing his confidence before the games actually matter.
The Bullpen Bubbles Burst
If you didn’t watch the game, the box score looks like a typo. Paul Blackburn started, giving up two runs over 2.1 innings. He’s a veteran eating innings on a cheap $2 million deal. We know what he is. The real concern lies with the “young pups” Brian Cashman raved about in January. Cade Winquest and Angel Chivilli are supposed to be the future of this relief corps, but Thursday they looked like they were throwing batting practice.
Winquest, the Rule 5 pick the Yankees are desperate to keep, struggled with his command and surrendered two runs. Then came Chivilli. It was a car wreck. He couldn’t even finish an inning, getting tagged for six runs on five hits. You can have a 97 mph heater, but if it’s straight and over the heart of the plate, major league hitters will treat it like a tee-ball session. By the time Michael Arias gave up another five in the sixth, the game had descended into total farce.
Looking Ahead to the Rays
The good news is that these games don’t count in the standings. The bad news is that the flaws exposed—defensive uncertainty and a middle-relief core that looks incredibly shaky—don’t just disappear when the calendar hits April. We’ll see Cam Schlittler make his spring debut on Friday against the Rays at 6:35 pm ET. Hopefully, he brings a strikeout pitch and a sense of calm, because Thursday was chaos.
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