You know all the things Yankee fans don’t like about their team, and the way the season has gone so far, starting with what really has become the most famous stubbed toe maybe in baseball history. It’s the one belonging to Aaron Judge. Big toe for the big guy, big problem for the Yankees, probably you’ve noticed.
So go ahead and start there, and then move quickly to a Yankee offense that is scoring about as well lately as New York City FC. Then there’s the roster, one that never really had a leftfielder coming into the season, and still had Josh Donaldson on it. You can throw in Giancarlo Stanton, the other big guy, who moves up on the Fourth of July in baseball barely hitting more than Domingo German’s weight.
Sometimes you get the idea that the only thing making Yankee fans happy at this point in the season is that they’re not rooting for the Mets.
But as mad as they are at Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman, as mad as they constantly are with a manager who happens to be doing a very good job every time they don’t like a pitching change, Yankee fans need to realize something:
Things could be a lot worse.
And might be about to get better, and not just because they just took two out of three from the Rangers, and came back on the Rangers in the late innings the way they did on Sunday afternoon, this on a day when Gerrit Cole didn’t make it all the way through the fifth inning.
The Yankees had taken the lead in the eighth on Sunday when Stanton, who has done nothing since coming off the Injured List, lined a hard single to left to score the Yankees’ fifth run. Here is what Stanton said after the game:
“I’ve got a lot to do. It’s good for now, but that doesn’t clear it for me.”
The Yankees haven’t cleared anything by simply hanging around and hanging in there since Judge got hurt. They haven’t cleared anything, either. But things really could have gotten a lot worse for them than the 8-10 record they have put together since Judge’s injury. The Rays could have run away. But have not. The Yankees were 35-25 the night Judge hurt his toe. They were six games behind the Rays in the loss column. They head out to Oakland now for a three-game series against the Double A’s eight games behind Tampa Bay.
They still aren’t hitting. But at a time when the Rays really could have further stretched out their lead in the AL East, they have not. The Yankees are still behind the Orioles, and the Jays are right there behind them. But Judge is going to come back eventually, even if no one is quite sure when. It is difficult to believe that as bad as Stanton has looked at the plate he is going to continue to fight it out with Anthony Volpe for the batting title south of the Mendoza Line. Carlos Rodon is close to making his first Yankee start, after a brief, but impressive rehab start on Sunday. Nestor Cortes will be throwing off a mound in a week. It is unlikely Aaron Boone’s stout bullpen is going anywhere.
In addition to all that, maybe the Yankees finally do have a leftfielder in Billy McKinney, who has been the most important hitter they’ve had in Judge’s absence.
Are the Rays better? They’ve been a lot better so far. But Drew Rasmussen, one of their pitching stars, went to the 60-game Injured List with a flexor strain in May. Shane McClanahan, another of their stars, has been troubled recently by a bad back. As much early speed as they’ve shown, they’re 5-5 over their last 10 games and only two games in the loss column better than the Orioles. Who are just six ahead of the Yankees.
The Yankees come home next week for a four-game series against the Orioles at the Stadium. But before then come three with the Double A’s, three with the Cardinals, and then a series at home against the Cubs going into the All-Star Break. Even without Judge, there is a chance for them to pick up ground on both of the teams in front of them if they hit just a little. Or a little more, put it that way. We know they’ve been hitting a little for a while.
A lot has happened with the Yankees so far. There have been stretches where they have hit about as hard as Pickle Ball. You know there’s been more bad than good when they’ve faced the AL East (11-15). But we’re still not at the Fourth of July, the first real mile marker to the season. There’s a chance between now and the Break for them to make a move, even if it’s not a big one.
They don’t reach the official halfway point of their season until they leave Oakland. Maybe it turns out this is all they are. But maybe not. All we know for sure right now is they’re not the Mets.
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