The Yankees won another series, though some red flags have started to wave, especially in the bullpen. Still, a 7-2 start and a three-game lead in the AL East already leaves plenty to be happy about. Also, I have some observations to share on what I saw from some key players at Triple-A who were in town here in Rochester all week. Lets get to it.

No one should be disappointed by a 7-2 start as the Yankees won their third consecutive series to start the season, but Saturday and Sunday we started to see some of the concerns many of us had about the Yankees during the spring.

First, the bullpen which definitely hit a few speed bumps against a pesky and annoying no-name Marlins lineup; second, fifth starter Ryan Weathers who so far has proven to be exactly the inconsistent pitcher he’s always been; and third, the bottom of the batting order which really hasn’t done a thing in the first two weeks of the season.

Actually, despite scoring 23 runs in the series (thanks in large part to drawing 30 walks) the offense as a whole has been a bit underwhelming with a cumulative average of .223 through nine games with five starters hitting under .200, but that hasn’t mattered yet because the pitching has been, until the last couple days, so consistently excellent.

I’ll have plenty to say about the series down below in the game recaps, but I’m starting this newsletter a little differently because I spent several days at the ballpark in Rochester this past week watching the Yankees’ Triple-A team play the Red Wings, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts on what I saw.

➤ Oswaldo Cabrera: The only way Cabrera is any use to the Yankees is as a super utility man who can play everywhere, and that’s what he did in this series. RailRiders manager Shelley Duncan clearly has his marching orders as they try to get Cabrera properly ramped back up after he missed the last four months of 2025 with that ugly broken ankle. He played short, first base, second base and left field in the series and handled each position flawlessly, but his spring training struggles at the plate have carried over into the season and he finished the weekend batting .188 with a .257 on-base.

➤ Jasson Dominguez: He crushed two leadoff homers in the series, the first one Wednesday batting left-handed, but the more impressive one coming Friday right-handed when he laid into a hanging slider and hit it 105.5 mph over the wall in left. He also had a double batting right-handed and that’s what the Yankees need from him, pop from the right side. He has started the season well at the plate with a .379 average and 1.110 OPS, but his follies in the field continue. Friday, on a gusty day, a ball was hit into the left-center gap and he was there in plenty of time to make the catch, but he dropped it. That has to stop happening.

➤ Spencer Jones: Man, he’s a tough watch. In the first three games of the series he struck out in 10 of his 15 plate appearances and by the end of the weekend he had 14 whiffs in 22 appearances. He went 3-for-21 with a walk, but he did hit a grand slam on Sunday giving him two homers and nine RBI in his first eight games.

➤ Carlos LaGrange: As expected he lit up the radar gun in his start in the first game of a doubleheader Friday, but his command was terrible. He faced 16 batters and gave up just one hit, a solo homer to one of the Nationals’ top prospects, Dylan Crews, but he walked five and threw just 42 strikes on 72 pitches across 3.1 innings. The home run came on a terrible middle-middle 90.8 mph changeup. He was routinely sitting 97-99 mph with his heater, and he topped out at 101 mph and I can tell you, seeing it live, he has electric stuff, but he’s nowhere near ready to go up to New York.

➤ Elmer Rodriguez: Like LaGrange, big things are expected from Rodriguez who was obtained last year from the Red Sox in the trade that sent catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston. Rodriguez started the second game of the series and took the loss but he pitched well. This was just his second start in Triple-A and he gave up three hits and a run within the first four batters he faced in the first inning, but thereafter he finished off five innings and gave up just one more hit and two walks with two strikeouts. He’s no LaGrange in terms of velocity, topping out around 95-96 mph but he has better command, at least right now.

➤ Luis Gil: The Yankees didn’t need a fifth starter in the first two weeks so Gil stayed in Florida for a little bit to work on his mechanics, then flew up to Rochester and pitched the series finale Sunday. It wasn’t great. He went 4.2 innings and allowed three runs on four hits and four walks with six strikeouts, and his fastball was a tick or two down in the 93-95 range. Like LaGrange, Gil was all over the place, but unlike LaGrange, he is heading back to Tampa where where he’s lined up to pitch Friday against the Rays.

➤ Castro: He was in the running for a bullpen role right to the end of the spring before getting sent down. He has thrown five scoreless innings for the RailRiders with just three hits and two walks allowed.

➤ Cruz: Perhaps the most impressive pitcher I saw was this power right-hander who was blazing at 99-100 mph as he appeared twice and threw 2.1 scoreless innings with four strikeouts, the only blemishes being two hit batsmen. For the season, he’s at 4.1 scoreless innings, so if that keeps up, maybe he’ll get a call up at some point if the bullpen suffers injuries.

➤ Another fun and low-stress day for the Yankees in the home opener, a game in which there was almost nothing to complain about as they improved to 6-1. And for those of you know me, or have read me here or my Bills coverage, that’s saying something. OK, Will Warren gave up a pair of solo homers, and the bottom of the order continued to struggle, but none of that mattered because this one felt over the moment Aaron Judge launched a two-run bomb in the first off Marlins ace Eury Perez.

➤ Xavier Edwards took Warren deep in the top of the first and then Trent Grisham worked a walk and Judge creamed a meatball slider to make it 2-1. The Yankees then added two in the second without a hit as they took advantage of four Perez walks and a plunk of Judge plus three stolen bases and the Marlins never really threatened thereafter. They managed just four hits and did not draw a single walk, another brilliant day for the Yankees’ pitching staff.

➤ Ben Rice could have added to the run total in the second but he had a brutal bases-loaded strikeout that included a terrible ABS challenge which he lost, but he sure bounced back. He hit a solo homer in the seventh that made it 5-2, then put the game away with a two-run-double that just missed being a home run in the eighth.

➤ Judge looked more like himself - homer, hard single, walk and hit by pitch - and he finished with three RBI, though Giancarlo Stanton came back to earth with an ugly 0-for-5, and Ryan McMahon remained stuck on one hit through his first 21 plate appearances. Overall, the Yankees had only six hits but they drew 11 walks and ran the bases super aggressively with stole five bases.

➤ I really liked what I was seeing from Jake Bird, at least until Sunday. I thought he was going to be a nice addition at the deadline last year, but then he shit the bed so spectacularly - six earned runs in three appearances - and was sent to Triple-A and we never saw him again. But it was clear the stuff was there and so far we’re seeing what the Yankees saw when they made the trade with Colorado. He pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, 11 pitches with two strikeouts and so far he’s gone 4.1 scoreless innings allowing just one hit, no walks and five strikeouts.

➤ Bird was part of a bullpen - Tim Hill, Brent Headrick and Ryan Yarbrough were the others - who combined for 3.1 hitless and scoreless innings, the only blemish coming when Yarbrough hit a batter in the ninth, then promptly picked him off at second base. Yarbrough did give up a rocket to Edwards in the ninth, but Cody Bellinger made a spectacular catch.

➤ The Yankees’ eight runs allowed in the first seven games tied for the fewest in MLB history, matching the 1993 Braves and 2002 Giants, but then they went out and nearly matched that total Saturday night thanks to a couple of stinkaroos from Ryan Weathers and Camilo Doval, and to an extent David Bednar. Yet the Yankees found a way to win again because they got some clutch performances at the plate from several guys, most notably Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton. There was a lot happening in this game which dragged on for three hours, 49 minutes on a cold, windy night, the longest nine-inning game since the pitch clock came to MLB.

➤ The Yankees fell into a 4-0 hole as Weathers was lousy. He needed 81 pitches to finish three innings as he had no command and couldn’t put hitters away while giving up three runs on six hits and three walks in 3.2 innings. To be fair, he was also hurt by some soft contact hits as the who-the-hell-are-these-guys Marlins were dinking and dunking. He was one strike away from escaping the first but then gave up a two-run triple to Heriberto Hernandez, and three singles and a walk led to a run in the third.

➤ Paul Blackburn gave up the fourth run, in part because of a sloppy throwing error by Bellinger, but then he actually pitched OK into the sixth, and Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz took the baton and got the Yankees through the seventh.

➤ Meanwhile, the Yankees rallied in a big way. Bellinger followed a Judge single with a two-run homer in the fifth which chased Marlins starter Max Meyer who, to that point had a shutout working. In the sixth, they took the lead as Grisham and Judge delivered RBI singles and Bellinger had a go-ahead sac fly. And then in the seventh the world flipped on its axis. Stanton walked, stole second (that’s not a misprint), took third on a grounder and scored on a passed ball. That was stunning, and the good news is that he didn’t pull any muscles or break any bones on that trip around the bases.

➤ Unfortunately, that 6-4 lead was short-lived because Doval was awful. Single, double, tying two-run double by No. 9 hitter Javier Sanoja. Boom or bust with Doval - he’s either lights out, or you want to punch his lights out.

➤ The Yankees shrugged that off and won the game with three in the eighth. Marlins reliever Michael Petersen walked Ryan McMahon, Judge and Rice to load the bases and Stanton worked a seven-pitch at bat before ripping a two-run single. A passed ball produced the last run for a 9-6 lead.

➤ Of course, it still wasn’t over because we had to survive another irritating ninth-inning thrill ride with Bednar. He gave up a run on three hits and a walk but finally, on his 33rd pitch he struck out Griffin Conine to end it. It didn’t help that Jazz Chisholm turned a routine ground out into a single by once again being a knucklehead, taking his time and allowing the speedy Otto Lopez to beat it out. That started all the trouble, but still, if Bednar doesn’t get his shit together, he’s gonna wear his arm out by the end of June, or at least end up on the injured list. That’s 73 pitches combined in his last two appearances, not ideal for a closer.

➤ I know they can’t win every game, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be pissed when they lose a game where they had a 4-1 lead early before pissing it away when Miami scored four runs in the eighth off Cruz, Bird and Yarbrough who combined to give up two walks, a hit batsmen, and then a two-run double by Graham Pauley and a two-run single by Edwards to give the Marlins a 7-4 lead.

➤ The teams waited out a 3.5-hours rain delay on Easter Sunday and you could tell Max Fried didn’t have his A-game as he gave up a run in the first, fourth and sixth innings. Still, despite allowing eight baserunners (five hits, three walks) he got two outs into the seventh and left with a 4-3 lead before Boone pulled him at 103 pitches. It was good enough to deserve a win, but the bullpen failed.

➤ Cruz had a one-out walk so Bird entered and he had nothing. A walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases before Pauley roped his double. In came Yarbrough and Edwards hit a grounder up the middle for two more runs which proved huge at the end as the Yankees nearly rallied to win.

➤ In the ninth, Belliner and Rice drew one-out walks before Stanton whiffed. Chisholm kept the game alive with a two-run double, but after Austin Wells was intentionally walked, Boone sent JC Escarra in to pinch hit for struggling Jose Caballero. I wasn’t thrilled with the move, even with Caballero hitting .129 so far because Escarra can’t hit a lick and sure enough, he struck out on three pitches to end the game, another slog that took nearly 3.5 hours to complete.

➤ The bottom three hitters - Wells, Caballero and Ryan McMahon - are batting a combined .128 (10-for-78) after a 1-for-11 game. “We need to get some more production there,” Boone said, adding: “We will.”

➤ Rice continued his hot start with an upper-deck three-run homer in the first, and it was his grounder in the third on which the Marlins botched that allowed Judge to score after he’d led off with a double. Judge woke up this weekend as he had two hits in each game.

➤ The Yankees worked 30 walks in the series, a franchise record for a three-game series. On the flip side, they also went 6-for-38 with runners in scoring position.

After a day off Monday, the A’s come to Yankee Stadium for three games. The A’s were expected to be a plucky potential wild-card team this season because of their offense, but they’ve gotten off to a 3-6 start because they haven’t really hit, and their pitching has been terrible, ranking 28th with a 5.51 full staff ERA and MLB-worst 1.790 WHIP. They are arriving on a bit of a high, though, as they took two of three from the Astros including a wild 12-10 walk-off as Brent Rooker hit a three-run homer.

➤ 1B Nick Kurtz: One of the best young players in MLB, he was the 2025 AL rookie of the year when he hit 36 homers, but he’s off to a painfully slow start in 2026 hitting .148 with no homers in 36 plate appearances.

➤ C Shea Langeliers: The opposite of Kurtz as he’s off to a blazing start with an MLB-best five homers.

➤ SS Jacob Wilson: Finished second to Kurtz in the rookie voting last year as he had a .355 on-base and .800 OPS.

➤ OF Lawrence Butler: He has topped 20 homers each of the last two seasons and he’s a dynamic fielder with speed as he had 22 stolen bases last year.

➤ RP Mark Leiter Jr.: Believe it or not, the former Yankee is the A’s closer. Imagine what that must be like.