Goldschmidt, Bellinger Showing Spring Promise

Last week was very busy for me regarding my primary job - covering the Bills with the start of free agency, so admittedly, I wasn’t paying much attention to the Yankees as they slogged through the dog days of spring training. But hey, from what I can tell, at least no one suffered a season-ending injury so I guess that’s progress! Lets get to it.

It’s way too early to be getting overly excited, but amid all the injury woes the Yankees have dealt with this spring, crushing blows that may seriously alter the race in the AL East, there have been a few promising developments.

The two big-name additions Brian Cashman made to the offense - first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and outfielder Cody Bellinger - have looked pretty good.

Goldschmidt is 37 years old and nowhere near the player he was during his eight years with the Diamondbacks and the first four of the six years he spent with the Cardinals when he was one of the best players in MLB. He was the NL MVP in 2022 and the runner-up in 2013 and 2015, he earned four Gold Glove awards, five Silver Slugger awards (best hitter at his position), and was a seven-time All-Star.

No, that guy is long gone. But thus far in 12 spring games and 31 at-bats he’s hitting .323/.382/.710 for a 1.092 OPS with three homers and 10 RBI. If Goldschmidt can bring that stat line into the regular season, it will certainly help make up for the lost production in the middle of the lineup with Giancarlo Stanton out indefinitely.

The 29-year-old Bellinger, who was the 2017 NL rookie of the year, 2019 NL MVP and a 2020 World Series champ, all during his time with the Dodgers, has been even better. In 13 games and 34 at bats he’s raking at .471/.514/.794 for a 1.308 OPS with two homers and four RBI.

Clearly, that stat line will be impossible to maintain, but if Bellinger can replicate even the season he had in 2023 with the Cubs when he finished 10th in the MVP vote and won a Silver Slugger award, that could go a long way into replacing a portion of what the Yankees lost with the departure of Juan Soto.

And don’t get that twisted. I’m not saying Bellinger can produce at Soto’s level; there’s no way he’s doing that. But the Yankees need him and Goldschmidt to be consistent threats for an offense that most likely is going to fall short of last season’s AL-leading 815 runs and MLB-leading 237 home runs.

If I had to venture a guess as to what the Opening Day batting order will look like, it could be this: Austin Wells leading off with Aaron Judge back in the No. 2 hole after a year down at No. 3. Then Bellinger at No. 3 and Goldschmidt cleaning up which gives Aaron Boone a left-right-left-right start.

And the platoon switching can continue after that, too, is lefty Jazz Chisholm bats fifth, with switch-hitter Jasson Dominguez perhaps at No. 6. Then rounding it out with lefty Ben Rice as the DH batting seventh, righty Anthony Volpe at No. 8 and switch-hitter Oswaldo Cabrera in the ninth spot. Or, you could flip Volpe and Cabrera at the bottom.

“We’re not there yet,” Boone said Sunday when he was asked about the order, and the makeup of the roster. “There’s still important days here in camp that we’ll continue to evaluate and keep assessing where we are, and ultimately, what we think is the best decision for the team. I feel like a lot of guys have, to this point, forced us into making, hopefully, some decisions.”

Boone said this is a big week because he and the coaching staff, likely with input from the front office and analyst nerds, will get together in Tampa to decide how the initial 26-man roster will look for Opening Day against the Brewers.

“Where we get a lot of voices in the room and hear what people are thinking,” Boone said. “Because I think there are real debates to be had for how the shape of the roster goes.”

Here are a few things that stood out last week

➤ I teased at the start about how no one suffered a season-ending injury last week, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t more potentially bad health news. Clarke Schmidt, who began the spring battling shoulder soreness and has made just one start to date, won’t be making his second start when he was supposed to on Monday. He will instead throw a bullpen session because he’s still feeling discomfort which means there’s a chance the Yankees might be down three starters when the season begins. I know, it’s simply unbelievable.

“With some of the attrition we’ve had, it’s not something we want to push,” Boone said Sunday. “He’s just not bouncing back as well as he wanted to. I think we’re just being cautious with it, but he’s not making his start, so there’s at least that concern. Hopefully, he recovers, has no issues with the 'pen, and then we’ll insert him back in a couple of days.”

Or, this being the Yankees, he’ll miss the first two or three months. Schmidt made his spring debut last Tuesday and he got lit up by the Orioles for three runs on four hits and a walk in 1.2 innings. Not good, and now his build-up has taken another detour.

➤ Assuming nothing happens in the next 10 days, which when it comes to the Yankees is asking a lot, Carlos Rodon is going to get the ball on Opening Day. No. 1 starter Gerrit Cole is obviously gone for the season, and No. 2 Max Fried is currently on a throwing schedule that doesn’t line up for him to make the start on March 27 against the Brewers at Yankee Stadium, so he’ll get the second game on March 29.

That leaves No. 3 Rodon to get the Yankees season started, with Fried probably being followed by Marcus Stroman and then who the hell knows when the Yankees host the Diamondbacks in the second series. If Schmidt can’t take his first turn through the rotation, the Yankees are staring at having to use both Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco which, at the beginning of the spring was an unfathomable scenario.

“I feel really good about giving him the ball,” Boone said of Rodon, whose first two seasons with the Yankees have been quite a rollercoaster ride of inconsistency, though to be fair, 2024 was miles better than 2023. “He’s in the right frame of mind and throwing the ball well. I’m excited to do it, and then at the end of the day, it’s just the first.”

➤ Oswald Peraza may be done as a Yankee. They’ve given this kid a few chances to prove that he belongs on the team, and while he’s certainly got a major league glove, he can’t hit. He couldn’t beat out Volpe when the two battled in the spring of 2023 for the starting shortstop job, and now it looks like he’s not going to beat out Cabrera for the third base job and both times it was because of his bat.

In 14 games and 33 at bats this spring he’s hitting /.182/.270/.212 for a pitiful .482 OPS, and in the brief regular-season playing time he has received since he first debuted in 2022, Peraza has 259 plate appearances and a .216/.297/.315 line with an OPS of .612 which screams minor leaguer.

Because Peraza no longer has minor league options, if he doesn’t make the roster and is designated for assignment, he’s eligible to be poached by any team as a free agent. Now, given the way he has hit, maybe no one will bother and then the Yankees could bring him back and send him to Triple-A. But you figure there would be a team that would be enamored with his glove and would take a flier in the hope that he could figure it out at the plate.

Peraza winning the third base job would have pushed Cabrera back into the utility role which is where he belongs because with Cabrera starting full-time, the Yankees really don’t have a do-everything backup on the roster. The bench is going to include Trent Grisham as the fourth outfielder, probably JC Escarra at backup catcher, and then it’s anybody’s guess who will get the last two spots.

Non-roster invitee Dominic Smith is making a bid to be a backup first baseman/outfielder/DH with his hot bat as he’s slashing .323/.313/.645 with a .958 OPS in 11 games and 31 at bats. He’s not on the 40-man roster, but a spot will open once the Yankees place Stanton on the 60-day injured list. And then who else? Maybe it will have to be Peraza in the early going until DJ LeMahieu - who will likely start the year on the IL - can return. But if and when LeMahieu can play, Peraza would seem like the odd man out.

➤ Things have settled down for Dominguez in left field as he hasn’t made any glaring miscues lately. And as he has gotten a little more comfortable out there, his bat has started to come around. In his last eight games he has gone 10-for-27 with three homers and six RBI.

He leads the team with 43 spring at bats and is now slashing a respectable .256/.289/.512 for an OPS of .801. Obviously, the one number that isn’t favorable is that .289 on-base because he has drawn just two walks as opposed to 12 strikeouts.

Of course, his on-base is great compared to Volpe who is having an awful spring. He has played in 13 games and in 36 at bats he’s slashing a gruesome .139/.184/.306 for a .490 OPS, and that’s only slightly worse than his double play partner, Chisholm, whose line reads .147/.237/.265 for a .502 OPS.

Oh, and then there’s Judge who looks like he’s trying to reprise his brutal postseason performance. His line is the worst of all - .100/.250/.100 for a .350 OPS, though he has just 20 at bats in eight appearances.

I’m kicking myself for even typing in spring training slash lines because they are generally meaningless, but it would be nice if, over the final week of spring some of these guys start picking it up so that maybe they can bring some good feelings into the start of the regular season.

From YES Network Sunday, here’s Jack Curry talking to Omar Minaya about the ballclub. Click the image to watch: