Helpless and Feeble Best Describe the State of the Yankees Offense

There really isn’t much to say about that fiasco Monday afternoon, but when has that ever stopped me? The Yankees’ offense is so broken that it couldn’t score a single run against the Oakland A’s which has to qualify as the low point of the early season. Down in Box Score Briefs, I have some thoughts on the Dodgers, Red Sox, Mets, Pirates, Cubs and Orioles. Lets get to it.

April 22: A’s 2, Yankees 0

The Lead: An absolute disgrace of a day

Ryan Ruocco was on the play-by-play for YES Monday, and something he said while Gleyber Torres was striking out yet again in the seventh inning summed up the state of the Yankees offense.

In his previous at bat in the fifth, it took Oakland starter Sandy Koufax - oops, J.P. Sears - nine pitches to finally whiff Torres as the befuddled Yankee second baseman fouled off three pitches and got the count from 0-2 to 3-2. Ruocco said that, “Torres struck out in his last at bat but he really battled.” And then this time, Torres was done in three quick pitches; so much for battling.

That’s where we are with the Yankees. Their play-by-play man is lauding them for extending an at bat before ultimately striking out. I joked about Koufax, but the 88-year-old Hall of Famer could probably mow through this lineup right now.

Since I’m still on strike from the Democrat and Chronicle and have my days free, I had the misfortune of being able to watch this shit show matinee from start to finish. Maybe you were working and were spared. If so, lucky you. The good news is it only wasted two hours, 32 minutes of the afternoon, and it was over by 3:45 so the rest of the day and night was Yankee-free.

I wrote this in Monday’s newsletter, so by now it’s repetitive, but folks, this offense is just not good. We are heading down the same path that we traversed last season because nothing has really changed with the exception of adding Juan Soto, and not even Soto can carry a team all by himself. It’s the same guys putting up the same non-competitive at bats over and over and over.

Players go through slumps, it’s just a natural thing in baseball, and when a team has two or three guys in the abyss at the same time which isn’t uncommon, you can still overcome that and win games. But you can’t continue to win when seven or eight guys are in the abyss the way it is for the Yankees the past week.

If there’s a sport out there where scoring zero gets you a win, I’m unaware. Low score wins in golf, but zero means you never teed it up and therefore, you can’t win.

Even with their shaky bullpen, the Yankees have generally pitched well enough to win almost every game. There have been only three games in the first 23 where they gave up more than five runs. But when you score zero, which has already happened four times, you can’t win in baseball.

Here are my observations:

➤ Carlos Rodon sure deserved better. I’m not going to say he was great because, believe it or not, the A’s lineup is worse than the Yankees. But Rodon was very good, the best he’s ever been as a Yankee. It was his first scoreless outing since he joined the team, and the first time he finished seven innings. He gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out four on 92 pitches. That’s the guy the Yankees thought they signed last year.

➤ Ian Hamilton pitched the eighth and once again, he was ineffective. He got two quick outs, then in the blink of an eye it was single, walk, hit batter to load the bases before he struck out Shea Langeliers. Then in the ninth, Victor Gonzalez got the call, and he blew the game. After a swinging bunt single on which Gonzalez slipped and fell while trying to field it, he served up a two-run homer to Zach Gelof and that 2-0 deficit looked like 20-0. Ballgame over.

➤ Sears, who went to the A’s in the trade that brought the immortal Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees in 2022 (yeah, that sure worked out) dominated the Yankees. I mean, it was just silly how fruitless the Yankees looked as he pitched six innings and allowed three meaningless singles. But then it really got silly when the A’s brought in their two flamethrowing relievers, Lucas Erceg and Mason Miller. The Yankees managed one walk off Erceg, and he was quickly erased on a double play ball by Jose Trevino. And then Miller just flat embarrassed Anthony Volpe, Soto and Aaron Judge with his 103 mph fastball, striking them out on 14 pitches. In all, the Yankees struck out 11 times.

➤ So, dating back to Friday night, the Yankees have now batted in 35 innings, and they have scored runs in three. And outside of Soto, the rest of the team has zero extra-base hits in those four games. Through Monday, here’s the update on the recent performance of four guys who are supposed to be integral to this team’s success: Judge is 3 for his last 28 (.107); Volpe is 3 for his last 29 (.103); Anthony Rizzo is 3 for his last 26 (.115); Gleyber Torres is 6 for his last 43 (.140). And for the season, Austin Wells is 3-for-33, and Trent Grisham is 0-for-12.

➤ How about umpire Hunter Wendelstedt throwing Aaron Boone out of the game with no outs in the top of the first. Once again, we have an egomaniac, thin-skinned umpire injecting himself into the game. Leadoff hitter Esteury Ruiz was hit by a Rodon pitch and Boone thought he swung and should not have been awarded first base so he said something.

Wendelstedt immediately warned him to shut up and Boone said OK. But then a fan behind the dugout yelled something, and Wendelstedt thought it was Boone and he threw him out. Here’s what the umpire told the pool reporter after the game, claiming he hadn’t watched a replay of the incident.

“Apparently what he said was there was a fan right above the dugout. This isn’t my first ejection. In the entirety of my career, I have never ejected a player or a manager for something a fan has said. I understand that’s going to be part of a story or something like that because that’s what Aaron was portraying. I heard something come from the far end of the dugout, had nothing to do with his area but he’s the manager of the Yankees. So he’s the one that had to go.”

Well, Boone was portraying that because that’s exactly what happened. Some guy in the stands berated the ump, and the ump assumed it was Boone and tossed him. “Embarrassing. It is really bad, it’s embarrassing,” Boone said of Wendelstedt ejecting him. And he was right, but not as embarrassing as the Yankee offense.

⚾ I guess it was inevitable, but Sunday afternoon Shohei Ohtani became the all-time Japanese-born MLB home run leader when he hit his 176th as the Dodgers avoided a sweep at the hands of the Mets, winning 10-0. That moved Ohtani past ex-Yankee great Hideki Matsui who hit 140 of his 175 homers while wearing pinstripes.

Ohtani is a force of nature and he has a 1.094 OPS in his first 24 games as a Dodger, but here’s the weird thing: The Dodgers have been curiously mediocre so far as they have a 13-11 record. This is supposed to be the greatest team ever constructed, but after a 7-2 start, they’ve gone 6-9 since and they just lost three straight series at home to the Padres, Nationals and Mets.

I think they’ll get it together because Mookie Betts is another force of nature with a 1.103 OPS, Freddie Freeman is great even though he has just one home run, and Will Smith is hitting .346 with 17 RBI. Their problem has been the rest of the lineup has been mostly non-productive, the poster child being Chris Taylor who has started the season 2-for-39.

On the mound, Tyler Glasnow has been incredible, 4-1 with a 2.92 ERA, a 0.946 WHIP, and a 4.89 strikeout-to-walk ratio; Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been solid and his 12.3 strikeouts per nine is third in MLB; and ex-Yankee James Paxton is finally healthy and he’s made three very good starts with a 2.81 ERA.

⚾ The Red Sox are starting to annoy me. This was supposed to be the no-doubt-about-it last-place team in the AL East, but I did warn you that they were not going to be as bad as most people thought. So far, I’m right. They swept the Pirates over the weekend to improve to 13-10, and they’re doing it with outstanding pitching which is certainly something new in the Hub.

They lead MLB with a staff ERA of 2.52 and their starters have a combined 1.73 ERA which is unbelievable. Tanner Houck threw a complete-game shutout last week and his ERA is 1.35; Kutter Crawford’s ERA is 0.66 and he’s allowing just 5.3 hits per nine innings; and Brayan Bello is at 3.04. And they’re doing this even though they lost Lucas Giolito before the season even began, and now Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock are on the injured list.

Their bullpen has been good, too. And guess who leads them in appearances? Ex-Yankee Greg Weissert who was sent there in the Alex Verdugo trade. He has pitched 11 times and has a 1.86 ERA while closer Kenley Jansen has five saves and a ridiculous 14.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

However, injuries are really piling up. In addition to Pivetta and Whitlock plus shortstop Trevor Story, they just lost first baseman Triston Casas to a rib injury which could mean a lengthy IL stint, third baseman Rafael Devers is hobbled by a sore knee, and outfielder Tyler O’Neill, who has seven homers and a 1.209 OPS, has been on the concussion list.

⚾ Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about the surprising Pirates and whether we should believe in them? Well, after an 11-5 start they lost six straight, swept by the Mets and Red Sox last week. Monday they got back in the win column by beating the Brewers 4-2 as Andrew McCutchen, who just hit his 300th career homer the other day, hit another one leading off the game. He’s not the same MVP player he was in his first stint with the Pirates as he’s hitting .214, but he’s still got a little pop.

One of their super talented young pitchers, rookie righty Jared Jones, went six innings for the win and he generated 25 swings and misses on 91 pitches which is unreal, and eight of which were more than 100 mph. He’s just the fourth pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1900) to record at least seven strikeouts in each of his first five games.

At some point, the Pirates are going to call up pitcher Paul Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft. At Triple-A, Skenes is killing it. He’s made four starts, has not allowed a run in 12.2 innings, has a WHIP of 0.710 and has 27 strikeouts. That’s right, 27 strikeouts in 12.2 innings, so this is still a team to watch.

⚾ Tough break for the Mets over the weekend as they lost catcher Franciso Alvarez for quite a while due to a torn ligament in his left thumb. Alvarez is one of the young building blocks the Mets were counting on this season so that’s going to be a tough one for them to overcome. The Mets won their series over the Dodgers, but Francisco Lindor remains stuck in neutral as he’s hitting a team-worst .188 and has just six RBI.

⚾ The Cubs, as usual, have been a frustrating rollercoaster of a team, but rookie Japanese import Shota Imanaga has been great. Four starts, 3-0 record, 0.84 ERA, 0.750 WHIP, and a 10.5 strikeout to watch ratio which is absolutely insane.

On the flip side for the Cubs, there is Kyle Hendricks, the last remaining member from the 2016 World Series team who is at the end of the line now. He might be the worst starting pitcher in MLB as he’s 0-3 with a 12.00 ERA and 2.095 WHIP. Hendricks can barely throw 90, and if he’s not super precise with his location, he gets shelled and that’s what has happened all year. I have a soft spot in my heart for him because of what he meant to the Cubs in 2016 and the playoff seasons thereafter, but he looks done.

⚾ Lastly, the Orioles beat the Angels 4-2 as James McCann and Colton Cowser homered, Adley Rutschman had two RBI, and closer Craig Kimbrel struck out Mike Trout with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. The Orioles have won 10 of 13 and for the first time this year, the Yankees are no longer in first place. I hate to say it, but with the Orioles in the division and playing like this, and the Yankees hitting as they, Monday may have been the last day the Yankees spend at the top.