Isn't it Time The Yankees Sit Aaron Judge For The Season?

Even though the games meant basically nothing, it’s always a good thing when the Yankees can win a series against the Red Sox, and for the first time this season, they did that by taking three of four at Fenway. Now, let’s shut down Aaron Judge for the season. You’re now asking why? Read on and I’ll explain.

The Yankees have 15 games remaining on the schedule, and the time has come to sit Aaron Judge down for the rest of the season.

His grand slam in the second game of Thursday night’s doubleheader - a majestic no-doubter to center field at Fenway which helped the Yankees take the finale 8-5 - should be his swan song for the 2023 season.

I know it won’t be, but here’s my rationale.

I’m no doctor, so I have no idea if he’s at risk for injuring his toe any further. My guess is that he has been told he isn’t, but let’s remember who’s telling him this: The same medical staff that couldn’t figure out Anthony Rizzo had a concussion for more than two months, and the same training staff that allowed Jasson Dominguez to play with a torn ligament in his elbow for three days, even though he alerted them that his arm was sore.

Given all the injuries the Yankees have endured for three years running, I wouldn’t trust a single thing their athletic trainers and doctors say.

But even if it’s true that Judge is at no risk to incur further damage, let’s just cut losses here on what has been a disappointing season for him and the team and put him in dry dock the rest of the year. At least that way there’s no longer a risk that he would injure another part of his body which, with this team, is always imminently possible.

Coming off his incredible 2022 MVP season, Judge was rolling heading into that ill-fated game on June 3 against Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. He certainly wasn’t looking like he was going to break his home run record of 62, but in the 49 games he played (during which the Yankees were 30-19) he was hitting .291 with a .404 on base percentage and a .674 slugging percentage with an OPS of 1.078. In 213 plate appearances he had 10 doubles, 19 homers, 40 RBI and 39 walks.

And then he crashed into that god damn concrete barrier under the fence in right field at Chavez Ravine, mashed his toe, and while we didn’t know it at the time, the Yankees season was essentially over. They were helpless without him and by the time he returned on July 28 they were in last place in the AL East with a record of 54-49, nine games behind the Orioles and were fifth in the wild-card standings.

There were many people - I was not part of this group by the way - who thought his return would suddenly jump start the pathetic Yankees offense and enable them to make a push for the postseason. But I said at the time that it wasn’t like Judge could bat in six different spots in the lineup, so I struggled to see how his return was going to wake the rest of the team out of its season-long slumber.

Obviously, I was right about this, but part of the reason is something that I didn’t expect to happen - he hasn’t even been able to handle his own spot in the lineup and has been pretty non-productive since he came back. I’m sure the toe is bothering him because every time he swings he’s putting torque on that toe on his right foot, his plant foot. He’ll never say it, but it’s clearly affecting him and it has led to some ugly, ugly numbers.

He has played 44 games, the Yankees are 20-24 in those games, and he’s slashing .210/.378/.487 for an OPS of .864. In 188 plate appearances he has two doubles, 13 homers and 22 RBI and has struck out 51 times. I’m sorry, we all love Judge, but that’s just not very good.

He has played the majority of his games at DH, but when he’s been in right field you can tell he’s not going full speed because it’s probably painful to run. So the question becomes, what the hell are we doing here? Yes, I’m sure he’s lobbying to be out there because we all know baseball players love their stats.

But in Judge’s case, he doesn’t need to be chasing stats because he got his money - $360 million for nine years. So whether he hits 62 home runs in each of the next eight years, or he misses every game from now through the expiration of the contract in 2031, that’s not changing. That money is his.

The Yankees haven’t played a meaningful game for the better part of a month, so why are they trotting Judge out every night? Give his at bats to the kids like Estevan Florial, Everson Pereira, Oswaldo Cabrera, even though they’ve done almost nothing and have questionable futures with the team. For that matter, throw Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jake Bauers, two players who likely have no future with the Yankees, out there to eat up the rest of these games.

We are in who cares mode right now, but one thing I care about is Judge getting through this season without another injury so that he can attack his offseason the right way, rather than rehabbing something else besides his toe.

Here are my observations on the four games against the Red Sox.

Sept. 12: Yankees 3, Red Sox 2 (Gm 1)

➤ The start of a very long but very good day for the Yankees. Monday’s game was rained out so they played a day-night doubleheader and the Yankees swept a twinbill at Fenway for the first time since 2006. In one day, the Yankees won more games against the Red Sox than they had all year as they had lost eight of the first nine.

➤ It didn’t begin well as Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta struck out nine in the first four innings, and Boston went ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Rafael Devers - of course - hit a home run off Randy Vasquez, and then Boston scratched out a second run on a Triston Casas double, a grounder and a wild pitch.

➤ In the sixth the Yankees finally woke up on offense and scored all three of their runs, all against a fading Pivetta. Pereira led off and was hit by a pitch, then Kyle Higashioka singled and DJ LeMahieu doubled for a run. After Judge flied out, failing to get Higashioka home, Gleyber Torres - who has been the Yankees best hitter for most of the season - grounded a two-run single to right.

➤ Vasquez went 3.2 innings, then Jhony Brito covered 2.1 scoreless, allowing just three hits and a walk. Tommy Kahnle and Wandy Peralta each worked a scoreless inning, and then Clay Holmes made things interesting in the ninth. With one out he walked three straight but got Alex Verdugo to ground into a game-ending double play which was turned beautifully by Torres and Anthony Volpe.

➤ There were plenty of roster moves made. Jasson Dominguez went on the injured list so Florial, who had a tremendous year at Triple-A, was called up and placed back on the 40-man roster. Nestor Cortes and Rizzo were both moved to the 60-day IL which opened roster spots for relievers Anthony Misiewicz and Zach McAllister. And reliever Luke Weaver was claimed on waivers. Right now, it feels like half the roster is Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but this is what happens when you’re out of the playoff race in September.

BOX SCORE

Sept. 12: Yankees 4, Red Sox 1 (Gm 2)

➤ The sweep was completed, though it certainly started terribly. The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first and didn’t score as Austin Wells whiffed and Kiner-Falefa grounded into a double play. Then Red Sox rookie and obvious next star Ceddanne Rafaela hit Carlos Rodon’s first pitch to Cape Cod for a quick 1-0 lead. When Rodon gave up a double and a walk it looked like the Red Sox were gonna run him back to the clubhouse in the first inning. Instead, he struck out Casas, Adam Duvall and Trevor Story. That was pretty surprising.

➤ From there, Rodon dealt with bases runners in the last four innings he pitched but didn’t allow a run. Of course it took him 93 pitches so Aaron Boone pulled him after the fifth and turned the game over to the Triple-A bullpen and those guys were great. McAllister, Misiewicz, Matt Bowman and Nick Ramirez combined for four scoreless innings on two hits and three walks to close it out.

➤ The Yankees tied the game in the fifth when Pereira walked with two outs, stole second and scored on a Florial single which ended Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford’s night. And then in the sixth, the Yankees put Rodon in line for his third win when Torres walked, Wells singled, IKF walked, and Jake Bauers’ fielders’ choice dribbler to third scored Torres with the go-ahead run. In the ninth, the Yankees put up two insurance runs as Torres had an RBI single and with the bases loaded, Wells earned a cheap RBI when he was awarded first on catchers’ interference.

➤ McAllister has a cool story. The Yankees drafted him in the third round in 2006 (yeah, he’s 35 years old). He didn’t get to the majors until 2011 with the Guardians and was a regular contributor there until he was traded to Detroit in 2018. But that was the last year he was in the majors until this game as he bounced around the minors with the Dodgers, Phillies, Cardinals, Diamondbacks and finally the Yankees this year where he had a 1.62 ERA in 11 games at S/WB.

BOX SCORE

Sept. 14: Red Sox 5, Yankees 0 (Gm 1)

➤ Hell of a weather week in Boston as Wednesday’s rainout necessitated another day-night doubleheader Thursday, and it began with the Yankees welcoming Michael King to Gerrit Cole’s world. All year the Yankees have wasted excellent Cole starts and they did the same to King in this one. He gave up just one run on six hits and a walk in 4.2 innings while striking out eight, but the Yankees didn’t score for him, or anyone else.

➤ Three Boston singles in the first resulted in the only run King allowed, and that was all the Red Sox needed. Tanner Houck dominated the Yankees with six shutout innings allowing just four hits and three walks. Ex-Yankee Garrett Whitlock followed with two perfect innings, and then Chris Martin worked around a pair of two-out singles in the ninth to complete Boston’s shutout.

➤ The best chance the Yankees had to score was ruined, as they so often are, by a terrible job of hitting with runners in scoring position compounded by a baserunning blunder. Jake Bauers, who has been about as useless at the plate as Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson were this season for the Yankees, hit a weak grounder to first and Torres broke for home, then stopped when he realized he’d be dead meat and was eventually tagged out in a rundown. Just stupid baseball because Torres did not have to go on the play.

➤ Overall the Yankees were 0-for-10 with RISP and left nine men on base. Still, it was only 2-0 with two outs in the eighth, so they had an outside chance for a rally. That is until Bowman gave up a single, a walk and a three-run homer to Trevor Story in the blink of an eye which blew the game open.

BOX SCORE

Sept. 14: Yankees 8, Red Sox 5 (Gm 2)

➤ Clarke Schmidt was not very good, though he also got bit by some shoddy defense during his 5.1 innings as he gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and three walks. Right off the hop in the first, Volpe threw a ball away trying to turn a double play and a run scored, and a second run came home on Boston’s third single of the inning by Wilyer Abreu.

➤ The Yankees struck back with a vengeance in the second when they scored five. Florial singled, Peraza doubled him to third, Cabrera walked, and then his heady baserunning play - how about that for a rarity from the Yankees? - helped LeMahieu beat out a two-out infield hit. Cabrera hustled to second and took the easy force away and that forced second baseman Luis Reyes to have to go to first and he was too later as a run scored. That also extended the inning and gave Judge the chance to bat, and he didn’t miss. It was his first and only hit of the series and his first homer since Sept. 2.

➤ Boston chipped away with single runs in the third (a Devers homer because, of course), in the fifth (an error by Volpe allowed the run to score) and in the seventh (a fielders’ choice by Casas drove home Rafaela), but the Yankees bounced back and finished strong.

➤ In the eighth, Volpe and Cabrera singled and LeMahieu doubled into the left-field corner to score Volpe with the winning run. In the ninth Peraza, who had a nice series, delivered an insurance two-run homer.

➤ Props to Kahnle who worked a six-out save with Holmes unavailable because Boone said he wasn’t feeling well.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ Sept. 13, 1978: When the sun set on the evening of July 19, the Yankees were 14 games behind Boston in the AL East race. A little less than two months later, following a 7-3 victory on this night at Tiger Stadium, the Yankees moved into first place for the first time in 1978.

“We’re world champions; you can’t get excited about moving into first place with 17 or 18 games to play,” sage veteran Lou Piniella said. “You get too excited and all of a sudden you fall apart.”

Yeah, maybe, but this was quite an achievement. Having just swept the Red Sox four straight at Fenway Park the previous weekend in the series that famously became known as the Boston Massacre which pulled them even in the standings, the Yankees moved on to Detroit. After dropping the opener 7-4 to fall a half-game back of the Red Sox, the Yankees rebounded to win the next game and coupled with Boston’s loss to Cleveland, New York took over the top spot and held it alone until the final day of the regular season.

The Yankees scored four times in the fourth inning, the big blows being a pair of RBI triples by one guy you would expect, speedy Mickey Rivers, and one guy you never would expect, slow-footed Piniella. The Yankees took a 5-2 lead into the seventh and put it away with two runs scoring on singles by Willie Randolph and Mike Heath against a young rookie Tigers pitcher named Jack Morris who had relieved starter Jack Billingham.

“It’s a very nice feeling,” said Yankees manager Bob Lemon, who had replaced the fired Billy Martin on July 25 and guided the team to 35 wins in 49 games including 17 in the last 20 games. “I’m not a hysterical type of guy; we still have to be there Oct. 1. We’ve got a long way to go.”

The Yankees were indeed there on Oct. 1, but so was Boston, and that led to the famous one-game playoff at Fenway to decide the division, the Bucky Dent game.

The Yankees move on to Pittsburgh’s awesome PNC Park for three against the Pirates who are in fourth place in the NL Central with a record of 69-78 after they took of three at home from the Nationals.

Somehow, the Pirates started this season winning 20 of their first 28 games and there was some talk that perhaps they could be a factor in a weak division, but that fell apart pretty quickly when they went 27-49 in May, June and July while getting outscored by 119 runs.

They have some nice players in outfielder Bryan Reynolds who leads the team with 74 RBI, outfielder Jack Suwinski who leads them with 24 homers, and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes who’s a slick fielder with 13 homers and 57 RBI. Also, Rochester Red Wings fans might remember Josh Palacios who was here last year. He’s become a regular for the Pirates now that Andrew McCutchen is out for the year.

For some reason, the pitching matchups are half a mystery as I publish this morning. Friday at 6:35 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (2.79 ERA) against Johan Oviedo (4.34); Saturday at 6:35 on YES, neither team has announced a starter; and Sunday at 1:35 on YES it’s Carlos Rodon (6.14) against a Pirates TBD.