It's Not Time to Worry About Aaron Judge, but he Needs to Pick it Up

The Yankees couldn’t finish off the sweep against Miami and the Marlins won for just the second time in 13 games this season. Rough night for Marcus Stroman, but it was a really rough night for Aaron Judge who has not gotten anything going in the first two weeks of the season. 

Down in Box Score Briefs, the Orioles called up Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 prospect in MLB, and he made his debut in a victory over the Red Sox. Also, some thoughts on Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners, a great play by Carlos Correa, the pain in the ass Rays, and the continued plight of the Astros. 

Hey, one more thing. I hope you consider Pinstripe People a great resource for Yankees information. Another one is https://www.startspreadingthenews.blog which is a free site run by Dr. Paul Semendinger who is also a subscriber to Pinstripe People. Among many things, Paul is also an author who wrote a terrific book about one of the most underappreciated Yankees of all time, Roy White. Give SSTN a look. OK, lets get to it.

April 10: Marlins 5, Yankees 2

Yuck. That pretty much describes what took place in the finale of the three-game set against Miami Wednesday night.

There was plenty to dislike about this game, starting with Marcus Stroman having all kinds of command issues and looking nothing like the pitcher he was in his first two Yankee starts.

But this loss, just the third of the season, was more about the offense, or lack there of. And in particular, it was about the performance of the patron saint of the Bronx, Aaron Judge.

What an awful night for him, which was right in line with the pretty awful start he has gotten off to in Year 2 of his $360 million contract. Look, I know it’s early, it’s a small sample size, and he had the abdominal issue late in spring training that cost him some practice at bats, but Judge needs to start snapping out of his funk. It’s pretty amazing that the Yankees have started 10-3 while getting next to nothing from him, but my sense is that they’re not going to keep piling up wins if Judge is contributing nothing but walks.

“I’ve talked about this a lot, hitting … it’s different every year,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s fickle a little bit every year from great players like Aaron Judge to guys that are trying to get on the roster. Sometimes it clicks in a week into spring training and you kind of got that feeling going right away. Sometimes it takes longer. There’s not always a rhyme or reason to it. I feel like his at-bats have been really good. I’m not too worried about Aaron Judge.”

I guess I’m not too worried about him either because he’s too good of a hitter for this to continue. But I’m just shooting you straight here - he’s 8-for-45 which computes to .178, he’s 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, his swing and miss rate is 29.2%, he has grounded into an AL-high four double plays, and his OPS is a mere .744.

All of that is bad, and it manifested itself in this game. Judge walked in his first at bat which gave him an MLB-high 14 on the season. Then came the disappointment. He killed the third inning by grounding out with men on first and second; he had a four-pitch strikeout leading off the sixth; in the eighth, with the Yankees finally threatening to do something after a Juan Soto RBI double, Judge had a ridiculous four-pitch strikeout where he took two strikes down the middle and then swung and missed at a pitch that was way outside; and the coup de grace in the ninth when he flied to center with the bases loaded to end the game.

During his 0-for-4 he left six men on base and was 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, part of a bubbling Yankees problem the entire series because despite winning two of the games, they were 5-for-26 with RISP. Paging 2022 and 2023, does that sound familiar?

One more thing about Judge’s 14 walks. He has always drawn a ton of walks because pitchers are afraid of him, and his walks are the main reason why his on-base percentage is a solid .367. However, while I think on-base percentage is far more important than batting average, I have a different viewpoint on that when it comes to Judge.

I would much rather see Judge swinging at borderline pitches because that would greatly increase the chances of him driving in runs instead of just trotting meekly down to first base and leaving it to guys like Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres below him.

Yeah, Stanton’s on a little bit of a roll lately, but how long is that going to last? And Rizzo is a declining player, both at the plate and in the field and he can’t be counted on to deliver in big spots. Torres is a wild rollercoaster from whom you never know what you’re going to get, and this year, it’s been mostly nothing.

The Yankees need Judge to start being Judge again because this version that we’ve seen in the first two weeks is, well, yuck.

Here are my observations:

➤ You could tell in the first inning that it was going to be a tough night for Stroman. He walked Josh Bell and needed 20 pitches to retire the side; he walked Jesus Sanchez in the second and needed 20 more pitches though he was helped greatly when Sanchez mindlessly got doubled off second base on a fly out to Soto in right. Then in the third, Stroman was terrible. The inning started with a walk, a single, and an RBI single by Luis Arraez. After getting an out, Stroman center cut an 87 mph slider and Jake Burger hit it 425 feet to left-center for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Miami lead. “Burger put a really good swing on a bad pitch,” said Stroman. “I was just losing the zone. It’s very uncharacteristic of me to walk four guys. That’s not me at all.”

➤ Stroman leveled off thereafter and pitched two easy innings but Boone lifted him after the fifth because he was already at 95 pitches. Luke Weaver and Victor Gonzalez combined for three scoreless innings, but then Dennis Santana was sent out to mop up the ninth and he gave up the final run which scored on a walk, a single and a throwing error by Volpe.

➤ Miami starter Ryan Weathers, son of former Yankee and 1996 postseason stud David Weathers, did his dad proud with five scoreless three-hit innings. Then a parade of four relievers gave the Yankees a few chances to rally but ultimately closed the door and Weathers was the winner.

➤ With Torres struggling badly, Boone elevated Volpe to the leadoff spot and the kid handled it great. He singled in the third, led off the eighth with a walk and scored from first on Soto’s double, and he drew another walk in the ninth before Judge killed the rally. Torres batted sixth and drew two walks but also struck out twice and his average is down to .192

➤ Stanton homered in the sixth, his first against his former team, the Marlins, meaning he has now hit a home run against all 30 MLB teams. He is one of only 15 active players who have homered against every team. “Man, he looks good,” Boone said. “It’s health. Even going back to before him getting really locked in over these last several days, he’s been in the at-bats all year.”

The Yankees have Thursday off as they travel to Cleveland to play three against the AL-Central leading Guardians over the weekend. Cleveland has started 9-3 under new manager Stephen Vogt who took over for the retired Terry Francona.

The best way to describe the Guardians is pesky. They aren’t going to wow you with their roster, but they’re going to find ways to beat you. They have one true star in third baseman Jose Ramirez who is off to a so-so start but still leads the team with 10 RBI. Outfielder Steven Kwan is the ultimate pest who’s on-base is .397, first baseman Josh Naylor is a legit power threat, and his brother Bo is now the starting catcher, but he didn’t get the same hit gene as Josh.

Wednesday, the Naylors had a pretty big day as Cleveland beat the White Sox 7-6. They each homered in the fourth to get the Guardians within 5-3. And then in the 10th, down 6-5, Josh doubled home the automatic runner to tie the score, and Bo drove home the winning run for the walk-off.

Cleveland can definitely pitch, though the loss of ace Shane Bieber is going to be tough to overcome. Their staff ERA is 2.69, fourth-best in MLB and just behind the Yankees who are at 2.67. And if they get a lead late, closer Emmanuel Clase is one of the best in MLB.

The starting pitching matchups look like this: Friday, 7:10 p.m. on YES it’s Clarke Schmidt (4.66 ERA) against Carlos Carrasco (4.50); Saturday at 6:10 p.m. on YES it’s Luis Gil (3.00) against Triston McKenzie (4.00); and Sunday at 1:40 p.m. on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (3.50) against Logan Allen (4.60).

⚾ It took all of two weeks for the Orioles to realize they should have let the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, Jackson Holliday, come north with the team out of spring training. Instead, they sent the kid down to Triple-A Norfolk which did not go over well with their fan base. However, good on them for calling him up Wednesday and putting him into the starting lineup playing second base and batting ninth at Fenway Park.

Then again, did the Orioles really have a choice? The son of longtime MLB star and Yankee short timer Matt Holliday played 10 games for Norfolk and he was slashing .333/.482/.595 with two homers and an OPS of 1.007. The reason the Orioles gave for sending him down originally was that he needed more reps at second base - he’s a natural shortstop - and more at bats against Triple-A lefties.

Whatever. The Orioles picked Holliday No. 1 overall in the 2022 draft straight out of high school, and he’s had star written all over him throughout his quick journey up the organizational chain, just the latest in an assembly line of great young players who are going to form the core of Baltimore’s lineup for years to come. After all the suffering the Orioles did while they were tanking, it is really paying off because this team is going to be a load.

Holliday didn’t get off to a great start, though the Orioles rallied from down 5-0 to beat the Red Sox 7-5. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and he misplayed a pop fly in shallow right center. He did manage to record his first RBI on a groundout.

“It’s exciting. I’m really happy for him,” his father, Matt, said. “It’s what he’s always wanted to do, and it’s kind of surreal that he gets to come out here and play on this field. He’s been on this field. It’s always more fulfilling to watch your kids achieve things than yourself. He just plays with a lot of joy because he loves to play, and I enjoy watching that.”

The player he replaced on the Baltimore roster was long-time veteran Tony Kemp who was released. But Kemp showed a lot of class by sending this message out: “In the fall of 2010, our college had a series against the Longhorns for a 3 game set. Our hitting coach at the time was Josh Holliday and his brother, Matt, brought his kid to our early practice. I remember watching his son (Jackson) with a sweet lefty swing. Go get em’ kid!”

⚾ Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez is considered a star already, and on the precipice of becoming a superstar, but he is off to an ugly start in 2024. The center fielder won the AL rookie of the year award in 2022 when he hit 28 homers and had an OPS of .853, then hit 32 bombs with 103 RBI and an .818 OPS in 2023 while finishing fourth in AL MVP balloting and winning his second Silver Slugger award which is given to the best hitter at each position.

This year, after striking out four times Wednesday in Seattle’s 6-1 victory over the Blue Jays, J-Rod is hitting just .196 with no homers, three RBI and an OPS of .471. This game was tied 1-1 after nine but the Mariners scored five times in the 10th off Blue Jays relievers Tim Mayza and Mitch White, the key hits a two-run tiebreaking homer by Cal Raleigh and a two-run single by Mitch Haniger. J-Rod wasn’t alone as the Mariners struck out 15 times, but the Blue Jays couldn’t take advantage because their offense was non-existent.

⚾ The Twins beat the Dodgers 3-2 and the play of the game happened in the seventh inning. Shohei Ohtani was on first base when Freddie Freeman roped a double into the right field corner. Ohtani flew around the bases and tried to score, but Carlos Correa ranged over to take Alex Kiriloff’s throw, spun around and fired a rocket that nailed Ohtani at the plate and preserved the Twins’ 3-2 lead. The Twins had lost the first two games of the series and were on a four-game losing streak, so Correa’s throw was a big moment to help secure a much-needed win.

⚾ The Rays will never not be annoying, a refrain that many of you have heard me sing for years. Things were looking promising on April 5 when they lost 10-7 to Colorado in a game where - because they are the Rays - they scored five runs in the top of the ninth to take the lead, only to lose in the bottom of the ninth on a grand slam by Ryan McMahon. I smiled at that one.

But since then, they have won four out of five. The next day in Colorado they were down 6-1 but scored twice in the seventh and five times in the eighth to win. Now this week, they just won a series in Los Angeles by beating the Angels 4-2 Wednesday, so they come home with a record of 7-6 only three games behind the Yankees.

⚾ Another team most of us Yankees fans can’t stand is still on a season-opening skid. After getting swept four straight by the Yankees, the Astros still haven’t found their footing. They have lost two straight to the Royals including an 11-2 pounding Wednesday and are now 4-9 on the season. Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker and Jose Abreu (.081 BA) are scuffling and the pitching staff took another hit as Framber Valdez just went on the injured list.