Lots of Dead Spots In Yankees Batting Order

Despite more struggles on offense, which became a common theme in Cleveland, the Yankees did manage to salvage the finale of a three-game series Wednesday and that enabled them to finish off this stretch where they played 13 straight days with an 8-5 record. Still, we remain worried about the starting rotation, and several players are in colossal batting slumps. Lets get to it. 

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I can’t imagine where the Yankees would be if not for the hot offensive starts from Aaron Judge, Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice, and I’ll even throw in Trent Grisham.

I’ll tell you where they wouldn’t be if those four weren’t raking the way they have for the first four weeks of the season: First place in the AL East with a 15-10 record.

The Yankees avoided being swept in a series of three games or more in Cleveland for the first time since 1970 which, when you think about how many good teams the Guardians have had, is pretty incredible. They got it done Wednesday in a 5-1 victory because Judge, Goldschmidt and Rice went a combined 6-for-12 with three runs scored and four driven in. Oh, and Carlos Rodon backed them with one of the best starts of his Yankee career.

All of that was good, but it does not mask the growing problem this team’s offense has. The Yankees now have seven players who are hitting less than .200, and all seven of those guys have on-base percentages below .300 and an OPS less than .700.

Four of these toothpick swingers are everyday players - Cody Bellinger, Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm and Austin Wells. That foursome is hitting a combined .180 with 105 strikeouts which is just woeful.

So much for the rage that was the torpedo bat. All four of these guys use them, and they’ve sucked almost the entire year with the exception of the crazy opening series against Milwaukee when the Yankees scored 36 runs in three games against a team missing seven of its pitchers.

It is a testament to how great Judge, Goldschmidt, Rice and Grisham have been that the Yankees somehow still rank No. 1 in MLB in home runs (41) and OPS (.806) and No. 2 in on-base percentage (.344), runs scored (137) and total bases (387).

You see those numbers and you’re probably wondering what the hell I’m bitching about but come on, you know what I’m bitching about. You watch the games, you see the terrible at bats. When you combine that with the mostly cruddy starting pitching they’ve received outside of brilliant Max Fried and Rodon who overall has been pretty good, and the struggles of Devin Williams, I feel like it’s some kind of optical illusion that the Yankees are 15-10.

I shared this tweet in the live in-game chat we had in The Ballpark yesterday which was very fun, and I appreciate all of you who hung out chatting with me. That’s another perk you get by creating an account at Mighty Networks. This shows how the slumps of so many players at the same time have dragged the offense down.

It’s early, I understand that. I have to believe some of these guys are going to wake up and start hitting, but I wonder if that really will happen.

Bellinger is exactly what I feared he might be when he came over from the Cubs in an offseason trade - a good athlete and defender, but a bad hitter. Chisholm swings out of his shoes at least twice - sometimes three times - in every at bat and he never seems to have a plan. I’m convinced Volpe is never going to be a good hitter, and I have my doubts about Wells who I feel has become a solid catcher but is overrated as a batter.

April 21: Guardians 6, Yankees 4

➤ Look, Clarke Schmidt is still getting into the groove of things and I can recognize that he’s not going to be as good as he was last year before he suffered his lat injury, a time when it looked like he was finally going to live up to being a first-round pick in 2017. But this second outing of 2025 was bad and he put his team in a hole it could not crawl out of. Five earned runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings is not gonna cut it and you knew right away it was going to be a struggle. If you’re wondering, no, it’s not possible for Fried to start every game for the Yankees.

➤ Schmidt walked two men in the first inning but got out of it, and after handling the bottom of the order in the second, he got pounded in the third when No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan singled and Jose Ramirez clubbed a three-run homer. And then Schmidt’s next pitch was sent over the wall by Kyle Manzardo and it was 4-0.

➤ In the fourth, he was fortunate to allow just one run as the Guardians had three hits and a walk before he retired two men with the bases loaded. The run scored on a weird play as Rocchio broke his bat on a grounder to Chisholm and with the bat flying in his direction, Chisholm bailed and the ball scooted right past him.

➤ Guardians starter Gavin Williams wasn’t particularly great as he gave up seven hits and two walks across 6.1 innings, but the only mistake he made resulted in a two-run homer by Jasson Dominguez that got the Yankees within 6-2 in the seventh. Paul Sewald relieved and in the eighth, he allowed a two-out single to Goldschmidt followed by a two-run homer by Chisholm. And then in the ninth, with Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase unavailable, Cade Smith allowed a one-out single to Oswaldo Cabrera which gave the Yankees two cracks at tying the game. Unfortunately, Wells struck out looking at what appeared to be a ball, and then Judge struck out on a pitch way out of the zone to end it.

➤ The Yankees did not have Trent Grisham as he’s on paternity leave and missed the entire series. Boone gave Judge a DH day and he used the completely useless Pablo Reyes in right field.

What they said in Monday’s clubhouse

• Schmidt on his night: “Obviously, the walks are frustrating. Beyond that, I felt like I made some good pitches. You have to tip your cap to a really good hitter (Ramirez). I was trying to go down and in with the slider, got to the area I was trying to get to and he put a good swing on it. So you tip your cap on that.”

• Boone on Williams limiting the Yankees: “It’s a big fastball, and then the mix with his secondary, whether it was curveball or slider and mixing in some cutters too. I thought he threw some good cutters to our lefties. But he mixed enough with that big fastball and breaking balls, got us to expand a little bit. We couldn’t put it together quite enough against him.”

• Chisholm on the broken bat play: “I want to make every play out there for my guy, but at the same time you don’t want to die. You’ve got a sharp object coming your way. I’ve seen guys get stabbed with broken bats in person. I know how bad the injury can be.”

April 22: Guardians 3, Yankees 2

➤ I haven’t had too many problems with Boone this year, but that’s not the case in this game because he blew this one. It was basically a miracle that Will Warren gave the Yankees five scoreless, one-hit innings and Boone should not have rolled the dice and tried to steal a few outs by sending Warren out for the sixth with the top of the Cleveland order coming up. Honestly, I don’t know what the hell he was thinking.

➤ The Yankees had just taken a 2-0 lead in the top half. They had done nothing since Rice hit the first pitch of the game from Guardians starter Tanner Bibee for a home run, but in the sixth Judge doubled, Goldschmidt singled and Chisholm hit a sacrifice fly. Warren should have remained in the dugout, and Tim Hill should have been in the game. Why? The first two batters, Kwan and Nolan Jones, swing lefty, and switch-hitter Jose Ramirez is much weaker as a right-hander. Also, the entire Guardians lineup was made up of lefties or switchers. Hill was such an obvious move, but Boone left Warren in and he immediately allowed singles to Kwan and Jones.

➤ Next, Boone turned to righty Mark Leiter Jr. which was another dumb move. That allowed Ramirez to bat lefty, and while Leiter struck him out, it was still a stupid risk against that guy. From there, Leiter was burned by his own poor pitching and lousy defense behind him. With Manzardo batting the Guardians tried a double steal. Leiter threw a low slider and catcher JC Escarra came out of his stance too early trying to cheat to make the throw and the ball got past him. The speedy Kwan never stopped and he scored from second while Jones took third.

➤ Manzardo then doubled on a ball that just fell in front of Judge, tying the game. After a groundout moved Manzardo to third, Leiter walked Bo Naylor, and then Angel Martinez hit a grounder to short which should have been the third out, but Volpe booted it and Manzardo scored the winning run. The official scorer ruled it a hit, but it wasn’t and Volpe was the first to admit that afterward.

➤ The whole inning was ridiculous and it cost the Yankees the game. Though what also didn’t help is Judge going 4-for-4 and the rest of the team going 2-for-27.

➤ In a move before the game, reliever Yoendrys Gomez was DFA’d to make room for lefty Tyler Matzek who began the season on the injured list after he impressed in the spring to earn a roster spot. Hopefully he can contribute something.

What they said in Tuesday’s clubhouse

• Volpe on his botched play: “When you feel like if you just made the plays and don’t give them any more outs than they earn, it’s frustrating. But it was early in the game, we still had a lot of time and a lot more opportunities to come through. I feel like I got to make that play. It’s just one of those humpback line drives right at you that it’s hard to gauge how hard it’s hit. Just trying to keep it in front and make a play, but obviously didn’t.”

• Leiter: “Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t. You’re just making pitches and trying to induce some weak contact and the ball didn’t fall our way.”

• Judge: “That’s what makes this team so tough. Up and down that whole lineup is tough at-bats. They’re going to put the ball in play. There in the sixth, they just put the ball in play, made something happen.”

April 23: Yankees 5, Guardians 1

➤ Rodon was handed a 2-0 lead before he took the mound, though it should have been 4-0. The Yankees began the game with a Rice walk and an RBI triple by Judge, a Bellinger walk and an RBI double Goldschmidt off beleaguered Cleveland starter Luis Ortiz. But with men on second and third and no outs, Chisholm, Volpe and Wells all struck out which was absolutely maddening.

➤ Rodon then started shaky as Gabriel Arias hit a one-out double and scored on Ramirez’s single, and Ramirez went to third when the ball skipped past Bellinger for a brutal error. Here, Rodon buckled down and retired the next two men to escape with the lead intact. From there, he was masterful. The Guardians managed just two hits and two walks across the rest of his efficient 90-pitch, seven-inning outing and he struck out eight.

➤ The Yankees tacked on two in the second as Dominguez singled, stole second and scored on Rice’s single, and Rice scored after a Judge and Goldschmidt singled to make it 4-1. The last run came in the seventh when Chisholm walked, stole second and scored on a Wells double. In between there, Volpe struck out for the fourth straight at bat. The Yankees were 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position (18!) but they left 13 men on base. If Rodon hadn’t pitched so well, this is definitely a game the Yankees could have blown.

➤ Boone stayed away from Williams the entire series, and no one should be complaining about that right now. Fernando Cruz pitched another dominant inning, and Luke Weaver closed it out in a non-save situation although he gave up a single and three rockets to the warning track, the last of which Bellinger made a great catch on at the wall to end the game.

What they said in Wednesday’s clubhouse

• Rodon on Judge: “Right now, he’s like Tony Gwynn. Then next week, he’ll probably be like Hank Aaron.”

• Goldschmidt on Judge: “It’s fun to watch. I’ve seen it from afar for a few years now. It’s incredible. He’s a great hitter. Very smart. Obviously, physically gifted but does a lot of little things that stick out. Takes his walks, deals with failure very well. Just all the things we’re trying to do.”

• Boone on Rodon: “Another strong one for him. I thought he got into a really good groove and got better as he went. He had a really good presence with his fastball.”

After Thursday’s off day, the Yankees’ first since April 10, they will be in the Bronx to host the Blue Jays for three games over the weekend. Toronto (12-13) just got swept down in Houston and has lost five straight, during which it has been outscored 31-9. The Jays have just 13 home runs, second-fewest in MLB.

Here are a few of the Blue Jays top players to watch:

➤ 1B Vlad Guerrero: The new $500 million man has gotten off to a sluggish start with just one home run in 110 plate appearances, but we all know he drools when he sees pinstripes as he has a lifetime .904 OPS against the Yankees with 20 home runs.

➤ SS Bo Bichette: He has no home runs but does have a team-best 13 RBI and his on-base is a respectable .336.

➤ RF George Springer: After a terrible 2024, he’s back to being a big threat with an on-base of .420 and a team-leading OPS of .956.

➤ DH Anthony Santander: He signed as a free agent after hitting 103 home runs the last three seasons for the Orioles. So far he’s off to a disappointing start for the Jays with two homers and an OPS of .559.

➤ RP Jeff Hoffman: He’s been lights as the closer with five saves and a 1.46 ERA and 0.649 WHIP.

The pitching matchups are scheduled to be:

• Friday, 7:05, YES: Carlos Carrasco (6.53) vs. Jose Berrios (5.02) who locked up the Red Sox on April 7 at Fenway with seven innings of one-run ball for his lone win.

• Saturday, 1:05, YES: Max Fried (1.42) vs. Kevin Gausman (2.49), the Jays ace who is coming off his worst start of the season, four earned runs in a loss to the Astros.

• Thursday, 1:35, YES: Clarke Schmidt (7.45) vs. Chris Bassitt (1.88) who has been the Jays best starter so far and is averaging 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.