Questions Abound as Yankees Prepare for Opening Day

We are now just three days away from the start of the 2025 season. Obviously, this was not a good spring for the Yankees because of the injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Giancarlo Stanton, Clarke Schmidt, DJ LeMahieu and about half the bullpen. It has certainly sucked out some of my enthusiasm for the start of a new baseball season, and if I had to make a prediction, I don’t think the Yankees will repeat as AL East champions. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s tough to see the path with the Red Sox vastly improved and the Orioles still really talented. Of course, I didn’t think the Yankees were winning the division last year and they wound up in the World Series. I was wrong. It happens. Lets get to it.

I’ll start on a somber note today after hearing the awful news that longtime Yankee outfielder Brett Gardner’s younger son, 14-year-old Miller Gardner, died over the weekend after falling ill while the family was on vacation.

The family put out this statement Sunday:

My God, I can’t even imagine the sadness of losing a child at that age, or any age. There are really no words.

Turning now to baseball, the story of catcher JC Escarra is far more joyful. Saturday morning, Aaron Boone called the soon-to-be 30-year-old into his office at Steinbrenner Field and gave him the news he’s been waiting his entire life to hear: “Welcome to the Show.”

Escarra won the backup catching job and he did so because he proved to the Yankees that he could handle the defensive responsibilities while also hitting the shit out of the ball. Through Sunday’s game he had a .373 on-base percentage, a .936 OPS, three homers and eight RBI.

“You’re going to the big leagues,” Boone told Escarra while hidden cameras captured the interaction. “You’ve earned it. What a journey, and it’s just getting started.”

By now you’ve probably read about Escarra’s winding journey to this point. He was picked by the Mets in the 32nd round of the 2013 amateur draft but he declined to sign and decided to go to college at Florida International where he excelled both behind and at the plate. The Orioles then picked him in the 15th round of the 2017 draft, but they immediately tried to convert him into a first baseman and it completely derailed him. He wasn’t a bad fielder, but it was all new and concentrating so much on defense affected his offense and after five years the Orioles gave up on him after 2021.

He bounced around in non-affiliated independent baseball, trying to make ends meet by working various jobs including as an Uber driver and a substitute teacher. The Yankees spotted him catching in the Mexican League and later in winter ball and decided to give him a shot and signed him in 2024. Across Double-A and Triple-A, Escarra slashed .261/.355/.434 for an OPS of .789 and had 12 homers and 64 RBI which prompted the Yankees to sign him to their 40-man roster for 2025.

Now it was up to him to prove he could make it to the Bronx, and he did it.

“He’s continued what he did last year and into winter ball, and now into spring training,” Brian Cashman said Saturday when he met with reporters.

“It feels amazing,” Escarra said. “Lot of time coming. I was just grateful to be here at first and now my dreams come true. Now is the easy part. Now is just play baseball on the biggest stage, so I’m excited for what’s to come.”

The Yankees posted the meeting with Boone to their social media platforms, as well as the phone call Escarra made to his parents to share the news and that was even more emotional.

“I don’t really even cry that much; I knew (my mother) was going to get like that,” Escarra said. “But it’s just a special moment. Special moment of what I’ve been through, because she went through it with me as well. So it’s a whole family dream come true. When I was making $400 every two weeks in indy ball, playing overseas, playing winter ball, having all those odd jobs just to provide for my family - there was a time I was going to hang it all up. I believed it was time to move on and see what’s next. But I’m glad I didn’t. A lot of chess pieces have to align just for this opportunity to happen. I feel like I did everything on my part to show I could help the team win. Thank God the opportunity’s here.”

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The Opening Day roster is nearly set

Cashman’s pow-wow with the media coincided with Boone informing fringe players like Escarra and Carlos Carrasco that they had made the Opening Day roster, and the one thing the GM said that I know is 100% true is that the construction of the roster is still “a work in progress.”

Given the decimation of the rotation as we know Gerrit Cole is out until early 2026, Luis Gil won’t be seen until probably July, and now Clarke Schmidt won’t be ready to start the season, plus some injuries in the bullpen and the continued uncertainty at third base and designated hitter, yeah, I’d say it’s still a work in progress.

“The roster changes all the time, so it’s certainly a different roster this year than how it ended last year,” Cashman said. “So we’re learning a lot about the new guys. We’ve had some injuries to some of the previous guys left over. I think we have a talented team. Some of them will be left behind as they rehab, but there’s been some guys that have stepped up and given us some comfort at the same time. I think we have a good team and we look forward to testing it when we deploy it March 27.”

As I write on Sunday afternoon, here’s my look at the roster that will take the field Thursday at Yankee Stadium against the Brewers.

Starting rotation

As the Yankees pack up to begin the trek back to the Bronx - with a couple stops along the way for their final two exhibition games - the rotation is a problem, and there’s no way to spin that. Cole, Gil and Schmidt are out, so that means Max Fried is the ace (and that’s certainly a spot he can handle), and Carlos Rodon is back to being the No. 2 option, though it is Rodon who will be starting Opening Day.

I’ll say this about Rodon - last year he was better than we probably gave him credit for. He made a career-high 32 starts, pitched at least six innings in half of those starts, and in those games the Yankees lost only twice. He had one horrible stretch from mid-June to early July but then he got it together and was fine and finished with a 3.96 ERA. In the postseason he had two decent games and two bad ones when his penchant for that ugly inconsistency reared up. I think he’ll be OK behind Fried.

From there, man, the Yankees better score a lot of runs. Marcus Stroman, Carlos Carrasco and Will Warren are the next three men in the rotation and that has the potential to be a disaster in many ways. Warren had a very nice spring, but spring generally means shit. Carrasco is 38 and has been absolutely awful the last two years for the Mets and Guardians, and Stroman is a guy who the Yankees were dying to trade in the offseason and couldn’t find a team to take his salary off their hands.

And if any of those five get hurt or fail miserably, there’s no one behind them in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to fill in. It’s a big problem.

Bullpen

The back end looks terrific with new closer Devin Williams and chief setup man Luke Weaver locked into their roles. If the Yankees have a lead in the seventh inning, they’re gonna be in good shape most nights. But that bridge from whatever the starter can give them to Weaver and Williams is a little unsettled.

Ian Hamilton, Jonathan Loaisiga, Scott Effross, Tyler Matzek, JT Brubaker, Jake Cousins and Clayton Beeter- all of whom were projected to be on the Opening Day roster or at least in serious contention - are injured and the timetables for their respective returns are varied.

Fernando Cruz, who came over from the Reds with a reputation as a strikeout monster, has been brutal with an 11.12 ERA in six appearances. Mark Leiter Jr. has a ton to prove after he stunk at the end of 2024 when he came over from the Cubs. Tim Hill had a renaissance season after the lowly White Sox dumped him, but can he continue to pitch as well as he did for the Yankees last year?

Cruz, Leiter and Hill are locks, and as of Sunday afternoon, it appears they will be joined by Yoendrys Gomez, Yerry De Los Santos, and Brent Headrick. Seriously, right now - unless Cashman acquires someone in the next few days when some relievers may get released from other teams - those three will round out the eight-man reliever corps.

Infield

Austin Wells, who hit his team-high sixth homer Sunday, has had a great spring (.426 on-base percentage with 12 RBI) and he is clearly the No. 1 catcher while Escarra, as I pointed out above, looks like has a great chance to be a reliable and solid No. 2. And in a pinch, Ben Rice - who is also having a fine spring - can go behind the plate since that’s the position he played the most in college at Dartmouth and then in the Yankees’ minor league system.

Wells was horrible at the plate at the start and finish in 2024, but in between he was one of the most productive catchers in baseball, and his defense improved throughout the year. If he can reach the level the Yankees believe he’s capable of as a hitter, that would be enormously important as they try to replace Juan Soto’s offense, not to mention Giancarlo Stanton’s.

Paul Goldschmidt is an upgrade over Anthony Rizzo at first base and if he can tap into some of his glorious past, that will also factor into replacing Soto. He’s 37, and he had a little back tweak last week, so I’m not expecting 2022 NL MVP-level some Goldschmidt, but I think he’s going to be rejuvenated playing for the Yankees and what’s great is that he has played at least 151 games in all but one of his last 10 seasons, so unless that bad Yankee injury karma bites him, he’ll be out there almost every day.

Jazz Chisholm moves back to second base, his natural position, to replace frying pan glove Gleyber Torres and he should add some pop and impressive base running to the mix. Anthony Volpe is at short so the defense up the middle will be excellent, but Volpe has to take steps forward this year with the bat. I’m sorry, I know everyone wants to love him, but he’s been a disappointment as a hitter in his first two years and the Yankees really need him to get on base far more than his lame .288 career on-base percentage level.

Third base is the black hole. It appears that once again Oswald Peraza has failed to win a starting job and I don’t know where the Yankees go with him. He’s out of minor league options so if they DFA him, he could be signed by another team as a free agent. If that happens, I’m not sure we should even care. If it doesn’t, I guess they could send him back to Triple-A.

As of now, Oswaldo Cabrera is the starter, though non-roster invitee Pablo Reyes has made some noise because his on-base is .400 in 17 games. There’s a chance Reyes beats out Peraza for a bench roster spot because since first debuting in MLB in 2018, he has played every position on the diamond except catcher.

Outfield/DH

I’ll start with the DH situation. Stanton is going to be a ghost for probably half the season, which of course is nothing new. So based on how the spring went, Rice will get the first crack at DH, especially against right-handed pitching. The righty-swinging half of the platoon could include Aaron Judge, Goldschmidt and even Cabrera who is a switch-hitter when Boone wants to get any of them a day off from playing defense. For now, Rice will get the bulk of the work.

Jasson Dominguez was the talk of camp back in early March when his defensive problems in left field rose up again. But he settled down as the spring progressed and he also started to swing the bat a little better. Through Sunday his on-base was up to .305 (still too low because he doesn’t take many walks) and he had three homers and 11 RBI.

Cody Bellinger has been outstanding as he’s hitting .400 with a .444 on-base and if he can take his hot spring to the Bronx, he’s another guy who can really plug some holes in the offense, plus give the Yankees solid defense in center field.

Judge didn’t hit a lick in the spring and he just hit his first homer on Saturday, but we don’t need to worry about him because the last time I checked, October is still six-plus months away. Sorry, couldn’t resist because his complete flameout last postseason still pisses me off.

Trent Grisham is the No. 4 outfielder and if needed, Cabrera and even Reyes (if he makes the team) can play out there. With Stanton not hogging the DH role, Boone is going to rotate some of his outfielders into that spot so Grisham is probably going to play much more than he did in 2024. If that’s the case, I sure hope he can at least hit his weight. By the way, he’s listed at 224 pounds and last season he hit .190.