The New York Yankees will enter their weekend series against the AL East rival Boston Red Sox breathing a little easier than they did heading into last Friday’s opening game with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Juan Soto has a clean bill of health after a concerning forearm injury ended up just being a day-to-day case of inflammation. Gerrit Cole is a step closer to returning to the rotation and Aaron Judge continues to amaze.
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Catch up on those stories and all things Yankees from the past week below, as delivered by our national and beat writers.
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Power rankings: New York Yankees are No. 1
The Yankees remained at the top of our latest MLB Power Rankings, where this week’s topic was one big questions for all 30 teams.
Record: 47-21(as of Tuesday morning)
Last Power Ranking: 1
One big question: They’re still doing this without Gerrit Cole?
Before losing two of three to the Dodgers this weekend, the Yankees had an eight-game winning streak, and replacement ace Luis Gil got two of those eight wins. Aaron Judge is back to being an MVP candidate, Clay Holmes and Anthony Volpe look like All-Stars, and Juan Soto seems to have dodged a bullet with his forearm injury. Even with Gleyber Torres struggling, DJ LeMahieu barely playing and Cole still awaiting his season debut, the Yankees just keep separating themselves from the rest of the American League. Cole, though, has already made two rehab starts and could be back fairly soon. He’ll step into a rotation that’s been excellent even without him. The Yankees missed the playoffs last year. Could a healthy Cole make the regular season a cakewalk this year? — Chad Jennings
The latest hits
ICYMI, our national writers weighed in with what they are hearing and seeing.
1. Yankees’ Volpe still on the rise
In his latest notes column, Ken Rosenthal looked at how the second-year shortstop continues to make improvements to his game.
Anthony Volpe last season became the first Yankees rookie to win a Gold Glove since the inception of the awards in 1957. At 22 years, 156 days, he was also the youngest shortstop to earn the honor. Yet to hear Yankees manager Aaron Boone tell it, he’s still getting better.
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“If it’s possible, he’s maybe gone to another level defensively,” Boone said Saturday in his meeting with the Fox broadcasters. “I can’t believe how good he is at shortstop. He doesn’t have overwhelming tools. But his arm, because of his accuracy, is at least average. It’s never an issue because of his pre-pitch routine, his jumps, his range, the balls he gets to.”
The advanced metrics, as they often do, offer a mixed portrayal. Volpe fared much better last season in defensive runs saved (tied for second) than outs above average (24th). Entering Tuesday, he was tied for ninth in DRS this season and tied for fifth in OAA.
Regardless, the Yankees see improvement.
“He’s gotten better because he works his tail off at it,” infield coach Travis Chapman said. “He looks for every small little detail that might be an advantage. He’s willing to apply it. He’s willing to take risks.
“A lot of people talk about five tools. I’d say there’s six, with the intelligence, the baseball IQ. He excels at that. And he’s willing to put time in, listen and learn to anybody he thinks can help make him better.”
Boone recalled that entering last season, some in the industry thought Volpe eventually might need to move to second base. It’s doubtful anyone thinks that anymore.
“He’s as good as it gets out there,” Boone said.
2. Which MLB contenders have the most prospect chips to offer in trade deadline deals?
Melissa Lockard looked into the above question and found that while the Yankees may not have as many as the Mariners or Orioles, they still have some options should they look to improve by July 30.
Jasson Domínguez is the Yankees’ only top-50 prospect and they aren’t likely to deal him, but the team’s strong start could make them more willing to part with other top prospects in deals, especially on the position-player side, such as outfielders Spencer Jones and Everson Pereira and catcher/first baseman Ben Rice, who was just promoted to Triple A. Catcher Agustin Ramirez is also opening eyes around the league.
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The Yankees’ pitching depth has been thinned some by their offseason trades and injuries, but left-hander Brock Selvidge has pitched well in Double A and is just 21 years old. Massive 19-year-old lefty Henry Lalane — all 6-foot-7 of him — is on the IL but was the talk of spring training.
3. The weirdest/wildest players of the month
Jayson Stark picked a few in his latest Weird and Wild column. Aaron Judge was one of them.
As recently as 2008, Dustin Pedroia hit 17 home runs all year and won the AL MVP award. Aaron Judge, on the other hand, has hit 17 home runs since May 8.
Judge just won the AL Player of the Month award by mashing 26 extra-base hits in one month. Bryce Harper just won the NL Player of the Month award. He has 26 extra-base hits all season.
But here’s another cool Judge tidbit I noticed, with some help from Marquee Sports Network’s Chris Kamka: Judge just became the first player in baseball to reach 20 home runs … for the third time in his career.
It got me wondering how many other players in the live-ball era could say that. Next thing I knew, I’d embarked on quite a journey down a rabbit hole made possible by STATS Perform’s incredible STATSPass search tool, all so I could dig up that answer.
You won’t be stunned to learn that Babe Ruth was the first player in baseball to reach 20 homers in seven different seasons (including two in which he was first by more than two months). But since then, here’s the club Judge joined:
Jimmie Foxx — 4
Mark McGwire — 4
Ted Williams — 3
Ken Griffey Jr. — 3
Jose Canseco — 3
Dave Kingman — 3
Whoa. What about Henry Aaron? Nope. “Only” two. Mickey Mantle? No. Only two for him. Mike Schmidt, Willie Stargell, Joe DiMaggio and Dale Murphy were also in the group with two. But Judge is already at three … with seven seasons left on his contract.
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In other words, I’m glad I have this leaderboard ready to go. Why do I think I might need it again?
4. Are Aaron Judge and Juan Soto the best right-left hitting combo in baseball history?
Rosenthal dug into the subject for a column late last week. Here’s an excerpt from that story, which you can read in full right here.
The offensive measure I chose was OPS+, which takes a player’s on-base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league. Entering Thursday’s play, Judge and Soto ranked 1-2 in the majors in that category, Judge at 104 percent above league average, Soto at 88 percent above. So, while it’s only June 7, my first goal was to determine whether a right- and left-handed hitter in the same lineup (or vice versa) had ever finished 1-2 in OPS-plus.
Now, before everyone loses their minds in the comments section, I was looking for a specific left-right combination, not the absolute best one-two punch. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, both left-handed hitters, easily were the most potent duo ever, ranking 1-2 in OPS-plus in 1927, ‘30 and ‘31, and top three in ‘28, ‘32 and ‘33.
The Mickey Mantle-Roger Maris combo also is in a separate category, considering that Mantle was a switch hitter. Their best finish, not surprisingly, was in 1961, when Maris hit his then-record 61 home runs. Mantle ranked first in OPS-plus that season, Maris fourth.
As I went year by year, I discovered some left-right combos that ranked surprisingly high, and others I thought would be more dominant, relative to their leagues.
Start with the past two seasons. Acuña and Olson ranked third and fourth overall in 2023 (Acuña’s 73 stolen bases were not part of the calculation; OPS-plus measures only what happens in the batter’s box). The Houston Astros’ Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve were second and fourth in 2022.
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I figured the Boston Red Sox’s Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz both might have been the best in their league from their respective sides in at least one season, but no. Their best finish was in 2006, when Ramirez was fourth and Ortiz sixth.
The San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent? First and ninth in 2000. The Seattle Mariners’ Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez? Seventh and eighth in 1997. Two other combos surprised me, in a positive sense: The St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds (second and sixth in 2003, second and fifth in 2004); and the San Diego Padres’ Gary Sheffield and Fred McGriff (fourth and fifth in 1992).
All impressive. But no 1-2s.
Viral moment of the week
Juan Soto in good spirits. Here he is showing off his dance moves to Carlos Rodón and Oswaldo Cabrera. pic.twitter.com/PleXVfjKNq
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) June 8, 2024
Given all of the consternation after Soto left last Thursday’s game with forearm discomfort, it was good to see him having fun in the Yankees dugout the following night versus the Dodgers following tests that revealed inflammation that would only end up keeping him out for the remainder of the weekend series.
Baseball beat
Our beat writers Brendan Kuty and Chris Kirschner picked out what you need to know.
1. Where Yankees’ Juan Soto stands after first game back from injury
Soto’s injury (and quick return from it) was the biggest story of the week on the Yankees beat. Kuty was on the scene in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday night as the 25-year-old star made his return to the Yankee lineup, getting a single in his first at-bat back.
2. Which areas should Brian Cashman focus on at the trade deadline?
It’s not too early for the GM to start thinking about the July 30 deadline, as Kirschner and Ken Rosenthal detailed earlier this week. The three biggest ones they identified? First base, second base and the bullpen.
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3. Aaron Judge disappointed by Yankees fans’ chants for Juan Soto as Trent Grisham bats
Soto remained out of the lineup for Sunday’s primetime ESPN finale with the Dodgers, but that didn’t stop fans in the Bronx from chanting for him when his replacement, Trent Grisham, was in the batter’s box. Grisham would hit a pivotal home run to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead, but that didn’t stop captain Aaron Judge from calling out the crowd after the game, as Kirschner detailed.
Did you catch this?
Journeyman reliever Michael Tonkin was about ready to call it a career before the Yankees picked him from the waiver scrap heap earlier this season. Since then, he’s compiled an 0.89 ERA in 14 appearances entering Wednesday. Kuty shared more of Tonkin’s story in a profile this week. Here’s an excerpt:
But not long ago, Tonkin was in a rut. He’d pitched poorly in Japan in 2018. In 2019, he struggled at Triple A with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2020, he watched the MLB season from the couch while throwing and trying to keep in shape. He even took on part-time work trimming palm trees near where he lived in Southern California.
That was when Tonkin made changes. Watching on TV in 2020, he noticed that many of the game’s hard throwers were using a shorter arm motion. He tried it during a catch session with a friend, making sure his hand didn’t drop beyond his belt before he whipped it over his head and delivered a pitch. It felt good, and the high-tech monitor he was using told him he was throwing harder than he had in a while.
“It kind of showed me that I can’t stop now,” he said. “I’ve got to give it another shot.”
So, when the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League called him for a second stint in 2021 — he’d also pitched there in 2019 — he was ready.
Not just to pitch again, but for something more final.
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“The plan was that if my stuff was still there, I’m hopefully going to get a job, and if not, I can accept that it’s done and I know that I did everything in my power to see it through,” he said.
Tonkin dominated in Long Island with a 0.53 ERA in 16 appearances, and though no MLB teams came calling, he felt good enough to continue trying later that season in Tijuana.
A few months later, he posted a 0.68 ERA in 13 games in the Dominican winter league. Finally, a team reached out: the Atlanta Braves. Tonkin jumped at the chance.
“There was not a lot of negotiation,” he said.
Tonkin was productive in the minors in 2022 and returned to the majors in 2023, pitching to a 4.28 ERA in 45 games for the Braves before signing in the offseason with the Mets. But from April 5 to April 22, he was cut by the Mets, the Twins and the Mets again. When the Yankees reached out, it was because of a perfect storm: They needed a reliever who could provide length and fill up the strike zone.
Field notes
And now, a quick word from the comments section.
Kuty and Kirschner looked at three storylines to watch as the Yankees approach the trade deadline. One potential scenario explored the possibility of acquiring Astros third baseman and impending free agent Alex Bregman, but suggested “it may be difficult for Yankees fans to swallow given his connection to the 2017 Astros.” The comments certainly seem to confirm that.
(Top photo of Juan Soto: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
