James Paxton

The Yankees don’t need to solve their starting pitching problem anymore

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New York Yankees, James Paxton

With the regular season being pushed back until April, the New York Yankees have more time to recover from their injuries and ailments. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have a good shot as returning to the team before the season officially begins, especially Stanton, who is dealing with a minor calf strain.

However, the unit that was previously under the most pressure was the starting pitching rotation, as they lost Luis Severino for the season and James Paxton for a minimum of three months. Paxton, who has a cyst removed from his lower back, tossed a baseball from 60-feet this past Wednesday, marking the start of his physical recovery program.

The expectation is that Paxton will be available in mid-May, which will solve the Yankees’ problem at the back end of the rotation. However, with the regular season on hold for the time being, a rotating 5th-man is seeming like a short stop-gap decision that a long-term one.

The consensus was that Jonathan Loaisiga would earn more innings as a starter at the back-end of the rotation, alongside rising prospects like Clark Schmidt and Deivi Garcia. That idea is now put on the backburner as Paxton will likely miss minimal time after surging ahead with his recovery.

How did James Paxton feel in his first action back with the New York Yankees last week?

“It was all great. My back didn’t hurt at all,” said Paxton, who can be a free agent at the end of this season. “Just working on getting my arm to feel normal again. I haven’t thrown in a long time. But that’ll come with playing catch.”

The only silver lining we can extract from the viral contagion plaguing the globe is time for the Yankees to recover, ironically. Nonetheless, the severity of the Corona Virus is real, and taking all precautions to stop the spread of it is necessary. The Yankees have already set up camp in Tampa, away from the general public.

New York Yankees: Giancarlo Stanton’s injury doesn’t make much sense, when will he be healthy?

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New York Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge

If there’s any positive we can extract from the MLB shutting down operations for the foreseeable future, it’s additional time New York Yankees players will have to return to full health. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are two sluggers that have both fallen ill with the injury bug as of late — Judge dealing with a stress fracture in a rib and Stanton nursing a calf strain.

Stanton, though, has been extremely injury prone ever since joining the Yankees in the AL East, missing all of 2019 with a bevy of different ailments. He stepped up to the plate just 52 times, missing out on a season destined for greatness based on the heroics from the reserve options. Gio Urshela, Mike Tauchman, Mike Ford, Cameron Maybin, the list goes on.

The Yankees missing Stanton didn’t seem to be much of a problem for a motivated group led by Aaron Boone, but that doesn’t mean his home run efficiency wasn’t missed.

How long are the New York Yankees projecting Stanton to be out for?

General manager Brian Cashman stated that he believes Stanton could be out of the lineup until April, which doesn’t seem like the consequences of a grade 1 calf strain (7-10 day recovery). Missing one month with a simple strain is either a coverup for a more significant injury or something more mysterious.

However, the Bombers expect both Judge and Stanton to return around the same time, and with the MLB preparing to push forward into April with the expectations that operations will still be shut down, it seems like both could be available for the start of the regular season.

Overall, the prolonging of Opening Day helps the two sluggers and starting pitcher James Paxton focus on recovering and returning in a timely matter. Hopefully, all three can return without missing ample regular-season games.

Yankees’ James Paxton could miss way less time that expected after league shutdown

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New York Yankees, James Paxton

While no baseball fan wanted to hear that the MLB would be suspending the rest of Grapefruit League play and pushing back opening day, it could be a blessing in disguise for the New York Yankees who desperately need more time to heal. Sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton will gain a few extra days if not weeks in their recovery programs, giving them an opportunity to make a return before the start of the regular season.

As for starting pitcher James Paxton, he will likely miss the first few weeks of the season, but the number of games he will be absent for will be reduced significantly. The left-hander took a significant step forward this week, as he began throwing and playing catch since having a cyst removed from his lower back on February 5.

How did Yankees starter James Paxton look in his first workout?

Paxton made 25 throws from 60 feet away on Wednesday, finally giving his arm some action and getting back to the beautiful game of baseball, something we will all need in the coming weeks as the world deals with a pandemic.

“It was all great. My back didn’t hurt at all,” said Paxton, as per the NY Post. “Just working on getting my arm to feel normal again. I haven’t thrown in a long time. But that’ll come with playing catch.”

Paxton’s return is still projected to be in mid-May, which has been the estimated time of return since his surgery:

“Best case, middle of May is kind of what I’m hoping for as long as everything goes smoothly in this process.”

The impending free agent after the 2020 season has felt great recently, moving with no restrictions. Everything on Wednesday went perfectly, just as the starting pitcher had anticipated.

“I’m feeling really good, so I didn’t think anything was going to go wrong today,” the 31-year-old said. “I’ve been moving around so well lately.”

 

 

New York Yankees: Friday the 13th takes on a new meaning, no baseball

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New York Yankees, Aaron Boone

Spring training canceled, regular season delayed at least two weeks

In the Western Hemisphere, Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day by many.  For the New York Yankees, it may be unlucky, but it also may be lucky in disguise.  As the world deals with the pandemic coronavirus, schools, Broadway, Disney World, and large gatherings of all types have been shunned, canceled, and postponed.  In the case of Major League Baseball, it means no more exhibition games and a delay to the beginning of the regular season.

All of these moves are being taken to hopefully lessen the spread of the deadly coronavirus that is often fatal to older people and people with underlying health issues.  When the media asked Yankee Manager Aaron Boone what he thought about the delay to the season he said:

“I’m not overly emotional about it,” he said after the Yankees beat the Nationals 6-3 in a Grapefruit League game. “This is obviously a unique situation. It’s bigger than baseball, so you just kind of want to be part of doing your best on behalf of the world. You don’t want to contribute to this becoming a real poor situation, so we’ll be cooperative and try to play our part the best way we can.”

Baseball is not the only sport to be affected.  The NBA has canceled the rest of its season after Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for the disease.  The NHL has canceled its season.  The USL Championship announced a 30-day postponement of its matches, and the National Women’s Soccer League has canceled its preseason. The MLS is suspending its season temporarily.  The NCCA March Madness Tournament that was previously going on but without fans has now canceled completely, and the list goes on and on.

So what does this mean to the Yankees and Yankee fans?

Considering the dire situation, it will be a minor inconvenience for fans who will now have to wait at least a month without their beloved sport.  For the Yankees, it just may be a lucky turn of events.  With early injuries, the stay may help some players become more healthy.  Those affected are Giancarlo Stanton with a grade 1 calf strain,  Aaron Judge with a fractured rib, and Zack Britton with a bruised right wrist.  It was a question as to if any of these players would be ready for the start of the season on March 26 at Baltimore.  Now that the season has been delayed, they may be ready to go when baseball resumes.

One of the most significant upsides to the delay is that pitcher James Paxton who was expected to miss at least the first two months of the season due to recovering from back surgery; the delay lessens that impact.  Players that took part in two Florida East Coast games returned by bus to George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where they will remain with the other Yankees Players.  Boone was asked what the players would be doing during the delay.

“I’m sure we’ll have sim games(simulated),” Boone said. “Obviously, we started building pitchers up and things like that, so we’ll want to continue with that smartly.

“My guess is that it remains a fluid situation obviously, so we’ll just kind of take MLB’s lead and the situation’s lead and hopefully get to a point where we can get back out there.”

As I reported yesterday, when the news of the possible MLB shutdown came across Twitter, General Manager Brian Cashman at the game, had his cell phone constantly adhered to his right ear.  Cashman was not available to take questions following the game in West Palm Beach, due to a conference league-wide call with the MLB that was expected to last for hours.   However, Boone said in a final statement before boarding the bus back to Tampa:

“We’ll do our best to put our guys in a position to be ready to go whenever that bell rings,” Boone said.

Not a lot is known about the coronavirus, which makes it even more of a mystery.  From knowing for sure how long it lives on surfaces, to whether it will diminish as the summer approaches like the common Flu, are just a few of the unknowns.  Some venues, including public gathering places and schools, are closed for two weeks, one month or delays even beyond that adds to the difficulty in determining when baseball and other events may happen.  We do know that the first Yankee game going forward is scheduled for April 6 at Baltimore Park at Camden Yards at 6:35 pm.

At this point, MBL has not commented on whether the season would be delayed or if the season would be shortened by the delayed start time.  My guess is that the season will be shortened as it’s hard to believe we would be watching the World Series on Thanksgiving instead of the traditional football.  Another consideration is the weather in mid-November. It is best to remember Aaron Boone’s statement that everything is fluid right now, and everything is subject to change as the coronavirus progresses or subsides.

New York Yankees: Revisiting Tanaka vs. Paxton Extensions

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New York Yankees, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka

Back in Mid-December, I wrote an article about the New York Yankees trying to figure out who to extend between James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka. Paxton had injury concerns but looked to have such a high ceiling after the way he finished the 2019 season.

Masahiro Tanaka has always been relatively consistent, but there wasn’t a lot of star potential there moving forward. Paxton also had the advantage of being a power-lefty, which would help balance the Yankees rotation that would feature top right-handed arms like Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino.

Considering the ceiling for Paxton and the other benefits, I thought it would be smart if the Yankees tried to go ahead and extend James Paxton. Well, a couple of months after that article, James Paxton had to have surgery and will potentially miss the first two months of the season. Going right along with his biggest drawback, his health. There is no questioning the talent of a guy like James Paxton, but that talent can only take you so far if you can’t stay on the field. Now, as we sit here in March, have my feelings changed?

My feelings now

To a degree, yes, my feelings on this matter have changed. Tanaka has spent his entire career with the Yankees and has come up clutch when it really mattered. He’s also been relatively durable during his time with the Yankees. He would also be a lot cheaper to sign than James Paxton all things considered. If the Yankees were forced to pick either Paxton or Tanaka for an extension today, I think the Yankees would go with Tanaka, and I believe that would be the right decision. Now, could there be an alternative to both of them that we are not considering? Do the Yankees really need to bring back either of these guys after the 2020 season concludes?

There are options

The simple answer is no. The Yankees do not need to resign James Paxton or Masahiro Tanaka. Pitchers have shown the ability to come back from Tommy John and keeping that in mind, the Yankees will get Luis Severino back next year. They already have Gerrit Cole, and they have young guns like Jordan Montgomery, Clarke Schmidt, Domingo German, and Deivi Garcia, all vying for spots in the rotation. The Yankees are likely going to try to extend DJ LeMahieu after this season, which is going to tax their payroll. The Yankees will also be paying their young stars more money after the 2020 season. Maybe the best decision for the Yankees is to let both of them walk and let those young guys take over the back end of the rotation. Or perhaps some additional pitchers could prove to be alternatives.

Another lefty?

Robbie Ray is going to be the guy I keep an eye on this year when it comes to the Yankees. Ray is a guy the Yankees have tried to trade for in the past, and I think he’s going to be a target for them again this year. Ray has never pitched over 200 innings in his career, but his strikeout numbers can’t be ignored. If he’s available at the deadline, the Yankees might take a run at him. After the season’s over, the Yankees might explore his market along with feeling out the markets for Paxton and Tanaka. At the end of the day, the Yankees have a lot of options moving forward after the 2020 season. While we don’t know how the whole rotation will look moving forward, at least we can be confident who is going to be leading the rotation moving forward.

A Delayed Start To Season Helps The New York Yankees

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New York Yankees, Aaron Judge

To the dismay of baseball fans around the world, the MLB is shutting spring training down and delaying the start of the regular season due to the coronavirus outbreak. They follow suit of the NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA, and others in suspending play.

However, the delay to the season will actually benefit the New York Yankees.

Going into today (3/12), the Yankees were getting killed again with injuries. Aaron Judge has a stress fracture on his right rib that he is slowly getting healed. Gary Sanchez has been sick the last week with a strong case of the flu, and Giancarlo Stanton has been dealing with a calf strain.

On the pitching side of things, Zack Britton got drilled by a comebacker on Wednesday in the wrist. Fortunately, he suffered just a deep bruise and will eventually be ok. However, James Paxton is still on the mend from surgery, removing a back cyst.

The suspension could give the team a chance to be almost completely healthy once Opening Day comes. Now, the season could begin in the middle of April, or it could even be early summer once we get going. The longer it is until the season starts, the more time players will need to get ready.

Although players will stay at camp, they still need more at-bats, especially against other pitchers. So I would assume that the league would eventually schedule scrimmages or exhibitions of some type once there is a set Opening Day.

But for right now, all we can do is wait everything out. Hopefully, the suspensions of all leagues won’t last particularly long. However, that’s all dependent on how healthy the nation is as a whole, and whether public officials believe it is safe to begin to play again.

New York Yankees Opening Day Predictions: Pitching

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New York Yankees, Gerrit Cole

As we inch our way closer and closer to the start of the regular season, speculations abound about who will cut the New York Yankees. With Severino, Paxton, and German all-seeing delays to their seasons (in Severino’s case, completely losing 2020), it’ll be interesting to see just how the team constructs their rotation between now and the end of German’s suspension.

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Don’t Go the Opener Route

The Yankees have been out in the open over their embrace of analytics. Which is why it was so confusing to see the Yankees (or any team) go the route of the opener. The opener runs completely against the notion of analytics in any professional sport. Throughout a 162 game season, you’re going to rest a reliever for throwing an inning of work on three consecutive nights. If this happens the night before an opener appearance, you set yourself back for the opener, as opener starts are all hands on deck, ever 4th or 5th day in 162 games. Their bullpen has been overused in 3 consecutive seasons, giving out during the playoffs when we need them the most. Treat the pen like a bullpen, and we’ll get back to the fall classic.

The Gimmies

Gerrit Cole is starting for the Yankees. He’s the best starting pitcher in baseball, and look at all the money the Yankees gave him?! Barring the start against the Tigers, he’s having an excellent Spring Training.

Masahiro Tanaka is also a gimme. The 7-year veteran loses his effectiveness around the All-Star break, and with the lack of depth in our rotation from last year makes the final year of his deal a necessity that he started.

JA Happ is having an excellent spring. So much so that people are forgetting entirely about how lackluster he was last season. If he can carry this into the regular season till, about, June, that’s all we need from him.

Jordan Montgomery is performing beyond expectations. I was surprised to see how much the Yankees are letting Monty cut loose, but it’s necessary for not only his development but the security of the rotation depends on it.

Can Garcia Make the Jump?

Deivi Garcia was spared the first round of cuts, putting him squarely in the fight between him, Loaisiga, and Cessa for the 5th spot in the rotation. Garcia ended 2019 in Scranton, but can he impress enough in the last few starts of the spring to leapfrog staples in the pen-like Loaisiga and Cessa? Or will this be Luis Cessa’s opportunity to show what he truly has as a starter? I think it will ultimately boil down to those two.

Let’s see what happens in the next 2.5 weeks.

New York Yankees: James Paxton preparing to take major positive step forward in recovery

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New York Yankees, James Paxton

When the news broke that New York Yankees starting pitcher James Paxton would miss a minimum of three months after having surgery on his lower back, the fanbase expressed a cohesive sigh of defeat. Paxton had been feeling discomfort in his lower back for months after his final start against Houston in the 2019 ALCS. A cyst in the area was the diagnosis and treated appropriately, forcing him to undergo a recovery regimen for several months before returning to action.

The New York Yankees are making good progress with Paxton:

According to the New York Daily News’ Kristie Ackert, Paxton will begin throwing on Wednesday, “If everything goes well.” With the expected recovery timetable being 3-4 months, PPaxton’sreturn in May is looking on schedule.

“It’s all going to depend on how things go in this rehab process,” Paxton said back in February after the surgery. “They told me 4-6 weeks before I can start throwing, so if we’re on the closer side of that, that’s going to put me two weeks closer to being on the mound. I’m thinking that I’ll be back in a big league game some time in May.”

During spring training play, the Yankees lost Luis Severino and Paxton before either through a single pitch in live-action games. Getting their lefty back into the starting rotation will push Jordan Montgomery down to the fifth slot, which will solidify the starting unit for the foreseeable future. With Severino set to miss the entire 2020 campaign, they will need to supplement his loss with other options. With the injuries that the Yankees continue to pick up, we can anticipate them having to deal with more throughout the year.

Thankfully for the Bombers, they have Gerrit Cole slotted into their No. 1 spot, and his positive health history is calming among the consistent injuries plaguing the team.

New York Yankees: Is the starting pitching rotation in trouble?

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New York Yankees, Gerrit Cole

Prior to the start of spring training for the New York Yankees, they had one of the most intimidating rosters in baseball. Their starting pitching rotation consisted of Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, and James Paxton — three elite to borderline elite arms.

The three-man grouping that was supposed to carry the Yankees into a postseason birth and potentially a World Series appearance in 2020, but that hope has dampened in recent days, as Severino will miss the entire 2020 season after succumbing to Tommy John surgery, and Paxton will be out for at least three months after having a cyst removed from his lower back.

Luckily, Cole has remained healthy, but he allowed four home runs in the first two innings of his outing against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon. On a windy day, Call was thrashed, proving to everyone that he is, in fact, human.

Is the starting rotation for the New York Yankees in trouble?

The Yankees managed to survive a tumultuous starting pitching rotation in 2019, thanks to a solid bullpen. However, they’ve invested significant assets into a bonafide ace with Cole, and they expected Severino and Paxton to be there one, two, three punch.

A few weeks into Grapefruit league play, and it is fair to say that the rotation is suffering through a bad spell of luck. Considering Cole and Jordan Montgomery gave up a combined 11 runs in five innings doesn’t support any optimism. However, it might have just been a poor outing from the pair, as they have proven in the past they are more than capable of being quality pitchers.

I am not as concerned about Gerrit Cole as I am about the back end of the rotation, though. The Yankees will utilize a bevy of options to supplement the loss of Severino and Paxton in the coming months. I anticipate Jonathan Loaisiga, Jonathan Holder, Michael King, and potentially Clark Schmidt to earn opportunities as the fifth man in the rotation.

When will New York Yankees’ Clarke Schmidt debut this year?

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New York Yankees, Clarke Schmidt

The New York Yankees new top pitching prospect made his spring debut this week and looked pretty impressive if you ask me. Clarke Schmidt struggled a little when he first started last weekend but has shown why he is the new top pitching prospect for the Yankees.

In his first outing, Schmidt allowed a single down the line which saw the runner get thrown out at second. After that, Schmidt threw seven straight balls although a couple were very borderline calls. In a 3-0 count, Schmidt showed his dynamic changeup for a whiff then got an inning-ending double play.

In his second outing against the Rays, Schmidt threw two strong innings striking out three batters showing off his knee-buckling curveball along with his fastball and change. Empire Sports talked about the fact that the Yankees might have found their fifth starter in Schmidt, but will it be after this spring or sometime later in the year?

Schmidt’s Ceiling is High

I think Clarke Schmidt is the best option for the Yankees rotation. You’re looking at a guy who has three plus pitches and scouts are starting to talk about how he could be a top end of the rotation kind of arm. The 24-year-old looks primed to make his debut sometime this year for the Yankees.

That being said, I would be stunned if Schmidt breaks camp as the fifth starter for the Yankees. While a lot of folks think he is ready now, I think the Yankees will slow play this just a little. The Yankees have the top four spots in their rotation figured out, and they are expecting Paxton back in the first part of the season. I think the Yankees see the incredible value in Schmidt, but I also think they want to give him every chance to develop in the minors before throwing him into the rotation.

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Where does he start?

Now, Schmidt does have the ability to force their hand early in the year. I think the Yankees need/should to start him in AAA along with Deivi Garcia. I think they will patch the fifth spot in the rotation together while letting Schmidt and Garcia have more time at AAA to fine-tune some stuff.

If Schmidt comes out and looks like a world-beater at AAA, the guys battling for that fifth spot might lose their job before they can even get a fair look. It’s a doom and gloom time right now with all the injuries, but the rotation depth the Yankees have should comfort fans. Once the Yankees get Paxton and German back, they have about nine or ten guys who could start in a major league rotation. Out of all those young guys, Schmidt has the highest ceiling and I do expect him to pitch in pinstripes this year. If you ask me, it won’t be early unless injuries force the hand of the Yankees, but Schmidt will pitch in New York at some point.