355 - Yankees continue Winning Through The Injury Storm

The Yankees are winning games like nothing can touch them, and that’s exactly the problem: everything is touching them. Aaron Judge is out with a stress fracture on his first rib, Giancarlo Stanton is back on the injured list with more imaging ahead, and key names like Trent Grisham, Max Fried, and Clark Schmidt are also sidelined. Yet the New York Yankees still sit on top of the American League. So what’s real, what’s luck, and what’s going to break when the calendar flips to August?

I dig into the stretch that includes a strong series in Toronto and the bigger reasons the team keeps stacking wins. I talk lineup sparks from Ben Rice, the steady impact of Paul Goldschmidt, and why Cody Bellinger’s all-around game keeps showing up when the Yankees need it. I also get into the “edge” factor, why a player like Caballero can change the feel of a team, and why the defense looks different when the right guys are playing the right spots.

Then I hit the uncomfortable truth: the bullpen is still a major concern, and the trade deadline has to be about building an October-proof roster, not just surviving June. I also put the hot start in context, because the American League has been shockingly weak, and that changes how we judge the standings. Finally, I look ahead at the schedule and the must-fix positions, from catcher production to third base stability, so the season doesn’t turn into a “nice story” instead of a real run.

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Transcript

Welcome And Knicks Detour

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to Jersey Guys Forget your sports club home for the Yanks, the Giants, the Knicks, the Rangers, and the Rutgers Crawl Knights. I'm your host, Don. I want to thank you for listening. Today I'm going to be discussing the New York Yankees are winning despite injuries, and they actually have the best record in the American League. So what's going on here? Let's go ahead and get started. So, how about those New York Knicks? Oh, wait, this is the wrong podcast. Jersey guys still very excited by the Knicks' unbelievable, incredible victory over the San Antonio Spurs and being crowned NBA champion. So congratulations to the New York Knicks. It is just great in any capacity to have a championship brought back to New York City after 15 years. The last win was the Giants back in 2011. Now the Knicks have brought a championship trophy back to New York in 2026. So congratulations to the New York Knicks. A tremendous playoff run and a great job by the Knicks.

Yankees Win In Toronto

SPEAKER_00 1:05

So let's move on to the New York Yankees, who continue to win lately. Most recently they took two of three games in Toronto, and that's been a venue lately where the Yanks seemingly have all kinds of trouble. And it's interesting because Toronto had one really good year last year and got obviously one game away from, one inning away from a World Series championship, and they played very, very well, you know, Toronto last year. But it's funny how Toronto is viewed now, you know, compared to all the previous years, where the Yankees have been consistent winners, but haven't won a championship in a bit. Toronto has been consistently nothing for the longest time and finally got into the playoffs last year. But now it's like, you know, the Yankees won two of three games in Toronto, and it's like, see, you can be good teams. Yankees, you see they can do it, as if Toronto has suddenly been dubbed some great team after one good run. Toronto's under 500. They're 34 and 38, and you know, this year have proven not to be a great team so far, and they have their own troubles. But the Yankees have been playing well, and this is in spite of having a ton of injuries. And it's something to call out, you know, in that the Yankees continue to win, you know, week after week, despite the typical June swoon time arriving, and the Yankees not doing the June swoon, the June boon swoon, right? The Yanks continue to win. They continue to get good performances from a number of players, despite a ton, a ton, a ton of injuries. In Toronto, they showed some fire, both on, you know, comeback ability and late heroics, and also just having, I think, Caballero on the team, just by himself as a little fire, right? He's always arguing with the Yumps, taking time, annoying pitchers, doing stuff. You know, just having a little edge to your team, I think, helps fan interests and it helps the teams. It helps the Yankees stay engaged, it helps fans stay engaged, and it does add a fire to the team that I think, you know, the Yanks are always too buttoned up and matter-of-fact about things, and having a little fire can only help the team. And I think the Yanks have a little bit of that this year, despite missing a lot of people. I mean, geez, even suck-ass Anthony Volpe had a really good game on Sunday. He had two big hits. He had a really good defensive play, you know, before he ended up striking out by a foot and a half later in the game. He actually had a good game. You know, we've gotten some better performances of late from the bullpen, who is, you know, they are terrible. The Yankees' bullpen is absolutely awful, but we've gotten some better performances lately. You know, some decent performances from the likes of Duvall and Bednar and you know, Hedrick, after a rough stretch, has has pitched well lately. A couple other folks, you know, Cruz has mostly pitched well. He is, you know, there's always that chance where he can't find the strike zone with a map, you know, where he'll walk three or four people. But, you know, on the days he's on, he's he's money. And you know, the bullpen needs massive reinforcements if the Yanks have any dreams of a championship this year. But of late, they've actually pitched pretty well, so they're on a pretty good streak. We continue to get some good hitting performances by Ben Rice, of course, who might be you know a chance to be on the All-Star team this year. Goldschmidt has continued to play well and been a wonderful, wonderful presence on this team. Excellent right-handed hitter, continues to perform in the clutch. He is making a good case for him being a Hall of Famer with every week, every year that he plays. And resonating Goldschmidt was an outstanding insurance policy that is being put to good use for the Yanks, and he continues to get big hits and big home runs. Cody Bellinger continues to be outstanding, continues to be one of the better left fielders in baseball, continues to do it all. The throw, hit, run, you know, steal, do everything. You know, get the bat on the ball, shorten up with two strikes. Caballero, again, has been wonderful for the Yankees. Unfortunately, you know, with Volpe back, he's not playing shortstop enough. He plays shortstop sometimes, but too often they're just using Caballero somewhere else in right field or in third base or somewhere else. Caballero needs to be a starting shortstop. You know, let Volpe sit on the bench and if you need a pinch runner later or something, or send him down. Enough is enough is enough here, right, guys? But Caballero's played well, Bellinger's played well, Goldschmidt's play well, Rice has played well. Even Jazz lately has been a little bit better. He's having a terrible, awful forget about it year for Jazz after he bragged about going 50-50 before the season, but even he's been a little better of late, and he continues to play really good defense, Jazz does. And when you have Caballero at short and Jazz at second, you actually have a pretty good middle infield, which the Yanks haven't had for quite a long time. Even McMahon has been slightly less sucky. I mean, he still continues to be terrible, and in my mind, slightly overrated at third base, but offensively he's just a big black hole and one of the pieces that the Yankees need to get and upgrade at the deadline. Max Schuman continues to be a great stand-in, no matter when they put him in, where they put him in. Schuman continues to play well. Sometimes he plays shortstop, right field, it doesn't matter. He seems to get hits every now and then and play well defensively. So really good performances by the Yanks in spite of a ton of injuries.

Injury Reality Check On Judge

SPEAKER_00 6:41

And if you think about the injuries themselves, and that's something I wanted to touch on on this podcast, is the New York Yankees are gonna play most of this summer without Aaron Judge and without Giancarlo Stanton. And let's face it, they played you know the whole year already without Stanton, and Judge has been out for now a bit. But there's a long, long stretch that the two big bombers are gonna be gone for most of the summer, Judge and Stanton. And there's much, much more to it. So let's look at the injuries real quick. Games you're playing now without Aaron Judge, who has a stress fracture on the first rib on his right side. They're not even gonna re-image him until mid-July. So when the imaging comes back, we don't know how long it will be after that until he gets back. Even in a perfect scenario, and they say everything's perfect, everything's great, there's no pain, it's perfect. Mid-July just for the imaging, then he'll probably, I don't know if he'll need a few rehab games, whatever. So you have to think late July in Fantasyland, like in the absolute perfect scenario. If it's not the perfect scenario, you know, you have to think maybe August at the absolute earliest, more realistically, mid-August to September, you know, if there's any kind of problems whatsoever with the imaging. So, you know, they're gonna play most of this summer without Aaron Judge. Also, Stanton, who was placed on the I. And he's gonna go undergo additional imaging. Forget about guessing whenever John Coller Stan will return. Nobody knows. It will be, you know, forever. And with Stanton, when is enough enough, right? And the Yanks are playing well through this without him, but having the DH spot open open has actually been a good thing for the Yanks. And, you know, let's not, you know, confuse things. When Stanton is healthy and when he's on a hot streak, there is almost no one in baseball like him. He can carry a team like almost no one else in Major League Baseball, and that includes Judge and everyone else. When Stanton is hot, it is the hottest of hot. Everything is going off as bad at 110 miles an hour, and he just gets big hit after big hit. But that hasn't happened this year. It didn't happen often enough last year, and he continues to be hurt too much to continue to carry his $25, $30 million every single year and continue to clog up the DH spot. So you have Judge out, you have Stanton out. Forget guessing when he'll return. Nobody knows. We just learned that Trent Grisham was placed on the 10-day IL. This is on June 13th. He had a right hamstring strain. Apparently, it happened when he was running the bases. Again, who knows when the heck you know Stanton is going to return? Who knows when Trent Grisham is going to return? Sometimes these hamstring strains have a way of lingering. And a 10-day IL for a hamstring sometimes is not enough. You know, certainly Grisham is not Stanton, and he'll probably recover much quicker, but you just don't know. Also on the I. He went out on in the middle of May with some left elbow bone bruise. You know, apparently reading about him, he's been playing catch and is progressing toward mound work. So, you know, he's still a while away. I wouldn't expect Freed back for at least another month or so. Who knows when that's going to happen? So you have Judge and you have Stanton out, and you have Grisham out, and you have Max Fried out. Of course, Clark Schmidt has been out, in case people forget, right? He's recovering from Tommy John surgery, and apparently he's actively throwing bullpen sessions and is tracking toward a potential return in August. So that would be great to get Schmidt back. I've always been a big Clark Schmidt fan. I always thought he was an undervalued, underrated, consistent as hell starter. So you have Judge, you have Stan, you have Grisham, you have Max Fried, and you have Clark Schmidt out. And the only good news person on the I.L. is Austin Wells, who I cannot stand. So having him on the I. So unfortunately, Wells may return soon. And if you take that all together, right, and you think about how much the Yanks have been winning lately, that's impressive, right? If you take other people, other teams' equivalents of Judge and Stanton and Grisham and Max Free and a starter like Schmidt out the whole year, and you continue to win, and the Yanks have the best record in the American League now, that's impressive.

Depth Shows And AL Looks Weak

SPEAKER_00 11:45

And and uh for you know one of the few times you'll hear this out of my mouth, the depth on the Yankees is really good. And I'm gonna give credit to Cashman for having good depth and to the Yankee organization as a whole for actually bringing up and playing some of the minor leaguers that they've been doing. So this year, their depth has shown through. I will have a small caveat in that the American League is absolutely putrid. They are awful. The American League is a terrible league compared to the National League. There are very few great teams and I'm sorry, very few good teams and almost no great teams in the American League. So certainly the Yanks are benefiting from a very, very weak American League. But even so, you list all those injuries and you talk about continuing to win, continuing to play through it. It is a tribute to the Yankees' depth, and I do have to give Cashman some kudos for that because you know the Yanks have some depth at some key positions. It is nice seeing Jason Dominguez and Spencer Jones get some playing time. Very, very nice to see all that. Hopefully they continue to excel and somehow force their way onto the team. Now, obviously, when Judge gets back and Grisham gets back, there's really not going to be room for them. And if Stant never gets back, you know, even the DH bar won't be open, which, you know, is tough. But, you know, if you play well enough, maybe they can find a way to force themselves onto the team. We'll have to see. Right now, they're playing fine. You know, Dominguez had a homer the other day. Spencer Jones got his first homer last week. Seeing Spencer Jones patrol center field is a nice thing. It is really impressive to see, and it's good as a Yankee fan to see some young players out there. I mentioned before how nice it is to have the DH spot available for anyone, you know, with Stanton on the IL. And it allows Boone and the team to, you know, put Rice there on occasion before Judge got hurt. You could put Judge in that spot if you needed to to give him a rest. Clark Goldschmidt can be the DH while Rice plays first, or the other way around if necessary. Really anyone you can put in that DH spot if if all the spots are filled up and you have to play Volpe at Schorsaw for some ridiculous reason, you can still get Caballero in in the lineup by putting him at DH. And so not having Stanton clog up that DH spot every game of the year, that he's healthy really opens up some options for the Yanks. And I think it's sort of enabled the Yanks to get looks at a bunch of other players. And there is some good in that. And I'm not going to say it's good that Stanton is hurt because again, you know, as streaky as he is, when he is got when he is on on fire, he is, you know, one of the best players in the league. We should make the caveat that when he is healthy and not on fire, he can still be one of the worst players in the league. You know, a healthy John Carlos Stanton that's going on a bad streak can, you know, strike out four times in a game and you know, 15 times out of 24 at bats and miss pitches by a foot and a half. He is streaky, but when he's good, he's great. And when he's bad, he's terrible. So it is a tough, tough thing to, you know, talk about what we need to do.

Schedule Ahead And Deadline Needs

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Really quickly, I'm gonna wrap this up. Let's quickly look at the schedule for the New York Yankees coming up. They're gonna play the first place Chicago White Sox, which is just amazing to say. The Yanks are in first with a 43-27 record. Blue Jays are 34 and 38. The Red Sox are last at 29 and 40. Amazing that the White Sox are leading the AL Central with the Tigers and Royals in last place. The Royals are 29 and 44. The American League Central is upside down if you look at the standings. And also the Astros are 33 and 41. Again, the American League is terrible. They are terrible. And the Yanks need a lot to win it all, even if they're if they have any chance to get to the World Series. They need a catcher, obviously, because Wells is disgusting. They need bullpen help. Maybe Weathers goes to the bullpen, maybe Warren goes there, maybe Clark Schmidt, but they still need to get going the open market and at the trade deadline do some work. They need a third baseman. They cannot have McMahon be the shortstop for the, you know, baseman for a World Series champion. Shortstop cannot be Fulpe. Will it be Lombard Jr.? Could they bring him up? You know, do they need to trade? I hope they don't trade. They should play Caballero or bring Lombard Jr.

unknown 16:24

up.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

So the Yanks are doing well in June for a change against a terrible American league. Let's see what happens as the year progresses. But for now, it is nice to see a winning team. It's great to see the youngsters out there, in spite of the reasons they're out there with all the injuries. So let's go Yanks and let's go Knicks, baby. That's going to do it for the podcast. Thank you for listening to Jersey Guy Sports. Please subscribe, tell your friends all about it, and I'll be back soon with some more sports talk. Thanks and have a good day.