About The Off Day: Meanderings of My Mind

About The Off Day: Meanderings of My Mind

By Tim Kabel

April 7, 2026

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The Yankees are off to a fast start. They won their first three series. They have a record of 7-2 in their first 9 games, which is tied with the Brewers and the Dodgers for the best record in the Major Leagues. No other team in the American League East is above .500. Those are all great things for the Yankees, but it is only 9 games. However, it's better than being 2-7. As I have written repeatedly over the years, the Yankees should accumulate as many wins as they possibly can so that when they have their inevitable Boone-Swoon, it might not knock them down in the standings or out of first place. The Yankees will now open a stretch against the A's, Rays, Angels, and Royals, before playing the Red Sox on April 21st. They should be able to rack up a lot of wins against those teams. Since I don't have a game to recap today, I will now move from topic to topic as if I were moving from table to table at one of the innumerable yard sales that will be occurring in my town in the next few months, looking for just the right useless item to clutter up my house.

·      I am not trying to be negative but there are some areas of concern with the Yankees, despite their fast start. The bullpen was a problem last year and Brian Cashman did nothing to improve it in the off-season.  He was content to rely on the mid-season acquisitions from last year which other than David Bednar, were shaky. It seems that Boone is already mishandling the bullpen. That shouldn't be a surprise. That has been one of the hallmarks of his tenure as manager. He used a lot of pitchers so far in the season.  Boone has used Brent Headrick six times, Tim Hill, Jake Bird, Fernando Cruz, and Camilo Doval five times each. Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn have been used two times each. David Bednar has been used four times. Cade Winquest has not been used at all. I know that Winquest is essentially a placeholder until Luis Gil is activated on Friday, but it is a waste of a roster spot. It would have made more sense to have a pitcher who could have been used a few times before going to the minors rather than someone who will never be used at all unless the game is completely out of hand. The concern is that by using multiple pitchers in every game and only allowing each pitcher to have a short outing, Boone will eventually, and possibly quickly, cause the bullpen to break down. In other words, Fernando Cruz has pitched five times in the nine games. Each of those outings has been for exactly 2/3 of an inning. If he pitched longer in one or two of those games and had only three or four outings, it might have reduced the number of outings the other pitchers have had. The Yankees do not have a great bullpen. However, they have a bullpen that if used effectively could be a solid part of the team. As usual, it does not seem that that will happen.

·      Sunday would have been my mother's 101st birthday. Sadly, we lost her 24 years ago. My mother was your typical feisty New Englander. She had a very hard life. Her father died when she was ten years old, and her mother had an emotional breakdown. In those days, mental health issues were treated much differently. My grandmother spent the rest of her life in an institution. I don't recall ever meeting her. My mother and her five brothers, who were all older than she was, were split up and moved around. My mom never felt sorry for herself. Her father had been a fairly prosperous businessman, but the family home was lost. Years later, after my father and mother were married, my father bought my mother's childhood home back so she could live there again. Growing up, things were tight for my family financially, but we were always happy. My father died when he was 64 years old. My mother wasn't even 60 at the time. She never remarried. It took her about three years before she could talk to me about my father without sobbing. She continued to be a very independent and determined lady. I remember one year on Easter; she called me and wished me a happy holiday and then asked me to call her the next afternoon. Well, before I could call her, my aunt called me and said that I needed to go home. My mother had developed tongue cancer and on the day after Easter, she drove herself to the oral surgeon. They removed a significant portion of her tongue lengthwise. She was planning to drive herself home, but they wouldn't let her do that. I went home and took care of her as best I could, but she really wouldn't let me do too much. She beat the cancer temporarily, but it came back a year later, this time in her neck. She still kept fighting until cancer eventually won. The thing I remember most about my mom is how despite everything that happened, she kept plugging along. I have tried to do the same thing in my life and to live by the examples that she and my father set.

·      In addition to the bullpen, the starting rotation for the Yankee seems like it could be a concern as well. Max Fried and Cam Schlittler will probably be fine and should put out consistently excellent performances. Will Warren seems to be a perfectly solid member of the rotation. Ryan Weathers so far appears to be a flashy enigma who will pitch just well enough to lose. Luis Gil was shaky in his one minor league outing and will return to the rotation on Friday night. Everyone seems to be hanging their hats on the fact that Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon will be returning. However, Rodon suffered a setback with tightness in his hamstring. Neither Cole nor Rodon are expected to be back in the rotation until late May or early June. When they return, they will probably be on innings limits, and it is unknown how effective they will be initially. By the time they return, one third of the season will be gone. Meanwhile, the Yankees will have relied on a rotation of which 40% (Weathers and Gil) are question marks. When you combine that with a shaky bullpen, things don't look too promising.

·      The Yankees also have concerns in their starting lineup. Giancarlo Stanton is absolutely destroying the baseball. He is batting .394 and seems to be on almost every pitch. Ben Rice is hitting .370 with three home runs and eleven RBI. Aaron Judge has struggled a bit as has Jazz Chisholm, Jr. but they will be fine. Cody Bellinger has been solid. Austin Wells is hitting .167 with zero home runs and zero RBI. He has four hits. Throughout his short career, he has struggled offensively with flashes of outstanding play. His problems are his lack of consistency and the brevity and infrequency of those flashes of excellence. Jose Caballero is batting .129 with zero home runs and one RBI. He has three stolen bases. Caballero has been more or less a utility player so; his lack of production is not alarming. He is essentially doing what he has always done. I'm sure his average will go up, but he will never be a major offensive force, other than in stealing bases. The problem is that when he is ultimately replaced by Anthony Volpe, there will not be an improvement. There may even be a drop off. Trent Grisham, who the Yankees signed to a one-year $22 million contract, is batting.172. He has zero home runs and four RBI. The one thing he has been doing is walking. That's nice but it doesn't exactly make him an offensive threat. I suspect that the Yankees regretted extending the qualifying offer to Grisham as soon as he accepted it. If they didn't, they are regretting it now. We are only a little more than a week into the season and Grisham seems to have turned back into the pumpkin he always was prior to last season. I read an article yesterday that stated that Ryan McMahon snapped out of his slump. I must be functioning in a different language than the person who wrote that article because while McMahon did have a hit yesterday, it was his only his second hit of the season. He is batting .087. His OPS is .363 and he has zero home runs and two RBI. He is on a pace for about 30 hits this season. I have heard all the statements about how wonderful he is on defense. He could feel every ball ever hit and cover every single position on the field and his defense still would not justify his putrid offensive numbers. There was a lot written about how McMahon worked hard to improve his offense during the offseason. Well, he is actually worse than he was last year. He is a liability in the lineup and when you have Wells, Caballero, McMahon, and Grisham hitting in succession, it is hardly what you would call murderers’ row.  The worst part of all this is that the Yankees appear to be locked into this group. As noted, the only change would be putting Volpe in for Caballero and that does not seem to be an upgrade. The Yankees could recall Jasson Dominguez who is off to a scorching start, but they won't do that. They are committed to Grisham as a starter, at least for now. Cashman and Boone are very stubborn and seem unlikely to make a change in that regard. Despite the fast start the Yankees had, there are multiple warning signs that it won't last.