About the Off-Day: Taking Stock

About the Off-Day: Taking Stock.

By Tim Kabel

May 20, 2025

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Yesterday, the Yankees had a day off, after taking two of three games from the Mets at Yankee Stadium in the first phase of this season’s Subway Series. The Yankees are currently 27-19 and in first place in the American League East. They lead the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays by 5 games. The Yankees have the second-best record in the American League, behind the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees open a three-game series against Texas at home tonight. After that, they go back out on the road on another West Coast trip. Thankfully, it will be their last West Coast trip of the season. As we pause for a day, it's a good time to take stock of the team.

The Yankees are doing well so far this season. They are not having a spectacular season, but they are having a good one. They had a solid series against the Mets and took two out of three. The players whom they acquired in the wake of Juan Soto’s departure all demonstrated why picking them up was a good move and perhaps a better move than re-signing Soto. However, when we look at the Yankees right now and in particular the way they played against the Mets, there are some issues.

 On Saturday in the 3-2 loss to the Mets, the Yankees left 9 runners on base. The Mets were leading 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees attempted to mount a rally against Griffin Canning. JC Escarra walked, and DJ LeMahieu singled to center. Yorbit Vivas, the ninth-place hitter was coming to the plate. Most of the people in the stadium expected Aaron Boone to have Vivas bunt the runners over. He did not. Instead, he swung away and struck out. Canning was then able to get Ben Rice and Aaron Judge out, ending the threat. After the game, Boone was asked why he didn't have Vivas bunt. He said he considered it, but thought the Mets were “playing it aggressively”. I'm not totally sure what that means. Regardless, Vivas is an inexperienced Major League hitter. However, I'm sure has bunted in his career. It would have made sense to have him do so on Saturday. That's probably why Boone didn't do it. 

On Sunday night, Anthony Volpe came up in the 7th inning with the bases loaded and the score tied 2-2. The Mets’ pitcher, Huascar Brazoban, was having trouble with his command. Eventually, Volpe struck out but if he had laid off any one of at least three of those pitches, he would have walked with the bases loaded and driven in a run. This is not uncommon from Volpe. For some reason, Volpe thinks he is a power hitter and instead of trying to get on base or go with the pitches, he tries to hit the ball out of the stadium, which frequently does not work out well. It certainly didn't work out well on Sunday night. Ultimately, the Yankees won the game, but that was another lost opportunity. Volpe needs to be coached to become a better situational hitter. If that happens, he will be a much more productive player for the Yankees. All he needed to do in that situation was take a walk.

In the eighth inning, Jasson Dominguez walked and after DJ LeMahieu struck out, Austin Wells doubled to right field and the Yankees had runners on second and third. Vivas hit the ball to the Mets’ first baseman, Pete Alonso, who made a terrible throw home. Dominguez scored. Now let's look at that for a minute. First, even with a good throw I don't think Dominguez would have been out. The fact that it was a terrible throw made that a moot issue. The other issue is why didn't Boone have Dominguez try to steal second when LeMahieu was up. If Dominguez had been on second base, he would have scored on Wells’ double. The issue is that Aaron Boone is tone deaf when it comes to in-game situations, does not make adjustments, and is not at all creative. At this point, Anthony Volpe has seven stolen bases, Jazz Chisholm, Jr. (who is on the IL) has six stolen bases, and Dominguez and Bellinger have four each. Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt have three stolen bases each. Jasson Dominguez only played a portion of the season last year due to injury but in 2023, he stole over 40 bases. He is very fast. Anthony Volpe is fast as well. Aaron Boone does not utilize the talents of his players to their full extent. In other words, it's great that the Yankees hit a lot of home runs, but they need to score runs in other ways. They have at least four players with tremendous base running and base stealing potential: Bellinger, Volpe, Chisholm, and Dominguez. The Yankees could use their speed to manufacture runs. I'm not saying they need to do this all the time, but they certainly need to do it a lot more than they do at this point. 

The Yankees are missing several players due to injury and the roster is not what it was expected to be. That is part of the game. Despite this, the Yankees are still in first place and are playing well. However, they could be playing better. Aaron Boone always seems to be running a little behind. He does not think well on his feet. He does not take advantage of situations. He is like the person who always has the perfect comeback in an argument but unfortunately doesn't think of it until he's sitting at home three hours later.

There are going to be tight games for the Yankees this season, particularly if they make it into the playoffs. That is why Boone needs to utilize all aspects of his players’ talents. Situational hitting, better base running and more base stealing need to be tools that Boone uses regularly. That will make the team much more formidable and increase their chances to win a championship