SSTN Mailbag: SS, Schlittler, And Roster Expansion!

[Hi Everyone! Slightly shorter Mailbag this week - I'm on one of the two vacations I take all year, and I decided to actually take a break for a change. Normal length intros and answers will be back next week!]

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I've said it often enough that I'm now a broken record, but here we go again: what a difference a week makes. All of the inferior teams around the Yankees in the Wild Card race are completely floundering while the Yankees are suddenly finding some modicum of footing, last night's debacle notwithstanding. What gives me some hope is that Aaron Boone, at least within his capabilities, is clearly managing with some level of urgency. He's still weak tactically, but he's at least pretending that it's August, not April with his lineup and bullpen decisions.

The Yankees are the best of a weak crop in the AL. It wouldn't take much for them to go on a run for the rest of the season. I have real reservations about how this team will perform under pressure given their persistent issues with fundamentals, but making the playoffs should be more than doable now. Let's hope for a good weekend against Boston.

As always, thanks for the great questions and keep them coming to SSTNReadermail@gmail.com. In this week's SSTN Mailbag, we'll talk about shortstop, Cam Schlittler, and September roster expansion! Let's get at it:

David C. asks: I saw this question asked somewhere else and I thought it was a good one for this week. If you were the Yankees, would you bench Anthony Volpe for Jose Caballero? They feel like potentially similar players with one giving you more right now.

The short answer? Yes, I would be stealing playing time from Anthony Volpe in order to get Jose Caballero in the lineup with greater frequency. To be clear, this is as much a commentary on Anthony Volpe as it is on what Caballero brings to the table. Volpe has largely righted the ship defensively, but he remains so terribly inconsistent offensively that he's not really adding a lot of value overall. That doesn't mean that Volpe isn't still the best day-to-day option, but he's not a guy who is a must-start every game, which is how he's been treated by the team since his rookie season.

You can see where Caballero adds value and why he's a winning player. He has speed, he knows how to use it, he's intelligently aggressive, he fields decently at multiple positions, he makes a decent amount of contact, and he gets under opponents' skin. He's overexposed playing everyday, but there's real value there. This is the type of player I envisioned the Yankees acquiring when I wrote up my trade deadline plan. However, he needs to be deployed intelligently.

I don't think Caballero should be the starting SS, but I do think some form of sharing arrangement makes sense at this stage. Volpe is still a better player overall, with more upside, and the Yankees owe it to themselves to get it out of him more frequently (though I have real doubts that this coaching staff is capable of getting Volpe to take the next step). However, the Yankees should give Caballero a sliver of Volpe's playing time. There are some statistics that even show that Volpe plays better with a bit more rest. Maybe this can work for everyone.

Brian S. asks: Can you believe what Schlittler looked like last night? I know that you have liked him for a bit, but what do you think his upside is? Is it greater than the guy you saw before the season?

This is really who I thought Schlittler would be: someone who was capable of big starts with a lot of strikeouts and starts where he struggles to get outs. Schlittler's fastball on its own is a true grade-75 pitch, but it plays down 1/2-1 full grade due to his lack of extension. This hasn't changed much from my earlier looks at him, though I will say that he's throwing the fastball with such conviction and ride that at its best, the lack of extension really doesn't matter.

I am enjoying watching Schlittler evolve as he understands what he needs to get big league hitters out. When he came up, he was almost exclusively a fastball/slider guy, and he saw that either of his sliders weren't really enough to get big league hitters out consistently. He's mixing in a curve (12-6 shape, but more 40-45 on the 20-80 scouting scale) that represents such a change of speed and shape that it has been effective at stealing strikes in the zone. As his confidence with the pitch has increased, he's starting to try to spot it just below the zone to get swings-and-misses. He's also now throwing the short slider I liked in Spring Training (Statcast calls it a cutter, but he's spotting it like a short slider and using it in breaking ball counts) as his primary slider, and it's getting confused swings. Both of those pitches combined with the fastball are really starting to work, as we saw on Wednesday night.

I think the curve and the short slider are enough to attack hitters consistently on both sides of the plate, particularly when combined with Schlittler's fastball, which is a truly elite pitch.

The big question in my mind is whether Schlittler will figure out enough command with his non-fastballs to make this work. The fastball is so good that it will always get whiffs, even if he gets homer-prone from hung fastballs. The key is going to be command with his secondary offerings. If he gets there with the short slider and curve, I think he's got top-of-the-rotation ceiling. I think it's most likely that he settles in as a really good #3 starter. That's a heck of an outcome, particularly for a mid-round draft pick without much fanfare. The Yankees deserve a lot of credit for the pitching they've developed the last few years. Schlittler may be the best example yet.

Alan B. asks: Andy: Yankees can add to players to their active roster on September 1. With both Cruz and Yarbrough still needing to come off the IL. I think there's your one pitcher. Who is the player? Escarra, Rumfield (that means Rice is the full-time starting catcher), or Spencer Jones? Or do you have someone else in mind? After last night's game (Wednesday @ Rays), serious consideration has to be given to adding an outfielder.

I agree, one of Cruz or Yarbrough (likely Cruz) will be ready on September 1st. Honestly, sometimes the path of least resistance is the right answer. I expect the Yankees to bring JC Escarra back on September 1st to help share the load at catcher. I love Rumfield, but the fact that the Yankees haven't brought him up at all yet tells you where he stands in the pecking order .

I know that a lot of fans want to see Jones, and I think there's a good argument to getting a cup of coffee this year so that he goes into the offseason knowing what he needs to work on before next season. People will point to Judge's cup of coffee in 2016 as evidence of what the right path is for Jones' development, and there's plenty of validity to that argument. However, the situations were different. In 2016, the Yankees were going nowhere and leaned into developing the Baby Bombers at the big league level. Tyler Austin, Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Rob Refsnyder, etc. were all given significant playing time whether or not they were immediately the best guy for the job. Again, this was a season in which the Yankees weren't playing for anything.

The Yankees are almost certain to make the playoffs, but they remain in a race for both the Wild Card and AL East. The Yankee outfield is pretty stacked, particularly if Stanton still is needed to moonlight in RF into the first weeks of September. I just don't see a runway to get Jones enough playing time to make it worthwhile.

As for Wednesday night's debacle, it's not an issue if a hothead doesn't get himself tossed in a bad situation, regardless of whether he was right or wrong. Caballero needs to know better there. The Yankees have enough outfield-capable players on the roster right now.