by EJ Fagan
March 5, 2025
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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission.
Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.
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The Opening Day hitting roster is starting to look pretty likely:
1b Paul Goldschmidt
2b Jazz Chisholm
SS Anthony Volpe
3b Oswaldo Peraza
LF Jasson Dominguez
CF Cody Bellinger
RF Aaron Judge
DH Ben Rice
With Pereira, Cabrera, Grisham and a catcher off the bench.
That’s a really fun team! The Yankees would have five guy with a sprint speed over 28 ft/s. The other four are only below average runners. Cabrera, Grisham and Pereira are no slouches off the bench either.
It would be a completely different look from last year, when the Yankees often fielded lineups that included some of the worst baserunners in baseball with Soto, Stanton, LeMahieu, Verdugo, Torres and Rizzo and were overall the worst base running team in the league.
It’s also a young lineup, with all of the uncertainties that come with that label. I’m willing to bet that at least one of Pereira, Dominguez, Peraza, Escarra or Rice completely flops. Luckily, the Yankees have some flexibility, especially once Stanton returns.
Game Notes:
Pirates at Yankees
I didn’t watch this game other than the highlights. I’m getting bored with Spring Training. Bring on real games!
Another fun home run from George Lombard Jr. These are not cheapies. He was one of the youngest members of his draft class with an early June birthday. He’s starting to look like a real breakout candidate.
Yankees at Phillies
Really impressive work from Will Warren against A-list hitters. In the first, he walked Trea Turner, but then struck out Bryce Harper swinging, a double play ball from Alec Bohm that Lombard Jr. flubbed, and struck out Kyle Schwarber swinging. Kepler took him deep in the 2nd, but just a solo home run, and he rebounded by getting a weak ground ball from Stott. In the third, he got Turner on a three pitch strike out and Harper on a weak line drive. He’s hitting 95 consistently to go with the sinker/slider/change combo. In a just world, he would have a shot to challenge Stroman for the 5th starter spot.
Another solid hit from Lombard Jr., with a hard ground ball the other way. Off Wheeler.
Spencer Jones wins the ABS call on a ball that was way high. He and Judge should benefit a ton from the system. Umpires don’t know how to call their zone. Then he hit a hard ground ball double down the line. In the 4th, he homered to right-center. He went down in the zone and lifted a fly ball at 103 mph. He’s looking so good right now, although he looked good last Spring too.
Goldschmidt hits a solid home run to deep center. He hasn’t looked right so far this Spring, but maybe that is changing. He’s a notoriously slow starter.
Jasson Dominguez strikes out in the first, quickly goes down 0-2 in the third before legging out a weak ground ball for a single. Then a hard ground ball. I was going to say he didn’t look right, but he capped the day off with a big 104 mph opposite field home run.
We have a Devin Williams sighting! With a beard! And, the airbender looks awesome.
Miscellaneous
Jim Callis is out with the MLB.com top 30 Yankees prospects, the last of the offseason Yankee lists. No huge surprises. Callis has to rank a massive number of prospects, so he’s mostly just providing the consensus from scouts he talks to. Some things that stick out:
He’s really down on Brando Mayea, sort of high on Cam Schlittler, Roderick Arias, Ben Hess and Will Warren.
60 field tool on Lombard Jr. at shortstop.
Didn’t rank Jesus Rodriguez for some reason.
He thinks that Rafael Flores can stick at catcher.
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