Under The Knife 8/14/23
Weeping Angels
Aaron Boone is likely out as Yankees manager at the end of the season. His ejections are an issue, but not getting the most out of a team that’s been dragged down by injuries is a tough anchor. I’m not in that locker room or around the team, but I think Brian Cashman and staff (who aren’t going anywhere except by choice) realize that the Boone experiment hasn’t worked out.
Plucking a player out of the booth to come manage a big team is a tough gig. Boone hasn’t failed, as many predicted, and maybe he does this again and turns into Terry Francona. (Look up his first stint as a manager if you’re young.) I think he’s more likely to go back to the booth and stay there. It’s a good gig. If Suzyn Waldman ever steps aside, he’d likely be good there too.
The question is more, who can succeed there and is available? There’s always the idea that you go opposite the last manager, but I don’t believe that old saw works. The Yankees as a team are relatively young, well paid at the top, and have a growing group of younger players to augment the stars. They haven’t had depth, surprising with the payroll, but that’s fixable. This isn’t a team where the star(s) are picking the manager either.
Most of baseball is currently managed by younger ex-players, not unlike Boone himself. Few have much managerial experience, which works sometimes and doesn’t sometimes. There’s few star managers out there with experience and that could handle the gig. Joe Maddon? Maybe, but his end in Anaheim isn’t entirely forgotten yet. I don’t think Carlos Mendoza steps up, or anyone from the staff.
There hasn’t been a hire like Kevin Cash or Dave Martinez - both relatively young former players who came up under Maddon - in a while, so I’m discounting the “hire the #2 at a great team.” Rodney Linares or Danny Lehmann don’t move the needle in the Big Apple, qualified though they are. Even DeMarlo Hale or Sandy Alomar Jr seem like reaches.
Joe Girardi? He’s done it, not that long ago, but I don’t think this version of the Yankees recycles managers as it once did. I tried to think of a Buck Showalter type, but neither he nor Dusty Baker have much of a “coaching tree”, which frankly surprises me.
Seven calls in around the league, I realized no one else had much of an idea what the Yankees might do either. Names like Hensley Muelens made some sense, but Carlos Beltran feels like another Aaron Boone, with some baggage.
Until one GM gave me one of those looks through the phone, like I was stupid. “Mattingly, of course,” he said and the second he said it, it made sense. Experience. Impeccable Yankees credentials. Now, I can barely think of anyone else for the position.
Then again, I didn’t expect Aaron Boone. Brian Cashman might have a different idea and given Don Mattingly’s record in previous stops. He was a 551 manager with the Dodgers and 430 with the Marlins. Both are very understandable, but overall, Mattingly seems the type that gets a team to live up to expectations, high or low, but might not make much difference either way. We still have no good stats to rate managers, one of the great sabermetric holes.
So, Mattingly back in pinstripes? Maybe. For now, let’s get to the injuries:
NESTOR CORTES, SP NYY (strained rotator cuff)
A new manager won’t fix the injury issues or the pitching depth. Or will it? Some of the same sources I spoke with on who should manage the team think that the overall management of the pitching staff, including Boone’s handling of the in-game structure of the usage, is the big fix the Yankees have to pursue.
Right now, the issue is that Nestor Cortes is back on the IL, just days after coming off. It’s a new problem, but it’s hard to say that the rotator cuff strain isn’t related to the previous injury, even if it’s a different muscle or location. Cortes had looked good in his first start back, showing good movement and deception. He didn’t go deep or look troubled at any point in that start that I could see from the broadcast, so this would seem to be an issue of recovery, especially given how quick he was back on the IL.
Cortes will be shut down again and there’s some question about how much time he’ll have to make it back. Sim games are always available, so that isn’t the issue, but could he build up after the shutdown, or could he be something more creative, and will his shoulder hold together in any role? The build up in the minors ahead of this one wasted a lot of productive innings and he didn’t have many to begin with, so this is just another issue.
For now, the Yankees have Randy Vazquez up to take Cortes’ slot, with the hope that Carlos Rodon is back quickly (and stays.) The Yankees are functionally down to their 10th starter from the beginning of the season, deeper if you don’t consider the 40-man issues. Luis Severino has pitched his way out of the rotation, but been forced in because of the others dropping, so it’s worse than it looks. If this team can fight back to a playoff spot, it’s Gerrit Cole and a big black hole for a playoff rotation.
MIKE TROUT, OF LAA (fractured wrist/rehab)
The whispers started late last week that Mike Trout was doing more than was being said publicly. The Angels finally admitted he was hitting off a machine Friday but oddly “only machine pitched breaking balls”. The velocity cap was real, but the breaking balls thing wasn’t, I’m told. He’s not seeing major league quality fastballs simply because they want to build up the forces on his wrist and see how it responds.
I’m told they weren’t using “significant technology” to monitor Trout. There may have been an on-bat sensor, but no biomechanics, no non-standard cameras, no high tech pitching machine. Which isn’t to say any of those are necessary, but data might help get one of the Angels key players back quicker or safer in one of their most important seasons ever and, they’re just not.
On the health front, I’ll continue to believe that this is going to continue to move quickly. Trout will keep getting the dial turned up and it would stun me if he’s not facing live pitching by mid-week. I don’t think there will be a rehab assignment, especially if there continues to be no soreness after his hitting sessions. That puts his return right at the six week mark, if it all keeps going well.
SHOHEI OHTANI, SP/DH LAA (no injury/fatigue)