Yankees Mailbag: Bullpen fatigue and salary cap concerns
Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.
Actionthrill asks:As one of the highest spending teams in baseball do you think the Yankees want a salary cap in place or would they rather spend freely? And if a salary cap was put in place would a team like the Dodgers have to get rid of a bunch of their players to get under the salary cap?
Hal Steinbrenner has made himself very clear on this matter time and time again: he’d very much prefer not spending as much as the Yankees currently spend on payroll. The luxury tax hits on his franchise are a bill Steinbrenner would love to wipe away with a salary cap and floor system, putting him in lock step with the rest of MLB’s ownership class on the issue ahead of the next CBA negotiations. Whether they’ll get their way or not is still to be decided, but it figures to be a lengthy fight and one that the owners probably feel more confident in than they have in quite some time as animosity at the top spenders in the sport have grown. As for the hypothetical world where the cap does come in for next season, there would surely be some grandfather clause with current contracts to prevent a mass-shedding of talent from the top, though they’d probably end up losing some of their expensive players out of the gate. What the numbers on that would be exactly would have to be determined as part of the negotiations, and again I expect the players’ union to fight tooth and nail against ever even implementing a cap in the first place so I’m not going to dive too deep on the logistics, but there’s no world where it would be a blanket cap instituted for next season that everyone would have to get under immediately.
In a semi-related note, we’ve gotten several questions about the Yankees’ recent deal with Apollo Global Management and what the cash infusion they’ve provided means for the Yankees’ short and long-term future. I’d highly recommend Josh Diemert’s piece a few weeks ago covering the subject for more in-depth thoughts, but for those of you wondering if this agreement would spur spending on the Yankees’ part I’m afraid you would be disappointed. Private equity’s sole goal is to strip down assets and flip them while the going is good — and perhaps they see an opportunity centered around what these labor negotiations could bring and want a hand in the pot ahead of time. Do I think this deal in particular will signal the end times for the New York Yankees acting as the Evil Empire? Not necessarily, but I don’t like the direction it could lead the team and baseball at large down.
Bleachers1976 asks:What about Gil and Schmidt? Pieces for the bullpen for stretch run and playoffs?
Especially with the news of Fernando Cruz hitting the IL with a partially-torn UCL that’ll keep him out for the rest of the year (and probably more if Tommy John is the ultimate outcome), the Yankees need bullpen help. They’ve been heavily reliant on using Cruz alongside David Bednar, Paul Blackburn, and Brent Headrick anytime they’ve got a close lead to preserve it, a necessity with how little they were scoring over the past two months, but that hyper-usage has tacked on a lot of mileage. Cruz had been struggling for a bit before his injury was discovered, and Headrick’s had some flareups as well recently, so getting reinforcements there will be key to keeping the pitching staff afloat down the stretch.
This is, of course, something that the team could’ve addressed at the Trade Deadline, but they weren’t able to come to an agreement with anyone on the arms that were available then. Part of the philosophy dictating that was the assumption that they had guys like Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt waiting in the wings, and while they wouldn’t be able to get stretched out they could land in the ‘pen as serviceable middle inning relief and perhaps occasionally take the load off of the main late-inning arms. That’s all well and good, but they also have to survive until those two are in game-ready shape and Gil is just starting to get games under his belt while Schmidt is only due to begin a rehab assignment on Saturday.
The other option was to slide one of their excess starters into a relief role as well… but now there are no excess starters. Ryan Weathers was considered a possibility and still may be, but betting on a damaged arm is unwise. The deadline was a mixed bag for the Yankees, but where I originally pointed to the failure of landing a catcher as the biggest sin of the bunch it’s now abundantly clear that not getting a single reliever is the bigger issue. They’ll have to hope that Gil and Schmidt hit the ground running to bolster this group when they do arrive, because otherwise the ‘pen may be running on fumes come October.
Hankflorida asks:My question is why was Jones brought up the first and second time when his stance had too much movement and he looked like he could not adjust his swing to the different pitches?
Simply put, they lacked bodies to put in the outfield and needed him. Jasson Domínguez immediately getting injured after getting called up was certainly not in the plans and necessitated an early debut for Jones, though he had been hitting at the time down in the minors. That stretch obviously didn’t go well, but the team has given him the time to figure things out when they could afford to and it’s paid off now with Jones serving as one of the bats lifting them up out of the doldrums.
workermonkey781 asks:What’s Marco Luciano got to do to get a call up?
Wait and see. It’s clear with their approach in starting Luciano at Double-A at the beginning of the season that the Yankees were experimenting with his swing approach and wanted to see how he would develop over the course of the year. It’s paid off well, and he’s had a serviceable amount of time in Triple-A now to be an option beyond this year should the team not agree to terms with Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the offseason.
However, Jazz is the starter for a reason. He’s one of the team’s better bats and he’s finding himself at the plate lately, alongside several parts of the Yankee lineup. Luciano has no experience at third base either or else a pathway could’ve opened up when Ryan McMahon went on the IL, but the team purposefully kept him on the right side of the infield when shifting him away from shortstop. The odds are still not great for the former top prospect though, as the organization has shown its priorities in letting Anthony Volpe take over second since his demotion and moved Luciano over to left field, where he played all of last season. Perhaps that versatility could earn him a depth position similar to Max Schuemann’s role with the team this year, but that might be his only angle at the moment and it doesn’t appear likely to come in 2026.
