Sal's Take On The Red Sox Series

By Sal Maiorana

July 25, 2024

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Sal Maiorana, a friend of the site, shares some of his thoughts on the Yankees.

For Sal's complete analysis on the New York Yankees, you can subscribe to Sal Maiorana's free Pinstripe People Newsletter at https://salmaiorana.beehiiv.com/subscribe.

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The trade deadline is Tuesday afternoon, and the Yankees are going to need to make a whole lot more noise than they have so far if they hope to get this mess turned around and make a push for the postseason.

The combination of winning this crazy series at Fenway Park while scoring 26 runs in the process, and acquiring Jazz Chisholm on Saturday was definitely a start, and because of Baltimore’s mysterious slump, the 62-45 Yankees are now just a game back in the AL East.

“We know where we’ve been the last month and a half,” said Alex Verdugo who made his second visit back to Boston since being traded to the Yankees and did some damage all three nights. “It just starts like this, and you just keep on trusting each other, keep on going. Get a couple of guys at the trade deadline that are going to freshen it up in here, and we’re excited, man. We’re happy with the team we’ve got, and we know we can do some special things.”

Chisholm is the first addition, though the Yankees sent away three prospects to get him, the most notable being catcher Agustin Ramirez who was having a great season split between Double-A and Triple-A. Chisholm is a player I wasn’t all that - sorry for the pun - jazzed up about. Look, is there some potential upside with the 27-year-old who can play second base and the outfield? Sure, especially since he has two more years of contract control after this.

But what the Yankees really need is someone who can play third base. Aaron Boone said they’re going to try him there, so if he can handle it while helping the offense, then this move would look much better to me because it would get DJ LeMahieu out of the lineup, and return to Oswaldo Cabrera to where he belongs, as a versatile bench player.

Chisholm can steal bases as he had 22 for the Marlins, including eight in July which is as many as the Yankees have had as an entire team since June 13! He’s got a little pop in his bat with 66 home runs in 403 career MLB games for a decent .749 OPS dating back to 2020, but he’s a career .246 hitter with a poor .309 on-base percentage because he doesn’t walk very much.

And another big issue with him - which will enable him to fit right in with the Yankees - is that he has been injury prone. He played just 60 games in 2022 and 97 in 2023, though this year he has been healthy and he played in game No. 102 in his Yankees debut Sunday night.

Oh, and then there was this. In the spring, The Athletic compiled its annual players’ poll with all of the respondents granted anonymity in exchange for their candor. In the category of most overrated player, Chisholm was the runaway winner garnering 20.9% of the votes. The next highest total was 10.2% for always injured Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon, followed by 6.7% for Twins shortstop Carlos Correa.

That’s worrisome, and it’s also well known that Chisholm wasn’t the most popular guy in the Marlins clubhouse. He publicly called out former Marlins captain Miguel Rojas earlier this year for being a terrible leader and a bad person. It’ll be very interesting to see how he assimilates to the veteran-laden Yankees clubhouse, and the hope is that captain Aaron Judge will guide him properly through the process.

Yankees hitting coach James Rowson worked for the Marlins before coming to New York and he had a favorable reaction to the acquisition. “Super talented,” Rowson told reporters Saturday. “You watch him and see what he can do on the field. This guy’s got many tools and his tools play in so many different ways. Anything that helps us, anything our group feels helps us, I’m in on.”

Of his personality, Rowson said it was, “Electric. I like Jazz. I’ve spent a lot of time with Jazz, three years in Miami, so I’ve known him for a long time. I enjoy him. He’s a really talented dude.”

Chisholm played center field Sunday which was good because it got Trent Grisham out of the lineup. And yes, Grisham was one of the heroes in the win Saturday, but come on, we’ve seen enough of him, haven’t we? His other primary position is second base, so maybe he’ll platoon with Gleyber Torres, though over the past three weeks or so, Torres has been one of the Yankees best hitters.

As I said, there’s upside, and if the Yankees need anything these days, it’s players with upside so here’s hoping Chisholm provides that, and then Cashman finds a few others before Tuesday to do it, too.

Other observations from the weekend series:

➤ Nestor Cortes was once again terrible on the road. He lasted 4.2 innings on Friday, and that was only because the Red Sox were nearly as bad with runners in scoring position as the Yankees usually are. They had nine hits, two walks and a hit by pitch against him, but they were 2-for-9 with RISP while he was out there so they “only” scored four runs. It could have been a blowout very early, so I guess I’ll give him a little credit, but the bottom line is there were 12 baserunners in less than five innings. That’s a WHIP of more than two which, as you know, would get a young guy shipped back to the minors.

➤ Make no mistake, Saturday was a great win, but while the Yankees offense was red hot with 16 hits and five walks, there was still plenty of bad baseball. They went just 5-for-19 with runners in scoring position and despite 11 runs, still left 11 men on base; there were four different innings where the Yankees scored but their pitchers went on to allow runs in the bottom half; Volpe made an error that led to two second-inning runs; in that same inning Grisham missed a cutoff man making a foolish throw home that had no chance, and the batter, Jarren Duran took second and later scored from there on a single; Torres mistimed a leap that turned an out into a double; and Soto made an awful out on the bases, running through a stop sign at third with one out and getting gunned down by a mile which probably cost them the tying run in the eighth. Yeah, not exactly artistic, this game.

➤ All eyes were on Chisholm and let’s face it, things did not start well for him. He played center field and batted fifth, and in his first four at bats, he struck out with men on second and third in the first inning, then grounded out to the first baseman three straight times, leaving three men on base. Finally in the ninth inning with the game decided, he showed what he can do. He beat out an infield single with his speed, took second on a groundout, then stole third and that enabled him to score on LeMahieu’s fly ball to right. That sequence, that manufactured run, is exactly what the Yankees need in their lineup, someone on base and creating trouble for the defense.

➤ As they did Saturday, the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead only this time they did it against the Red Sox ace, Tanner Houck, who just didn’t have it. Verdugo led off with a double and scored on a Judge single, then Wells doubled and after Chisholm whiffed, Torres picked him up with a big two-run single. Unlike Stroman on Saturday, Rodon shut the door in the bottom half as well as the next two innings.

➤ What a series this was for Judge as he was on base 11 times in his 16 plate appearances, raising his on-base percentage to .446. The only other Yankee to get on base at least 11 times while driving in seven runs in a three-game series against the Red Sox was Lou Gehrig in 1929.

➤ Verdugo also had a nig weekend as he went 7-for-15 with three doubles and five runs scored. Torres, now playing with Chisholm who will probably take his second base job next year, went 5-for-14 with two doubles and four RBI. And Cabrera, who figures to lose playing time to Chisholm, went 4-for-13 with a double, a homer, three runs and three RBI as he started all three games ahead of LeMahieu at third.