Yankees Spring Training Camp Notes

by EJ Fagan

March 2, 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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Luis Gil has a shoulder injury. We don’t know how bad it is yet, but he is shut down for now. Cross your fingers that it’s just a temporary thing and not something that will require surgery. Poor guy.

The immediate consequence of Gil’s injury is that Marcus Stroman is now the 5th starter. Will Warren has options, so the Yankees are going to stash him at Triple-A no matter how good he looks in the Spring. That’s probably the right baseball move even it it sucks for Warren.

It also opens up a roster spot. With some other injuries, the Yankees have a few spots open. Aaron Boone is already talking about Tyler Matzek as having won a spot, but there is one more open relief position with Jake Cousins and Jonathan Loaisiga still injured. My guess is that Carlos Carassco will make the team in long relief (I’d love to see what he could do in one inning), but I’ll have my eye on Yerry De Los Santos and Clayton Beeter. A little Spring competition is a good thing in my book.

It’s March!

Games 7 and 8 (@ Phillies and vs. Cardinals)

• Between the non-YES games and my schedule, I didn’t see anything from these games beyond the highlights. Let me know if the comments if there’s anything that I missed.

• Austin Wells pummels a 110 mph home run. He’s put on some weight. Maybe some of those doubles will start clearing the fence.

• Anthony Volpe turned on a home run to left field. Also 110 mph. That is harder than any ball Volpe has ever hit in the majors. He’s allegedly put on some muscle.

• Cody Bellinger hit a Yankee Stadium special to the short porch in right field. It sure would be nice if he could add a half dozen home runs thanks to his home ballpark.

• More misplays from Jasson Dominguez in left. I’m starting to lean toward worried. Hasn’t he been practicing in left for weeks? Luckily, he has lots of time and games to iron things out, but I wonder if it’s almost time to flip him and Bellinger.

• Gerrit Cole looked great. Throwing 95 mph. Two swinging strikeouts on the changeup, which he only threw 4% of the time last year. Maybe he’s working on something?

• Alex Jackson got a DH start had a big game, with a double and a home run. Please no. Trust the back of the baseball card.

  
  

Game 9: Astros at Yankees

• LeMahieu makes his Spring debut. Why so late? Shouldn’t he be scratching and clawing his way to a roster spot? I guess you might want to give him a little bit of extra rest, but Peraza has looked so good that it would be criminal to just hand LeMahieu the spot without a significant audition in the Spring. He flailed at a very high ball in his first plate appearance.

• George Lombard Jr. (starting at 3rd) hammered a 108 mph home run to deep left center. He’s gained a bunch of muscle too. Looks like a real adult now.

• Jazz took an extra base on a clean single where the right fielder threw toward third. Love him on the bases. He had a nice double play with Volpe too.

• (Do you sense a theme?) Ben Rice destroys a ball with a 113 mph exit velocity, harder than anything he hit in the majors or minors last year by a bunch. He went down 0-2 in the 6th and worked the count back to 3-2 before striking out.

• Dominguez looked better in left. And he’s going for the beard. Looks good.

  
  

Injury News

• J.T. Brubaker broke three ribs off a come backer. Ouch. The Yankees are paying him a real salary and have expectations, but we’ll have to wait a bit to see him in the majors. I still think he has potential. He has some of the best sinker/slider spin in the majors.

• The Yankees might be talking to J.D. Martinez. Maybe Stanton is really hurt? There’s no way you could roster both. Martinez isn’t a huge upgrade over Stanton, but did have pretty helpful platoon splits in 2024 (.683 OPS vs. Right, .836 OPS vs Left) and was a pretty great hitter as recently as 2023.