October 31st, 2025: Coaching Staff, Mailbag

There are changes coming to the YES booth in 2026. Andrew Marchand (subs. req’d) says John Flaherty and Jeff Nelson are out with David Cone, Joe Girardi, and Paul O’Neill set to work more often. YES will cut back on the rotating analyst thing and have a more consistent booth. I like it. I think Cone, Girardi, and O’Neill are the best YES has, so I’m glad they’re doing more games. Here now is today’s post. Sorry it’s shorter than usual, but a) that 18-inning game kicked my ass on the CBS side, and b) I fell behind my mental schedule on the Offseason Plan and had to spend a few hours catching up the last two days. Let’s get to it.

1. Coaching stuff notes. Nothing is official yet because the Yankees usually announce their coaching hires all at once later in the offseason, but there was some movement on the coaching staff front this week. Here is the important stuff:

• Desi Druschel is back, per Jeff Passan. He’s returning to the Yankees after spending one year with the Mets as an assistant hitting coach. Druschel was a Yankees' assistant pitching coach from 2021-23 (and worked in the farm system before that).

• Assistant pitching coach Preston Claiborne will remain with the team. Either he or Druschel will replace Mike Harkey as bullpen coach, per Andy Martino. I’m guessing it’ll be Claiborne, but we'll see. Either way, it will be Claiborne and Druschel.

• Both pitching coach Matt Blake and Director of Catching Tanner Swanson had their club options picked up, per Gary Phillips. Neither decision is a surprise.

• The Twins named Derek Shelton their new manager. I guess that means hitting coach James Rowson is coming back? He was a finalist for the job.

I know the Mets stunk out loud and their pitching crumbled late in the season, but getting Druschel back is really good news. He’s a pitch design guru (grips and all that) and I don’t think it’s a coincidence the usual bullpen magic disappeared during Druschel’s year with the Mets. That’s his department. Getting hands-on and making the tweaks. He’s highly regarded within pitching circles. Good to have him back.

Priority No. 1 for Druschel this offseason will be helping Cam Schlittler with a changeup/splitter. He threw both in the minors (mostly below Triple-A) but hasn’t been able to master either. Schlittler is a supinator, which means he naturally gets on the side of the ball when he releases it rather than turning it over, and supinators have a hard time with changeups. The kick-change, which Druschel brought to the Mets this year, is one possible solution. We’ll see what he and the Yankees cook up for Schlittler.

“Where the ‘kick’ comes is when you see it on Edgertronic, and you release it, the fingers come off, and then this middle finger that spiked actually, like, kicks the axis, the spin axis,” Druschel told Eno Sarris (subs. req’d) about the kick-change in April. “So it changes how the ball is spinning, and that’s where the idea of ‘kick’ comes, just altering the axis. It’s the same thing that happens on the sweeper. This finger will kick the axis too, but it’s just more traditional there. So it’s just describing what’s happening. A regular changeup will roll off and kind of slide off the fingers – or swipe off the fingers, is a better way to describe it – as opposed to this spin axis altering kick.”

One other notable Mets coaching change: Antoan Richardson is out as first base coach, per Passan. Richardson is most notable around these parts for scoring the run on Derek Jeter’s walk-off single in his final game at Yankee Stadium (video). With the Mets, he received a ton of credit for their baserunning success. Not just from the reporters and fans looking at it from the outside. From the players themselves. Here are the 2025 Mets:

• Stolen bases: 147 (5th in MLB)

• Stolen bases success rate: 89.1% (1st in MLB; Cubs were second at 82.1%)

• FanGraphs baserunning: +7.9 runs (5th in MLB)

• Baseball Prospectus baserunning: +2.6 runs (1st in MLB)

• Sprint speed: 26.9 ft/s (30th in MLB)

The Mets have a slow roster and yet they were an excellent stolen base team, and arguably the best baserunning team in the game. Juan Soto went 38-for-42 (90.5%) stealing bases! You watched that guy in 2024. He’s a brilliant hitter, but never in a million years did I think he would make a run at 40 steals. Richardson was the driving force behind the Mets’ baserunning success. He helped their players with reading pitchers, their cuts around the bag, things like that. 

"I always have hope that I can be capable of (stealing more bases) than what I was doing," Soto told Robert Sanchez in August. "But definitely, it’s big time help from Antoan Richardson. He’s been helping me since Day 1, Spring Training, everything. Even to take routes and around the bases, it’s not only about stealing bases, but going around the bases, running the bases the right way, be heads up. I think he’s been 1A in that point."

You know where I’m going with this. The Yankees have a vacancy at first base coach after letting Travis Chapman leave and Richardson has a) a history with the team, and b) demonstrated an actual coaching skill, which is more than you can say about 99.9% of first base coaches. (Not trying to be a jerk. First base coaches are people too. It’s just that no one really seems to know what they do.)

The Yankees finished eighth in stolen bases and 22nd in FanGraphs baserunning this year, but they were third in steals and 12th in FanGraphs baserunning after the All-Star break, when they made a concerted effort to be more aggressive on the bases. The Yankees have some speedy dudes and their second half baserunning was the best we’ve seen from them in years. Still, there is always room for improvement, and Richardson seems to be a baserunning savant. Not hard to see why he’d be a worthy hire.

After their crash to the finish, the Mets kept manager Carlos Mendoza, and either fired their coaches or let them pursue jobs elsewhere (that’s how Druschel returned to the Yankees) except Richardson. They wanted to keep him, but they couldn’t agree to a new contract, per Passan, so he’s leaving. I have no idea if Richardson is looking for more money or a new role (or both). He might want to move up in the world instead of staying at first base coach. Might as well call and ask, no?

As for Rowson, he seems like a good hitting coach. Unless the team wins the World Series and hit .400 with RISP, every fan base hates the hitting coach and thinks he teaches the wrong approach, blah blah blah. The players love Rowson and the Yankees have had a great offense in Rowson’s two years. Seems fine to me. Rowson’s a big time communication guy and the Yankees have two analytical-inclined assistant hitting coaches in Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst. If Rowson stays, cool. If not, then they'll find someone else. 

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Ryan asks: I feel like the 2025 Dodgers World Series team is significantly better than the 2024 Dodgers WS team, and at the same time the 2024 Yankees are better than the 2025 blue jays. Yet we get embarrassed and the jays are on the verge of a title. Yet the Yankees do not think Boone and the culture he instills in his teams are the problem, make it make sense?

Really? I think the 2024 Dodgers were better than the 2025 Dodgers. The 2025 Dodgers have a way better postseason rotation, but the offense is worse, the defense is worse, and the bullpen is worse. I do think the 2024 Yankees were better than the 2025 Blue Jays, but that’s arguable. The 2025 Blue Jays are really good. They’ve been the best team in the league since about June (or second best depending how you feel about the Brewers) with a great offense, a great defense, and a rotation/bullpen that is better than it got credit for. (I’m one of like 11 people outside Canada who picked the Blue Jays to win this series.)

I’m no Aaron Boone fan, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare the 2024 and 2025 World Series and say he’s the difference, or even a difference. It’s four different teams playing short series in two different years. The Dodgers’ offense had a knack for disappearing for a week at a time during the regular season (especially in the second half) and it’s happening now at the worst possible time. I’m sorry if this is an unsatisfying answer, but I wouldn’t drive myself nuts trying to figure out why this year’s Blue Jays can beat this year’s Dodgers when last year’s Yankees couldn’t beat last year’s Dodgers. It's just baseball. ZiPS gave the Blue Jays a 40% chance to win the series. This is the 40% (assuming they win).

(I can’t say I saw Mookie Betts becoming a defense-first shortstop coming. He’s looked awful at the plate).

Ray asks: I know it’s early, but does Jasson Dominguez give off Melky Cabrera vibes? The Melk Man had a long (15-year) career, made an all-star game, and was a solid major leaguer, though not someone you would want regularly in the top half of the lineup.

Did you know Melky finished with 1,962 career hits? He’s 315th on the career hits list, just ahead of Fred Lynn, Jim Edmonds, Adam and Andruw Jones, and Carl Crawford. Huh.

Cabrera played 15 years in the league, 14 as a full-time-ish player, and had a really good six-year peak from ages 26-31: .300/.343/.445 (116 wRC+) and +13.1 WAR. He had a very good career and, objectively, that would be a good outcome for Domínguez, though it would certainly feel like a disappointment given the prospect hype. I’d like to think El Marciano will have a greater peak, especially offensively, but there’s a world where he and Melky finish with similar career value, even if they go about it differently.

I think we’ve collectively swung too far in the “eh, I don’t see it” direction with Domínguez. He played the entire season at age 22, it was his first full season back from Tommy John surgery, and it was his first season as a full-time big leaguer. There are things he has to work on, absolutely, though he showed good command of the strike zone (67th percentile SEAGER), particularly as a left-handed hitter. There’s gotta be more power in the tank too. Jasson and Melky are too different as players for me to associate them with one another, but I’d sign up for Domínguez playing as long as Cabrera, for sure.

Adam asks: Austin Wells, Jason Dominguez, Cam Schlittler: extend one, trade one, release one.

Releasing Domínguez is the easy one. He’s not likely to ever be a good defender (or even an average one), putting a lot of pressure on his bat. A corner outfielder who is below-average defensively and not a star with the bat just isn’t as valuable as a good starter or a good defensive catcher with 20-homer pop, even while acknowledging El Marciano has the talent to improve. So, Domínguez gets released.

Pitcher injury rates have me thinking Schlittler is the one you trade, plus there’s always a chance you’re selling high (not really a thing, but humor me) and get back an outsized return. Wells was a top 10 catcher by WAR this season. I can’t say I would be in the rush to extend him, but I think it would be more difficult to come up with a Wells replacement than a Schlittler replacement. I’m extending Wells and trading Schlittler. I think that leaves you with the most overall talent.

Noa asks: A potential Tarik Skubal trade and underwhelming return for the Tigers (which I think would be unforgivable if I was a Tigers fan) got me thinking about these star player trades. It's often brought up that some selling teams prefer quantity-over-quality trade packages when they trade away their players. Why would you want that? This is an oversimplification but if I could get back the #10 prospect in MILB or 5 guys that would at most be around prospect #100-120 I would want the top guy. The selling team basically always loses the trade anyway so I would go all in on 1 good prospect if that was my team. Thoughts?

The quantity over quality thing definitely isn’t universal. The Brewers and Rays do it constantly, and for the most part it works for them, so maybe that’s just part of being a small payroll team. Otherwise you usually see it early in a rebuild. Jeff Luhnow did it with the Astros, Mike Elias did it with the Orioles, and Peter Bendix is doing it with the Marlins now. The idea is building a foundation of organizational depth. That the Low-A, High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A teams have to be improved before the MLB team. I don’t agree with it, I’d rather get the best players, but what do I know? I worked for Luhnow and Elias (kinda).

Skubal is so good and so valuable that I have to think the Tigers will want the best players back in a trade. One or two top pieces instead of three or four good pieces. They’re contenders now. The rebuild is over. You do always have to have an eye on the future and the farm system, but you can’t trade Skubal for a bunch of Bs and Cs when you’re ready to win right now and that division is so weak. I don’t think the Tigers would do the quantity over quality thing for Skubal, if they do in fact trade him. And, if they are willing to trade that guy for that kinda package, the Yankees have to be all over it.

Michael asks: What about an Andujar reunion? I see he played first base and third base this year.

I didn’t realize Miguel Andujar is a free agent this offseason. Good for him. There were a few years there when it didn’t seem like he’s sick around long enough to get to six years of service time. Now 30, Miggy Missiles hit .318/.352/.470 (125 wRC+) with 14.4 K% and 5.0 BB% in 341 plate appearances between the Athletics and Reds this season. The Yankees need a righty hitting corner infielder, and, well:

2024-25 Andujar vs. RHP: .273/.308/.348 (94 wRC+) in 506 PA
2024-25 Andujar vs. LHP: .397/.429/.562 (179 wRC+) in 154 PA

Andujar was just about a full-time corner outfielder from 2020-24. The A’s put him back at third because they were overstuffed with first base/left field/DH types. He also played two games at first base with the Reds. I can’t imagine Andujar was good at each infield corner, but it’s not like Amed Rosario is a standout gloveman, and the Yankees gave him starts at second and third bases in October. Why not Andujar?

I never got the sense the Yankees disliked Andujar. He had a great season in 2018, then he got hurt in 2019 and Gio Urshela turned into Adrián Beltré for two years, and that was that. It took Andujar a few years to get over the shoulder surgery too. It was a major injury. My guess is they view him as a straight DH and wouldn’t pursue him for that righty corner infielder role. Andujar has to go wherever the money is and I don't see the Yankees winning (or even engaging in) a bidding war. He’s always been a personal favorite though.

(Per Statcast’s swing plane data, Andujar has a “flat” swing like a lot of Blue Jays have. If a team or teams tries to copy what Toronto did this year, Andujar could benefit. The flattest swings tend to be low power contact guys like Steven Kwan and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, then there’s Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette who do it with power. Jasson Domínguez as a lefty has the flattest swing on the Yankees. Perhaps that explains the surprising lack of power.)

Jonas asks: What are your thoughts on player injury management? Every year, players play through significant injuries that affect their performance. This isn’t just the Yankees. Many players get surgery at the end of the year or before who were awful for a while and we later learn they were playing through injury. Athletes have to tough it out sometimes, but this negatively impacts their teams, their performance (and potentially exacerbating an injury), and other players who might get an opportunity. If you managed this better in season, you could be set up better for the postseason, where this could be the edge against other good teams. You often hear players “playing through things” or “all pitchers have scary imaging in their arms.” So you wouldn’t even need to make up a phantom IL reason if this is true.

Injuries are one of those things that we’re just never going to have all the information. It’s easy for us to say (and I certainly do it) they should just sit him for two weeks or a month or whatever he needs, let him get healthy, and he’ll be good as new. It’s not always that straightforward though, especially when there’s surgery involved. It is frustrating when a player is noticeably compromised, but how much of that is being unable to do it, and how much is just holding back? I also think don't it happens all that often, so it really stands out when it does, and even then, how much of the non-performance is injury and how much is just baseball being baseball? Guys play hurt and perform too. Jazz Chisholm Jr. attempted two steals from June 11th to July 29th because, as we found out later, he was nursing a groin issue. He also hit .271/.360/.507 (143 wRC+) in those 39 games. I don’t really have a good answer here. It does seem like there are times when teams are a little too willing to let guys play hurt, but I’m also inclined to trust the team and the doctors, and assume they’re doing what’s best. They have millions of dollars invested in a lot of these guys. What seems reckless is almost always carefully thought out.

Jared asks: I've always wondered this: how is it that someone like Willie Randolph never got back in a dugout either as a manager or a coach? At minimum, he's an excellent coach - especially as a baserunning coach. Same with Luis Sojo. 

Randolph did coach after the Mets fired him as their manager in 2008. He was the Brewers’ bench coach from 2009-10 and the Orioles bench coach/third base coach in 2011 (he and John Russell switched jobs in June because Russell had a bad knee and couldn’t coach third anymore). I really have no idea why he never got a chance to manage again after the Mets, or coach after 2011. Randolph interviewed for A LOT of jobs over the years. It could be that front offices thought the game had passed him by. That is usually what happens when a successful baseball lifer suddenly can’t land a coaching gig.

As for Sojo, he was the Yankees’ third base coach from 2004-05, which I do not remember at all. He spent a long time coaching and managing in the farm system after that. Sojo had roles from rookie ball all the way up to Triple-A, plus he was a field coordinator for a while. He was working in the system as recently as 2019. I’m not sure if Sojo pursued any big league jobs during that time, but he was based in Tampa for the majority of his minor league coaching/managerial career. Maybe that’s where he preferred to work? Stay near home and the family, that kinda thing.

Dan asks: Is Andrew Friedman in the conversation for greatest GM in the history of the game? At some point would you consider a deeper dive into how he made the Dodgers and Rays so formidable?

The running joke (among media, I don’t know about within the game) is Friedman will end up either in the Hall of Fame, or permanently banned. Friedman’s front office kept a literal spreadsheet of their crimes in Latin America. When you have something like that in your history, it’s hard to give you the benefit of the doubt that everything you’re doing now is above board, you know?

As for the best GM ever, I can’t see Friedman or anyone anytime soon topping Branch Rickey, who signed Jackie Robinson and broke the color barrier, developed the modern farm system, and is credited with a million other innovations (Spring Training complexes! batting helmets! pitching machines!). Theo Epstein ended two historic World Series droughts too. Right now, Friedman’s just an executive who’s won two World Series rings (and might win a third). Plenty of others have done that and they’re not in the greatest GM ever discussion. Friedman’s certainly on the right track, but he has a ways to go to get to the Epstein level in my opinion, nevermind the Rickey level.

Daniel asks: If you could “undo” one Yankees injury from the past say 30 years what would it be? For purposes of the exercise I’m wondering more about freak injuries that changed the course of careers rather than wear and tear injuries (TJ surgeries, ARod or Ellsbury’s hips). 3 killer injuries come to mind for me. Chien-Ming Wang’s base running injury, Miguel Andujar’s shoulder and Brien Taylor’s bar fight. I’m sure there are others I am forgetting (Aaron Judge’s toe, Dustin Fowler’s knee, D’Angelo Jimenez car accident)

I would be most curious to see how Taylor’s career played out. The Yankees made him the No. 1 pick in the 1991 draft and he was Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect in 1992 and No. 2 prospect in 1993 before wrecking his shoulder in the fight. His minor league numbers before the injury:

160 innings at that age is some good ol’ 1990s pitcher development. Anyway, that’s a 24.5 K% at a time when strikeouts were not close to the same level they are now (the Florida State League average was a 17.1 K% in 1992). It’s also a 12.2 BB%, so perhaps Taylor was never gonna live up to the hype anyway. I can’t help but wonder how his career would have played out without the injury though. 

Taylor is a great what if, but also, the Yankees had a dynasty not long after he was drafted/got hurt, so we can’t really say his injury cost the team anything. Chien-Ming Wang’s injury is the one I would undo and there’s a lot to unpack there. He hurt his foot running the bases in 2008, yes, but he also hurt his shoulder in 2009, and needed surgery. Did the foot lead to the shoulder injury? Wang had shoulder surgery in the minors and missed the entire 2001 season. Shoulder trouble was in his history.

The Yankees won the World Series without Wang in 2009, but do they win the 2010 World Series with him? That 2010 team was really good. They had a legitimate chance to repeat, then they ran into Cliff Lee in the ALCS. I’m not sure a healthy Wang would have changed the outcome (Lee started only one of the six games and the Yankees scored six runs total in their other three losses), but maybe? Or maybe the Yankees lose the 2009 World Series with Wang because they use four starters instead of three. Hmmm.

Regardless of the what if scenarios, the injury did effectively end Wang's career at age 28, when he was two years away from free agency. He missed out on a nice payday and was probably going to pitch long enough to get to 100 wins (finished with 68). I don't think Wang would have retired as an all-time great Yankee, but he would have been a good Yankee and a fan favorite the way every homegrown player who hangs around a long time is.

Mariano Rivera blowing out his knee on the Kauffman Stadium warning track in 2012 didn't change anything other than lowering his career saves total. Joba Chamberlain breaking his ankle on a trampoline in 2012 probably didn't change his career much? He was already in the middling reliever phase of his career. Taylor's career is the one I would've been most curious to see play out, though Wang's injury was potentially more costly to the Yankees.

(Send your questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for if/when it returns.)