September 5th, 2025: Fried, Grisham, Chisholm, Bullpen, Mailbag

Cody Bellinger was named AL Player of the Week for last week. He went 12-for-27 (.444) with two home runs. Who do you think was the last Yankee other than Aaron Judge to win AL Player of the Week? Okay, it was Juan Soto. That was easy. But who was the last before Judge or Soto? It was Anthony Rizzo! He won it last April. Can’t say I would have guessed that. The less said about Rizzo’s 2024 after being named AL Player of the Week, the better. Let’s get to today’s post.

1. Weekday thoughts. That “the Yankees are 45-20 when they hit multiple home runs” stat has gotten a lot of play the last week, but with zero context. 45-20 is a .692 winning percentage. The MLB average when hitting multiple homers is a .705 winning percentage, so the Yankees are below average in multi-homer games. You would never know it based on the way this stat has been repeated ad nauseam. Here are a few thoughts on one of the wilder series I can remember (what was up with that bat check?).

The lefties lead the way to two wins

Great win Tuesday. Little stress, no nonsense, just went in and took care of business. The Yankees won that game thanks to their lefties. Max Fried is officially over his slump. Tuesday was his third straight good start and his best start since before the blister: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K (video). His cutter was getting hit hard and seemingly screwing with his command, so Fried has continued to pull back on it:

"Just mixing my pitches,” Fried told Steve Schaeffer. “Not trying to get the punch out. Just trying to get ground balls, changing speeds, keeping hitters off-balance. That’s what I do best.”

The lefty ace was excellent and the Yankees scored their seven runs via three left-on-left homers. Framber Valdez is the top ground ball starter in the sport and he’d allowed one homer to a lefty all year going into Tuesday’s game (Vinnie Pasquantino on April 26th). Then Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham got him in the span of three innings. Jazz homered off lefty Steven Okert later in the game too (videos).

“Framber is a tough one obviously,” Boone told Schaeffer. “A tough one on lefties and a tough guy to get the ball in the air against. So for two of our lefties to ride him out of the ballpark, really good at-bats by those guys.”

Chisholm and Grisham have been great overall this year, though not so much against lefties. Jazz had two homers against lefties all year going into Tuesday’s game, then he hit two in the span of four at-bats. Here are their numbers going into the Astros series:

• Chisholm vs. LHP: .228/.316/.317 (82 wRC+) with 26.3 K%

• Grisham vs. LHP: .186/.298/.327 (80 wRC+) with 23.7 K%

I wondered why Amed Rosario wasn’t in the lineup over Chisholm against Valdez, but Boone knows best. A managerial genius, as I always say. Grisham’s grand slam was a) his third grand slam of the season, and b) his third grand slam in his last four at-bats with the bases loaded. He’s the first Yankee with three grand slams in a one season since Nick Swisher in 2012. To quote a wise man, he’s Grishalicious!

Thursday night Grisham added an insanely clutch – and sorely needed given the state of the bullpen – three-run insurance homer (video), giving him 30 for the season. 30 home runs! I first wrote about Grisham as a trade candidate in January 2023 and noted his power was real, but no way did I think he had 30 homers in him. What an unbelievable, all-time fun season. I can’t believe the Yankees played Alex Verdugo over this guy for an entire season.

As for Jazz, he’s now played 154 games as a Yankee, and in those 154 games he’s hit .252/.336/.501 (133 wRC+) with 39 home runs and 44 stolen bases. He’s a +6.5 WAR player in those 154 games, which is All-Star level and down-ballot MVP votes production. That +6.5 WAR is spread across two years, but take a look at this year’s second base WAR leaderboard:

1. Ketel Marte: +4.5 WAR
2. Jazz Chisholm Jr.: +4.2 WAR
3. Brice Turang: +4.1 WAR
4. Nico Hoerner: +3.5 WAR
5. Gleyber Torres: +2.5 WAR 

WAR has Chisholm as the best second baseman in the AL despite missing a month with an oblique injury. What a great trade. Brian Cashman’s best deadline trade since … is it Bobby Abreu? It has to be. Alfonso Soriano mashed in 2013, but that team was just trying to hang on and stay relevant. Chisholm is a top 2-3 second baseman and the Yankees got him for 2.5 years, and gave up no one they miss*.

* Agustin Ramirez is having an okay rookie season (19 homers but -0.1 WAR). Neither Jared Serna nor Abrahan Ramirez is a top 30 prospect in Miami’s system per MLB Pipeline.

Chisholm exited Thursday’s game after Jose Altuve’s head banged into his knee on a slide. The Yankees called it contusions to both knees suffered on separate plays, so Chisholm banged the other knee at some point. It goes without saying losing Jazz for any length of time would be devastating. Even with Ryan McMahon (and Austin Wells) heating up, Chisholm is important lineup depth. Fingers crossed this is minor.

Carlos Rodón continued the “great performances from lefties” trend Thursday: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR. He had to get five outs in the sixth inning because of a bad call on a catch/transfer and poor defense, but five outs he got. Those were the kinda innings that would spiral on Rodón two years ago. He’s been so much better at turning the page and limiting the damage. He’s been a rock all season.

The Yankees won twice in Houston and lefties led the way on the mound and at the plate. That’s what the Yankees have done forever, right? The history of the franchise is littered with high-end lefty starters and power lefty bats. Tuesday was a clean, crisp, easy win. Thursday was a wee bit more stressful. A win is a win though, and the Yankees started this four-series stretch against postseason teams with a series win.

The bullpen of my discontent

Wednesday’s loss was like way too many other losses this year. That’s not an exaggeration. Katie Sharp says Wednesday was the 12th time the Yankees lost when leading by two or more runs in the sixth inning or later, the second most in baseball. Only the Diamondbacks have more (14). Top to bottom, Wednesday was a bad bad bad night for the bullpen. Look at this:

You know I am happy to blame Aaron Boone for anything and everything. He needlessly tried to steal outs with Will Warren in the sixth inning even though he gave up rockets in the fifth. He didn’t have Tim Hill face Yordan Alvarez with two on and two outs in the seventh. (Isn’t that the reason Hill is on the roster? To keep the other team’s top lefty threat on the ground?) He left Devin Williams in too long.

Boone sucks, but also, look at that box score. Every reliever Boone brought in was ineffective. At the end of the day, the players have to perform, and they didn’t. Williams got the most flak after the game and I get it given the season he’s had, but the lead was already gone by time he entered. This is the Devin Cycle:

1. Pitch poorly in high leverage situations.
2. Get demoted to low leverage work.
3. Pitch well in low leverage situations.
4. Get promoted back to high leverage work.
5. Go back to Step 1.

We’re on Step 1 for what, the fourth time this season? It’s September. Time to admit Williams just won’t be the guy you brought him in to be, Yankees. The Yankees traded for three relievers at the deadline, only one of whom is any good, and he’s married to the ninth inning. Wednesday’s three-run lead became a tie game, and the tie game became a four-run deficit without David Bednar even warming up. (Bednar was wobbly Thursday. Reliever who pitched once in the previous eight days wasn’t sharp. News at 11.)

In that four-run eighth inning Wednesday the Yankees became the first team to allow runs on a bases loaded walk, a balk, and a wild pitch in the same inning since … the Yankees against the Royals on Sept. 13th, 2004. Blame Tanyon Sturtze for that. Wells talked about Camilo Doval’s meltdown after the game. From Brendan Kuty:

"With Camilo, (he) doesn’t really speak great English. We only have one PitchCom that really works with just Spanish. The umpire seemed to not – he didn’t really care or what the deal was, but said he gave us a chance to fix it the first time that we went out there, and then decided that it was a disengagement and we were trying to explain to him our case, and he said that we were lucky that we didn’t get a violation and that it was just a balk." 

Why do the Yankees only have one Spanish language PitchCom? Do you only get so many per team or something? The Yankees have three Latin American pitchers on the staff (Doval, Fernando Cruz, Luis Gil) and occasionally a fourth (Yerry De Los Santos). Do they have to pass this thing around like me and my friends used to pass the controller playing video games? The Yankees shooting themselves in the foot by not getting the little things right. News at 11.

Home plate umpire Brian Walsh was awful Wednesday (Umpire Scorecards has him at +1.4 runs for the Astros) but I have no interest in umpire blaming. Walsh isn’t the reason Warren hung a breaking ball to Jeremy Peña. Walsh isn’t the reason Anthony Volpe swung through a hanging slider with runners on second and third and no outs. Walsh isn’t the reason McMahon didn’t go home when he had Alvarez dead to rights.

The Yankees have no doubt benefited from bad umps at times this season, that’s just baseball, and Boone’s ejection act is getting tired. Spend maybe a fraction of that energy making sure your pitchers have the right PitchCom and your defenders know what base to throw to, and you’ll have an actual impact on the outcome. Walsh was bad Wednesday. So were the Yankees.

“Obviously a tough inning. Thought (Williams) was throwing the ball well. Real competitive at-bats, even the walks. A lot of close pitches. They got the best of us tonight,” Boone told Scott Schaeffer. “We had a lead, a couple chances to add on. And I thought the Astros put some really good at-bats together, really squaring up some pitches against us the second half of the game.”

On Framber’s cross-up

I don’t want to spend too much time on this because it’s not the Yankees, but yeah, Valdez definitely intentionally crossed up catcher César Salazar after giving up Grisham’s grand slam Tuesday. Long story short: Salazar motioned for Valdez to step off on the grand slam pitch, he didn’t, Grisham went deep, then in the next at-bat Valdez appeared to intentionally cross up Salazar and hit him with a fastball. The pitch:

Volpe knew something was up and wanted no part of it. Valdez turned his back and didn’t show any concern for his catcher. We don’t see many cross-ups these days because of PitchCom, but usually when it happens, the pitcher gets together with the catcher and makes sure he’s okay and they’re on the same page, but there was none of that Tuesday. Valdez was unmoved.

“He called for a curveball, but I already had in mind that I was going to throw a sinker, so that’s what I threw. That’s what happened,” Valdez told Chandler Rome (subs. req’d). “… It was not intentional. I called for a sinker and that’s the pitch I wanted. There was a lot of noise and I thought that was what he wanted me to throw, but no it was not intentional.”

Infielders wear PitchCom too. They knew Salazar called a curveball and Valdez threw a sinker, and then he turned his back. There’s no hiding here. Everyone with the Astros knows exactly what happened. I think Valdez was frustrated and just chucked a pitch down the middle. If Volpe hit it, so be it, and if it hit Salazar, he was okay with it. At best, Valdez is a shitty teammate. At worst, there was intent to injure.

“Heat of the moment got to us,” Salazar told Rome (subs. req’d). “He apologized after. He’s great. There wasn’t anything bad about it. I just pressed the wrong button and I was expecting another pitch.”

Miscellany

Giancarlo Stanton’s defense finally burned the Yankees on Tuesday. Most notably, he had a catchable ball sail over his head for a double that later came around to score in the sixth. This is what the Yankees have to do with Aaron Judge unable to play the outfield though. Stanton went deep earlier in the game. That’s why he’s in there … Paul Blackburn, eh? Two scoreless innings with four strikeouts (video) in Tuesday’s win. He’s given up eight runs in 7.1 innings as a Yankee, though seven of the eight runs came in the ninth inning against the Red Sox on Aug. 23rd, when Blackburn was in his fourth inning of work. It’s one run in his other 6.1 innings with the Yankees. If he keeps it up, I’ll dig into it more. For now, nice work Tuesday, Paul … Two ejections for José Caballero as a Yankee, both at pretty inopportune times. I know he said he thought it was a quick hook and all that Tuesday, but everyone says that after getting ejected. Please keep your cool and stay in the game, José … Speaking of Caballero, he has a thing for manipulating the pitch clock and throwing pitchers out of whack. I wonder if that run-scoring pitch clock violation Thursday (video), when Enyel De Los Santos came set before Caballero was alert to him in the box, was intentional? Hmmm … And finally, Jasson Domínguez has started only eight of the last 22 games (only two of the last nine), and three of the eight came when Stanton couldn’t play that weekend in St. Louis. Other than the Cardinals series, Domínguez has not started back-to-back games since Aug. 5-8. I don’t have a problem with this. El Marciano is clearly their fourth best outfield-capable player right now and this is winning time, not development time. I though maybe Domínguez would go to Triple-A when Austin Slater returned, but J.C. Escarra was optioned down after Thursday's game, so that's the roster move.

Injury updates

Judge (flexor) is progressing with his throwing program but there’s still no word when he’ll return to the outfield. Boone said it will probably just happen one day. The lineup will be posted and Judge will be in right field, and that’s when we’ll find out … Slater (oblique) went 3-for-14 (.214) in five Triple-A rehab games. Escarra going down after Thursday's game tells us Slater will be activated Friday. He and Rosario can sit together and talk about all the at-bats against lefties they don’t get … Brent Headrick (forearm) started a rehab assignment Thursday. He threw 17 pitches and struck out two in a scoreless inning with Scranton. Headrick can be activated off the injured list at any time. He’s been down more than 15 days already.

Up next

Not for nothing, it really is some bullshit that the Yankees had to play Thursday night in Houston. Teams set their start times, not MLB, and the Astros scheduled a night game Thursday because the Yankees are a big draw and they would sell more tickets with a night game than a day game. That's all it is. The Astros only had to travel up the road to Dallas after the game. What do they care?

“We’ll make the best of it,” Boone told Greg Joyce. “I have some conversations sometimes (with MLB), but you also understand it’s the nature of the beast and 162 games in 180 days, you’re going to have some tough schedules. But it doesn’t really matter. Nobody cares. We’re at that point in the season, we’re in the stretch drive, we need to keep winning games.”

Thursday night’s start time was to the letter of the CBA as far as getaway day rules. MLB wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise. Still, the Yankees had to play Wednesday night in Houston, then make that 3.5-hour flight home. And of course the Blue Jays had an off-day Thursday to rest up. Ridiculous, man. Here is the weekend ahead:

• Friday vs. Blue Jays: RHP Cam Schlittler vs. RHP Kevin Gausman (7pm ET on YES, MLBN)

• Saturday vs. Blue Jays: RHP Luis Gil vs. RHP Max Scherzer (1pm ET on YES, MLBN)

• Sunday vs. Blue Jays: LHP Max Fried vs. RHP Chris Bassitt (1:30pm ET on YES)

• Monday: off-day

The Yankees are three games behind the Blue Jays in the loss column and Toronto has the tiebreaker, so they’re really four back in the loss column. Basically, anything other than a sweep this weekend, and we can forget about the division. Winning two of three cuts the deficit to three games with 19 to play and zero head-to-head games remaining, and that’s to say nothing of what the Red Sox might do.

There are two ways to look at the AL East race. One is the difference is the Yankees getting their clocks cleaned head-to-head …

• Yankees vs. Not Blue Jays: 75-55 (.577) with +151 run differential

• Blue Jays vs. Not Yankees: 74-56 (.569) with +54 run differential

… and the other is the difference is the Yankees are so bad in extra-inning games, especially on the road:

• Yankees in 9-inning games: 73-53 (.579) with +156 run differential

• Blue Jays in 9-inning games: 72-55 (.567) with +58 run differential

Ultimately, the head-to-head is the bigger problem, but can I be mad about both? I’m mad about both. The Blue Jays have gone 8-4 in extra innings while the Yankees have let way too many winnable extra-inning games slip away. If the Yankees were 8-5 in extra innings instead of 5-8, they’re right there with the Blue Jays atop the AL East. Alas, they’ve kept finding ways to lose those games (for years now).

Toronto’s bullpen has been really bad lately: 4.98 ERA (4.33 FIP) with 12.6 BB% and -1.12 WPA since Aug. 1st. Closer Jeff Hoffman has allowed 14 home runs in 59.1 innings. This weekend will be a good time for the tried and true “work the starter and get to the soft underbelly of the bullpen” strategy. Of course, that also applies to the Blue Jays against the Yankees. I don't really care how the Yankees do it. Just win games.

2. Rapid fire thoughts. I forgot I had this in my notes: Trent Grisham was asked about his upcoming free agency two weeks ago. “I like this place a lot. I like the guys we have in the clubhouse. I like New York. There’s a lot of things I like about it, so we’ll see,” he told Gary Phillips. Standard non-answer. I get the feeling that, after the season, the Yankees will say thanks for the career year Trent, best of luck with whatever’s next. Replacing him will not be easy though. Doesn’t it feel like Grisham is gonna have a huge moment in the postseason? He gives me that vibe.

Mailbag Questions of the Week

Jack asks: You brought up Rodon's elevated walk total in your last post. But what has gone undiscussed has been his drop in velocity, not only from last season, but from within this season. I first noticed this around the ASB when he was hitting 95mph with his FB, and nothing higher. Same in the ASG. And since it seems like he's around 93-94 with the heater consistently. This is quite the drop from last year and early in the season when we could count on seeing 96, 97 consistently. This is an enormous concern to me, and could lead to the high walk totals (he doesn't trust that he can blow someone away and has to get cutesy trying to get chases). Thoughts? 

Carlos Rodón’s fastball velocity has indeed been down a bit in five of his last six starts. The only exception (the spike at the end of the graph) is the Sunday Night Baseball game against the Red Sox last weekend, and I’m sure Rodón was amped way up for that one (this graph doesn’t include Thursday night, which his fastball average 94.6 mph):

Rodón’s had walk issues the last few weeks (8.6 BB% first 20 starts, 13.1 BB% last nine starts). Could it be he’s on the same “dial it back so you can throw more strikes” plan as Luis Gil? Rodón has pitched well the last few times out, it’s not like he’s getting blasted with the reduced velocity, though like Gil, scaling back hasn’t led to fewer walks, if that is indeed what Rodón is doing.

I’m much more worried about Gil’s reduced velocity simply because he had the lat strain and missed four months. Rodón seems healthy and he’s pitching well. It could just be a late season dead arm period. This is the second straight year Rodón has made every single start, plus he had that deep postseason run and short offseason. It could be that he’s dragging a bit right now, and waiting for that second wind.

Adam asks: Obviously a lot can change between now and then but how good is the rotation depth looking at this point for 2026? Assuming everyone is healthy (yes, I know, big if) at the end of 2026 and that Schmidt makes it back and is stretched out in time for the playoff run, 2 out of the Gil/Warren/Schlittler trio aren’t even in your starting 5.

You know as well as I do that there is almost no chance we get to this point next season and Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón, Cam Schlittler, Clarke Schmidt, and Will Warren are all healthy and pitching well. Someone will get hurt, likely someones (plural), possibly seriously. If we get to this point next year and those guys are all healthy, it will be a miracle. You go Cole, Fried, Rodón in Games 1-3 in the postseason, pick your favorite for Game 4, and prep the others for bullpen work. I agree the best case scenario with starting pitcher health next September is very exciting. I just have zero expectation that it will come to pass. You know it is with this game. You go into Spring Training with seven starters for five spots, then a few weeks later your No. 8 starter and Carlos Carrasco are in the Opening Day rotation.

Anthony asks: Is there a bizarro world scenario where the starting shortstop of the 2026 Yankees is Bo Bichette? Would the money/years be worth the horrific defense but above average bat? Or are we just going to stick with Volpe and pretend he is more than what he is and pray Lombard is the second coming of Phil Rizzuto?

I think we all know the Yankees will sink or swim with Anthony Volpe. Passing on all those top shortstops who aligned perfectly with Gerrit Cole’s and Aaron Judge’s peaks only to spend big now on Bo Bichette, who’s never been a good defender and has been flat out awful this year (-13 DRS and -13 OAA), would annoy me. Bichette can really hit though. Guess which year he played through calf and finger injuries:

If Ryan McMahon weren’t signed through 2027, there would be a conversation to be had about signing Bichette to play third base, but that’s off the table now. Or maybe not? Sign Bichette, put him at third, flip McMahon elsewhere? That doesn’t strike me as something the Yankees would do. I suspect they see their 2026 infield in place with McMahon, Volpe, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. If something comes across that makes sense and would be an upgrade, they’ll pursue it, but I doubt the infield is a priority this winter.

Mark asks: Thinking ahead to 2026…are the Yanks a better team with Rice as the starting catcher and part-time 1B or as the left-handed platoon starter at 1B and backup catcher?

I think that, as Ben Rice has gotten more starts behind the plate, we’ve been able to see that he’s pretty rough around the edges defensively. Stuff like this is a little too common:

Framing is not just turning borderline pitches into strikes. It’s also making sure strikes are called strikes, and Rice has had 85 pitches in the zone called balls. Austin Wells has 283 in five times as many innings. Rice also rates poorly as a thrower, both in terms of arm strength and pop time, and his blocking is okay at best. I think Rice is a passable catcher who is getting exposed a bit with more playing time.

The Yankees are wizards with catcher defense, so give it time, and Rice could become a legitimately good catcher. Is it worth it though? The bat is really good and his core offensive skills (good plate discipline, above average contact rates, great hard-hit ability) are the kind that tend to be very stable year-to-year. Rice with even average catcher defense could be a star, but is it worth the beatings and wear-and-tear?

Also, Rice is 26 already. He’ll turn 27 in February. He’s already in what figure to be his most productive years. Do you want to spend them hoping he improves his defense at catcher, or do you just send him out as a first baseman and let him go rake (and hope he gets better defensively there)? The Yankees don’t have a long-term first baseman and, as disappointing as Austin Wells has been this year, they do have a starting caliber catcher with 20-homer power and plus defense.

If the Yankees stick with Rice at catcher, cool. I would understand. I would put him at first base and let him focus on that position full-time. Make him the everyday starter at first base next year, and if he doesn’t figure out how to hit lefties, pick up a platoon partner at the deadline. I’m on the “Rice should be the first baseman” train. I don’t want to risk anything with the bat by trying to make him better behind the plate, which is frankly something that may never happen.

Chris asks: I figured when the Yankees announced a day to celebrate CC’s HoF induction, they would soon announce his number would be retired that day. After all no one has worn 52 since he retired. Assuming they don’t announce number retirement plans before your next mailbag runs, do you think they’ll announce retirement plans next year as a way to have another day to honor him and sell more tickets? Do you think they’ll never retire 52? And more importantly do you think 52 should be retired? His WAR as a Yankee is higher than the pinstriped WAR of four players with retired numbers in Monument Park - Maris, O’Neill, Howard and Reggie. Five if count Martin, though he’s obviously in for managing, not his playing days. 

I do think No. 52 should be retired. CC Sabathia was the ace of a World Series winner and he’s all over the franchise pitching leaderboards. He was a transformational figure for the Yankees. His arrival really did change everything. I think No. 52 should be retired and I think it will be retired. The Yankees are giving away a Sabathia replica Hall of Fame plaque Sunday and there will be a pregame ceremony to honor him, which will be as good a time as any to announce No. 52 is going into Monument Park. The number retirement itself wouldn’t happen Sunday, the Yankees would just announce it so they can sell tickets on another day next year. I’m totally fine with that. In the end, this is still a for-profit business, and as a fan, the more days to celebrate a great player, the better.

(Send your requests 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 when it returns.)