August 11th, 2025: Stanton, Schlittler, Williams, Rosario, Fried

The Yankees cut Aaron Boone out of Old Timers’ Day. He was on the list of attendees but wasn’t involved in the ceremony. A team spokesperson told Gary Phillips that Boone was absent because the ceremony overlapped with a pitchers’ meeting, and if you believe that, I’m having a 2-for-1 sale on East River bridges. Leaving Boone out was for the best. He got booed at Old Timers’ Day last year and vibes are rancid right now. No need to inject that negativity into a fun afternoon. Between having to leave Boone and what some Old Timers said about the current Yankees – “Teams are not afraid of us anymore,” Willie Randolph said (video) – Saturday’s ceremony was not a banner moment of the 2025 Yankees. Here’s the full Old Timers’ Day ceremony and here is Tuesday’s post on Monday. Something came up and I won’t have time to write today, so I’m sending the post out now. Sorry it’s shorter than usual. You know I’m good for it and will make it up to you some other time.

1. Weekend thoughts. This past weekend felt like way too many Yankees/Astros series of the last decade or so. Demoralizing loss in the opener, a win that makes you believe in the middle game, then a struggle just to avoid getting no-hit in the finale. The White Sox did the Yankees a solid Sunday and beat the Guardians, so the Yankees are still in postseason position. Only barely though. Here are the Wild Card standings:

1. Mariners: 66-53 (+3.5 GB)
2. Red Sox: 65-54 (+2.5 GB)
3. Yankees: 62-56
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4. Guardians: 61-56 (0.5 GB)
5. Rangers: 60-59 (2.5 GB)
6. Royals: 58-60 (4 GB)

The Yankees are 14-17 since Aaron Boone told them they’re “the best team in the league,” and they’re 6-10 since Aaron Judge said “we haven’t hit our hot streak, but we’re going to.” Any time you wanna back up the big talk, Aarons, you can go ahead and do that. And did you catch Boone admitting he didn’t believe in the 2023 team Sunday? Here’s what he said after the loss (video):

“We have the people to (turn it around). No doubt in my mind. It's just sitting here as talk right now. We haven't been good enough the last two months. This is different than '23 where I didn't think we were necessarily capable of that run that we needed to really get hot. We were out of it at that point. This is different. We're in a position right now where we're in control of things. We're in a playoff spot, technically. I believe we have the people to get it done. We gotta play consistent baseball, period."  

Translation: “I didn’t believe we were good enough in 2023 even though I told you day after day after day that I did, but this time it’s totally different. I really believe in them. Trust me.” It's starting to feel like the walls are caving in on Boone, no? The empty platitudes aren't cutting it anymore and he doesn't know what to do.

Anyway, let’s say it'll take 86 wins to get a Wild Card spot. It might take less, but let’s call it 86. The Yankees must win 24 of their final 44 games to get to 86 wins. Considering they’ve won only 24 of their last 57 games, I can’t say I’m feeling confident. We might have some free time this October. Here are a few thoughts on the weekend.

Giancarlo the outfielder

For the first time since Sept. 14th, 2023, Giancarlo Stanton played the outfield Saturday. It had to happen. You can’t keep him on the bench while Aaron Judge’s flexor limits him to DH. Why? Because Stanton's hitting .275/.358/.527 (144 wRC+) and he drove in two of the team’s five runs Saturday. The bat is too impactful to leave on the bench full-time. So, the outfield it is, at least some days.

“It was good to be out there and be on the Roll Call and get the win,” Stanton told Bill Ladson.

Giancarlo’s day in right field was mostly uneventful. He caught a routine fly ball, had a ball smashed over his head for a double, then charged a ground ball single and made a strong home that wasn’t quite strong enough (videos). That was it. Stanton had three balls hit his way in seven innings in the field. Jasson Domínguez, hilariously, was the defensive replacement. He’s the only other outfielder on the roster. It had to be him.

I figured the Yankees would have Stanton play deep so anything hit over his head would be a homer (or a double off the top of the wall like Jesús Sánchez’s Saturday) and anything hit in front of him would be just a single. That’s exactly what they did. Here is the average starting distance at Yankee Stadium for the Yankees’ primary right fielders this year:

• Giancarlo Stanton: 290 feet

• Cody Bellinger: 283 feet

• Aaron Judge: 281 feet

• MLB average in RF: 296 feet

• MLB average in Yankee Stadium’s RF: 287 feet

Stanton played nine feet deeper than Judge’s average in front of the short porch and that’s an awful lot. It is necessary though. You can’t expect Stanton to run down anything laced to the warning track. Limit the damage to singles as much as possible, and go from there. It worked well Saturday in no small part to the sheer lack of balls hit Giancarlo’s way. Three in seven innings and one was a can of corn.

Giancarlo was on the bench to start Sunday’s game, though he pinch-hit for Domínguez in the seventh, and stayed in to play right field (he didn’t have a ball hit to him). At this point, Stanton has to be in the outfield as often as possible. Every day, every other day, whatever. As often as possible. Yeah, you risk him pulling a hamstring, but leaving him on the bench to protect him accomplishes the same thing. Either way he’s out of the lineup. The Yankees have zero margin of error now and need Stanton in the lineup. This is how it has to be.

“(When I ask him) how he thinks it’s going, does he feel he can go out there and be representative and stuff like that, those are more of my conversations and G is brutally honest in those situations,” Boone told Ladson. “I think he is feeling good about where he is and the week he has had out there.”

Cam’s sinker

Cam Schlittler is officially a Yankee. He gave up a homer to Jose Altuve on Friday. It's a rite of passage. It used to be that you hadn’t truly arrived as a Yankee until David Ortiz took you deep. Now it’s Altuve. That home run came on a hanging slider …

… something that has given Schlittler trouble in his five MLB starts. Overall, you can’t complain about getting five innings of two-run ball from a rookie. The Yankees released Marcus Stroman and stuck with Schlittler, and it was a wise decision. Schlittler passes the “is he better than Stroman?” test, not that it means it will be smooth sailing. He’s a rookie. There will be bumps along the way.

Anyway, Schlittler broke out a sinker Saturday. He threw 12 sinkers against the Astros. He threw seven sinkers all season prior to Saturday, including his time in Triple-A. This is a pretty good sinker in a pretty good location. Swing at this and the upside for the hitter is what, a weak ground ball to the left side of the infield or a foul ball into his foot?

Schlittler has been homer prone in his five big league starts (6 HR in 24.2 IP) and that’s not too surprising seeing how he pitches up in the zone with his four-seamer and has a knack for hanging breaking balls. The sinker, if he really leans into it, could get him some ground balls, and also just help change eye levels. Right now, hitters can get comfy and look middle-up against Schlittler.

I wish the Yankees weren’t so desperate for wins that Schlittler starts can’t just be “hey, let’s watch this fun rookie with a live arm,” but this is where they find themselves. Schlittler has so much ability. You can see it. He’s not a finished product, of course he’s not, but the potential is there. Maybe this new sinker can become a real weapon, even if only as an eye level changer. If not, at least it’s nice to see him trying new things.

“I’m still trying to figure out the ropes,” Schlittler said after Friday’s game (video). “Got a look to work on.”

Another Williams meltdown

It’s getting to be time to DFA Devin Williams to stop Boone from using him in close games. I’m not even joking. In 2007, Brian Cashman traded Scott Proctor because Joe Torre kept using him, and he had to do the same with Tyler Clippard in 2017. Joe Girardi kept using Clippard in high leverage spots despite his continued ineffectiveness. Boone/Williams is reaching that point. Friday was beyond egregious.

"Obviously, right now, several struggles now in a row. So we just try and find softer landing spots,” Boone said after Friday’s loss (video). “Harder to do that right now when you have shorter outings by the starter. You're piecing it together and you've got a guy down. You don't always have that opportunity. So we'll try and find good spots for him getting back to being a part of the pen, which he should be."

David Bednar was unavailable Friday, which I get after his heroic five-out, 42-pitch save Wednesday. But apparently Mark Leiter Jr. was unavailable too? It would have been three appearances in four days for him and the Yankees try to avoid that, but he threw four pitches Tuesday and eight pitches Wednesday (and then four pitches Saturday). If that workload is so taxing that you want to avoid him Friday, maybe Leiter should still be on the IL?

And even then, why wasn’t Tim Hill or Brent Headrick ready to face lefty Taylor Trammell, who hit what proved to be the game-winning homer? Are you that scared of Cooper Hummel or Chas McCormick pinch-hitting when Williams is yet again getting hit around? Bottom line, this is the guy Boone continues to run out there in high leverage situations:

Williams has given up five homers on his Airbender this year, as many as he allowed from 2022-24, and his 31 runs allowed are 33% of his career total. That’s 33% of his runs in 16% of his innings. Ultimately, Williams being awful is on Williams. Players are responsible for their performance. But Williams can only pitch when he’s told to pitch, and the manager keeps using him in important situations. Boone shared the blame here.

Obviously the Yankees won’t DFA Williams. There’s a great pitcher hiding in there somewhere. We saw it from early-May through early-July and in a low leverage spot Sunday. You’re more likely to squeeze a few great weeks out of Williams the rest of the way that you are from, say, Scott Effross. Sunday’s three-up, three-down, three-strikeout outing can’t be an “okay he’s fixed now, here’s another important inning” moment. Stay away until you see a few good low leverage appearances. Then we can talk about using him in close games. For now, nope.

“I’m not going to say (my confidence is as) high as it’s ever been, obviously not with the way things have been going. It’s been tough,” Williams said after Friday’s game (video). “… I’m not making pitches. It’s pretty simple. I stink right now. You give me the ball, I try to do my best.”

Rosario’s injury

I had a feeling Amed Rosario was banged up when he wasn’t in the lineup against Framber Valdez on Saturday. He crashed hard into the wall Friday night (video) and he’s a high energy guy who jumps out of the dugout to congratulate his teammates after a big play, but he was nowhere to be seen Saturday. Sure enough, Rosario was placed on the 10-day IL with a left SC joint (that's near the collarbone) sprain Sunday.

“I was just trying to make a play,” Rosario told Gary Phillips about hitting the wall. “I started running real fast, trying to catch that ball. The distance there, I didn’t calculate correctly, and then I hit the wall.”

The Yankees brought in Rosario and Austin Slater specifically to help against left-handed pitching, and now they’re both on the shelf. J.C. Escarra was called up to fill Rosario’s roster spot, so the bench right now is the same as the bench before the deadline, only with José Caballero instead of Oswald Peraza. Caballero is the better player, for sure, but Rosario and Slater will be missed against lefties.

Also, damn man, what is it with these trade deadline injuries? It’s every year. The Yankees are cursed. Look at the last few deadlines:

• 2025: Slater pulled his hamstring and Rosario hurt his collarbone.

• 2024: Jazz Chisholm Jr. partially tore the UCL in his non-throwing elbow on a slide. 

• 2023: Keynan Middleton missed most of September with shoulder inflammation.

• 2022: Andrew Benintendi broke a bone in his wrist and Effross needed Tommy John surgery.

There was also Frankie Montas missing time in 2022, though his shoulder had already begun to act up with the Athletics, and the Yankees made the trade anyway. His injury wasn’t a total surprise. The other guys, those are just bad luck baseball being baseball injuries. Sometimes you pull a hamstring, sometimes you feel a pop in your wrist during a swing, sometimes your elbow blows out.

Anyway, eyeballing the schedule, the Yankees are not expected to see a lefty starter until next weekend’s four-game series with the Red Sox, when I’m sure they’ll run into Garrett Crochet. Still, you know there will be pinch-hitting opportunities between now and then, and neither Rosario nor Slater will be available for the foreseeable future. The Yankees made good moves to upgrade the bench and address a specific weakness against lefties at the deadline, and now those players are hurt. It’s never easy.

Miscellany

Yet another insanely clutch home run for Trent Grisham on Saturday (video). He’s had a bunch of them this season. Grisham is 13th among position players in win probability added despite being 129th in plate appearances. I don’t think the Yankees will re-sign Grisham (if they re-sign an outfielder, I think it would be Cody Bellinger), and if they don’t, I’ll miss him. He’s uniquely calm yet intense, and also really productive … Luis Gil was much better Saturday than he was in his first start last weekend: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 7 K (video) on 91 pitches. He looked like the pitcher we saw most of last year, really. Not the guy who looked like he was still rehabbing last weekend. The Yankees badly need an effective Gil. Saturday was a great sign … If this is the Max Fried the Yankees are going to get the rest of the season, then it’s a wrap. Nothing else is gonna matter. Sunday afternoon Fried allowed at least four runs for the fifth straight start and the sixth time in his last seventh starts. Yes, he got hosed by the ump in that fifth inning, but I’m not interested in hearing it when you miss your spot by this much …

… and can’t put away a rookie after getting ahead in the count 0-2. 0-2 to 3-2, then a foul ball, then a two-run double. I’m gonna have to dig into Fried more at some point, but nothing is easy for him right now. A Max Fried/Jason Alexander pitching matchup should be a win in the bank. Gotta hope Fried’s issue is the blister. The alternative isn’t good … I know Bednar walked in a run and was technically charged with a blown save Saturday, but man, he’s a stud. The Yankees just can’t expect him to get a five-out save every time they take a lead into the eighth innings. It’s good to know Bednar can do it though.

Injury updates

Judge (flexor) is moving along with his throwing program. There is no timetable for his return to the outfield yet though. Or at least not one the Yankees are willing to tell us … Gerrit Cole (elbow) has a date set to begin his throwing program. He wouldn’t reveal it other than to say it is soon, but the date is set … Rosario (collarbone) said he expects to miss the minimum 10 days. Slater (hamstring) will be out longer term. That’s a 4-6 week injury, Boone said. Hopefully Rosario’s right and he’s back next week.

Up next

More disappointment, I assume. I know the Yankees have tormented the Twins for two decades now, but come on, tell me you can’t see this team getting boat-raced by Minnesota. Here’s what’s coming up this week:

• Monday vs. Twins: RHP Will Warren vs. RHP Zebby Matthews (7pm ET on YES, MLBN)

• Tuesday vs. Twins: LHP Carlos Rodón vs. TBA (7pm ET on YES)

• Wednesday vs. Twins: RHP Cam Schlittler vs. RHP Joe Ryan (7pm ET on Amazon)

• Thursday: off-day

The Yankees will see the other team’s ace this series? Weird. That never happens. As an added bonus, Byron Buxton is expected back this series, perhaps as soon as today. He’s been out with a rib cage issue and is hitting .282/.343/.561 (145 wRC+) with 23 homers and 17 steals this year. That’s 17 steals in 17 attempts. Even with the injuries, Buxton is 48-for-51 (94%) stealing bases since 2021.

The Twins sold harder at the deadline than any team on the postseason bubble in recent memory and they are 5-4 since the trade deadline. Go figure. They traded their five best relievers (Danny Coulombe, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart, Louie Varland), and now the current relief unit is full of Some Guys:

Michael Tonkin! Brooks Kriske! Erasmo Ramírez is still pitching too, apparently. Kriske pitched for the Yankees in 2020 and 2021. You could’ve told me it was 2010 and 2011, and I would’ve believed it. I will set the over/under on the number of runs the Yankees score against that bullpen this series at 3.5. Let’s check back in Friday (assuming I remember to check back in).

(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.)