The Red Sox announced today that they’ve placed right-hander Carson Smith and left fielder Brock Holt on the 15-day and 7-day disabled lists, respectively. Smith is dealing with continued soreness in his right elbow, and Holt has what the Sox termed a “mild” concussion. In that duo’s place, right-hander Noe Ramirez and catcher Blake Swihart have been recalled, although the Sox’ press release announcing the moves referred to Swihart as a catcher/left fielder, so presumably he will continue the outfield work he began at Triple-A in his latest big league stint. That’d mean that Swihart could platoon with outfielder Chris Young in Holt’s absence, and Swihart’s presence also will allow manager John Farrell to be a bit more liberal in terms of pinch-hitting for either Christian Vazquez or Ryan Hanigan in late situations. Swihart gets the call over high priced outfielder Rusney Castillo, who remains at the Triple-A level with a .263/.315/.316 slash line through 124 plate appearances.
Here’s more from the AL East…
- Blue Jays president of baseball operations Mark Shapiro said to hosts Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt on Sportsnet 590 The FAN this morning that he remains confident in manager John Gibbons despite a “disappointing” start for the reigning AL East champions (via Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith). “To spend time around Gibby is to be incredibly confident in his leadership and to recognize that he’s part of the solution,” said Shapiro. “We feel that he’s a guy who’s consistent. He is strong. He is tough. He is committed, and I feel like he’s the right guy to help guide us through the challenges that we’re facing now.” Rather than focus on potential changes to the field staff, the Blue Jays are instead already having internal discussions about trades and other roster changes, said Shapiro. It’s still rather early to expect significant trades, of course (as White Sox GM Rick Hahn recently noted when revealing that his club has already had talks with other teams), but the groundwork that goes into a trade can often be the product of months of effort.
- ESPN’s Buster Olney opines (Insider subscription required) that while the Yankees have a chance at playing October baseball this season, their focus should be on improving the 2017 club without completely tearing down the 2016 product. That, he writes, means playing Aaron Hicks regularly even if it costs Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez some at-bats. Olney, in fact, believes it’d be wise for the Yankees to explore the idea of trading Gardner to a contender for prospects as a means of getting Aaron Judge some playing time in the Majors later this summer. Other contributing pieces that could be moved without significantly tanking the club’s chances, he continues, are Brian McCann and one of Aroldis Chapman or Andrew Miller. The Yankees currently sit at 18-22, last place in the division, although there’s clearly time to turn things around, and they’ve won seven of their past 10 games.
- Yankees prospect Ty Hensley is lost for the season due to a setback in his recovery from Tommy John surgery, reports Chad Jennings of the Journal News. The 2012 first-rounder has seen a once-promising career decimated by injuries to this point, as hip surgery cost him the entire 2013 season and he missed all of 2014 due to the aforementioned Tommy John procedure. Jennings doesn’t state that Hensley needs a second Tommy John surgery, and the specific nature of the setback isn’t entirely clear, but Jennings does note that both GM Brian Cashman and VP of player development Gary Denbo have confirmed that Hensley will miss the 2016 campaign. Now 22 years of age (23 in July), Hensley hasn’t pitched since 2014 and has pitched in just 16 games since being drafted, posting a 2.98 ERA with 54 strikeouts against 18 walks in 42 1/3 innings.
Aaron Judge might have some power, but he is a .260ish hitter that K’s a ton in the high minor leagues. Hard to see those #s improving in the big leagues. I’m not as sold on this guy as a lot of other people are.
He is their best OF prospect in the upper minors, he may not be as good as advertised, but if you are going to finish last in your division it would be better to see what you have in your prospect than continue to ride it out with the veterans who aren’t producing
I’m not saying he’s the next coming of Giancarlo Stanton, but Stanton fit that description – “a .260ish hitter that K’s a ton in the high minor league” – perfectly. How about we give the kid a chance to show what he can do before passing judgement (no pun intended)?
Thank you! I’m a Yankees fan and I’ve said all along he’s just a typical power hitter
As if that’s a problem? He’s also good defensively and has a great arm
Giancarlo Stanton and Chris Davis are 2 other guys who K A Lot and have A Lot of power too.
Over the past 3 years, Davis is hitting just .234 and has the 2nd highest K% in baseball (and he just got a $150 million contract) , and Stanton who is hitting .271 with the 6th highest K% got the highest contract in MLB history
For the record I’m not comparing Judge to either of them, but you’re acting as if players who have these kind of skill sets (high power, high K, so-so average) are subpar
By the way, Judge’s K rate has dropped and his power has gone up this year
1) he is average defensively with a good arm and that is with his current foot speed.
2) comparing him to the 2 premier power hitters is insane, he has had an iso over .200 once, stantons total minors iso was .300, he was also in the majors at 21 and judge is 24. Chris Davis never had an iso lower than judges highest, He was in the majors at 22.
3) over the past 3 yrs Davis wRC+ 168, 147, 132. 3 yrs stanton wRC+ 159, 152, 120. 100 is average and 159 means 59% better than average. But yeah let’s look at batting average!
“Comparing him to the 2 premier power hitters in insane”
Is your Reading comprehension poor? Re-read the beginning of my very first sentence:
“For the record I’m not comparing Judge to either of them”
And in response to your last sentence, “But yeah let’s look at batting average!”, you should be telling that to the OP who cited it first. Not me.
You compared them by referencing them to begin with. Judge is old for a prospect, and hasn’t dominated ( he’s been 10% above average at triple a). So I don’t understand up bringing up the 2 best power hitters even if you aren’t comparing them. Bring up someone who is an actual comp that made it work.
I referenced them because they are power hitters who K A Lot, which is what the OP said is Judge’s problem. That’s why.
Oh and for the record, scouts have actually compared Judge to Stanton (look it up)
Hey we can laugh all we want. Scouts do these strange comparisons all the time. Jon Heyman tweeted a few weeks ago that a scout said Red Sox prospect Sam Travis is the next Goldschmidt
Sorry if I was rude to you earlier. You’re right Judge is old for a prospect, but it doesn’t mean he won’t be a big impact when he joins the majors (and no, I am not saying he certainly will be a big impact)
Rather than mention the 2 mega power hitters MB.. Perhaps should have gone with someone whose MiLB career Judge’s resembles a tad that actually improved once made it to the big leagues in Travis Shaw..
Big guys, fairly slow a foot. Good eyes at the plate and know how to go both ways with the ball at the plate.
I’ve watched Judge in a few of his games over the years via MiLB,com. He looks fairly decent to me. No telling of course until it happens and he gets an extended chance, but he could be one of those guys that performs better in the majors than in MiLB ball, just like Shaw has.
John silver, fair enough. Though that’s kind of a pain in the butt to look up individual players minor league stats from the past. Unless there’s a way to sort minor league players stats (such as league leaders) in various time periods. There probably is an easy way on FG or MiLB
Swihart might not be a great defensive catcher but his offense is projected to be better then Vasquez and hannigan. So please stop putting him left field and left him work behind the plate. Call benitendi up. Give him a couple games at the big league level
Well, Well, Well Mr. Shap, after the texas brawl, my family has cancelled our planned trip to Toronto to see the series during the first week in July. I posit that many more families across this country are cancelling visiting the jays this year, not wishing to see this team being beaten by baseball-basics playing teams, outmanaged by novice managers, mismanaged by this brute, ( viz, his actions during that Texas brawl).
Geez, the players themselves went to him yesterday to give him a potentially more productive lineup that he in his 1000 games could ever imagine.
The only positive thing i see this year is that the Colabela thang scared the behazuz out of all of them, and their hitting is showing that none of them are juicing. With your comments here, Mr. President, I always believed that the gibboon had the goods ( maybe pictures ) only on AA, but that definitely wasn’t the case.
Until Judge comes up from the minors its easy to criticize his “tools” and/or lack of.
Geez, the guy just turned 24 in April, and was a first round pick in 2013.
And, possibly some of the reasons he hasn’t cracked any major league time up until now are the names, Ellsbury (153 million contract) and Beltran clogging up the outfield.
Let’s let the plan the Yankees have progress and everybody will probably get to debate his skill set based on MLB playing time in 2017.