The Yankees announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt underwent an arthroscopic procedure on his left knee, with the surgery described a “meniscus clean-up.” The surgery took place yesterday, and Rortvedt is expected to return to game activity in 6-8 weeks.
The least-experienced of the five names involved in March’s blockbuster trade between the Yankees and Twins, Rortvedt has yet to make his New York debut, as he has been recovering from an oblique injury suffered during Spring Training. The catcher began a rehab assignment earlier this month, but that assignment was put on hold after Rortvedt’s knee issue surfaced.
Rortvedt made his MLB debut just last season, appearing in 39 games for Minnesota and hitting .169/.229/.281 over 98 plate appearances. Considered primarily as a glove-first type, Rortvedt did show a bit of extra hitting potential with a .254/.324/.426 slash line over 136 Triple-A PA, and he is still only 24 years old.
In the wake of Rortvedt’s oblique injury, the Yankees acquired Jose Trevino from the Rangers as extra catching depth, and the tandem of Trevino and Kyle Higashioka have contributed next to nothing at the plate this season. However, it was clear that the Yankees were focusing on defense from the catcher position, and Trevino/Higashioka have excelled on that front — as per both Fangraphs and Statcast, New York has the best framing numbers of any team in baseball, and Yankee catchers are a cumulative +2 in Defensive Runs Saved. While the Yankees surely wouldn’t mind a bit of extra pop from Trevino, Higashioka, or Rortvedt when he is healthy, the club is surely more than satisfied with this defensive excellence, especially since the rest of the lineup is hitting on all cylinders.
What? Damn!
Paging Andrew Knapp…
Good thing Trevino is the real deal defensively! As long as we remain healthy the Yankees can afford to carry 2 no offense catchers and a fair offensive SS. The biggest plus and surprise this year for the Yanks has not been their improved defense, much better than expected SP, or their renewed offense it’s been their health!!!!
Very true Mickey. The real problem is Gallo, 7 rbis in almost 1/4 of a season.
Not even a Yankee fan but really don’t understand how they never tried to sign Brantley years ago. It made too much sense, I guess
Astros say thank you
Rob Brantly? He’s been down in Yankees’ AAA since ’21.
i agree.they probably didn’t want to spend the money,and have a commitment to Hicks.
Yeah, Gallo was a huge mistake. At least, the Yankees will be done with him at the end of the season!!! I was all over Brantley, exactly the kind of player they needed when he was a free agent and could still use. I’m thinking Benintendi now, if the price is right.
I would second that.
Gallo isn’t entirely useless. He lengthens the lineup simply by his ability to hit the long ball. Pitchers can’t take a breather just because he strikes out a ton. I expect their front offices are aware that he ranks 19th in Barrels per Plate Appearance, and his Hard-hit % is 50.9, ranking him between Harper and Devers. If he connects with a mistake, it goes an average of 402 feet.
His walk rate is down, but it’s still in the top-23, tied with Ke’Bryan Hayes and Seiya Suzuki.
I can’t really complain about him when the Yankees lead the league in OPS and they’re tied with the Rockies at 5th in runs. He doesn’t seem to be hurting production all that much.
Fink,
He’s a good defensive outfielder, but have you watched him hit? He takes up a spot in the lineup and that’s about it. He’s got 7 RBI and is hitting considerably less than .200.
More often than not, I’ve watched him strike out.
Just saying, with the way his teammates are hitting, his ineptitude hasn’t been critical.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I think he was a bad acquisition.
Good points guys. But, he’s also been struggling on defense. In fact, he’s been valued as a negative contributor on defense this year, which is atypical, and may be due to carrying over his hitting struggles.
Throw in Hicks as well !
Yeah I’m fine with this. The overall defense has been night-and-day compared to last year. The Athletics had a recent piece where they examined their opponents’ running game. The Yankees last year were abysmal at holding runners and it’s been the complete opposite this season. Matt Blake has been awesome and I love how they’re using Mike King.
Yankee Bleacher Creature,
Chapman is a free agent at the end of the season. The Yankees would be crazy to resign him (he’s 35 and becoming less consistent by the day).
I love the way they have used Michael King, not sure where he’ll end up eventually, but along with Holmes and Loaisiga would definitely consider him as next year’s closer.
Agreed, although Chapman’s latest hiccups are very similar to last year at this time. Between him and Britton, it’s $30M off the books. They’ll probably use that to resign Judge.
I agree with you, although Cashman seems to love his name recognition closers, so I would not be surprised if he resigns Chapman, even if he has lost his effectiveness.i would rather that money be spent elsewhere.
That’s one area where Gallo seems to be helping. His arm has kept quite a few runners from taking second base on a single.
Gallo could be so much better. It’s so refreshing to finally hear someone openly criticizing his swing (Cam Maybin), pointing out the obvious fact that Gallo would not be swinging under middle-middle pitches if he would simply…swing level.
He astutely notes how Gallo doesn’t have to over-swing, as he often does, which exposes his mechanics even more; rather, with his size, he simply needs to make contact & watch it fly.
Gallo is Gallo’s own worst enemy…. He’s about as non-clutch as one can be.
Clipper,
I think part of it is that he’s one of those players who just can’t take the pressure of playing in New York. He’s the anti Anthony Rizzo!!!
Where is Ducky?
Yeah that’s a great point. I don’t know where Ducky is. I hope he’s alright but I suspect he’s just smarter than the rest of us & somewhere in the country hunting his grouse.
“New York has the best framing numbers of any team in baseball”
Means: more gift calls from the dumpires than any other team. That’s nothing new.
At least they’ve got pitches to frame. Sox catchers didn’t even need to their bring their gloves last night.
Unless you ignored my thorough post to you before, you know that’s BS and that the Yankees ranked 30th in extra strikes at bat, worst in the majors, in 2018:
“The A’s, Rays, and Rockies have hit with the friendliest zones, relatively speaking. The Yankees are at the bottom, followed by the Marlins and Diamondbacks.”
blogs.fangraphs.com/the-most-and-least-team-friend…
Ignorance is no sin. But if you’re persisting in this bullcrap while knowing it’s bullcrap, that’s not good, now is it?
Fink – I did ignore it because it was from a different source than my source and not a source I would rely on unless it supported my opinion. That’s the way we all operate. We find evidence to support what we think is true. Your recent data is meaningless as it’s from 2018, a year where MLB obviously decided the the Red Sox would win 108 games and steamroll everybody in the postseason. I never believed that team was THAT good.
YBC – I totally agree. You have to consistently be around the strike for the gifts to be subtle and not so obvious. But those gifts have a profound impact on the at bat, especially when they occur early in the count. The Yankees had much of their postseason success in the “dynasty” Jeter years through that very methodology, methodically practiced by the aforementioned dumpires. They were definitely helped bigtime but they needed the skill to make it appear plausible. MLB knows what they’re doing when the fix is in.
Put another way, aggregate data is essentially worthless. Without drilling down to specific situations, there’s no valuation distinction. A gift strike on a 3 and 0 count is nowhere near the value of a gift strike on a 1 and 1 count. So I don’t place any more value in those numbers than I place in any other aggregate statistic. Nice to know and look up but not much of the story.
We already saw how valuable your subjective observations are. You posted a completely inaccurate account of balls and strikes in a Yankee game, and I detailed how wrong you were. Let’s go to the videotape:
“Cortes got balls called for first pitch strikes early on in most of the innings that he pitched. 1st inning, first batter” – His first pitch was a ball; Semien struck out swinging.
“3rd inning, second batter” – His first pitch to White was a ball; White struck out swinging.
“5th inning, 5 borderline pitches, only 1 called a ball.” – In the 5th inning, the ump called six balls, one of which was completely in the zone, and three of which had the edge of the zone and could’ve been called strikes but weren’t.
“6th inning , lead off hitter and last pitch to the final batter. Called strikes well out of the strike zone” – Both strikes were absolutely in the zone. BTW, the second batter, White, walked on six pitches.
“7th inning, two on, one out, two balls (pitches one and three) called strikes.” – Every one of those strikes was well within the zone. The third pitch to Ibanez was fouled off.
“8th inning, Eli White gets each pitch called correctly and he hits a single.” – There was no call on that pitch because he hit it. Cortes left it in the zone, a rare mistake.
Congratulations — everything you said was inaccurate.
Here’s the proof:
espn.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=401436056
Remember that blast from the past? And of course you didn’t trust ESPN’s K-Zone either.
Yankees are sooooooooo good right now too! Judge is *the* best player in MLB at this very juncture. Cortez is Cy Young material right now, & the Yankees are hitting, running, sacrificing, & scoring (except when Jordan Montgomery is on the mound, the poor fella).
The only holdovers from last year that can’t seem to figure out what they were doing doesn’t work is Hicks & Gallo. Most everyone else is consistently contributing in one way or another, offensively.
When a team has the top pitching and near-top hitting – yeah, they’re going to be this good. Hopefully they maintain it, it’ll be a good season.
My biggest gripe against Gallo isn’t that he strikes out so much; it’s that he told Meredith, in essence, that he has no intention of trying to change. I hate the strikeouts, but the fact that he won’t even try something different makes it worse. How can you be satisfied with a career BA of .205?
@Clip They sure are. They’re second in MLB in the least stolen bases allowed per game right behind Oakland. Last year, they were 17th. The only saving grace for Hicks is he’s taking pitches and BBs.
Fink: Precisely. That’s an attitude problem. Don’t get me wrong, Gallo is a great guy, good attitude overall… But, being teachable is part attitude as well. I presume for him it’s a level of comfort he’s developed. But sheesh, guy, you’re failing bad – give it a try.
“ New York has the best framing numbers of any team in baseball”
Yes, he’s called Jose Trevino.
Rortvedt doing his best Luke Voit impression but without that monster 2020 season for everyone to dream on.
Is it unfair to suggest each could benefit from a break from “cultivating mass” in favor of more flexibility training and endurance?
Does anyone reading this feel a midseason Willson Contreras trade looming?
I could see Contreras getting traded, and possibly even to New York, but not to the Yankees. The Yankees seem more likely to trade for an OF
Let’s hope so. Neither hicks or gallo are working out.
Gallo is starting to come around a bit and he’s a lefty who provides strong defense so I expect him to continue to play regularly the rest of the season. However, removing Hicks from an everyday role would be ideal
I don’t. I don’t think the Yankees’ analytics department would advise Cashman to trade for an offense-first catcher that Statcast rates a sub-par pitch framer. Their staff is currently the best in baseball and they’re scoring enough to absorb the light hitting from their backstops. “Pitching wins championships.”
Rortvedt, is that Dutch? I’m pretty sure that’s Dutch.
No. He only had surgery on one knee.
Darren Daulton reference or just a knock on the Dutch in general?
Pretty tasteless joke, that was.
🙁
I don’t think that’s Rortvedt in that picture.
Which picture?
It doesn’t look like him, does it…? I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know if it’s just a weird picture of him, or if it’s actually someone else.
Fink, the pic on the main story board thread page of the non-muscular chap holding the catcher’s mask. That doesn’t look anything like him unless it’s just a really bad (and deceiving) picture of him.
I’m not sure what you mean, YC. Maybe my browser blocks pics because I have no player photos on this site, ever. The only photo is the batter in a minor league helmet that’s part of the MLB Trade Rumors banner at the top of the page.
Got a link?
Well, it appears when I pull up the site: mlbtraderumors.com/ next to this article’s link. Are you perhaps using the app? I am not, but it shows next to my article titles, on the left side. I can’t access the properties of the picture to determine any metadata or other detail of the photo itself, however.
Thanks for the info, Clipper, It must be my browser because there are no photos on the left side.
Is this the pic you’re talking about?
bit.ly/3MuB7s9
Yeah! That’s it brother. Kind of a weird photo.
Recover fast was excited to watch him play.
I’d like to see Gallo out and the result would be Benintendi. Like a three team deal with prospects.
I’d rather get rid of Hicks.
Cut Hicks. Cut our losses. Cut Beltran too. I can’t stand to listen to him on the mic. It’s draining to my ears. Can, on the other hand, I really enjoy. I think Cam is going to be an excellent broadcast guy, if he chooses to stay there.
Bad news on Luis Gil. Pointed to his elbow and left his last start in the fifth inning.
nypost.com/2022/05/19/yankees-luis-gil-exits-tripl…
Noooooooooo! Was excited to see him finally getting {some} control this year.
I am so sick of watching Hicks let catchable balls drop in front of him. I’ll take Gallo over him all day, every day. At least Gallo plays hard when he’s on the field.
What I’d like to see when Rortvetd’s finally ready to come up is a trade of Higashioka, Hicks and overrated Green for a decent outfielder. If they could ditch Gallo too, so much the better.
Man, you are not kidding I’m so sick of Hicks. He could at least be a contact hitter but he legitimately thinks he’s a HR guy. He has a huge leg kick and tops the ball (if he hits it at all). What a joke. I laughed when I saw 30/30, but when he came out making contact I thought, “maybe, just maybe he realizes he can be useful.” Then I saw his statement, “I’m just going the other way until I get comfortable. Then I’m going to start my pull.”
“Start my pull?” What a useless waste of a contract & roster spot. Bring up Florial & dump him. He’s had years, literally.
I am a huge Gallo fan. Had high hopes. But reality is he won’t change, as you’ve noted before. Can’t rely on him to hit a baseball, at all, if a guy is at 3B and we need a run. It’s a shame. Now, he’s struggling to catch it this year too, already trending defensively into the negative values.
Ditch Hicks and give Florial his shot. Great idea. Works for me.
What’s your thought on that pic referenced above? It’s weird, right. Looks like a slimmed down, no-workout, dad-bod version of Rortvedt to me…
It is a weird photo. I compared it to some others online and I can’t say for sure it is or isn’t him. I tend to think it’s just an unflattering photo snapped when he was slouching and the way the T-shirt’s bunched-up makes him look pudgier than he is.
Yeah? Maybe, I guess. But even the arms, man. Like, no muscle definition whatsoever. His frame actually looks completely different than the other photos of the actual Rortvedt.
I’m calling it – it’s a doppelgänger; and a bad one. The real one is hidden in Tampa, working out like a madman, hitting HRs over the batters eye….
Call Seattle and grab Tom Murphy. Big upgrade from the 2 AAA catchers the Yankees keep sending out
The Yankee catchers are third in framing runs in the majors, 0.1 behind the Twins and White Sox catchers. The Yankee staff has the lowest ERA in baseball. It’d be nice to add some stick, but Murphy is rated a slightly negative framer over the past three seasons. The Yankees have the best record in baseball with their backstop tandem.
“AAA” Trevino has caught 144 more innings than Murphy since Jose’s rookie year, during which Jose has 5 passed balls to Murphy’s 15, and 9 errors to Murphy’s 19. Trevino has 12 Defensive Runs Saved to Murphy’s 4 DRS.
The Yankees traded backstop defense for offense before. It didn’t work out all that well. Besides, Murphy’s .303 BA and 175 wRC+ in 14 games this year might look all sparkly now, but his BA last year was .202 and his wRC+ was 87 in 97 games, the most he’s ever played. His fWAR this year is 0.5 and Trevino’s is 0.4. Big upgrade?