SNY | Phillip Martínez: The Yankees hoped to have left-hander Carlos Rodon back at some point in April, but those plans might have hit a snag. On Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone revealed that the southpaw, who had a 3.09 ERA and struck out 203 batters last year before encountering some elbow issues in the postseason that resulted in surgery, reported hamstring tightness in his most recent throwing session.
The team is unsure about the severity of the ailment, and making guesses about how long he will be sidelined would be premature. What we do know is that an April return is now unlikely.
New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: The ‘reverse framing’ strategy, believe it or not, might become a thing as we go deeper into the ABS era. The term basically means that catchers can make strikes look like balls as they try to lure opposing teams into wasting a challenge. The Yankees, as an organization, are excellent framers behind the plate, but Tanner Swanson, the team’s director of catching, doesn’t seem so open about trying psychological games just yet.
Swanson did say that he has “thought about these things, and we’ve had discussions around them,” but he isn’t quite ready for the risk that the strategy carries with it.
“A large majority of borderline calls still go unchallenged,” Swanson said. “To take a strike and try to turn it into a ball, you’re banking on either forcing the hitter to challenge it, or having to challenge it yourself.”
New York Yankees Stats on X: Giancarlo Stanton drove in a run in the first inning of Tuesday’s game in Seattle in the ugliest way you can think of: with a blooper near the right field line. It counts anyway, and it was the slugger’s 500th RBI in pinstripes. He became the seventh-fastest Yankee, in terms of games played, to reach the mark: it took him 745 games.
Foul Territory on X: Former MLB general manager Jim Bowden, now an analyst and writer, weighed in on the alleged trade proposal the Yankees made to the Pittsburgh Pirates last year involving Paul Skenes. He said that if the Bombers indeed put names such as Cam Schlittler, George Lombard Jr., Carlos Lagrange, and Spencer Jones on the table, the Bucs should have taken the deal.
“If I’m Pittsburgh and I got offered those four guys that I could control for six years and not have to pay any of them for three years, I have a better chance of winning with those four guys, and I have a better chance of winning longer with those four guys,” Bowden said.
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