Quick Yankee Notes

Pluck a few feathers out of those Orioles while you’re there…

Hopefully, Ben Rice will have a better career.
NYY Stats:
The last 5 Yankees to make their Major League debut in the starting lineup at 1B before Ben Rice tonight:

Chris Gittens 6/5/2021 vs BOS

Garrett Cooper 7/14/2017 at BOS

Tyler Austin 8/13/2016 vs TB

Greg Bird 8/13/2015 at CLE

Corban Joseph 5/13/2013 at CLE

We got our own submariner.

Yankees Sign Tim Hill
www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/06/yankees-sign-tim-hill.html
The Yankees announced that they have signed left-hander Tim Hill to a one-year deal. Fellow lefty Clayton Andrews has been designated for assignment in a corresponding 40-man move. Andrews was on optional assignment, so the club will still need to make a move to get Hill onto the active roster once he reports to the team. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported Hill’s impending signing on X prior to the official announcement. Hill was released by the White Sox earlier this week, meaning the Yanks will only have to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster.

Hill, 34, is a veteran ground ball pitcher who signed with the White Sox in the offseason. That one-year deal guaranteed him $1.8MM as the Sox were surely hoping to have him serve as a solid veteran presence in a relief corps that had been thinned out by trades.

But the topline results were poor, as Hill made 27 appearances for Chicago with a 5.87 earned run average. The Sox decided to move on, designating him for assignment last week. Since Hill had more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while keeping his money, he was released and went to the open market.

Despite the poor ERA, there are reasons why the Yankees would still be intrigued. Hill has always been a ground ball guy, with a 60.5% rate of wormburners in his career. For context, the major league average is usually around 43% or so and is at 42.6% this season. Hill’s numbers in that department have actually been better than ever, as he has had 65.6% of balls in play go into the dirt while with the Sox.

But a lot of them were finding holes, as he has a massive .436 batting average on balls in play for the year. That’s well beyond his .310 career BABIP and this year’s .287 league average. That might have something to do with the poor defenders on the White Sox. That club has a collective -19 Outs Above Average on the year, which is better than just four other teams. Defensive Runs Saved is way more pessimistic, as the Sox are in dead last with a score of -49. The second-worst club by that metric is the Rays at -28.

Hill’s 11% strikeout rate is subpar but it’s understandable that the Yankees perhaps expect some better results going forward. If he can keep making opponents pound the ball into the ground but with some better defense and better luck, the ERA should come down. It’s for those reasons that his 3.45 FIP and 3.89 SIERA are far more attractive.

It’s a fairly low-risk gamble for the Yankees to take. Since the Sox released Hill, they remain on the hook for most of what’s left of his salary. The Yanks will pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay, and easily can move on at any point if it doesn’t work out.

As noted by Passan, the Yankees’ bullpen could use some help. They have had Scott Effross, Lou Trivino and Jonathan Loáisiga on the injured list for most or all of the season, while Nick Burdi and Ian Hamilton recently joined them. Last night, Gerrit Cole came off the injured list and tossed 62 pitches over four innings against the Orioles. The game eventually went to ten innings with the Yanks using six different relievers. They don’t have another off-day until Monday, so Hill will give the club a fresh arm for a fairly weary bullpen.

Andrews, 27, has only been a Yankee for a short time. He came up as a Brewers prospect but that club designated him for assignment in February. The Yankees acquired him in a small trade and then passed him through waivers in early April, though he was added back to the roster just over a month later.

In between those transactions, the lefty has made just one appearance at the big league level. Back on May 21, he was put into a game against the Mariners and then proceeded to allow a Luke Raley home run, hit Cal Raleigh with a pitch and strike out Mitch Haniger before being replaced.

He’s spent most of his time in Triple-A, tossing 24 2/3 innings with a 5.84 ERA. His 25.9% strikeout rate and 51.8% ground ball rate at that level are both strong but he’s also given out walks at an awful rate of 20.4%, as well as hitting two batters and throwing two wild pitches. That lack of control has been an issue for Andrews before and has likely contributed to bumping him off the Yankees’ roster.

They will now have a week to trade him or pass him through waivers. Despite the wildness, some other club might be enticed by the strikeouts and ground balls like the Yankees were, especially since Andrews can still be optioned for the rest of this year and one more season. If he were passed through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency by virtue of his previous outright.

The Yankees have a serious infield problem
empiresportsmedia.com/new-york-yankees/the-yankees-have-a-serious-infield-problem/

Although Anthony Volpe has been a standout at shortstop, providing excellent defense and holding his own at the plate, other areas of the infield have been less impressive.

Newly promoted prospect Ben Rice has shown some promise at first base with two hits in his first two games, suggesting potential if given more opportunities. However, key players like Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu have not lived up to expectations, with performances that can only be described as lackluster.

DJ LeMahieu’s Struggles at the Plate
DJ LeMahieu, recently back from a right foot injury, has played 17 games this season but has struggled significantly with his batting, hitting just .196 with a .292 on-base percentage and no home runs. His slugging statistics are notably poor, with a hard-hit rate of 38.6% and an average exit velocity of 88.4 mph. His ground-ball percentage is particularly alarming at 58.1%, indicating a major issue with getting the ball airborne, even though he managed two hits in a recent game against Baltimore.

The Yankees Need More From Gleyber
On the other hand, Gleyber Torres is in a contract year and is experiencing one of his worst seasons to date. At 27 years old, he is batting .219 with a slugging percentage of .328, including six home runs and 27 RBIs. His performance has dipped across the board, with a notable decrease in his hard-hit rate to 35.1%.

Defensively, Torres has also been a liability, with a .965 fielding percentage and 10 errors over 661 innings, culminating in a negative impact on run-saving.

Oof, madone! Better hope he can mirror Gulf of Tonkin's turnaround because, frankly, this guy has sucked pretty much his whole career.

Blake might not even get time to shake Hill’s hand…

Tim “Not worth a” HILL “of beans.”…