00:00Joel Sherman back for three things. I'm talking to you from Port St. Lucie. I drove across the state yesterday,
00:07spent my last day with the Yankees before I see them before their home opener. I'll be finishing up here
00:12with the Mets and be there for their season and home opener.
00:15But why don't I close on the Yankees because that's the team I last saw. I'm going to see the
00:20Mets later today with a big picture thing. And I want to say this for Vizzo. You know, one of
00:26the most dangerous things you can do when at any time is say something definitive, like a team is having
00:33a very, very good spring training because you're one fastball in on a thumb or one person in the wrong
00:40place at the wrong time or a person saying the wrong thing and suddenly have controversy.
00:46away from that going away. So why don't I say going into Thursday, the beginning of the last week until
00:54the regular season begins, the Yankees open the regular season for the whole sport against the Giants on Wednesday in
01:01San Francisco.
01:02The Yankees could hardly have had a much better camp through five weeks. And I'll change our format just a
01:11little bit by talking about the five things a team would want.
01:16In spring training and how close to five for five the Yankees are. So number one is you don't want
01:22any new injuries. It's self-explanatory. The Yankees have not taken on a new, you know, they had a prospect
01:30Brock Selvage who needed Tommy John surgery. He was not planned beyond maybe being trade bait for this team. He
01:36was not part of the 2026 plans.
01:38Nobody who's part of the 2026 plans during these five weeks have gone down. You've seen in a place like
01:44Atlanta, they've lost three starting pitches. It's going to tremendously impact their season and maybe even their expectations. The Yankees
01:52have done not had that.
01:53Number two, you'd want the players who are rehabbing to stay on track. And the Yankees have gone four for
02:00four on that. They had four players who came here with injury and all of them are on track or
02:09ahead and they're pulling them back a little bit.
02:13Anthony Volpe's shoulder. I talked to him yesterday. He said like two weeks ago, there was a big change for
02:19him. He said he was doing fine, doing fine, doing fine. And then he felt great, went from fine to
02:22feeling great.
02:23He's doing, you know, he's swinging off a tee, soft toss. He's tracking balls. He's doing all the infield work.
02:31The feeling is when the Yankees break camp, not long after that, he'll be fully hitting off of live pitching,
02:40you know, hard, hard pitching, the hard trajectory machine, etc.
02:43Probably get into games sometimes in April. And then we'll have that whole controversy will be for another time. Should
02:50Anthony Volpe come back to the roster? If he comes back to the roster, should he be the starting shortstop?
02:56I assume Jose Caballero will have a lot to say about that. But as far as his rehab is going
03:01very good, Clark Schmidt, who's the furthest away, Tommy John surgery, saw him playing catch yesterday pretty aggressively.
03:09The hope is sometime after the All-Star break, nothing has changed. Carlos Rodan, as I'm speaking to you, it's
03:16Thursday. He was supposed to throw 35 pitches, two ups.
03:19He said to me, I talked to him yesterday. He said it's amazing. It's the first time in two years
03:24that his arm has really felt great.
03:27We'll see what that means. But the hope is about the third week in April for him.
03:31And then the big one is Garrett Cole, who pitched on Wednesday, threw an inning, 10 pitches against, you know,
03:37not the Red Sox best lineup,
03:38but his stuff was good, upper 90s. He threw a slider in the lower 90s. He had to deal with
03:45the running game.
03:45He had to throw over the first base. He had to cover first base. He looked like a veteran starting
03:52pitcher getting ready for the season,
03:53obviously a little behind because it was one inning. He is 14 months would be May 11th. That's the lowest
03:59end of this.
04:00He's on track for May. If this is the way things continued, he looked a lot like Garrett Cole, so
04:07it hardly could get better than that.
04:09The third thing you'd want is, this is a time of year often about your young players.
04:14They're the ones who have to perform here. And the Yankees had a lot of their young players drop positive
04:21calling cards here.
04:22Somebody like George Lombard, who's unlikely to play for the 2026 Yankees, but is one of the Yankees' top prospects.
04:30It looked like real growth between last year and this year. He's probably starting a double-A.
04:36His defense was spectacular. He put on a little more strength. It seemed like he's working on making more contact.
04:42He looked really good.
04:45Spencer Jones looked like a guy who, look, he's one of the most intriguing guys in professional baseball.
04:51I have no idea what he is, but he came here to Yankee camp. He worked hard. He hit four
04:58homers. He stole three bases in camp.
05:01He moved around the outfield. Well, I suspect it will be a corner outfield before long, not center field.
05:07But he left the, hey, the door is still open for the upside of this guy, which might be a
05:1335-plus homer, 20-plus stolen base guy
05:16who can play a corner outfield position, and hit left-handed at Yankee Stadium.
05:20So he intrigued. Jason Dominguez, probably no room at the inn for a job, but he's played very well in
05:27spring training.
05:28He's hit very well. His defense has gone up a grade as far as going to get the ball.
05:32Elmer Rodriguez, both for the Yankees and in the WBC, really pitched well.
05:39I think he's someplace on their depth chart when and if they need a guy during the season.
05:44And Carlos Legrande, I mean, I talked about him on three things yesterday.
05:51That's the intriguing guy. That guy is throwing 100 easy. He's throwing a terrific changeup. He's throwing a terrific slider.
05:58It's three pitches. If this was truly a competition, he'd be in the rotation over someone like Luis Hill or
06:05Ryan Weathers to begin the season.
06:07I don't think that's where the Yankees' head is at. I think they want him to go to the minor
06:11leagues.
06:12He is a guy who's had a lot of injuries in his past, but he is clearly on the trajectory
06:18to help them this year,
06:19either in the rotation or perhaps as a late-inning reliever with that kind of stuff.
06:25But he, more than any of their young players, was truly impressive in their camp.
06:32The fourth thing is you'd want your veterans working into good shape. Again, no injuries. Continue to work on.
06:39The two guys I highlighted in a column today, NYPost.com, or if you buy a hard copy of the
06:44paper,
06:45who have not hit this spring are Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon.
06:48And obviously, those are guys who are in the crosshairs of a lot of the fan base.
06:55A lot of fans didn't love that the Yankees re-signed Trent Grisham.
06:59James Rousen, the hitting coach, told me Grisham is a guy who really isn't perturbed by bad numbers at this
07:06time of year
07:06because he's working on things. He's not doing game speed.
07:10He does not think the 34 homers last year was a fluke.
07:13The Yankees need that to be true, obviously.
07:15He's going to lead off and play center field.
07:17I will say he's moving around in center field.
07:19He had a lot of hamstring stuff, lower body stuff last year.
07:22He's moving around in center field much better.
07:25We're going to see if that $22 million was worth the Yankees, the qualifying offer.
07:30If not, as I mentioned previously, Spencer Jones and Jason Dominguez will be in a battle down below
07:36to see who's the first call-up, if and when somebody's needed.
07:39I assume Grisham will get a nice long rope and see if he could repeat last year.
07:43Remember, McMahon's defense last season was a real difference maker.
07:48The lefties, Max Freed and Carlos Rodana are guys, especially Freed, who put the ball on the ground to the
07:53left side of the infield.
07:54You've got to have a really strong third baseman there.
07:57And so, McMahon's defense, rangy, short-handed, good arm, true arm, is really helpful.
08:05He'll probably, at Yankee Stadium, by accident hit 20 homers.
08:09But the question is, he's a low 200 hitter who strikes out well over 30% of the time.
08:15The Yankees thought his batting, his lower half, his legs, his stance is as wide as almost anyone in the
08:22sport last year.
08:23They wanted him to narrow it a little bit, try to be more athletic at the plate, use that athleticism
08:28that shows in the field
08:29to see if he can make more good contact, lower that strikeout rate, raise the batting average.
08:35It hasn't happened in spring training, though it has caught my eye how many balls he's hit to left field.
08:40Is that a sign of a guy who could use the whole field a little more to improve his overall
08:44offensive output?
08:46I'm curious about that.
08:48But those are the two guys who really stand out as having not, you know, just not on that same
08:53track of veterans getting ready.
08:55But fortunately for the Yankees, no injuries.
08:57Lastly, why don't we do that fifth thing?
09:00It's also an easy one.
09:01It's like the no injuries.
09:02There's just been no distraction or controversies.
09:04You remember last year, Hal Steinbrenner, it was built around Devin Williams' unhappiness,
09:10I believe, and just that it probably had become outdated, had given up the no facial hair rule, which caused
09:19some stuff around the team.
09:22Obviously, Gary Cole's injury last spring was, you know, early devastation for the Yankees.
09:28There was a lot more.
09:29This is just the bad thing that's happened to the Yankees didn't even happen in their camp.
09:34Aaron Judge is the captain of Team USA, and they didn't finish it off.
09:37They lost in the finals to Venezuela.
09:40But their camp has felt like a veteran team that knows it's a big-time contender getting ready for the
09:47season in February and March.
09:50Between that, no injuries, your young players playing well, some prospects showing themselves, your injured guys to begin camp continuing
09:59to show well.
10:00The Yankees kind of did the check, check, check, check, check on the five main things.
10:04Again, a week to go, stuff can happen, but so far, really good for the Yankees.
10:09We'll see you next time.
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