00:00Joel Sherman back for three things. I'm talking to you from Port St. Lucie. I drove across the
00:05state yesterday, spent my last day with the Yankees before I see them before their home
00:10opener. I'll be finishing up here with the Mets and be there for their season and home opener.
00:16But why don't I close on the Yankees because that's the team I last saw, but I'm going to
00:19see the Mets later today with a big picture thing. And I want to say this for Vizzo. You know,
00:26one of the most dangerous things you can do when at any time is say something definitive
00:32like a team is having a very, very good spring training because you're one fastball in on
00:38a thumb or one person in the wrong place at the wrong time or a person saying the wrong
00:43thing and suddenly have controversy away from that going away. So why don't I say going into
00:51Thursday, the beginning of the last week until the regular season begins. The Yankees open
00:57the regular season for the whole sport against the Giants on Wednesday in San Francisco. The
01:03Yankees could hardly have had a much better camp through five weeks. And I'll change our
01:10format just a little bit by talking about the five things a team would want in spring training
01:17and how close to five for five the Yankees are. So number one is you don't want any new injuries.
01:24It's self-explanatory. The Yankees have not taken on a new, you know, they had a prospect Brock
01:30Selvidge who needed Tommy John surgery. He was not planned beyond maybe being trade bait for this
01:36team. He was not part of the 2026 plans. Nobody who's part of the 2026 plans during these five
01:42weeks have gone down. You've seen in a place like Atlanta, they've lost three starting pitches. It's
01:46going to tremendously impact their season and maybe even their expectations. The Yankees have
01:52done not had that. Number two, you'd want the players who are rehabbing to stay on track. And
01:59the Yankees have gone four for four on that. They had four players who came here with injury
02:06and all of them are on track or ahead and they're pulling them back a little bit. Anthony Volpe's
02:13shoulder. I talked to him yesterday. He said like two weeks ago, there was a big change for him. He
02:19said he was doing fine, doing fine, doing fine. And then he felt great, went from fine to feeling
02:23great. He's doing, you know, he's swinging off a tee, soft toss. He's tracking balls. He's doing all
02:30the infield work. The feeling is when the Yankees break camp, not long after that, he'll be fully
02:36hitting off of, uh, live pitching, uh, you know, hard, hard pitching, the heart reject machine,
02:43et cetera, probably get into games sometimes in April. And then we'll have that whole controversy
02:48will be for another time. Should Anthony Volpe come back, uh, to the roster? If he comes back to
02:54the roster, should he be a start, the starting shortstop? I assume Jose Caballero will have a lot
02:58to say about that. But as far as his rehab is going very good, Clark Schmidt, who's the furthest away,
03:03Tommy John surgery, saw him playing catch, uh, yesterday, pretty aggressively. Uh, the hope is
03:10sometime after the all-star break, nothing has changed. Carlos Rodan, as I'm speaking to you,
03:15it's Thursday, he was supposed to throw 35 pitches, two ups. He said to me, I talked to him
03:21yesterday. Uh, he said, it's amazing. It's the first time in two years that his arm has really felt
03:26great. Uh, we'll see what that means, but the hope is about the third week in April for him.
03:31And then the, uh, the big one is Garrett Cole, who pitched on Wednesday, threw an inning,
03:3610 pitches against, uh, you know, not the Red Sox best lineup, but his stuff was good,
03:40upper nineties. He threw a slider in the lower nineties. He, uh, had to deal with the running
03:45game. He had to throw over the first base. He had a cover first base. Uh, he looked like a
03:51veteran starting pitcher getting ready for the season, obviously a little behind because it was
03:55one inning. He is 14 months would be may 11th. That's the lowest end of this. Uh, he's on track
04:02for may. If this is the way things continued, he looked a lot like Gary Cole. So it hardly could
04:08get better than that. The third thing you'd want is this is a time of year often about your young
04:14players. Uh, they're the ones who have to perform here. And the Yankees had a lot of their young
04:19players drop positive calling cards here. Somebody like John George Lombard, who's unlikely to play
04:26for the 2026 Yankees, but is one of the Yankees top prospects. It looked like real growth between
04:32last year and this year. He's probably starting a double A. Uh, his defense was spectacular. He put
04:38on a little more strength. It seemed like he's working on making more contact. He looked really
04:43good. Um, Spencer Jones looked like a guy who, look, he's one of the most intriguing guys in
04:50professional baseball. I have no idea what he is, but he came here. He, uh, to Yankee camp. He worked
04:57hard. He hit four homers. He stole three bases in camp. Uh, he moved around the outfield. Well,
05:03I suspect it will be a corner outfield before long, uh, not center field, but he left the, Hey,
05:09the door is still open for the upside of this guy, which might be a 35 plus Homer 20 plus
05:15stolen base
05:16guy who can play a corner outfield position and hit left-handed at Yankee stadium. So he intrigued
05:21Jason Dominguez, probably no room at the end for a job, but he's played very well in spring training.
05:28He's hit very well. His defense has gone up a grade as far as going and get the ball. Uh,
05:32Elmer Rodriguez,
05:33uh, both for the Yankees, uh, and in the WBC really pitched. Well, I think he's someplace on
05:41their depth chart, uh, when, and if they need a guy during the season and, uh, Carlos Legrande. Uh,
05:47I mean, I talked about him on three things yesterday. That's the intriguing guy. That guy is throwing a
05:53hundred easy. Uh, he's throwing a terrific changeup. He's throwing a terrific slider. It's three pitches.
05:59Uh, if this was truly a competition, he'd be in the rotation over someone like Louise Hill,
06:04uh, Louise Hill or Ryan Weathers to begin the season. Uh, I don't think that's where the Yankees
06:09head is at. I think they want him to go to the minor leagues. Uh, he is a guy who's
06:14not had a lot
06:14of injuries in his past, but he is clearly on the trajectory to help them this year, either in the
06:20rotation or perhaps as a late inning reliever with that kind of stuff. But he more than any of their
06:28young players was truly impressive in their, their camp. Uh, the fourth thing is you'd want
06:33your veterans working into good shape. Uh, again, no injuries, uh, continue to work on the two guys
06:40I highlighted in a column today, nypost.com, or if you buy a hard copy of the paper who have
06:45not hit
06:46this spring or Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon. And obviously those are guys who are, uh, in the
06:52crosshairs of a lot of the fan base. Uh, a lot of fans didn't love that the Yankees
06:57re-signed Trent Grisham. Uh, James Rousen, the hitting coach told me, uh, Grisham is a guy who
07:04really isn't perturbed by bad numbers at this time of year because he's working on things. He's not
07:08doing game speed. He does not think the 34 homers last year was a fluke. The Yankees need that to
07:14be
07:14true. Obviously he's going to lead off and play center field. I will say he's moving around in
07:19center field. He had a lot of hamstring stuff, lower body stuff last year. He's moving around
07:23in center field much better. Uh, we're going to see if that 22 million, uh, was worth the Yankees,
07:29the qualifying offer. Uh, if not, as I mentioned previously, Spencer Jones and Jason Dominguez
07:34will be in a battle down below to see who's the first call up if, and when somebody's needed.
07:39Uh, I assume Grisham will get a nice long rope and see if he could repeat last year.
07:44McMahon's defense last season was a real difference maker. Uh, the lefties, Max Freed and Carlos
07:50Rodon are guys, especially Freed who put the ball on the ground to the left side of the infield.
07:54You've got to have a really strong third baseman there. And so, uh, McMahon's defense, uh, rangy,
08:02shorthanded, good arm, true arm is really helpful. Uh, he'll probably at Yankee stadium by accident
08:08hit 20 homers. But the question is like, he's a low 200 hitter with who strikes out well over 30
08:14%
08:14of the time. The Yankees thought, uh, his batting, uh, his lower half, his legs, his stance is as wide
08:21as almost anyone in the sport last year. They wanted him to narrow it a little bit, try to be
08:25more athletic at the plate, use that athleticism that shows in the field to see if he could make
08:30more good contact, lower that strikeout rate, raise the batting average. It hasn't happened in
08:36spring training though. It has caught my eye, how many balls he's hit to left field. Is that a sign
08:41of a guy who could use the whole field a little more to improve his overall offensive output?
08:46I'm curious about that. Uh, but those are the two guys who really stand out as having not, you know,
08:52just not on that same track of veterans getting ready, but fortunately for the Yankees, no injuries.
08:58Lastly, why don't we do that fifth thing? It's also an easy one. It's like the no injuries. There's
09:02just been no distraction or controversies. You remember last year, how Steinbrenner, it was
09:07built around, uh, Devin Williams unhappiness, I believe. And just that it probably had become
09:14outdated, had given up the, uh, no facial hair, hair, uh, rule, which caused, uh, some stuff around
09:21the team. Uh, obviously Gary Cole's injury last spring was, uh, you know, early devastation for
09:27the Yankees. There was a, there was a lot more. This is just the, the bad thing that's happened
09:32to the Yankees didn't even happen in their camp. Aaron judges, the captain of team USA,
09:36and they didn't finish it off. They lost in the finals to Venezuela, but their camp has felt like
09:42a veteran team that is knows it's a big time contender getting ready for the season, uh, in
09:49February and March, uh, between that no injuries, your young players playing well, some prospects
09:54showing themselves, your injured guys, uh, to begin camp continuing to show. Well, the Yankees
10:00kind of did the check, check, check, check, check on the five main things. Uh, again, a week to go
10:06stuff can happen, but so far really good for the Yankees.
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