In the marathon of a 162-game season, it’s hard to put too much stock into the first six games, for better or worse.
But with the first week of the season complete, there are certainly some Yankees who are making stronger first impressions than others.
Though it’s impossible to make any grand conclusions off of two series against the Giants and Phillies — as tempting as overreactions might be — as a whole the Yankees mostly put their best foot forward to win both and take a 4-2 record into their first road trip, which begins Friday in Baltimore.
Before the Yankees kick off AL East play and their road schedule, here is a look at what stood out from the first week of games and whether they are indicative of what’s to come, despite the small sample size:
Gleyber Torres is still here and thriving
We spent the offseason wondering where Torres might fit in a trade to alleviate the Yankees’ infield glut. But a week into the regular season, not only is Torres still a Yankee, but he arguably has been their best player.
In six games, he is batting .421 with two home runs, six RBIs and a 1.349 OPS. He also has five steals, a part of his game that may have been overlooked with the new rules (bigger bases, limited pickoffs) coming into play.
Perhaps most encouraging is the fact that Torres has six walks to only two strikeouts.
Is it sustainable? Not to this extent — Torres is not going to slash .421/.560/.789 and steal 135 bases, which he is currently on pace for — but he is certainly capable of putting together an All-Star type of season, as he did in his first two years as a big leaguer in 2018 and ’19.
At the very least, Torres was hopeful that playing for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic would help jumpstart his regular season, which appears to be the case. And after indicating that trade rumors may have affected him last summer, that doesn’t seem like it’s an issue so far this season.
Overreaction: The Yankees should never trade Torres and instead try to extend him (he has said he would love to stay here).
Rational reaction: Let’s see whether Torres can continue to make this kind of impact, but for now, it’s looking like a good decision that the Yankees hung on to him, especially in light of Josh Donaldson suffering a potential hamstring injury on Wednesday.
Deja vu for Aaron Hicks
After a brutal 2022, Hicks appeared to be in a much better spot mentally in camp, and put together one of his better springs stats-wise in recent years.
But here’s another reminder the good feelings that often come with spring training and Grapefruit League play can change in a hurry once the games start counting.
Through the Yankees’ first six games, Hicks started twice and hit 0-for-7 with a walk and three strikeouts. The boobirds that followed him in The Bronx last season have quickly resurfaced — though, to be fair, Hicks even got booed at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa at times this spring.
Hicks already expressed has frustration with his role, because it is not very clear what it is with Oswaldo Cabrera earning the majority of the starts in left field.
Overreaction: So much for Hicks putting together a bounce-back season.
Rational reaction: There’s still time for Hicks to change the narrative and finally get the fan base back on his side, but he’s going to need to turn it around soon by stringing together productive at-bats when he is in the lineup.
One thing worth watching: Last year, Hicks’ road splits were much better than his home splits — slashing .256/.358/.374 on the road versus .164/.292/.230 at Yankee Stadium. Hicks didn’t put much weight into the numbers when asked about it this spring, but if it continues this season, might another team think he can turn things around by getting out of The Bronx?
An emerging relief weapon
Ron Marinaccio can be a real factor out of the bullpen. The Toms River product put together a nice season last year — a 2.05 ERA across 44 innings while shuttling between the Yankees and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — but it was cut short by a stress reaction in his shin just before the playoffs.
After the Yankees built him back up cautiously this spring, though, Marinaccio has looked even better to start this season, tossing 3 ⅓ scoreless innings with six strikeouts. Both of his outings have been longer than an inning, which increases his value even more.
Marinaccio’s changeup is his best weapon. Fellow reliever Michael King this spring called it “possibly the best pitch in baseball,” and while that may be hyperbole, it certainly causes opposing hitters plenty of trouble.
Overreaction: It’s time for Marinaccio to get save chances.
Rational reaction: Look for Aaron Boone to use Marinaccio in higher-leverage spots moving forward, especially as King works through some mechanical issues coming back from a broken elbow.
All eyes on Anthony Volpe
The 21-year-old shortstop was the talk of spring training as he caught fire to win the starting job, with a palpable hype surrounding him entering Opening Day.
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Through six games, Volpe has made his impact felt most on the bases, stealing three bags and forcing opposing pitchers to pay attention to him when he is on first. His bat has been a little quieter — he’s hitting .176 (3-for-17) through six games — but his at-bat quality has been there, leading to four walks.
Defensively, Volpe has been mostly solid, though there were two key plays he failed to come up with — one on a sinking liner against the Giants and one on a potential double-play ball against the Phillies. In both cases, Volpe was accountable, saying he should have made the plays.
Overreaction: What happened to Volpe’s hot bat?
Rational reaction: Everything that Volpe has done confirms why the Yankees thought he could handle the job despite playing just 22 games at Triple-A. Though the hits haven’t come in bunches right away, he hasn’t looked overmatched at the plate. Plus, with a boatload of media attention on him as the local kid and top prospect, he has taken it all in stride without it overwhelming him.
That said, he will probably have some more room to breathe with the Yankees hitting the road.
That guy looks more like DJ LeMahieu
In trying to play through a foot injury that eventually sidelined him for the playoffs, last year’s second-half version of LeMahieu was a shell of the one the Yankees are banking on.
Instead of having surgery in the offseason, though, he chose the rest and rehab route, which seems to be paying dividends. The veteran infielder is batting .300 with a 1.014 OPS, with four of his six hits going for extra bases, as a catalyst atop the Yankees lineup.
Overreaction: LeMahieu is completely clear of his foot troubles.
Rational reaction: The Yankees have been encouraged about LeMahieu’s health since the middle of the offseason, but his foot will bear watching as he picks up more mileage on it throughout the season. The Yankees likely will be proactive in getting LeMahieu regular days off, though he may test that given how productive he has been in the early going.
IKF gets an ‘A’ for awareness
You may not find a more brutally honest player inside the Yankees clubhouse than Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
He showed it last season when he was frequently hard on himself for not making some routine plays at shortstop, and it has been evident again this spring.
It was striking on March 10 when Kiner-Falefa gave what amounted to a concession speech in the shortstop battle.
He had just started his first game at a different position and had outfield work on the horizon.
Inside the cramped visiting clubhouse at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla., he was asked about possibly playing the outfield, and it quickly became clear the hyperaware Kiner-Falefa was reading the writing on the wall, eventually telling three reporters, “I need a role on this team if I’m not playing shortstop.”
That conversation came to mind this week when Kiner-Falefa started his first career regular-season game in center field and talked about his transition to utility player.
“I just understood there’s two great shortstop prospects that could help the team,” Kiner-Falefa said Sunday. “For me being an older guy, I definitely saw that. So instead of battling it out, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to stick on the team. I feel like them giving me that opportunity to play the outfield allowed me to still be here.”
Boone was appreciative of Kiner-Falefa’s flexibility.
“IKF is perceptive and accountable and aware,” Boone said. “The one thing we’ve seen from IKF since Day 1 is how much he wants to be a part of this team, helping this team in whatever way, winning with this team, winning in this uniform, and that’s what he’s always shown us.”
Prospecting
With the regular season underway, a few final thoughts on the prospects who stood out the most during spring training:
• The hype train around Jasson Dominguez is back on track. The comps to Mickey Mantle or Mike Trout floated as soon as Dominguez signed with the Yankees for $5.1 million in 2019 were always unfair, and some of the buzz wore off during his first professional season in 2021.
But the Yankees were encouraged by how he responded to different levels of the minors in 2022, and then he made a real impression in his first big league camp this spring.
Dominguez still has some strides to make before he is ready to help the Yankees, but given his advanced approach at the plate this spring, it seems possible the time could come by 2024.
Dominguez will start the season at Double-A Somerset.
• Andres Chaparro is notably absent from the Yankees’ Top 30 prospect rankings by Baseball America and MLB.com. But his power is legit.
The 23-year-old corner infielder — who is now at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — slugged five home runs in Grapefruit League play, many of them lighting up Statcast for their distance and/or exit velocity.
“He’s probably one of the most pure, talented hitters I’ve ever played with,” Volpe said.
• The Yankees already had to tap into their starting pitching depth with Jhony Brito getting a spot start in Game 3 of the regular season, and impressing at that. Next on the list are Randy Vasquez (24) and Yoendrys Gomez (23). The Yankees hope they won’t have to call on either pitcher any time soon because they still have some developing to do in the minor leagues, but both showed flashes of their potential in camp.
“YoGo [Gomez], he might have the most upside of them all,” Boone said. “I think he’s going to be a starter in the league.”
