It's infuriating when the way to win is right in front of someone and they refuse to see it.
I think about Doc Rivers a couple years ago playing DeAndre Jordan over Paul Reed. Doing the whole 'this is where he should be right now' schtick, and then unsurprisingly it went nowhere. A couple weeks ago, Rob Thomson doing the whole 'Taijuan Walker is the best person for this position' schtick as he kept refusing to win games.
But what's going on in New York is the worst of it. The Yankees have been sliding all month, and just dropped a pair of really crucial games to the Rangers, who aren't going to the playoffs this year. There's swaths of the lineup that aren't hitting, including, suddenly, Aaron Judge. And Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman seem to think that the best course of action right now is keeping Jasson Dominguez in Scranton. Dominguez has been murdering the ball in Triple-A, and is an upgrade from Alex Verdugo in left. But despite this being THE move, and despite everyone being ready for it, they won't commit. 'Alex is our left fielder', yada yada.
And thus the Yankees keep losing games, and wondering why.
Carlos Rodon, the other day, had his best start as a Yankee. He struck out 11 people. Only allowed one run. The Yanks were leading with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. Then Clay Holmes gives up a walk-off grand slam to Wyatt Langford, who proceeds to rob what could have been a crucial home run during Wednesday's game. Langford, by the way, was drafted last year, and made the majors this year because he was ready, and everyone knew it, and there was no use keeping him in the minors. Take that as a hint, Yankees. We're being fricasseed by a 20-year old who's major league ready because his organization has the balls to actually play him in the majors. And you're losing because you wanna ensure you control YOUR 20-year-old for as long as possible.
It's not like it's been all bad recently, but it's been infuriatingly mediocre. Jazz Chisholm, at the very least, is the answer at third base, hitting .333 with 9 homers, 15 RBIs and 11 steals in 26 games. I knew there was a chance someone like Chisholm would be too much in New York, but he's been wonderful so far, and has been lifting this team in this period. Soto is still hot, he's 2 homers away from 40 and 2 RBIs away from 100. Rodon, Cole and Cortes are on hot streaks right now, and this week we get Schmidt and Gil back. With no offense meant towards Marcus Stroman, if that rotation continues to hold up we could be alright.
But keeping Duke Ellis, an outfielder no one has heard of, in the majors over Jasson Dominguez is gross negligence at this point. Every game Dominguez isn't up, hitting like he is, feels like a thrown game. And that's what games against the Cardinals and Rangers have felt like, thrown games. The lineup feels uninspired some days- you have any idea how difficult it is for a lineup with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge in it to feel uninspired?? Plus, with Soto threatening to sign elsewhere, we don't even know if a Soto-Judge-Dominguez outfield will ever happen again after this season, which is why it needs to happen now, while all three are ready.
If the Yankees lose easily in the playoffs again, and they refuse to bring up Dominguez until it's far too late, they don't get to ask why. They just don't want to win. And it's easier if they outright say it than if they continue to make moves like this.
Coming Tonight: Leave it to the fifth man on the chart to somehow have himself an All-Star season.
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