The Evil Empire Weekly Wrap Up - Week 4
The Yankees are chugging along to the sweet tunes of Jazz!
This is going to be a mixed review from me this week. On one hand, the Yankees played a BAD series against the Cleveland Guardians. On the other hand, they took care of business at home against divisional rival, the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Yankees still sit atop the American League East with a 17-11 record. One thing I noticed while reviewing the standings is that the Yanks have a winning record at home (10-5) and on the road (7-6) so far this season. They will need to keep this up if they plan to win the division in 2025. Especially considering they have a losing record (7-9) to teams that are above .500 on the year.
Series 1: Cleveland Guardians (Away)
Game 1: L 6-4 | Game 2: L 3-2 | Game 3: W 5-1
Series 2: Toronto Blue Jays (Home)
Game 1: L 4-2 | Game 2: W 11-2 | Game 3: W 5-1
Clarke Schmidt pitched an excellent game against Toronto, and that is a great sign for New York. The Yankees are relying heavily on Schmidt to be productive this season, with Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Marcus Stroman out. The exciting news is that Gil started his throwing program yesterday and will continue to ramp up in the minors. As long as Gil can come back strong, I don’t hate this rotation. Even without Cole, New York still has two very good starters in Carlos Rodon and Max Fried. Marcus Stroman will be on the injured list longer than expected—this doesn’t concern me as much as it is not an injury to his throwing arm. If Gil and Stroman can return and make an impact, the Yankees should have a fighting chance in the playoffs.
I am shocked that the Yankees have allowed the least amount of hits in all of baseball to this point in the season. The problem is with allowing walks. As of today, the Yankees have allowed the third-most walks in the MLB. This is highly concerning. That being said, the staff as a whole is still good for a top-10 WHIP (1.20), which is a promising sign as they are allowing minimal contact!
Contrary to all the exciting news of Schmidt looking good and Gil coming back, I have to talk about the elephant in the room. Devin Williams has been demoted from the closer role. This makes sense as Williams is pitching to an 11.25 ERA so far in 2025. I'm not too worried, as he has shown year after year that he's a good pitcher. He needs a reset, and being taken out of the closer role (for now!) might be a good plan. Manager Aaron Boone wasn’t really given a choice, as Luke Weaver, who was awesome last season, is looking the part once again and owns a 0.00 ERA through twelve appearances so far this season.
Arms to Highlight:
Clarke Schmidt —> 5 IP | 6 K | 1.80 ERA | 1 H (Start vs. Toronto)
Carlos Rodon —> 7 IP | 8 K | 0.00 ERA | 0.86 WHIP | 1 QS | 1 W
Luke Weaver —> 3 IP | 1 K | 0.00 ERA | 0.33 WHIP (New Closer)
Notable Team Pitching Statistics Thru 4/28:
+ 1st in H (183)
- 28th in BB (112)
- 25th in QS (6)
+ 11th in ER (101)
New York is looking just fine in the post-Juan Soto world. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is starting to get hot, and Aaron Judge continues to put up Barry Bonds-like numbers. Again, it is early in the season to rely on April numbers to make an argument, but if you are a Yankees fan, you have to be optimistic about the hitting.
If Jasson “ The Martian” Dominguez breaks out at some point this season, the Yankees can be very dangerous. He is now hitting .238 on the year with a .726 OPS. Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu should provide some offensive reinforcements at some point this season when they return from the injured list. Weirdly enough, I still believe in Bellinger and expect him to get going soon. There is no shortage of optimism from me on the hitting front with this team.
Bats to Highlight:
Jazz Chisholm Jr. —> 1 HR | .278 BA | 4 R | 7 BB | .906 OPS
Aaron Judge —> 1 HR | 2 RBI | .458 BA | 4 R | 3 BB | 1.269 OPS
Jasson Dominguez —> 1 HR | 4 R | .263 BA | 3 RBI | 3 BB | .890 OPS
Notable Team Hitting Statistics Thru 4/28:
+ 2nd in AVG (.262)
+ 4th in H (247)
+ 2nd in TB (440)
- 3rd in SO (264)
The Yankees are now down in Baltimore for a 3-game series against divisional foe, the Baltimore Orioles, and then come back to New York to square off against another American League East rival, Tampa Bay. The Orioles have not been good so far in 2025 (10-17), and they are 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Yankees NEED to take care of business this week, especially while Baltimore is down. Tampa is a wild card in how they perform against teams; it really depends on who takes the mound that day. Fingers crossed the Yankees can take two out of three against both of these teams.