New York Yankees

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa said that New York Yankees designated hitter Josh Donaldson directed a racist comment toward White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.

Following his team's 7-5 defeat Saturday, La Russa told reporters that Donaldson "made a racist comment." He declined to provide any further details, saying the allegation was "as strong as it gets."

Tony La Russa alleges Josh Donaldson made a racist comment towards Tim Anderson. Declined to comment further. pic.twitter.com/PAWlac6Y0D

— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) May 21, 2022

Anderson said that Donaldson called him "Jackie," referring to baseball legend Jackie Robinson. He added he concurred with La Russa's description of the remark as "racist."

Tim Anderson says Josh Donaldson referred to him as "Jackie [Robinson]" pic.twitter.com/sk8R7HEJ7w

— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) May 21, 2022

Donaldson confirmed the allegation and said he was referencing a remark Anderson made in 2019.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated's Stephanie Apstein, Anderson said, "I kind of feel like today's Jackie Robinson," referencing his individual flair, which is largely frowned upon in MLB.

Donaldson told reporters he had joked with Anderson about the remarks when he played with Atlanta in 2019 and his team faced Chicago. The 2015 American League MVP said he was not "trying to be racist" and apologized.

Josh Donaldson admits he called Tim Anderson "Jackie" on the field today: pic.twitter.com/eko1UaR3Nt

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) May 21, 2022

https://twitter.com/lindseyadler/status/1528126505716424707

According to Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News, MLB is already looking into the matter.

In the bottom of the fifth inning as Donaldson was preparing to bat, White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal began talking to Donaldson and appeared to point toward Anderson at short. The benches cleared, and Anderson was held back and brought to the dugout by teammates Jose Abreu and Gavin Sheets.

Grandal and Donaldson exchanged words at home plate, benches cleared, TA had to be restrained 😳 pic.twitter.com/3OgsVivV7U

— White Sox on CHSN (@CHSN_WhiteSox) May 21, 2022

In the Yankees' 10-4 victory over the White Sox on May 13, Anderson took exception to Donaldson's actions during a tag play at third.

Josh Donaldson and Tim Anderson exchange words after this play at third.

(via @NBCSWhiteSox) pic.twitter.com/zd5CQsFvB9

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 14, 2022

Robinson became MLB's first Black player in 1947, opening the door for his peers and future generations of Black players.

"It's the guy that paved the way for a guy like me," Anderson told MLB.com's Scott Merkin of the Hall of Famer in April, during the league's annual celebration of Robinson's legacy. "Just what he brought to the game, he means so much to the game, he means so much to the world, he means so much to the community. This has been going on since before I was born, so it's super special."

If New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge remains on his current trajectory this season, he reportedly may be playing his way toward a $300 million contract.

Appearing Friday on The Rich Eisen Show, ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan discussed Judge's contract situation ahead of hitting free agency at the conclusion of the 2022 campaign:

Beginning at the 2:50 mark of the video, Passan said: "If Aaron Judge stays healthy, that's headed for a contract that starts with a three."

Judge and the Yankees were unable to come to terms on a new contract before the start of the 2021 season, and at the time, Judge said he did not intend to hold contract talks during the season.

Passan noted that the Yankees could have signed him to an extension worth $230 million over eight years, including 2021, but they took a chance by exercising a wait-and-see approach.

Now, Judge stands to make far more, given that he is perhaps the American League MVP front-runner in the early going.

Entering play Friday, the 30-year-old veteran leads Major League Baseball with 14 home runs, plus he is slashing .307/.381/.664 with 30 RBI and 32 runs scored.

On the strength of Judge's play, the Yankees are the best team in baseball so far this season with a 28-10 record.

When healthy, Judge has been a force throughout his seven-year MLB career with three All-Star selections, two Silver Slugger Awards, an American League Rookie of the Year Award and a second-place finish in the 2017 AL MVP voting when he hit career-high 52 homers.

Durability has been an issue at times, though, as he was limited to 112 games in 2018 and 102 games in 2019. He also appeared in only 28 of 60 games during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Last season was Judge's healthiest year since 2017, as he appeared in 148 games and finished with 39 home runs and 98 RBI.

Judge is on pace to surpass those marks this season, and if he does, he is in line to land a monster contract from the Yanks or another team.

Passan named the New York Mets, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs as big-market teams that could pursue Judge, but he noted that if the Yankees are willing to pay him the most or close to the most money, he expects Judge to remain in pinstripes.

New York Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo's time in the Bronx reportedly could come to an end this season.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports that some people around the league think that the Yankees could look to deal the struggling slugger by this year's trade deadline.

One National League executive compared his situation to pitcher Sonny Gray, who struggled in pinstripes but found his groove after he parted ways with New York.

"He’s been a little better lately," the NL executive said of Gallo. "If he continues to struggle, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them try to flip him."

Gallo has played in 34 games this season and has a batting average of .176 with five home runs, seven RBI and 45 strikeouts. He was held out of the starting lineup in Thursday's series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, but he entered in the ninth inning and drew a walk. The Yankees lost the game 9-6 on a walk-off three-run home run by Anthony Santander.

The Yankees acquired Gallo from the Texas Rangers at last year's trade deadline, adding a much-needed lefty power bat to what was a lineup dominated by right-handers. However, he failed to find any consistency at the plate and continued his penchant for head-scratching strikeouts.

During his 92 games with New York, Gallo has totals of just 18 home runs, 29 RBI and 133 strikeouts with a batting average of .166.

The Yankees fell to 28-10 with Thursday's loss, but they still own the best record in the majors this season and have won 10 of its last 13 games.

The Yankees will return home for a three-game weekend series against the Chicago White Sox starting Friday. 

New York Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes has deactivated his Twitter account after tweets surfaced from over 10 years ago that included racial slurs.

According to ESPN, Cortes appeared to be quoting rap lyrics in some of the tweets, and he didn't appear to be "using the words to demean anyone directly."

Cortes apologized for the tweets when speaking to reporters on Monday before New York's game against the Baltimore Orioles.

"I felt like it wasn't the right message that I wanted to send out, when I was 17 years old," Cortes said. "Those happened 10 years ago. I deactivated my Twitter to clean stuff up."

He added, "It's not acceptable. I think I could have managed myself and said stuff differently. But I'm here today to say that I'm going to work on it and fix it."

Cortes has been one of the best pitchers in the majors so far this season, putting together a breakout year. In seven starts, he has a 2-1 record with a 1.35 ERA, which ranks second in MLB. He's thrown 49 strikeouts against just 11 walks in 40 innings with a 0.85 WHIP.

The 27-year-old said he's disappointed in himself because he tries to use social media as a way to inspire people. He said he plans on reactivating his account soon.

"I hope to be back in the next few days," Cortes said. "I like to attract people like me, not the prototype 6-foot-5, 97 [mph pitcher]. For the last two or three years, I’ve been pretty positive on Twitter. When I saw that I was a little pissed off at myself."

Free-agent outfielder Brett Gardner reportedly turned down offers from multiple teams since the end of the 2021 season.

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Gardner declined a one-year, $6 million contract from the Toronto Blue Jays after the MLB lockout and did not pursue an opportunity with the Atlanta Braves when they expressed interest.

The New York Yankees are the only team Gardner has played for, and Rosenthal noted it was "likely" they are the only team with which he would sign.

Since the Yankees appear to have moved on, however, the 38-year-old's career may be over.

Gardner made his MLB debut in 2008 and spent 14 seasons with the Yankees, becoming one of the most beloved players of the post-dynasty era.

While Gardner was largely viewed as a hard-nosed role player, he wasn't without individual accolades, earning one All-Star nod and one Gold Glove Award.

The South Carolina native was also part of the Yankees' World Series championship team in 2009, and after CC Sabathia retired in 2019, Gardner was the only player from that club still on the roster.

Gardner slashed .256/.342/.398 and registered 139 home runs, 578 RBI, 943 runs and 274 stolen bases in 1,688 regular-season games.

He ranks third on the Bronx Bombers' all-time steals list and eighth on the team's triples list with 73.

Over the past few years, the expectation was for Gardner to be more of a fourth outfielder than a full-time starter, but he still got regular at-bats.

Last season, Gardner appeared in 140 games and hit .222 with 10 home runs, 39 RBI, 47 runs and four steals.

While Gardner had back-to-back seasons with well over 40 steals in 2010 and 2011, he ran less later in his career and upped his power. In fact, he is only a few years removed from setting career highs with 28 homers and 74 RBI in 2019.

There was some thought New York would bring Gardner back again this season, but room was scarce since Aaron Judge, Joey Gallo, Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton are the team's top four outfielders.

Additionally, the Yanks have a utility player in Marwin Gonzalez who can play the corner outfield spots, and they have a speedy extra outfielder in Tim Locastro.

There is also little incentive for the Yankees to sign Gardner now, as they are riding a hot streak and own the best record in Major League Baseball at 23-8.

That could change if injury issues crop up during the season, but there is no indication New York is looking to bring Gardner back into the fold.

Regardless of what the future holds for Gardner, he will always be viewed as a fan favorite among Yankees supporters and could make sense as a coach down the line if he wants to pursue that line of work.

Remember when Aaron Judge rejected a $230 million extension from the New York Yankees on April 8, thereby setting off a debate about whether he had just turned down the best contract offer he was ever going to get?

It now looks like at least one person had the right idea in that moment. And that person is Aaron Judge.

There's simply no overstating just how huge of a role Judge has played amid the Yankees' 23-8 start—the franchise's best since it also went 23-8 to begin 2003—to the 2022 season. He's planted himself in the thick of the American League MVP race by batting .296/.359/.635 and, oh yeah, by leading the league with 11 home runs.

The most recent of those came in style against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday:

Pardon me.
Are you Aaron Judge, sir? pic.twitter.com/09dbj7TubW

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 13, 2022

Granted, Judge had a far better on-base percentage (.422) when he burst onto the scene as the AL Rookie of the Year in 2017. As he finished with more WAR than Houston Astros star Jose Altuve, Judge arguably should also have won the MVP that year.

Yet all that happened in a much more hitter-friendly offensive environment than the one that has engulfed Major League Baseball this season. It's a new dead-ball era in which home runs and runs are way down and the league's batting average has never been lower. Hence why Judge's 193 OPS+ is the best of his career, and by plenty over the 171 mark he had in 2017.

It's easy to presume that the longer the 30-year-old keeps this up, the more likely it is that he'll land a contract to his liking in free agency this winter or, by some miracle, through an extension with the Yankees before then. Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, that was a deal in the eight-year range at $36 million annually.

If it's a question of whether Judge can keep this up, the short version is that he's not exactly overachieving.

---

Let's Gawk at the Quality of Judge's Contact

Look, it's Aaron Judge. By now, anyone with even a passing familiarity with baseball knows him as that 6'7", 282-pound guy with the deliciously sweet swing. And by extension, as the sport's foremost authority on hitting the ball really frickin' hard.

Judge is nonetheless outdoing himself in 2022. Specifically, he's tracking toward new career highs in these departments:

• AVG Exit Velocity: 96.4 mph
• Hard-Hit%: 65.0 percent
• Barrel%: 27.5 percent

In the entire Statcast era, Judge's exit velocity and barrel rate rank second behind what teammate Giancarlo Stanton and (arguable) AL MVP front-runner Mike Trout are also doing this year. His hard-hit rate, though, tops the charts.

Granted, perhaps there should be higher standards for what constitutes a "hard-hit" ball than the official threshold of 95 mph. But even if you shift the goalpost to 100 mph, Judge is still atop the Statcast-era charts with 51.2 percent of his batted balls above that mark. 

Clearly, his numbers aren't where they are because he's been taking frequent advantage of what Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward thinks are "little league" dimensions at Yankee Stadium. If anything, the Yankees' home park has taken home runs away from him.

Including this one on April 9:

Aaron Judge vs Nick Pivetta#SquadUp

Flyout 💢

Exit velo: 110.2 mph
Launch angle: 35 deg
Proj. distance: 411 ft

This would have been a home run in 22/30 MLB ballparks

BOS (2) @ NYY (0)
🔻 4th pic.twitter.com/g3BkM5i5GW

— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 9, 2022

And to a lesser extent, this one on April 12:

Aaron Judge vs Yusei Kikuchi#RepBX

Flyout 💢

Exit velo: 95.7 mph
Launch angle: 29 deg
Proj. distance: 363 ft

This would have been a home run in 10/30 MLB ballparks

TOR (0) @ NYY (0)
🔻 1st pic.twitter.com/wbkuFchnY4

— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 12, 2022

Even despite near-misses like these, Judge is still on track to potentially surpass the 52 home runs he hit in 2017. Considering that the leaguewide home run rate is down from 1.26 per game that year to 0.93 per game this year, that this is even a possibility defies belief.

---

Judge Is Also Making Good Swing Decisions

Though essentially unrivaled power is the obvious upside of Judge's gigantic frame, it also has a downside that's no less obvious.

That would be calls like this one:

Aaron Judge is furious pic.twitter.com/Qhs8JFWcUY

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) May 9, 2022

Judge has to put up with a lot of that. Even though he missed about 40 percent of the Yankees' games with injuries between 2018 and 2020, he's still the only hitter since 2017 to suffer more than 400 called strikes outside the strike zone.

This is all the more reason for Judge not to waste what swings he takes. And to this end, the fact that both his strikeout rate and his out-of-zone swing rate are worse relative to 2021 might suggest that he's gone backward in this particular arena in 2022.

His swinging strikes, however, currently account for a career-low 19.9 percent of all the strikes against him this season. That's instructive, but perhaps not so much as this graph:

Yes, Judge's slugging against off-speed pitches is down. But as he's seen more than twice as many breaking balls (169) than he has off-speed pitches (80), it matters more that his slugging percentage against the former is up so high that it's actually surpassed his slugging against fastballs.

Why is this happening? Basically because Judge is taking more swings like this one:

To put it in statistical terms, the average height of the breaking balls Judge is swinging at is the highest of his career.

And not just because he's doing a good job at swinging at the hangers, but also because he's doing better at laying off breaking balls down below the zone. Between 2017 and 2021, he swung at 24.8 percent of those. This year? 20.6 percent.

All told, it's hard to offer Judge any constructive notes right now. Even in the face of dead balls and bad calls, he's going to keep putting up numbers as long as his approach and swing remain on point.

---

Is There Still Hope for an Extension?

Meanwhile in the background of all this, Judge's contract situation remains unsettled.

Because the lockout forced MLB and the MLB Players Association to punt the arbitration process into the season, Judge still doesn't have a set salary for 2022. That issue may not be resolved until June 22, which Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported as the date for Judge's hearing. Judge filed at $21 million, with the Yankees countering at $17 million.

If Judge and the Yankees avoid arbitration by agreeing to terms before then, odds are it will be on a one-year deal that will only cover this season. From what Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Wednesday, however, the door may not be entirely shut on a long-term extension:

Brian Cashman on Aaron Judge's contract:

"We're not going to talk about it now going forward. Whether that means we're not going to talk, I'm not saying that, but we're not going to talk about it (publicly). But he's been great. But that's no surprise, because he is great."

— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) May 11, 2022

As for whether Judge could also reconsider signing a long-term deal with the Yankees, a reading of the tea leaves suggests that nobody should be holding their breath.

It was Judge who set Opening Day as the deadline for a deal, and for understandable reasons that he outlined to reporters:

“The last thing I want to do is be in the middle of May after a good series and people talking, ‘Oh, you going to sign an extension?’ Or after an 0 for 4, ‘You should have signed that extension.’ We’ll try to get everything out of the way right now while we’re still prepping and getting ready for the season. But once it’s April 7 and a packed house in the Bronx, it’s going to be time to focus on winning ball games and that’s it.”

For two, Judge wasn't too thrilled that Cashman went public with the terms of the offer that the Yankees made him in April. He said, “It’s something I felt like was private between my team and the Yankees."

For three, there just isn't any precedent for the kind of contract that Judge is looking for coming so late in a season. Or even during a season, for that matter. There have been nine contract extensions worth upward of $200 million, and each one of them was agreed to either before or after a given season.

Still, there's always a way to say "never say never."

Though Judge has played in 92 percent of the Yankees' games since the start of last season, any player with his injury history probably shouldn't feel 100 percent confident in his mortality. And as hot as he's been in the batter's box, outs above average and sprint speed paint less rosy pictures of his defense and baserunning.

Such things may be neither here nor there right now, but they're likely to be knocks against Judge in free agency if he does ultimately go through that door. Still another potential knock is the fact that he'll be 31 before next April is over. 

Arguably, these alone are reasons for Judge to also keep the door open to an extension with the Yankees. And while the caveat is that he said as much before his talks with the Yankees fizzled, his love for the organization and New York are on record. In an interview last November, he said there's "no better place to play" and that "if it was up to me, I would be a Yankee for the next 10 years."

Of course, all this is academic until the Yankees force Judge to reconsider by coming to him with a greatly improved extension offer. If not one with more years, then certainly one with more dollars.

With the way he's going, they might as well try their luck.

---

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman called out Houston Astros owner Jim Crane before Thursday's game against the Chicago White Sox for comparing the Pinstripes' $100,000 fine for using their dugout phone to relay signs in 2015 and '16 to Houston's major 2017 sign-stealing scandal that resulted in a World Series title. 

"I don't think anybody's going to dance to the tune he's singing," Cashman said, according to ESPN's Marly Rivera. "I'd say it's called deflection, him trying to equate probably ... an equivalent of a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies."

Earlier this week, Crane called out Cashman for mentioning the Astros' sign-stealing scandal as one of the reasons the Yankees have not won a championship since 2009. Houston eliminated New York in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS to reach the World Series.

All of the Yankees' losses in that series were on the road at Minute Maid Park, where the Astros used trash can banging as a way to relay signs. 

“I found his comments to be extremely strange,’’ Crane told USA Today's Bob Nightengale. “There’s the letter, and you were doing it, too. You were there dude. What are you talking about? If I was one of the teams, and I knew our team was doing it [cheating], I’d keep my mouth shut and just go about our business. But listen, I can only control what’s going on here. I can’t control what the other guys do.’’

A letter MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred sent to the Yankees in 2017 became public last month. The letter revealed that an investigation found the Bronx Bombers guilty of stealing signs in 2015 and parts of 2016 by using the dugout phone and video replay room to decode and communicate signs. 

Cashman's comments about the Astros sign-stealing scandal came during spring training, before Manfred's letter was made public. He told The Athletic's Andy McCullough that the only thing that stopped the Yankees from winning the World Series "was something that was so illegal and horrific."

He added: "So I get offended when I start hearing we haven't been to the World Series since '09. Because I'm like, 'Well, I think we actually did it the right way.' Pulled it down, brought it back up. Drafted well, traded well, developed well, signed well. The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off."

While the Yankees were fined only $100,000, the Astros received a much harsher punishment for banging on trash cans to relay signs in 2017. Houston was fined $5 million and forced to forfeit its first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. In addition, former manager AJ Hinch and former general manager Jeff Luhnow were suspended for one year. 

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman isn't going to publicly speak about any potential contract negotiations the team has with Aaron Judge. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Cashman addressed the Yankees' stance on talks with Judge. 

"We're not going to talk about it now going forward," Cashman said. "Whether that means we're not going to talk, I'm not saying that, but we're not going to talk about it [publicly]. But he's been great. But that's no surprise, because he is great."

It's unclear if Judge even intends to engage the Yankees in contract talks during the season. He set a self-imposed deadline of Opening Day for the two sides to get a deal done before he tabled discussions until the offseason. 

After no deal was reached, Cashman told reporters on April 8 that New York's final offer to Judge was for seven years and $213.5 million. 

That deal would have been added to the $17 million New York offered Judge through arbitration for this season, bringing the total value to $230.5 million over eight years. (Judge filed for $21 million in arbitration, per MLB.com's Mark Feinsand.)

Based on current contracts, the $230.5 million in total value would have made Judge the 13th-highest paid player in Major League Baseball. The $28.8 million average annual salary would have ranked 16th among active contracts. 

Per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, Judge was seeking a deal of at least nine years and more than the $30.5 million per season than New York's seven-year extension included. 

Judge certainly deserves to be paid like one of the best players in MLB. The three-time All-Star has a .277/.384/.558 slash line with 168 homers in 600 career games. He has two top-four finishes in AL MVP voting. 

The Yankees are right to take a somewhat cautious approach in negotiations with Judge. The California native was an older player when he made his MLB debut at the age of 24. He just turned 30 on April 26 and missed a total of 142 regular-season games from 2018-20. 

It's a complicated situation for both Judge and the Yankees. Regardless of how things play out between them, it isn't affecting either side's performance in 2022. He leads MLB with 10 homers and the Yankees' 21-8 record is the best mark in baseball.