New York Yankees

New York is implementing new COVID-19 guidelines for fans attending games at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced that normal seating in both stadiums will be available to fans who have been fully vaccinated. 

Fans who haven't been vaccinated will continue to be seated six feet apart. 

Cuomo added that COVID-19 shots will be made available at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, and any fan who receives a vaccination will also get a free ticket to an upcoming game. 

Cuomo didn't mention any potential guidelines for the Toronto Blue Jays. They will be playing home games in Buffalo at Sahlen Field starting on June 1 after setting up camp at their spring training home in Dunedin, Florida, for the first two months this season. 

Back in March, both clubs received permission to allow fans in their stadiums at 20 percent capacity in accordance with New York health and safety guidelines. 

Cuomo recently announced as of May 15 that outdoor spectator events can increase capacity to 33 percent. 

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told MSNBC's Morning Joe on April 29 that the "plan" is for the city to be completely reopened by July 1. 

Cuomo, who will have final say when things open as governor of the entire state, said during a press briefing last month he's hoping for a "functional reopening" possibly before July 1. 

Per New York's official health website, more than 2.7 million people in New York City have been fully vaccinated and 44.9 percent of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. 

Jose Altuve didn't receive a warm welcome back to the Bronx. 

New York Yankees fans had some choice words for the Houston Astros star when he stepped up to the plate in his first appearance in New York since his team defeated the Yankees in the 2019 American League Championship Series.

Yes, #Yankees fans are yelling what you think they are yelling at #Astros’ Jose Altuve pic.twitter.com/MXG0Y7Z9hD

— Brendan Kuty 🧟‍♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) May 4, 2021

Of course, Altuve was among players implicated in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal from 2017-18. During that playoff series, the Yankees raised some eyebrows about the team's tendencies, but the issue didn't become an official concern until after the season. 

Upon the investigation, it was revealed that the Astros stole signs in their World Series championship campaign in 2017, when they defeated the Yankees in the ALCS. 

It's highly unlikely this is the end of it for the Astros, who are in New York until Thursday. 

New York Yankees fans weren't about to miss their chance to heckle the Houston Astros prior to Tuesday's game.

After all, it was Houston's first trip to the Bronx with fans in attendance since news of its sign-stealing scandal broke, and Yankees fans chanted "you're a cheater" at Carlos Correa during batting practice:

“You’re a cheater”

Yankees fans letting Carlos Correa have it during BP 🗣

(via @MaxTGoodman)pic.twitter.com/wHRM0V5wcM

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) May 4, 2021

Major League Baseball fined the Astros $5 million, stripped them of their first- and second-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021, and suspended general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch for one year after it was discovered the team implemented a sign-stealing system during its championship run in 2017.

Houston ultimately fired Hinch and Luhnow.

Yankees fans in particular likely have strong feelings about the scandal seeing how Houston stunned their team in a seven-game battle in the 2017 American League Championship Series. 

They certainly let Correa know how they feel.

The New York Yankees traded outfielder Mike Tauchman to the San Francisco Giants for reliever Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later, the club announced Tuesday.

The New York Yankees announced today that they have acquired LHP Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for OF Mike Tauchman.

Prior to tonight's game, the Yankees recalled INF/OF Tyler Wade (#14).

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 27, 2021

In a corresponding move, utility-man Tyler Wade has been recalled to the Yankees from the team's alternate site.

Tauchman had been a valuable depth piece for the Yankees in recent years—especially as injuries continued to mount in 2019 and 2020—but was off to a slow start in 2021 with manager Aaron Boone unable to give him consistent playing time.

The 30-year-old is slashing .214/.267/.286 with one extra-base hit in 16 plate appearances entering Tuesday. With Aaron Judge, Clint Frazier, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Brett Gardner all capable of playing in the outfield, Tauchman became a bit of an odd man out.

Instead, Tauchman goes to San Francisco for Peralta, a left-handed reliever who primarily uses a fastball-slider combination to attack hitters.

The 29-year-old has thrown 8.1 innings this season with a 5.40 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, eight strikeouts and two saves. He should help the Yankees bullpen set up for closer Aroldis Chapman while providing Boone with a mismatch option in relief.

New York (9-13) will now carry five lefties out of the pen as it attempts to get its season back on track after an abysmal April.

The Giants, meanwhile, add Tauchman to center field with LaMonte Wade Jr. on the 10-day injured list and Mike Yastrzemski considered day-to-day.

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Angels reportedly "very briefly talked" about the possibility of an Aaron Judge trade, but "nothing advanced" in those conversations, according to ESPN's Buster Olney. 

According to that report, those talks were the "lightest of flirtations, and perhaps a door-opener for other names. Teams talk all the time about a wide range of players, from their best to their least accomplished."

But as Olney noted, the Yankees have a big decision on the horizon when it comes to Judge, who will hit free agency following the 2023 season.  

As he wrote, "In 2017, [Judge] clubbed 52 homers, drew 127 walks and posted a 1.049 OPS. In the 258 games since then—played over the full seasons of 2018 and 2019, the 60-game season of '20, and the sprinkling of games this year—Judge has 67 homers and .914 OPS."

Judge has not trended in the right direction, in other words. 

The 28-year-old was an All-Star in that 2017 season, won the Rookie of the Year and was the AL MVP runner-up behind Jose Altuve. But he missed 50 games in 2018, 60 games in 2019 and 32 games last year.

There's little doubt that Judge is a threat to go yard when he's healthy. But just how much of a threat? But was that 2017 season something of an aberration? Is Judge a very good player who had one MVP-esque season and may never replicate it? And how much of an investment in Judge are the Yankees willing to make if they are concerned about his continued issues with injuries? How well will he age into his 30s?

Hence the team's complicated, looming decision. 

Granted, it's hard to imagine the rest of the American League would have been thrilled to see Judge settling into the Angeles lineup behind Mike Trout. And if Judge is ever put on the trade block, you can bet more than a few teams will come calling. 

But if he hits free agency, he's a candidate to get paid in a big way. Paying him an extension to keep him from free agency will equally cost big bucks. The Yankees will have to decide if they're willing to shell them out. 

New York Yankees great Yogi Berra famously liked to say, "It's getting late early out there." It feels like it's getting late early for the Yankees right now, who are off to their worst start in 30 years. 

New York lost to the Atlanta Braves 4-1 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night and moved to 6-11—dead last in the AL East. The last time the club started the season this badly was in 1991. This two-game midweek matchup was once billed as a potential World Series preview, but the Braves also find themselves at the bottom of the NL East. 

It was a frigid night in the Bronx. The temperature briefly dipped below 40 degrees after an afternoon of thunderstorms. It was a sign of cold bats and turbulent times to come. 

The Yankees looked lifeless at the plate. They mustered only four hits off Braves right-hander Ian Anderson and five total. Maybe the upstate New York native is conditioned for pitching in the cold, or maybe the Yankees fell flat. 

This is hilarious. 😂 pic.twitter.com/oXMFT5YAnw

— Yankeesource (@YankeeSource) April 22, 2021

There was a clear lack of hustle and no sense of urgency. Gleyber Torres illustrated this in the seventh inning when he squibbed one in front of the plate on a checked swing and jogged to first base instead of trying to sprint to beat the throw from catcher Travis d'Arnaud. 

"It was a check swing, and in that moment, really I didn't know if it was fair or foul," Torres said in his postgame Zoom press conference. "I didn't see the ball well, and I started to run late. I can put a little more effort running to first base."

Manager Aaron Boone said he would speak to Torres about the play, but he made it clear he was unhappy with his 24-year-old shortstop. 

"I think anytime you have that kind of situation where a guy has got to get off the mound, you've got to get after him," Boone said over Zoom. "I think initially, in his mind he was probably thinking foul ball right away and then in his mind it was like, 'Oh no, I've got to get going.' And then you're a little late. So that's got to get a little bit better, obviously."

Boone is doing what every good manager does and protecting his embattled players publicly while also holding them accountable. He says he sees "guys in the fight right now grinding away," and he's trying to manage their frustrations. 

"It's on all of us to make sure we're not only locked in—which I know we are—but also, while you're taking lumps and getting beat up a little bit to make sure your mindset is strong, but also positive," Boone said. "Especially when we're talking about guys that have really strong track records."

The World Series is never won or lost in April, when most of the time it's still too cold in the Northeast for anyone to really function. But a bad April can force a team to play catch-up the rest of the season. The Yankees are digging themselves into a giant hole, and they're going to have to slug their way out of it. 

The only problem is: They're not slugging. Forget slugging. They're not hitting at all. 

What was supposed to be one of the league's best offenses has the worst OPS in baseball (.630). Their .251 batting average on balls in play is second-to-last in the American League and third-to-last in MLB. Pinstripe hitters are getting walks at a 10.9 percent clip, and they aren't striking out excessively (24.2 percent K rate), so this would suggest that they aren't getting hard contact when the ball is put in play. 

Statcast numbers back up that conclusion: Their 7.7 barrel percentage is toward the middle of the league, and their 38.1 hard hit percentage is toward the bottom. 

"We're just not producing as a whole, and we're not doing our job," outfielder Aaron Judge said over Zoom on Wednesday night. "Some nights, a couple guys will pick it up and nobody else will support them. It's about getting us clicking on the same page and going back to doing what we do best, which is wearing down pitchers." 

There will likely be some regression to the mean for a team full of heavy hitters. The ball will start flying out of the park when the weather warms. And at some point, first baseman Luke Voit (torn meniscus) will return, which will help with the run-scoring woes. 

But the lack of offense is exposing all of the other inefficiencies. This team was built to hit enough to be able to overcome those inefficiencies, but it's tough to get past a porous infield defense and mediocre starting pitching when runs aren't being scored. 

FanGraphs ranks the Yankees 26th in defensive efficiency. There is little starting pitching depth behind ace Gerrit Cole. Reclamation projects like Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon still can't go deep into games and probably won't be able to for another month or so. Luckily, the Yankees have a strong bullpen, but overtaxing the relief corps now could pose future problems. 

The optics are bad, and the fans are mad. They threw baseballs on the field during a series against the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, a dangerous act that only made them look spoiled and entitled, and they started chants of "Fire Boone" on Wednesday night. 

The perceived lack of spending has to be irksome for a fanbase conditioned to think that this team will just lay out more money than all of the others. After all, this is the New York Yankees. This is supposed to be the best club money can buy. That title now goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Boone might be the first Yankees manager since Stump Merrill to start a season 6-11, but firing a manager who's popular with struggling players would do little good. General manager Brian Cashman built this team, and it will be on him to fill the holes as the season is played—though it will be tough with how close the club is to the $210 million luxury-tax threshold (less than $3 million away, per FanGraphs). 

If Cashman can convince owner Hal Steinbrenner to go over, maybe he'll swing a trade for Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story to reunite him with his former double play partner, DJ LeMahieu. Maybe Cashman can convince the Rockies, a club in a state of disarray, to eat enough salary to make it feasible. Torres' minus-15 career defensive runs save at the position are very telling.

Or, maybe he can acquire a starting pitcher.

Fans see a championship window open, and they want the Yankees to take advantage of it by going over the threshold. 

What Boone can do is shake up the lineup. He can bench Torres to send a message about his lack of hustle. He can give a slumping Aaron Hicks a pause. 

That kind of juggling is needed to keep it from getting too late too early in the Bronx. 

"I believe in our guys. I know who they are. I know we're gonna mash," Boone said. "It's definitely frustrating when you're going through it, but as far as, is it hard to stay positive? No, not at all, because I know we're walking out there with heavy artillery each and every night.

"We've just got to unlock it right now. And we will." 

New York Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela left Wednesday's game against the Atlanta Braves early due to back tightness, the team announced.

Urshela was 1-for-3 with a single before departing the game in the seventh inning.

Rougned Odor moved into the lineup and DJ LeMahieu slid over to the hot corner as the Yankees trailed the Braves, 3-0. They eventually fell, 4-1.

https://twitter.com/MarlyRiveraESPN/status/1385039130355195907

Urshela grounded into in a double play and was in discomfort as he made his way down the first-base line in his last at-bat.

The 29-year-old was hitting .273 entering the night, the second-highest average among the Yankees' everyday players behind LeMahieu's .300. He played a major role in the team's 3-1 victory over Atlanta on Tuesday, going 2-for-3 with a double and a solo home run. 

If he's forced to miss time, Odor will likely see time in the infield with LeMahieu continuing to slide over to third. The insertion of Odor would do little to help New York's woes, as he's hitting just .125  with a home run through seven games this season. 

Urshela has been a bright spot for the otherwise unexciting Yankees, who entered Wednesday in last place in the AL East at 6-10, five games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox. 

As a team, the Yankees entered Wednesday with a second-worst batting average at .204, with just 58 runs (third-worst) and 112 hits (fourth-worst). 

They're back in action against Cleveland on Thursday at 6:10 p.m. ET. 

No team in the American League has a worse mark than the New York Yankees' 5-10 record, and general manager Brian Cashman is hoping it's a start the team will move past. 

"It's 15 games," he said, per Joon Lee of ESPN. "It's 15 games I'd like to forget."

Cashman also noted the team does not plan on overreacting to a slow start with so many games remaining in the season.

"I've got a lot of trust in the people we have," Cashman said. "I've seen them work a lot of magic along the way. ... We're not reactive. I don't see us reacting to not believing in the staff we have, and the players we have, either."

Lee noted the last time the Bronx Bombers started off 5-10 was in 1997, although they bounced back and made the playoffs with 96 wins.

Cashman isn't the only one frustrated with the slow start.

Pitcher Gerrit Cole told reporters the mood in the clubhouse is "certainly not happy," following Sunday's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay completed the sweep of a series that also saw frustrated Yankees fans throw baseballs onto the field during Friday's contest:

Play stoppage because of an excess of baseballs... No really, Yankees fans started throwing baseballs on the field.

We don't get it either!

Watch @RaysBaseball on Bally Sports Sun & stream it here: https://t.co/Mk8FfLbJty #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/fHHy7FIZs8

— Rays on FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Rays) April 17, 2021

The biggest issue for the Yankees has been power with a league-worst .346 slugging percentage and 16 home runs through 15 games.

It is a rather surprising development considering they finished second in the league with 306 long balls in 2019 and fifth in the shortened 2020 campaign with 94 homers.

New York is five games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East, although Boston finished in last place during the 2020 season. The Yankees have plenty of time to make up that ground on a team that is exceeding expectations at this point.

Doing so would help Cashman forget this abysmal start.

The New York Yankees are coming off four straight playoff appearances and are stacked on paper. Safe to say, not many people envisioned a 5-10 start for the Bronx Bombers, but that is exactly where they sit following Sunday's 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. 

"Certainly not happy," ace Gerrit Cole said when asked about the mood in the clubhouse given the team's American League-worst record:

What's the mood in the Yankees clubhouse right now?

"Certainly not happy" - Gerrit Cole pic.twitter.com/Vnak5vkfLE

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 18, 2021

It was hard to blame the right-hander for Sunday's loss, as he allowed two earned runs and five hits while striking out 10 in 6.1 innings of work.

Cole was dialed in again after allowing three earned runs with 29 strikeouts in 18.1 innings in his first three starts against the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. Two of New York's limited wins came with him on the mound.

While it is early in the season, SportsCenter noted the last time the Yankees had the worst record in the American League was back in 1968. They bounced back some that season and finished 83-79, although they missed the playoffs.

New York has lost five in a row, and things took a turn for the ugly Friday when frustrated fans threw baseballs onto the field and caused a stoppage in play:

Play stoppage because of an excess of baseballs... No really, Yankees fans started throwing baseballs on the field.

We don't get it either!

Watch @RaysBaseball on Bally Sports Sun & stream it here: https://t.co/Mk8FfLbJty #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/fHHy7FIZs8

— Rays on FanDuel Sports Network (@FanDuelSN_Rays) April 17, 2021

"That was the first time that I think I've experienced that," outfielder Clint Frazier told reporters. "You never want it to come to that, obviously. Hopefully moving forward we play well enough to where that does not happen again."

Fortunately for the Yankees, it is just mid-April with plenty of time remaining to make up ground in the AL East. 

That won't be easy with the Boston Red Sox sitting at 10-5 and the Rays and Blue Jays both realistic playoff contenders, but there is enough talent to make a charge as the season progresses even if it has been a frustrating start.

New York Yankees first baseman Jay Bruce announced Sunday he will retire after the game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The three-time All-Star released a statement:

Jay Bruce announces his retirement. pic.twitter.com/bJNmt0ASpO

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 18, 2021

Bruce was the Yankees' starting first baseman for Opening Day after an injury to Luke Voit but has increasingly been phased out of the lineup. He has not played since Wednesday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays and is slashing .118/.231/.235 with one home run and three runs batted in this season. 

The Yankees have been starting DJ LeMahieu at first base following the acquisition of Rougned Odor, who has been starting at second since being acquired from the Texas Rangers. 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he expects Voit to return in the next two or three weeks, which would have further limited Bruce's playing time.

Bruce played for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Cleveland, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies and Yankees in his 14 MLB seasons. He had his greatest success with the Reds, earning All-Star appearances in 2011, 2012 and 2016 and winning two Silver Sluggers in 2012 and 2013.

After being a consistent slugger in the outfield over the first decade of his career, Bruce struggled to continue producing into his 30s. He didn't top 30 home runs after 2017 and slashed .212/.280/.439 after the beginning of the 2018 season.