New York Post | Dan Martin: Matt Blake has made a name for himself transforming other teams’ castoff relievers into high leverage arms, which is why Devin Williams’ early season struggles presented a different sort of challenge for the Yankees pitching coach.
“It was shocking to everybody… Everybody was trying to figure out what was going on here and what are we missing? He’s not getting the swing-and-miss and the strikes we were hoping for. We had all those questions and had to get it fixed on the fly.”
The key might have been as simple as temporarily removing him from the closer role, allowing him a lower pressure environment to adjust to his new surroundings in the demanding media market of New York. On the actual pitching side, Williams became over-reliant on his changeup while failing to command his fastball, and coaches encouraged him to be more aggressive in the zone with both pitches. The result is a jump in whiff rate against both pitches and improvements in his overall strikeout and walk rates, and in his last 13 appearances, he’s struck out 17 and walked just two to go along with a 0.830 WHIP.
FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: Sunday night’s clunker against the Red Sox notwithstanding, Carlos Rodón looks like a pitcher reborn this season and the closest to the version from the two seasons immediately preceding his move to New York that the Yankees have seen. Credit belongs to a philosophical shift from a two-pitch pitcher to one unafraid to use his full five-pitch arsenal in unexpected counts and locations, a change which Rodón admits was difficult in the beginning after dominating with fastball and slider for two straight seasons. Even after giving up five runs in five innings to the Red Sox, Rodón remains among the top-ten of qualified AL starters in ERA (2.87), FIP (3.27), xERA (2.68), innings (84.2), strikeout rate (31%) and fWAR (1.8).
NJ Advance Media | Jimmy Hascup: DJ LeMahieu has surprised many by performing at an above-average clip since returning from injury, slashing .258/.333/.371 with two home runs, nine RBIs, and a 103 wRC+ in 69 plate appearances across 20 games. However, it has been three years since LeMahieu produced at an above-average level across a whole season, calling into question how much longer the soon-to-be 37-year-old can maintain these performances. Part of the logic of having Jazz Chisholm Jr. play third upon his own return from injury has been to broaden the options available in the lead-up to the MLB Trade Deadline to both second and third base, though LeMahieu insists he is not worried about his job security.
MLB Trade Rumors | Mark Polishuk: Speaking of possible reinforcements to the infield (or at the very least improvements to depth), the Yankees have claimed infielder CJ Alexander from the Athletics three days after he was designated for assignment. The 28-yea- old has played mostly third base in his career and has just 25 big league appearances to his name between the Royals and A’s the last two years. He has spent much of the last three years at Triple-A, where he’s slashed .264/.330/.502 with 42 home runs and 135 RBIs in 908 career plate appearances.
