Newsday's Erik Boland looks at five questions facing the Yankees in the second half of the 2016 MLB season.
1. Buy or sell?
This has been debated, really, since the Yankees got off to a 9-17 start. They’ve righted the ship to some degree but to this point haven’t put together a long stretch of consistent play that makes them look like contenders. Even with their impressive series victory over the Indians, winning three of four, the Yankees sit at 44-44, 7 1/2 games behind the Orioles. A 10-game homestand, which includes games against the Red Sox and Orioles, to open the second half will go a long way toward determining if the Bombers put assets such as relievers Aroldis Chapman (pictured) and Andrew Miller, and outfielders Carlos Beltran and Brett Gardner on the block before the trade deadline.
2. Can Beltran keep it up?
Beltran, in the final season of a three-year, $45-million deal, was the club’s first-half offensive MVP, which few saw coming. The 39-year-old, named to his ninth All-Star game, posted a .299/.338/.550 slash line at the break, leading the club in homers (19) and RBI (56). Manager Joe Girardi shudders when forced to contemplate where his .500 team would be without Beltran’s production. It is the kind of production that had teams in need of a bat sending scouts out to see the Yankees as the first half came to an end. But the veteran has been dealing with a tight right hamstring, forcing Girardi to put him almost exclusively at designated hitter the last couple of weeks of the first half. The hope is for Beltran to return to rightfield after the break but his remaining as the primary DH, of course, leads to this query ...
3. How much playing time will A-Rod get in the second half?
The DH, who turns 41 on July 27, has had just nine plate appearances since July 1, six of them on July 5 in his one start, which coincided with Beltran’s one start in right.
It has been a season of frustration for Rodriguez, who had a .220/.260/.382 first-half slash line, with eight homers and 28 RBI and there doesn’t appear to be extensive playing time in sight. His splits show why he’d become a platoon DH even before Beltran’s hamstring issue — slashing .198/.237/.333 vs. righties compared to .267/.308/.483 vs. lefties — and also why it leaked he would work on taking grounders at first base during the break. Problem is, as club insiders point out, he’s behind Mark Teixeira, Rob Refsnyder, Austin Romine, Brian McCann and maybe even Chase Headley as first-base options.
4. When does Nathan Eovaldi get back into the rotation?
The hard-throwing 26-year-old righthander looked as if he had finally reached the potential so many felt he was capable of, getting off to a 6-2 start this season with a 3.71 ERA after a victory over Tampa on May 29. But it was a quick nosedive from there, with Eovaldi going 0-4 with a 9.20 ERA over his next six starts, which earned him a spot in the bullpen in an undefined role. Girardi said the move is temporary, and it’s certainly a stretch to think Eovaldi won’t be back in the rotation at some point, but the manager didn’t exactly go out of his way to say the pitcher’s return to it would be any time soon.
5. Can Didi get even better?
Asked just before the break who he would tab as the Yankees’ first-half MVPs, Girardi named two: Beltran and Didi Gregorius. The 26-year-old shortstop, whom CC Sabathia called “our most exciting player,” slashed .298/.328/.468 in the first half, already reaching a career-high in homers with 11. The error total (12 compared to 13 all of last season) is a tad high but he’s saved more than his share of runs, consistently stopping balls hit to the hole and back up the middle that off the bat look like sure hits. “He’s on another level,” catcher Brian McCann said of Gregorius.
- Newsday