BACK AGAINST THE WALL: Phil Hughes walks off the mound after being pulled following a a two-run homer in the eighth inning of yesterday’s 4-1 Yankees loss to the Twins at Yankee Stadium. (
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Phil Hughes was Matt Harvey once, and so yesterday was yet another cautionary tale of the career of the phenom pitcher.
They all don’t grow up to be Tom Seaver.
Hughes was the can’t miss blue-chipper, the 23rd pick of the 2004 draft, if not the future ace of Joe Torre’s staff, then probably a No. 2 or No. 3 starter. He sure had George Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman singing the praises of the farm system when only a barking hamstring sabotaged his bid for a no-hitter against the Rangers in Arlington in the seventh inning … of his second major league start.
Hell, the Yankees refused to part with him after the 2007 season when the Twins were willing to deal Johan Santana.
That was then.
This is now.
Hughes is being shopped, because these Yankees are hardly Bronx Bombers, in case you haven’t noticed, Ivan Nova is on a roll and Michael Pineda is on his way.
Hughes is being shopped because he is a free agent after the season, because he has been a maddening tease too often, and the three gopher balls he surrendered yesterday to the Twins — not your Harmon Killebrew Twins — won’t help Cashman’s extract fair value, if there is such a thing for a 27-year-old right-hander who just might need a change of scenery to remember who and what he was expected to be.
You hate to give up on arms like his, right arms that struck out 10 batters in a 4-1 loss, because when you read references to ex-Yankee Ian Kennedy these days, you read “Diamondbacks ace,” even if his 21-4 breakout season came in 2011. You hate to give up on class like this, because Hughes is as good as it gets, whether he is taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning three years ago against the A’s in Oakland, or on days such as yesterday, when he stands there and faces the music for as long as the media band decides to play.
The boobirds serenaded Hughes as he trudged off the mound in the eighth inning yesterday, suddenly as popular as Mark Sanchez at MetLife Stadium.
“I know that ever since I came up, I was built up as this better-than-anybody-ever sort of pitcher,” Hughes told The Post. “Sometimes that’s tough to live up to that sort of thing. You have to earn the respect of fans, and when you don’t do that, they get on you, so…”
It does not mean he would welcome a trade.
“I just want to pitch. I love playing in New York. I love my teammates, I’ve been around these guys a long time. I’m comfortable here, so … obviously priority 1 is to help this team win, and that’s what I’m focused on,” Hughes said.
He was an All-Star only three years ago, maybe a Ruthian Pedro Florimon two-run home run from his hometown Angel Stadium. He was a monster out of the bullpen when the Yankees won their 27th world championship in 2009.
When asked how he would sum up his Yankees career, Hughes said, “It’s been a lot of ups and downs.”
He has allowed 18 home runs this season, and Trevor Plouffe, Ryan Doumit and Florimon all tagged him on 2-2 counts on a day when manger Joe Girardi thought Hughes’ stuff was as good as it had been all season.
“Plouffe’s homer was a fastball that just leaked over the middle of the plate,” Hughes said, “and the other ones were just sliders that weren’t in the right spot.”
He has a 4-9 record with a 4.57 ERA, and reading that perhaps the right spot for him will be someplace else.
“It’s stuff that’s out of my control, I don’t really think about it,” Hughes said. “I’ve seen plenty of times in the past where rumors have swirled around like that before, nothing’s really come to fruition, so … for me it’s kind of old hat. It’s easy to block out at this point.”
Girardi said the only thing he could say when asked whether Hughes still has the potential to become a very capable front-line starter. But then he finished his answer this way: “I don’t think we really worry about the end of the year,” Girardi said. “I’m worried about tomorrow.”
Sounds like Hughes should as well.