BOSTON — The Yankees took on the Red Sox on Thursday night, wrapping up this Rivalry series at Fenway Park, without a reliable backup shortstop. Yangervis Solarte, with a scant 30 games of experience in the minor leagues and one more in the major leagues, would back up retiring captain Derek Jeter.
Dean Anna, Jeter’s caddy so far this season, did nothing wrong to lose that position. Nor did he suffer an injury. No, Anna found himself demoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre because of the stupidity that Michael Pineda exhibited on Wednesday.
The good news for the Yankees and their fans is that Pineda, having received and accepted a 10-game suspension from Major League Baseball for being caught with pine tar on his neck, took full responsibility for his actions and even insisted on facing the largely English-speaking media without an interpreter. “I know I made a mistake,” he said.
The bad news is Pineda’s indiscretion will provide a considerable obstacle in an endeavor that already features plenty of them. And it calls into question whether Pineda’s obvious talent can overcome whatever limits led him to make his ill-fated decision.
“This is a … storm that we will weather. We have no choice,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday. “You’ve got to batten down the hatches. Guys collectively come together and find a way, starting [Thursday] — and if not, starting [Friday] — hopefully, 10 days will go quick.”
As per MLB rules, when a player gets suspended for an on-field transgression — as opposed to off-field, like the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs — the team must function a man short on its roster.
Because Pineda got ejected in the second inning of Wednesday night’s 5-1 loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees exhausted their bullpen in picking up the final 19 outs of the night. That prompted the Yankees to send for reinforcements from Scranton, starting pitcher Bruce Billings and reliever Shane Greene.
Two people had to go to make room, so out went reliever Preston Claiborne and Anna. With Pineda taking up a roster spot while not being eligible to pitch, and with David Phelps unavailable after throwing two innings Wednesday and being the strong candidate to replace Pineda on May 3 against Tampa Bay, the Yankees couldn’t afford to give up two pitchers to get two.
It had to be Anna, even at a time when Joe Girardi has worked diligently to preserve Jeter for the length of the season and when prime backup Brendan Ryan (cervical spine nerve injury) doesn’t have a hard time line for returning from the disabled list.
“Obviously, we have to adjust in a lot of different ways,” Cashman said. “And that’s what we’re doing.”
By all accounts, the 25-year-old Pineda is a good kid, one whose actions in a Yankees uniform reflect immaturity or low intellect but not malice. When the Yankees acquired him from Seattle two years ago, trading their top hitting prospect Jesus Montero as part of a package, Pineda showed up overweight at spring training. And while he rehabilitated from his serious right shoulder surgery, he was arrested in August 2012 in Tampa for driving under the influence.
When I asked Cashman Thursday whether he saw Pineda’s pine-tar infraction as part of a larger pattern, the general manager responded: “Until you pointed that out, that wasn’t a thought. I see someone who is hurt by what he did, who feels genuinely terrible about it and you turn the page. You move on, and we’ll move on together.”
“He’s a young pitcher. But I think he’s made some great strides,” Girardi said. “Even during his rehab, I think he made some great strides. He cleaned up his delivery and his changeup improved. He’ll continue to improve.
“I think we could all probably look back at our lives — at his age, we probably made a decision that we’d probably like to do over again. Probably more than one.”
Pineda will have a chance to redeem himself, as the Yankees sure as heck have every intention of reinserting him into their starting rotation as soon as he’s eligible. His skills are obvious, and how much he needs pine tar to fully exploit those skills remains to be seen.
For now, the Yankees are a man short and a high-end starting pitcher short. In the ultra-competitive American League East, you face enough adversity without creating your own, yet that’s what Pineda has managed to do.