One month out of six doesn’t define a baseball team. Yet, when the Yankees laid out $486 million to sign Jacoby Ellsbury, Masahiro Tanaka, Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran and bring back Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Jeter, you had to believe they would be better than last season’s injury-riddled club.
Now, with April out of the way the Yankees didn’t do better in the initial month of the 2014 season then they did in 2013. Going into Wednesday night’s game against the Mariners the Yankees were 15-11. A year ago they were 16-10 after 26 tilts.
And the injuries that destroyed 2013 are slowly entering the picture. In the first month the Yankees lost Ivan Nova for the year due to Tommy John surgery, have Michael Pineda (teres major muscle strain) headed for the DL after a 10-game suspension ends Monday and Mark Teixeira (adductor muscle) and David Robertson (groin) spend time on the shelf.
MVP: Jacoby Ellsbury
Seven years and $153 million might be too long and too expensive because the Yankees had a similar player in Brett Gardner but Ellsbury has been terrific.
LVP: Michael Pineda
After the Red Sox ignored the glob of pine tar on his right hand April 10 at home, Pineda had the gall to lather his neck with the substance April 23 at Fenway Park.
He had to know television cameras would be searching his 6-foot-7 body for pine tar and he put it where everybody could see it. This despite knowing the Yankees had already lost Nova from the rotation.
Now, he has a Grade 1 strain of the teres major muscle in the back and when he pitches again nobody knows. The Yankees say he is out three to four weeks. We’ll see. The teres major is close to the right shoulder and Pineda missed the previous two seasons due to surgery on the wing.
What’s ahead
Starting with Thursday against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium the Yankees play 11 home games in May. That’s six fewer than they will play on the road. Two of those road tilts are at Citi Field May 14-15 against the Mets.
Yankees will play six games in Chicago; two against the Cubs and four versus the White Sox (May 20-25). Three against the defending NL champion Cardinals follow in St. Louis.
Of the home opponents, the Mets (May 12-13) are the best team among the Mariners, reeling Rays, Pirates and Twins.
The Captain is OK
With third base and second base the biggest infield issues at the start of the season, the Yankees didn’t need Jeter hovering around the .230 mark. He hasn’t and has started in 21 of 26 games at short and had an 11-game hitting streak from April 6-22.
Rotation problems
Until Nova went down April 19 and Pineda got suspended the Yankees had a solid starting five anchored by Masahiro Tanaka.
How Vidal Nuno and David Phelps fill in for Nova and Pineda, respectively, will determine if the Yankees will eventually need to acquire a starter at some point.
Best bang for the buck
Masahiro Tanaka cost the Yankees $175 million across seven years and in the first month he has been as advertised coming out of Japan. A strike thrower with a devastating split-fingered fastball Tanaka was the Yankees’ best starter by far in the opening month when he went 3-0 with a 2.27 ERA and whiffing 46 in 35 2/3rd innings.
Game of the Month
April 16: Yankees 3, Cubs 0
Masahiro Tanaka toys with the Cub batters across eight scoreless innings in the first game of a Bronx doubleheader. He fanned 10, walked one and gave up two hits. Carlos Beltran’s first-inning homer was all the support Tanaka needed. BOX SCORE
5 key stats
59-for-246; .240: That’s what Yankees were hitting with runners in scoring position through 26 games.
2-for-26; .077: Yankees average in the clutch in the previous four games.
13: How many runs the Yankees scored in the previous four games.
14-0: Leading after eight frames; 0-10 when losing after eight.
82: Number of hits Derek Jeter needs to tie Carl Yastrzemski for seventh place on the all-time hit list.