Things are good, but also not so good with the Yankees right now. They’re 43-35 and hold one of the AL Wild Card spots after having a winning homestand. That’s the good part. The not-so-good part is the offense, which continues to struggle without Aaron Judge in the lineup.
Many veterans have been struggling, with one being Josh Donaldson. It’s been a continuation of last year, but a lot worse. Through 71 plate appearances, the former AL MVP is hitting .125/.197/.406 with six home runs, eight RBI, and nine runs scored. He didn’t start any of the three games against the Texas Rangers this past weekend, but it doesn’t seem like general manager Brian Cashman is about to cut bait yet.
After having a closed-door meeting with Donaldson at the end of the homestand, manager Aaron Boone proclaimed that Donaldson would be “playing a lot”. That statement probably led to plenty of groans from the fan base, and probably some scouts, as well.
NJ.com’s Randy Miller spoke to an anonymous scout to get his opinion on the struggling veteran bats for the Yankees. This is what he had to say about Donaldson:
His bat speed is slow. Everything he does now is slow. They’re not getting anything out of Donaldson, so they’re doing the right thing not playing him. I don’t see Donaldson getting much better, either. I’d release him. Eat the money and get him out of the clubhouse. If I was Cashman … Show some guts, Cash. Blow him out of there. I know one thing: They’re not trading him. Nobody wants Donaldson.
We already know that nobody wants to make a trade for Donaldson. Cashman tried to do that all winter, and JD’s trade value has only gone down since then. And if it’s something Mets owner Steve Cohen would consider to get bullpen help, someone needs to sit him down and have an intervention.
Why is Donaldson even still on the roster? Probably because Cashman doesn’t want to admit that his trade with the Twins was a complete nightmare. After all, it also brought Isiah Kiner-Falefa into the lives of Yankee fans.
If Donaldson isn’t going to play, does that mean this scout would hand the keys to third base over to DJ LeMahieu, who is also struggling at the plate? No, he’d call up Oswald Peraza and give him a chance to prove himself in the big leagues:
I don’t know why they don’t call Oswald Peraza up to play third. At some point they have to give Peraza prolonged time to see if he can hit big-league pitching, not 15 or 20 at-bats and then send him back down. I know he can field up there. Actually, I’d have him playing shortstop every day. Peraza can’t be any worse than what Anthony Volpe is giving them at the plate. He’s got 10 home runs, but he’s hitting .190. I’d send Volpe down to Triple-A, but the Yankees won’t do it because they hyped him so much to where they can’t because they think they’d look bad.
We’ll see how much longer the Josh Donaldson era lasts in the Bronx. Regardless of when it does, pretty much everyone can agree that it should have been done a while ago.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
