The Yankees are sitting on the kind of roster that can make the rest of the American League uneasy.
That’s the idea ESPN’s Karl Ravech floated Wednesday night, when he lumped New York in with the Dodgers as a potential “sleeping giant.” The comparison makes sense on the surface: Los Angeles just got Blake Snell back on Monday, Tyler Glasnow is expected by the end of the month, and that rotation already features Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal, with Shohei Ohtani potentially in the postseason mix. New York, meanwhile, is waiting on the kind of middle-of-the-order reinforcements that can change a playoff series in a hurry.
Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger are all still working their way back, and their return could completely reshape the Yankees’ lineup when October arrives.
“Similar to the Dodgers...there is this feeling that the Yankees are the sleeping giant in the American League if those bats can wake up and then they can get those guys healthy because the pitching appears to be there, especially with [Carlos] Rodon coming back,” Ravech said on air during the Yankees’ 10-5 win over the Seattle Mariners Wednesday night.
The numbers without those three sluggers show just how much the Yankees have been missing. Since June 1, they’re last in the majors in batting average at .233, 28th in OPS at .675 and 25th in slugging percentage at .385. That’s a long way from a lineup built around three players who have combined to win five MVP awards.
Even so, the Yankees have kept themselves in good shape. They’ve gone 15-10 over their last 25 games, stayed comfortably ahead in the AL Wild Card race and are six games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East, which is effectively seven because Tampa Bay owns the tiebreaker.
The offense also showed a little of its punch against Seattle, piling up 14 runs over the last two games. Trent Grisham was a big part of Wednesday’s burst, going deep twice and adding a double.
Former MLB catcher and Chicago Cubs manager David Ross said the rest of the lineup stands to benefit once the stars return.
“Ben Rice, he’ll be better, Trent Grisham, he’ll be better,” he said. “Everybody in the lineup is going to get pushed down.”
The exact timetable remains murky. Stanton, dealing with a calf issue, is now running the bases and could be back soon as a part-time DH. There’s still uncertainty about what he’ll look like at the plate, but the source of the concern is also the reason the Yankees are holding out hope: he has the ability to take over a postseason series.
Bellinger is also trending in the right direction. He was originally expected to miss 4-6 weeks, but now he’s “getting close” after suffering a left hamstring strain on July 26.
He has been hitting and working in the outfield, and Boone said Tuesday, “He’s running really well. He’s probably at I think over 90% of his normal top speed and feeling good doing that,”
Judge is the biggest wild card of all. He may not be back from his rib injury until September, and if that happens, he’ll go months without swinging a bat by the time he returns. That leaves plenty of uncertainty about how he’ll look or produce.
For now, the Yankees are still standing. If the bats come back and the pitching holds, they could be exactly what Ravech called them: a sleeping giant waiting for the postseason to start.
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