The Yankees are back at it today against the Tampa Bay Rays. So we continue our coverage of televised Yankee games. Thus here are the three takeaways from today’s game. Here is yesterdays game takeaways from the rain-shorted games against the Nationals.
“26th Man” Roster Spot Battle Rages on
As we discussed yesterday, the 26th roster spot for the Yankees is up for a battle. Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade, Thairo Estrada, and Mike Ford are the competing players. Today Tyler Wade and Clint Frazier would each notch another mark in their favors with massive homeruns. Tyler Wade would also add two stolen bases to his line. And Mike Ford not to be outdone would also hit a homerun. Now the 26th roster may not be as intense a battle because of the injury to Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton may not be ready for the start of the season, and therefore that spot would potentially remain open. However, we will see as Spring continues how this battle shakes out.
J.A. Happ Continues to Impress
JA Happ pitched in his second Spring outing and continued his stellar performance. Happ had to work just a little bit harder in this start than his first. But JA was still very dominant. Happ would pitch three innings of work, surrendering one earned run, two hits while striking out two. As we have documented, the injury to Luis Severino makes JA Happ even more critical to the Yankees in 2020.
Young Starters Showoff
The Yankees have a couple of openings in the rotation because of already discussed injuries. And today, we would see several of the young pitchers competing for the final spot in the rotation. Michael King, Clarke Schmidt, and Jonathan Loaisiga would pitch six scoreless innings surrendering a combined five hits while striking out a combined seven. The Yankees will rely on their young pitchers for the first couple of months of the season. And today’s outings went a long way in demonstrating exactly why the Yankees are so high in their young pitchers.
