Kuzul

What Alex Rodriguez was for the 2015 New York Yankees, CC Sabathia has been for the 2016 New York Yankees.

That is to say: seemingly against all odds, a hugely productive player. 

Because the 35-year-old left-hander entered the year fresh out of rehab and with three straight bad seasons and a balky right knee to overcome, there was really no telling what the Yankees were going to get out of him. But 10 starts in, there’s Sabathia with a 2.28 ERA.

He led the Yankees to their fifth straight win with his latest effort, firing seven shutout innings in a 4-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Friday night. To the highlights!

At the moment, Sabathia’s ERA ranks 10th best among major league starters who’ve logged at least 50 innings. According to Jeff Quagliata, the research manager for the YES Network, it’s also the best ERA he’s ever had through 10 starts.

Perhaps even more impressive is this:

Considering that we’re talking about a former Cy Young winner who was arguably the best left-hander in the sport for a while there, this is saying something.

You can be forgiven if your only reaction to Sabathia’s current dominance is utter shock, complete with a stupefied and/or dumbfounded look on your face. Although he was one of the best pitchers in baseball once, that was before he put up a 4.81 ERA between 2013 and 2015. In the meantime, his physical health and personal well-being fell apart along with his numbers.

But in 2016, Sabathia does indeed look like a new man. And a new pitcher, for that matter.

Sabathia’s decision to go into a rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse last October caught everyone off-guard. But by all accounts, it was both totally necessary and totally worth it.

Sabathia communicated openly to the New York Post’s George A. King III in spring training about how good he was feeling and expounded when he wrote in The Players’ Tribune: “[Now] that I’m on the other side of things, I feel at peace. I feel good about myself. I feel good about my body. And I’m really looking forward to coming into this season with a new frame of mind.”

Sabathia also came into the season with a new way to keep his right knee from being a pain in the, well, knee. He committed to wearing a knee brace, and is apparently benefiting from it.

“I think his knee has not been an issue because of the brace,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi told Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, “and I think it’s changed who he is.”

However, just because Sabathia is better off in mind and body doesn’t mean he’s the same pitcher he used to be. The power fastball he once had is still long gone. Going into Friday’s start, FanGraphs had his average fastball velocity at just 88.2 miles per hour, six miles per hour slower than his peak of 94.7. In a related story, his strikeout rate is still well below his peak levels at 7.5 per nine innings.

But who needs velocity when you have movement? As Brooks Baseball can show, Sabathia has scrapped his straight four-seam fastball in favor of more sinkers and a lot more cutters:

Adding a cutter to his repertoire is something Sabathia toyed with back in 2014, when he was trying to learn the pitch from Andy Pettitte. But this time, he turned to Mariano Rivera.

“Just talked about how he throws it, seeing what I could pick up from him,” Sabathia said this spring, per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com. “His was the best one ever.”

Whatever Mo taught him, it’s working. Sabathia’s new cutter can be glimpsed at the 0:20 mark in the above highlight reel, which shows its late glove-side action. And entering Friday, it was holding right-handed batters to a .210 average. They’d also managed only four extra-base hits against it.

In general, hard-hit balls have been tough to come by against Sabathia. According to Baseball Savant, he entered Friday with an average exit velocity of just 85.7 miles per hour. He was also limiting hard contact with the best of ’em:

1. Tanner Roark: 20.5 Hard%
2. Scott Kazmir: 21.9 Hard%
3. Jake Arrieta: 21.9 Hard%
4. CC Sabathia: 23.0 Hard%

As such, going for a movement-first approach has allowed Sabathia to become the kind of pitcher he needed to become once his strikeout rate started going the way of his velocity. That was a wake-up call for him to learn how to pitch to contact, and he’s finally done it.

Of course, pitching to contact effectively also usually requires good luck. Sabathia’s .275 batting average on balls in play suggests he’s gotten more than his fair share of that. As noted by Corinne Landrey at FanGraphs, he’s also been a bit too good at keeping fly balls in the park. Once these two things regress, his ERA will take a hike.

Nonetheless, the 2.28 ERA Sabathia has now feels awfully reminiscent of the .842 OPS and 33 dingers the Yankees got out of A-Rod in 2015, following his year-long suspension in 2014. It’s production that can be nitpicked, but it’s also production that can’t be ignored and can certainly be enjoyed.

Sabathia is allowing the Yankees to say hello to an old friend they probably thought they’d never see again. They should be (and presumably are) savoring every second of it.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Shortly after seemingly establishing himself as the New York Yankees‘ starting first baseman, Chris Parmelee suffered a right hamstring injury in Thursday’s win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Continue for updates.

Girardi Comments on Parmelee’s Injury

Friday, June 10

Following the contest, manager Joe Girardi said he would be “completely shocked” if Parmelee didn’t require a stint on the disabled list, according to Howie Kussoy of the New York Post.

The 28-year-old journeyman was thrust into action after a trio of Yankees first basemen in Mark Teixeira, Dustin Ackley and Greg Bird landed on the DL.

In six games with the team, Parmelee hit .500 with two home runs and four RBI.

Per Kussoy, Girardi lamented the bad luck the Bronx Bombers have had at first base so far this season: “You don’t see this. People ask about depth, you’re usually not four deep or five deep at first base. … It’s hard, but we’ve got to find a way to overcome it.”

With Parmelee on the shelf, 25-year-old utility man Rob Refsnyder is likely to see the bulk of the playing time at first. He is hitting .208 with no home runs and five RBI in 11 games of action and has made some appearances at first base despite naturally being a second baseman.

New York’s win Thursday allowed it to return to .500 at 30-30, and it trails the Baltimore Orioles by 6.5 games in the AL East.

Parmelee’s career profile suggests he wasn’t likely to continue hitting at the clip he did in his first few games with the Yanks, but he finally seemed to stabilize a position that had been an issue for the team, and his absence leaves them with few options.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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NEW YORK — The stories saying the New York Yankees would sell at the trade deadline were already starting to appear.

It made perfect sense, because the Yankees are old and flawed and sure don’t look like a team set up to win a championship. Trade Aroldis Chapman, trade Carlos Beltran, maybe even trade Andrew Miller and the Yankees could set themselves up for a better future.

It still makes perfect sense, except for one small detail: Check the schedule.

Look hard at the next two-plus weeks, because the Yankees have a ton of games coming up against teams just like the hapless Los Angeles Angels they beat up on the last four nights. Look at all those games against the Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins, and even at a series in San Diego the first week of July.

The Yankees are three games out of a wild-card spot after Thursday night’s 6-3 win over the Angels. Ask yourself, can you really imagine they’ll lose enough of those games against the Twins and Rockies to be out of contention by the All-Star break?

More likely, they’ll be right in the middle of the playoff race when it comes time to make a buy/sell decision in the second half of July. Given the way the Yankees normally think, it’s hard to equate that with a decision to sell.

Look, sometimes teams become surprise sellers. The Detroit Tigers are another organization that believes in going for it, but when they were on the fringes of the wild-card race last July, the Tigers moved David Price and Yoenis Cespedes to give themselves a better chance to win in 2016 and beyond.

Perhaps the Yankees could end up making the same call this year, but it sure seems doubtful. They don’t have players who would bring the same return the Tigers got for Price and Cespedes, and the schedule gives you every reason to believe they’ll hang around in the race.

Already Thursday, Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball wrote that “Yankees higher-ups have determined they are having no selloff in the immediate future.”

That was before their latest win over the Angels, a team that had pitching issues even before it had injury issues. The Yankees scored 29 runs in their four wins, just the second time this season they’ve had five runs or more in each of four consecutive games.

With Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner getting hot at the top of the order, and with Beltran staying hot in the middle of it, the Yankees looked like the team they have hoped all season they would be. Beltran was the first Yankee in 39 years (since Chris Chambliss in 1977) to have at least two RBI in each game of a series of at least four games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“If we continue to do what we’re doing now, it’s going to be fun for us,” Beltran said.

If they don’t, it could be fun for him to go to a team with a lot better chance to win. But the 39-year-old Beltran, who chose the Yankees the last time he became a free agent, would rather stay here.

“I just want to go out and do my job,” he said. “What the front office is going to do, they already have their plans. It’s just that you don’t know what that plan is, and we don’t know it.”

The Yankees may indeed have their plans, but plans change all the time in baseball. Earlier Thursday, an American League official was thinking back to 2014, when the Kansas City Royals reached July wondering whether they should be deadline buyers or sellers.

The 2014 Royals won just enough July games that they didn’t sell, and they ended up going all the way to the World Series.

The Yankees don’t look like a World Series team, but they don’t look like a team with no chance—at least not when they play an opponent like the Angels.

As of Thursday, the Angels ranked 24th in the major leagues in team ERA. Two of the six teams behind them are the ones the Yankees will play the next two weeks.

After this weekend, when they have three home games against the Tigers, the Yankees go to Colorado (28th in ERA) for two games and to Minnesota (29th in ERA) for four. Then they come home and play those same two teams again.

Late Thursday night, the Yankees were wondering who will play first base, because after two successful nights at the position, Chris Parmelee was headed to the disabled list with a right hamstring injury. The truth is that against opponents like the Angels, Rockies and Twins, it hardly matters who’s on first.

The Yankees can’t build a championship by beating bad teams, but they can build an argument against a selloff. Maybe they’ll be brave enough to pull the plug even if they win a lot of these games against bad teams.

More likely, a few series like the one against the Angels will be enough to convince them they still have a chance.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Player: Blake Rutherford

Position: OF

DOB: May 2, 1997 (19 years old)

Height/Weight: 6’2″, 190 lbs

Bats/Throws: L/R

School: Chaminade College Prep (Calif.)

College Commitment: UCLA

Background

Similar to the way a college player can significantly boost his stock with a strong showing in the Cape Cod League, a prep prospect can get a serious shot in the arm from a standout performance with the USA Baseball 18U team.

Long on the MLB draft radar, outfielder Blake Rutherford solidified his standing as an elite prospect last summer when Baseball America identified him as the biggest bat on that star-studded 18U team.

However, his stock has slipped a bit this spring, and he’s fallen behind fellow California outfielder Mickey Moniak, who is now the top prep hitter in the eyes of most evaluators.

That being said, Rutherford is still a top-tier prospect with as high a ceiling as any position player.

He has the potential for five plus tools as his development continues, and he went so far as to identify himself as a five-tool player while breaking down his game for Chuck Wasserstrom of MLB Trade Rumors:

I would describe my game as someone who can do all things on a baseball field. I truly believe I’m a five-tool player who has a very overall strong game. I feel like the main thing people have always talked about is my hitting, but I really feel like my fielding, my running and my throwing have all taken a huge step this year. I’m also someone who’s super competitive, and I’m not going to stop until I get what I want – which is winning. I’m just someone who’s passionate and loves to play the game, but stays calm and cool during all situations.

Even after an up-and-down spring, the superstar potential is still obvious, and he’s more than worthy of being selected in the top half of the first round.

Pick Analysis

So what exactly is it that scouts liked so much about Rutherford heading into the spring, and what has caused his stock to slip a bit?

Here’s what Baseball America had to say in its predraft scouting report while ranking him as the No. 9 overall prospect:

Rutherford has size, strength, athleticism and power potential for scouts to dream on, and would likely be the consensus top prep bat in the class if he had a more consistent spring or if he were a year younger.

Rutherford turned 19 as the calendar turned to May, offering less projection than other prep outfielders, with a physically mature 6-foot-2, 195-pound frame. Scouts have to project on Rutherford’s home run power; he’s produced this spring after being the biggest bat last summer for USA Baseball’s 18U team.

However, he hasn’t taken the next step with his power, at times trying too hard to pull and yank balls for power. When he stays with his approach, he’s as impressive as any prep hitter in the class, with power to all fields, a line-drive swing path that covers the plate and the athleticism for center field.

If he can refine his approach at the plate and maximize his raw power, the sky is the limit for the Chaminade Prep star, who could ultimately develop into one of the game’s elite all-around center fielders.

Pro Comparison: Brady Anderson

Rutherford’s upright stance when he loads up and swing path actually remind me a bit of Joe Mauer, but the similarities between those two players begin and end there.

Looking at the current landscape of left-handed-hitting center fielders, there’s no one who matches up with Rutherford as a well-built power threat who can also hit, run and field at a high level.

Instead, we’ll go back a few years to Baltimore Orioles center fielder Brady Anderson.

A three-time All-Star, Anderson is best remembered for his out-of-nowhere 50-homer season in 1996, but that one anomaly aside, he was a steady producer in a number of areas.

Once he hit his stride as the Orioles’ everyday center fielder, he was a consistent threat for 15-plus home runs, 20-plus stolen bases and strong defense in center field.

Rutherford possesses a better hit tool, as Anderson was a career .256 hitter who never batted over .300 in any one season.

Beyond that, it’s a fair comparison across the board as both players are strong, athletic center fielders capable of providing a good mix of power and speed offensively.

Projection: Starting center fielder, potential middle-of-the-order bat

Major League ETA: 2021

Chances of Signing: 95 percent

Rutherford is committed to UCLA, but given how much has been made about his age and lack of projectability, he’s no doubt anxious to get his pro career started.

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New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira has an articular cartilage tear in his right knee, which could require surgery if the knee doesn’t respond to treatment. He left Friday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles and was placed on the disabled list Saturday.

Continue for updates.

Cashman Comments on Potential Surgery for Teixeira

Saturday, June 4

“The initial effort is going to try to be to treat it conservatively with rest, probably involving injections, and then see how he responds to that,” general manager Brian Cashman said in a phone call this morning, per Chad Jennings of LoHud.com. “If that doesn’t work, then you’re looking at a surgical procedure. If that’s the case, then his season is probably done.”

Teixeira Lands on DL

Saturday, June 4

The Yankees announced they placed Teixeira on the 15-day disabled list and “selected infielder Chris Parmelee from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.”

Jennings added, “The choice of [Parmelee] as the replacement, Cashman said, is based entirely on performance. Parmelee has a .787 OPS in Triple-A.”

Teixeira Struggling to Shake Injury Bug

Injuries have been a recurring problem for Teixeira over the last few years. He hasn’t appeared in more than 123 games in a season since 2011, though he had missed only six games so far this year.

The lingering ailments, and perhaps age, have sapped most of Teixeira’s value on offense. The 36-year-old owns a .180/.271/.263 slash line and three home runs in 167 at-bats this season.

The Yankees have options at first base. Rob Refsnyder filled in for Teixeira on Friday, and catcher Brian McCann has played 121.1 innings at the position since 2014.

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The Toronto Blue Jays (28-26) can even their home record and complete a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees (24-27) with a victory in the series finale Wednesday at the Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays have won the past four meetings with the Yankees and taken six of seven overall, and they are listed as -115 betting favorites (bet $115 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark with Aaron Sanchez (4-1, 3.29 ERA) on the hill for his 11th start of the season.

Toronto has won five of the last six games Sanchez has started, and he’s gone 3-0 with three no-decisions. He has allowed three runs or fewer five times during that stretch and has gone a full seven innings four times.

The Blue Jays have scored 22 runs in his previous three games, with the over cashing each time after a run of six unders in his first seven, according to the Odds Shark MLB Database.

Meanwhile, New York will send ace Masahiro Tanaka (3-0, 2.89) to the mound looking to win for the fifth time in as many starts. He has earned two of his wins in his past two outings, giving up one run and seven hits combined over 14 innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

The Yankees are 7-2 in his last nine starts, with the under going 7-2.

This is a rematch of a meeting between the two starting pitchers from April 12, when New York edged Toronto 3-2 on a run-scoring single by outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury in the seventh inning.

Sanchez pitched well but surrendered the game-tying homer to catcher Brian McCann in the sixth, leaving after allowing three hits and one earned run with three walks and six strikeouts. Tanaka lasted five innings, giving up three hits and two runs with four walks and six strikeouts. Neither starter walked away with a decision.

The under cashed in that game and has gone 9-3 in the past 12 meetings. Only one of the last six games between the teams has seen more than six runs scored. The under is also 7-3 in the previous 10 for the Blue Jays overall and 5-1 in the last six for the Yanks.

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New York Yankees first baseman Dustin Ackley will miss the season and undergo surgery on a torn labrum suffered on May 29. 

Continue for updates.

Surgery on the Horizon for Ackley

Tuesday, May 31

Manager Joe Girardi said Ackley will have surgery to repair his torn labrum, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Ackley Struggling in First Season With Yankees

Ackley has played 28 games this year and has batted .148 in his first full season in pinstripes.

Ackley played only seven games in April and recorded one hit in that span. His struggles continued into May, as he’s batting .178 and has driven in only four runs.

He suffered the shoulder injury Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays while sliding. New York has called up infielder Rob Refsnyder to take Ackley’s place and put Ackley on the 15-day disabled list for the time being, per George A. King III of the New York Post.

The Yankees (24-25) came into Monday sitting in fourth place in the American League East, and their offense has been a collective disappointment. New York has scored 190 runs so far this season, sixth-worst in the major leagues.

Stats from Baseball-Reference.com.

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Zero. That’s how many dollars the New York Yankees spent on major league free agents this winter. 

Considering they’ve got MLB‘s second-highest payroll and a well-earned reputation for cutting cartoonish checks, that’s sort of a big deal.

What gives?

For one, New York is still recovering from a pair of recent spending sprees that added crippling payroll obligations and have yielded mixed results on the field. The first came in 2009 and the second in 2014.

The 2016 Yankees sit at 22-23 entering play Thursday, 6.5 games out in the American League East. They’re not sunk. They’ve won seven of their last 10, and the East is a wide-open division—even with the powerful Boston Red Sox pacing the pack.

But these Yanks are no one’s idea of a juggernaut. They’re a flawed, aging club clinging to the edges of the postseason picture.

There are reasons to be optimistic about the future, as we’ll delve into later. For now, however, let’s pose the question: Which of those spending sprees—2009 or 2014—had a greater impact on the club’s current misfortunes?

Or, to put it another way: If you’re a Yankees fan looking to hop in a tricked-out DeLorean and go back to change the future, for what year do you set the coordinates?

2009: Paying for a Title

After finishing 89-73 in 2008 and missing the playoffs, the Yankees needed to plug holes in the rotation and at first base.

They signed left-hander CC Sabathia to a then-record seven-year, $161 million deal, which was extended in 2011 to include $25 million for 2016 and a $25 million vesting option for 2017 with a $5 million buyout. We’ll cheat, though, and count that extension as a delayed piece of the ’09 spree.

They grabbed right-hander A.J. Burnett for five years and $82.5 million.

And they filled the void at first base created by the departure of Jason Giambi by giving Mark Teixeira eight years and $180 million.

In the short term, the moves worked swimmingly. Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira combined for 15.9 wins above replacement (WAR) in 2009.

Along with a cast that included Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, among others, the Yankees won the World Series.

So that settles the debate, right?

Only if you close your eyes, picture all that champagne and confetti and ignore the intervening years.

Burnett was mostly awful in 2010 and 2011, posting an ERA above 5.00 in each campaign before the Yankees shipped him and a wheelbarrow full of cash to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2012.

Sabathia remained valuable longer, eclipsing 200 innings and posting a sub-4.00 ERA in each season through 2012 before his performance cratered amid injuries and personal demons. 

Teixeira, likewise, tumbled off a cliff of injuries and decline beginning in 2013, though he rebounded with a 31-homer, All-Star campaign last year.

So the Yankees got a title out of that 2009 splurge, but they also got years of mostly dead money that may well have prevented them from adding other pieces along the way.

Five years later, however, they again opened the wallet wide.

2014: The 2nd Spree

The 2013 Yankees, like their 2008 counterpart, finished above .500 at 85-77 but sat at home come October.

Pettitte and Rivera retired after ’13, Rodriguez was suspended for the entire 2014 season in connection with the Biogenesis scandal, and there were question marks all over the roster. 

So New York did what it so often does: throw money at the problem.

Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka got seven years and $155 million. Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was lured away from the archrival Red Sox and into pinstripes for seven years and $153 million.

Add five years and $85 million for catcher Brian McCann, plus three years and $45 million for veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran, and the Yankees committed close to $500 million to four players.

The results have been muddled at best.

McCann has provided 20-homer pop in each of the past two seasons, and Beltran has been productive when healthy.

Tanaka has frequently looked like the top-of-the-rotation stud the Yanks thought they were importing, but questions will continue to linger about the long-term health of his elbow.

Ellsbury, meanwhile, has landed somewhere between a disappointment and a disaster. He hit just .257 last season and was unceremoniously benched in the Yankees’ Wild Card Game loss to the Houston Astros.

The 32-year-old has admittedly shown signs of life lately, raising his on-base percentage more than 50 points since May 1. Considering his deal runs through 2020 and pays him more than $20 million annually, however, the albatross label is unavoidable.

Ellsbury‘s arrival also clinched Robinson Cano’s departure, as the All-Star second baseman inked a 10-year, $240 million deal with the Seattle Mariners that same winter.

That contract, too, could be an albatross before it’s over. But Cano has put up 9.8 WAR to Ellsbury‘s 5.2 WAR over the past two seasons and is having a resurgent power year with Seattle.

The Verdict and Looking Forward

There’s no question the Sabathia and Teixeira contracts have been a financial drag on the Yankees. Yes, the franchise has deep pockets, but they aren’t bottomless. Surely those dollars prevented New York from landing other impact free agents who could be helping the club win now.

On the other hand, the 2009 spree makes sense in context. The Yankees were a few pieces away from a title. They spent what it took to add those pieces, and—look at that—they won a title.

The 2014 spree, by contrast, reeked of desperation. The Yanks were a fringe contender at best, and their wild-card one-and-done in 2015 is the best they’ve managed despite those gaudy payouts.

Neither spree came without collateral damage, but that shiny Commissioner’s Trophy tips the scales toward 2009 as the better allocation of resources and 2014 as the biggest source of regret. The Ellsbury contract, in particular, figures to keep stinging.

OK, now some good news.

The Yankees have managed to build their farm system back to respectability, with top prospects like outfielder Aaron Judge and shortstop Jorge Mateo ready to make an impact in the next couple of years.

More essentially, a lot of money is about to come off the books. By the end of 2017, the Yankees will have likely waved goodbye to Beltran, Teixeira, Sabathia and A-Rod—and more than $100 million in annual payroll just from those four.

That cash can be repurposed in the ludicrously loaded free-agent class of 2018, which Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan described as “a collection of players so good it seems impossible one market could absorb them all at once.”

Here’s an incomplete but nonetheless eye-popping list of names that could be available: Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, Adam Jones, Clayton Kershaw, David Price and Jose Fernandez.

We’ll have to wait and see how much cash the Yankees shell out to one or more of those franchise-defining talents. But it’s a safe bet it’ll be more than zero.

General manager Brian Cashman teased as much in February when addressing the team’s lack of free-agent activity this winter, per the Associated Press (via USA Today): “That’s a reflection of obviously our current commitments, which are substantial. We’re really aggressive when we have a lot of money coming off.”

This is New York, after all, where there’s always another spending spree around the corner.

All statistics and contract information current as of May 25 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The New York Yankees moved to 17-22 on Wednesday with a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, but owner Hal Steinbrenner is not happy his team is in last place in the American League East.

He specifically singled out the players while deflecting blame from manager Joe Girardi and the rest of the coaching staff, per ESPN.com:

The first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense. … The coaches are doing a good job. These are professional athletes. They’re the best baseball players in the world, and sooner or later it comes down to them, on the inside, to push through whatever it is they’re going through and to persevere.

Steinbrenner mentioned the offense’s poor performance, which is not surprising considering their statistical rankings across the league entering play Wednesday:

The Yankees simply don’t resemble the usual powerful lineup fans are accustomed to seeing don the pinstripes. New York won six World Series titles when Steinbrenner’s father, George, was running things, but the elder Steinbrenner was never afraid to challenge coaches or players with his fiery attitude.

His son took a cue on Wednesday and singled out some underperformers, including first baseman Mark Teixeira, per ESPN.com: “When you look at a guy like [Teixeira], clearly, he’s not playing to his potential with the bat.”

Teixeira is a three-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove winner and three-time Silver Slugger recipient who has 12 different seasons with more than 20 home runs and nine different campaigns with at least 30 long balls on his sterling resume. However, the 36-year-old was sporting a .211 batting average with three home runs and 11 RBI entering play Wednesday.

Teixeira didn’t shy away from the criticism, per ESPN.com: “I don’t blame him. I’ve been terrible the last month. I’ve been around long enough to know that you’re going to get singled out when you’re not producing, especially the type of career that I’ve had.”

Steinbrenner was focused on the poor offensive numbers, but he also looked toward starting pitcher Michael Pineda. Steinbrenner said, “All these strikeouts, and yet he’s given up these runs. Whatever technically is wrong with the delivery, Larry [Rothschild, pitching coach] is going to work on, but the rest is up to Pineda to figure out. He’s a professional, and that’s what we expect from him, and that’s what his teammates expect from him.”

Pineda does have 50 strikeouts in 43.2 innings, but he also boasts a 1-5 record with an ugly 6.60 ERA and 1.65 WHIP. He was solid but unspectacular last season with a 4.37 ERA and 1.23 WHIP, but his 2016 performance is a far cry from 2014, when he finished with a sparkling 1.89 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 59 strikeouts in 76.1 innings and 13 starts.

He looked like a Yankees superstar-in-the-making at the time, but he has been anything but this season.

It is fair to wonder if the Yankees are too old to realistically compete for an American League East crown this year, especially after such a poor start. They were counting on a number of aging veterans entering the season who were all 32 years old or older:

Steinbrenner wasn’t ready to concede that point when reflecting on the poor start. “I don’t think it’s a flaw in the way the team is put together. I think the team we have this year is better than the team we had last year,” he said, per ESPN.com.

The Yankees did add pieces such as closer Aroldis Chapman and second baseman Starlin Castro to a team that finished 87-75 and reached the American League Wild Card Game in 2015, where it lost to the Houston Astros. However, New York missed the playoffs the two years prior and may be better served moving on from this core and starting a rebuilding process.

Still, the Yankees are one of the pillar franchises in all of professional sports and made the playoffs 17 times and won six World Series titles from 1995-2012. Rebuilding isn’t in their blood, and Steinbrenner sounded like someone who still believes they can make a run this season.

For his part, Girardi was quick to accept the blame for the start, per Wallace Matthews of ESPN.com: “I always take full responsibility for what happens here—good or bad. It’s my job to get the best out of the players, and right now, we’re not performing to the level I think we’re capable of.”

The silver lining for the Yankees is the fact it is still early in a long season, and they are within striking distance of the first-place Baltimore Orioles at 7.5 games back. They were also only four games back in the wild-card race after Wednesday’s victory and have plenty of time to turn things around.

If they don’t, they will probably hear about it from Steinbrenner.

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New York Yankees outfielder Carlos Beltran hit his 400th career home run in the bottom of the sixth inning of Sunday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.

The Bronx Bombers sent out this tweet after Beltran’s blast:

Beltran’s milestone shot was a two-run homer and gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead. He launched a 2-2 fastball from Zach Duke over the left field wall of Yankee Stadium, his 42nd homer in two-plus years wearing pinstripes.

Going into that at-bat, Beltran hadn’t had much success against the White Sox reliever, per Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago:

The eight-time All-Star became the 54th player to reach the 400-dinger club, according to Yankees PR, but he also joined a short list of players from Puerto Rico:

Not only has Beltran been an impact player at the plate, but he spent his early years as one of the game’s best base stealers. ESPN Stats & Info noted Beltran also finds himself in the exclusive company of some of baseball’s best all-around players:

Jon Heyman of MLB Network acknowledged Beltran’s defensive talent and wonders if Cooperstown is in his future:

The only downside to Beltran’s career is he’s yet to win a World Series. He finally reached the Fall Classic for the first time in his storied career in 2013 with the St. Louis Cardinals, but they lost to the Boston Red Sox.

It’s debatable whether Beltran should be a Hall of Famer, but there aren’t many players who have batted .280 while showcasing the combination of power and speed that the 39-year-old has for the majority of his career.

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