With what should have been a week of the regular 2020 season in the books, we currently find ourselves wondering just what the Yankees staff has been doing and where are they during this pandemic? Thanks to Bryan Hoch and Yankees pitching coach we have a little insight to what our favorite players have been up to during this difficult time. As you can see the Yankees staff is as diverse as you can be, with six of their potential starters staying all over the world, from Tanaka in Japan, to Loaisiga in Nicaragua.
It’s been up to Matt Blake and other Yankees personnel to help keep tabs on their players during this difficult situation. Blake, from his home in suburban Cleveland, had a conference call with reporter Bryan Hoch to give us a little insight on what he has been doing to keep his staff ready for when they can actually step on a field again. Blake describes this whole situation as almost like a dream, they were mere weeks away from getting their season started, only to wake up and have everything disappear. You could almost start to see the players starting to come together and form that bond that lasts an entire season, but everything came to an abrupt halt. You could see from the dedication of the players that most of them wanted to stay in camp and continue working out as a team, but as news of the virus worsened, they were forced to retreat back to their homes to continue getting their work in.
Blake mentions in his interview that there’s really no playbook to go from, this something that we have never seen, so there’s really no right way to go about things. For most of the Yankees veteran pitchers, Blake is leaving the throwing programs for their own discretion. With no clear date, he trusts that his guys would keep their arms well enough in shape so that when they get the call to start back up they’ll be ready. One thing Blake wanted to focus on was being more hands on with his younger starters, specifically Montgomery and Loaisiga. As for the bullpen arms, he doesn’t believe that they should be off a mound right now, but they should have their arms in enough of shape so that once this delay is over they can get them game ready as soon as possible.
“I don’t think you need to be on a mound right now. Just given that we don’t really know a timeline, there’s a lot of other ways that we can keep them moving and putting healthy stress on [their throwing arms].”
Matt Blake via SI.com
Blake expects a second Spring Training to start once this delay comes to an end, leaving his players with a little under a month to get game ready. With the MLB possibly adding in numerous double headers in their season to get as many games in as possible, you’d expect them to expand rosters allowing for clubs to hold on to more pitchers during the season. This makes the pitching performances from the younger Yankees pitchers all the more important once the season finally comes to a start. With more roster spots open, guys like Garcia and Schmidt will see new opportunities to make the Yankees opening day roster.
Blake emphasizes that despite all this, the most important issue is that his players and their families are remaining safe during this time. He doesn’t want to be a burden to his guys because he understands that there a lot more important things that can be on a players mind during this pandemic. There’s a wide number of players all over the world in their organization and it’s almost impossible to keep your eyes on all of them, but Blake is doing his best to stay in contact with as many as he can during these uncertain times. Until then, we miss you baseball.
The Washed Up Athlete 