COVID rash hits Yankees as they prepare for playoffs

The hope for most teams before and after the trade deadline is that their new acquisitions will either lead to some kind of inspiring turnaround or make it clear how solid they are for the playoffs. It hasn’t worked that way for a lot of teams.

The Dodgers have made the most noise with Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, but Turner has only played once and the team are still four games behind the Giants (although it is true that a week is hardly a plot of time in a baseball season), that’s where they were supposed to start. The Mets got Javy Báez to catch up with their heaviness. Báez made contact like four times. (Who could have predicted that?) The Padres the job was called off by Fernando Tatís Jr. who was injured and lost contact with the Dodgers and Giants.

The Yankees, however, have made the accusation. Now it’s a question of whether they can go on, because COVID is currently playing a game of Red Rover with the list.

First of all. Ahead of last week’s deadline, the Yankees trailed the Red Sox by seven and a half games for the division and were three and a half off the wild card. Over the past week, they’ve won five games over the Sox and two over the A’s for wild card spot, and even won a game and a half over the Rays for the top of the division.

While the straightforward narrative is that the Yanks got a boost from their new acquisitions, some are charging into their clubhouse (and we’ll get to those jokes here in a moment) that provided a bounce back even if we didn’t. can’t see the results on the pitch, Anthony Rizzo, Joey Gallo and Rougned Odor haven’t done much. They have 14 hits in 78 AB combined over the past week.

It was the incumbents of the Yankees who caused the change of ground. Especially Giancarlo Stanton, who took advantage of his good half-year health to reach 0.417 over the past week. And the team’s reliever pen was able to overcome the absence of Aroldis Chapman thanks to his best new addition to date, Clay Holmes. Holmes was in six games with the Yankees, pitched seven innings, struck out seven catches, conceded no one and allowed just one run.

It’s the formula you remember from your Yankees nightmares. They wear out the starter and get to work on the bullpen with a dull comeback in the 6th and 8th innings in which Michael Kay dabbles himself with olive oil in the broadcast booth. Yesterday against the Mariners, it was four points in the 6th. Friday night, it was one in the 8th and one in the 10th. Thursday was three in the 7th. There’s still maybe no more descent than the feeling of the Yankees building a late rally at home, a feeling of inevitability.

It doesn’t hurt that the Yanks were able to play against the Mariners (who are coming back to their level but will blame post-Graveman depression), Orioles and Marlins last week, which can make anyone look good.

How long can the Yankees continue (five in a row and eight of nine) while losing some of their roster to COVID protocols is another question. Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Gary Sanchez were put on the COVID list earlier in the week after testing positive. Anthony Rizzo joined them this morning. It’s two-fifths of the rotation, with the starting receiver and the first baseman. Given how things are going, these won’t be the last players to find themselves sidelined.

Rizzo’s appearance on the COVID list certainly raises eyebrows, if not causes some nods. Rizzo was one of the more frank non-vaxxed players when he was with the Cubs. His positive test certainly puts all of his arguments about not getting vaxxed then – putting your health first, protecting your family, researching – in an even more stupid light than it looked at the time.

This will not prevent anti-vaccines from using the fact that the Yankees were one of the first teams to reach the threshold of 85 percent of vaccinations to ease restrictions as a stick for the current outbreak of the team. It is unlikely, however, that a vaccinated player is the cause of this latest outbreak, and Rizzo will be out longer than he would have been if he had gotten his shot. At least 10 days will be missing.

It’s the third outbreak for the Yanks since the start of the season, with one in July sidelining Aaron Judge and one in mid-May that knocked out Gleyber Torres. Boone pointed out that the Yankees were just in Florida last week, a state that is essentially a COVID explosion in Michael Bay right now, and which is now seeing a series of positive tests. This is probably not the most ridiculous conclusion, although they are the only team to claim it.

If the Yankees can overcome those absences and reclaim Cole and Montgomery with frightening depth and roster flexibility, they could end up in the playoffs anyway. Or they could be the first team to claim COVID cost them a place in the MLB playoffs this year and last (the Dallas Stars would probably like to share a beer). Sport in 2021.