Twins becoming sellers could change everything for Yankees, Mets at trade deadline
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With two walk-year starters (Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly) and corner infielders (Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez), Arizona – three games under .500 and 5 1/2 back of the wild card at the break – have tantalizing pieces for a clearance sale. What makes Minnesota even more intriguing is the potential to move high-end pieces that have control beyond this year.
The Twins are two games under .500 and four back of the wild card. Their head of baseball operations, Derek Falvey, joined 'The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman' podcast and described his club as still deciding whether to buy, sell, both or neither – and just how deep (just walk year guys or more) to sell should they spin that way.
'We have to take stock of reality as we get close to the end of July,' Falvey said.
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Yankees' Devin Williams dominant again after ugly start: 'I remember everything'
NEW YORK — On a roster which includes the iconic Aaron Judge, and fellow All-Stars Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Max Fried, perhaps the most pivotal player in the New York Yankees' pursuit of a 28th World Series championship just may be Devin Williams. After some rough patches, Williams, a two-time All-Star and 2020 NL Rookie of the Year, has been on a roll – reclaiming the closer spot, and in the process displaying the moxie which enticed the Bombers to acquire him from the Brewers in December. Williams started his Yankees career off poorly with a 9.00 ERA through his first 12 outings (10 earned runs in 10 innings), nothing like the 1.83 ERA he posted across his first 241 career games. He lost the Yankees' ninth-inning job temporarily, but has looked like himself in recent weeks, racking up 33 strikeouts to just four walks with a 1.90 ERA in his last 25 games, notching nine saves and five holds. Closing inherently forces you to face excruciating losses head on. But, contrary to the popular belief that the closer must possess a short memory, Williams digests each of his outings. 'I remember everything – good or bad,' Williams told USA TODAY Sports. 'It's being able to compartmentalize and move on from that more so than necessarily having a short memory.' It was a big adjustment moving from Milwaukee to starring on the brightest stage in New York. 'I think the outside noise can obviously be louder here,' said Williams. 'That's just New York in general. There (are) more opinions here, and if you feed into that, it can lock you up mentally. I think that's what the good ones do - they just block out everything.' And while there have been vocal detractors, fans and media alike, Williams seems mostly happy with the way he has been received, 'It's been good and bad, (but) for the most part it's been good,' said Williams. 'In person, people are very encouraging.' Williams said that encouragement has positively impacted his play. 'I always have a little bit of butterflies in every appearance until I get to the mound and throw my first warmup pitch, and then I'm good,' said Williams. 'They (the fans) bring a lot of energy and I feed off of that. I feel like internally I'm very amped up, but on the outside, it looks very calm, almost nonchalant, I guess. But yeah, definitely, I feed off the energy they have here.' Of late, the performances from the man dubbed 'The Airbender' because of his signature changeup, have provided the Yankees faithful with a myriad of reasons to supply additional energy. 'I'm extremely confident,' said Williams. 'I think it took a little bit of an adjustment period here – wanting to show what I can do, how I can help. I think I just tried to do a little too much and kind of lost who I was in the process. I've gotten back to that over the last two and a half months.' Yankees broadcaster Paul O'Neill noticed the change in Williams, and is bullish on the future of the 30-year-old St. Louis native. 'He's in a much better spot now than he was earlier in the year,' said O'Neill, who began his career in Cincinnati, before winning four World Series with the Yankees. 'There's always a transition coming to New York, but believe me, I think coming down the stretch here, he's going to be as good as ever.' Williams' dominance is linked to his primary pitches – the masterful changeup, which features an extremely high spin rate, and an effective fastball. His impressive arsenal of pitches, which also includes a cutter and sinker, has allowed Williams to post strikeout rates of around 40% during the past three full seasons. 'I didn't have very good numbers (against) him,' said Yankees teammate Paul Goldschmidt, who is 1-for-10 with six strikeouts against Williams. 'That changeup obviously is his calling card, but he throws 95 miles an hour too. He does a good job of keeping you off balance.' Goldschmidt called Williams 'a great teammate,' and the reliever has been thrilled to team up with the seven-time All-Star first baseman, as well as the rest of his Yankees teammates in New York. 'I am happy, I love New York City,' said Williams. Still, it may be one and done for Williams in New York. He will be an free agent after this season, and what his 2026 work address will be is anybody's guess. But while he is here, Williams will work hard to have his New York tenure remembered less for being the guy who busted the Yankees-imposed beard ban, and more for closing big games. 'I would love to be the guy to finish off the World Series; and bring another championship to New York' said Williams. 'That's the goal, right?'
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Can Aaron Judge supplant greatest Yankees? He's trending toward the unthinkable
Aaron Judge gets dressed at a locker right next to a getaway exit, which serves its purpose in the Bronx. Judge adores baseball's daily rituals with this sole exception: pregame media access in the clubhouse. The big man has made it known he could live without that one. Judge believes the hours before that first pitch are meant for serious prep work, not small talk. But as a team captain raised the right way, he finds it hard to be disrespectful. People around Yankee Stadium swear he leads the league in balls tossed to kids and fist-bumps given to ushers, electricians and maintenance staff. Advertisement So on this day, Judge agrees to spend a few minutes humoring a visitor who informs him that he'll soon pass Alex Rodriguez, Yogi Berra and Joe DiMaggio on the all-time Yankees home run list. He lowers his head as if to hide his sheepish smile. 'To get near those guys, wow,' Judge said. 'That's a special trio right there. It's kind of crazy to judge a career against somebody who did it for 20 years and had such a great career, so maybe when I'm done playing, I can look back and see the things that I've done. Any sentence with those three guys is special. 'I'm aware of a lot of Yankee history. I definitely pay attention to it, especially being in this organization and what we are built on. It's about a lot of great pasts that we've had and also what's to come.' What's to come in Judge's world is hard to pin down, because at 6-feet-7 and 282 pounds, he is something baseball has never seen before — an NFL defensive end or NBA power forward with enough agility to play a perfectly credible center field when asked. You can stand all the towering figures in Yankee lore next to Judge and they'd all look like Phil Rizzuto. Judge basically plays at the same weight in right field that Nikola Jokić plays at in the paint. Yet, in one night, you can see him clear the top of the wall and beat a fan to what would've been a Cubs home run ball, make a diving catch on a sinking liner and crash his body into the corner dirt to preserve Carlos Rodón's scoreless outing while leading by eight runs in the eighth. AARON JUDGE DOES IT AGAIN 😮 — MLB (@MLB) July 12, 2025 'We can guess at what Judge will do in the future, but that's all we can do,' said his hitting coach, James Rowson, who also worked with him in the minors. 'He's not normal. Nothing he does is normal. So, I would never bet against him, and I would count on him to do more than anyone has done before him.' Advertisement As baseball reopens for business following the All-Star break, the fastest man ever to 350 homers is trending toward the unthinkable. If Judge stays relatively healthy over the long haul, he is going to supplant someone among the true Core Four in Yankee mythology. Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig. Joe DiMaggio. Mickey Mantle. At least one of those titans is toast. You can cherry-pick stats to death to support almost any argument, but it should be noted that Judge has a better career slugging percentage and OPS than DiMaggio's and Mantle's. According to FanGraphs, Judge's wRC+ beats Gehrig's, Mantle's and DiMaggio's and ranks third among MLB players, behind Ruth and Ted Williams. In May, The Athletic's Jayson Stark made an incredibly detailed statistical case for Judge as possibly the greatest right-handed hitter of modern times. Now 33, Judge wants to play into his 40s. 'That's the plan,' he told The Athletic, which means he expects to sign another contract after his nine-year deal expires in 2031, when Judge will be 39. 'When I signed this deal,' he said, 'one of the things I promised was that I wanted to come in and be a contributor all the way to the end of that contract. So hopefully we'll continue that.' Again, assuming relatively good health, Judge will likely pass Gehrig (493 homers) and Mantle (536) and finish second on the franchise's career list, behind the Babe. Asked if he thinks Ruth's 659 Yankee homers is a realistic target, Judge said, 'We can dream. We can hope. 'It's tough, though. I've got to be hitting 50 homers all the way into my early 40s. I don't know. It would be something good to strive for. I never really thought about it, to be honest. I just try to go out there to do my job.' If Judge finishes with 55 homers this year (he has 35 now) for a career total of 370, he'd need to average 36 homers over eight seasons to reach Ruth. Given Judge's athleticism, work ethic and availability to become a full-time DH to protect his legs near the end of his career, that math doesn't seem crazy. What does seem crazy to fans of a certain age is a suggestion that any modern-day Yankee could be better than DiMaggio or Mantle, or at least just as good. You don't talk about Joe D. and the Mick like that. You certainly don't talk about Ruth and Gehrig like that. Berra, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera made their spirited runs at the franchise's first mythological tier and landed a few feet short. But it doesn't look like Judge is about to settle for Tier 1A. After all, he needed 241 fewer games than the Babe needed to get to 350 homers. Advertisement 'I think Judge has moved up into that category of DiMaggio and Mickey with what he's accomplishing,' said Roy White, a former Yankees teammate of Mantle's. 'I watched DiMaggio on film as a kid, and I saw Mickey a lot on TV before I played with him toward the end of his career. 'Mantle was a switch hitter with power and speed, and Judge is probably physically stronger with his size. I think Aaron has a stronger arm than Mickey had, and Mickey had a good arm. They could both carry your club. If I had to flip a coin, Aaron or Mickey, I don't know. I'll take them both.' Longtime pitcher Al Downing, a Mantle teammate who competed against various all-time greats (he famously gave up Hank Aaron's record-breaking 715th homer as a Dodger), said he admired Judge and called him a great talent who could play in any generation. But when asked if it was fair to put Judge on Mantle's level, Downing maintained that his switch-hitting teammate's power from both sides gave him the edge. 'I don't think you can put him in a category with Mickey,' Downing said, 'and I'm not taking anything away from Judge.' Retired Yankees play-by-play legend John Sterling saw a little of DiMaggio, a lot of Mantle and a ton of Judge, and he has a different view. 'Do I see Judge in that light of Yankee greatness? Well, absolutely,' Sterling said. The announcer raved about the captain's disposition and said he had grown close to Judge's parents, Wayne and Patty. 'Terrific people,' Sterling said, before referencing his dramatic home run call for their son. 'Wayne said to me once, 'I love your Judge-ian blasts.'' In the end, it's a shame that Judge didn't become an MLB regular until he was 25. It's a shame that many scouts (including one from the Yankees) saw him as a non-prospect as a high schooler in Linden, Calif., steering him to a three-year career at Fresno State. It's a shame that Judge lost time to injuries and the pandemic in the bigs. Advertisement But DiMaggio lost three years to his wartime service, and Mantle had those terrible knee issues. Nobody has a seamless career, and on that note, a word is required about Judge and the things that matter most in the Bronx. Championships. Ruth won seven, including four with the Yanks. Gehrig won six. DiMaggio won nine. Mantle won seven. We all know how many Judge has won. Of course, he's had to confront all these playoff rounds that weren't part of those straight-to-the-World-Series days, and he's had to do it without the kind of talent the previous captain, Jeter, had around him. Judge could use a couple of titles to round out his legacy and mute the questions that could hound him down the road. But the slugger can't be judged by his ring count, not when he is cursed by a sport that doesn't allow its superstar position players to impact winning like an NFL quarterback or NBA wing can. The all-time home-run leader, Barry Bonds, retired with no rings. A-Rod once told me that Bonds would have had six or seven if he'd played in the NBA. Whatever. Judge does need to play better in October, whether or not that leads to a ticker-tape parade. And it will happen. He's too good for it not to. Meanwhile, he'll keep wearing that signature No. 99 jersey and that signature eye black and keep making memories as the ultimate video game Bambino. When the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009, four years before Judge was drafted, Babe Ruth's daughter described to me what it was like to see the real Bambino fill the old place with his overwhelming presence. 'When Daddy stepped to the plate,' Julia Ruth Stevens said by phone, 'everyone was kind of breathless. You knew something big was going to happen. It was thrilling, absolutely thrilling. I remember how Daddy would hit it high and the crowd would stand up and try to follow the ball, and when it landed deep in the bleachers, they'd let out a tremendous roar.' That's how Aaron Judge makes people feel with his Judge-ian blasts. And that's why he's going to hurdle some of the true giants in Yankees history. It's just a question of how many.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Five dates to circle for remainder of Yankees' 2025 schedule
ATLANTA - As the Yankees reconvene at Truist Park, there are several key 2025 dates to circle on the pinstriped calendar. With 66 games to play, the Yankees (53-43) are two games back in the AL East, two games ahead in the AL wild card standings and they resume the 2025 season with a six-game road trip beginning Friday night. Of those remaining 66 games, 26 are within the division - where the Yankees currently own a disappointing 10-16 record. Here are five important regular season dates to remember: July 21 at Toronto Just 18 days after being swept by the Blue Jays in four games, the Yankees find themselves back at Toronto for a three-game set. You'll recall that the Yankees arrived at Rogers Centre with a three-game lead over Toronto and exited in second place after George Springer and company destroyed Yankee pitching. Here's a quick opportunity for the Yankees to answer back, or risk falling further in the AL East as the MLB trade deadline looms. July 31 at Yankee Stadium At 6 p.m., the MLB trade deadline arrives, at which time we'll know if GM Brian Cashman made any impact additions to a club in need of pitching, a third baseman, and possibly a righty-hitting outfielder. 'I'm always interested in adding something that'll have big impact, that'll supercharge us,'' Cashman said recently, emphasizing the need for pitching of any kind. 'We're going to be fully engaged'' in the trade market, and names like Eugenio Suarez, Zac Gallen and Jhoan Duran will be prominent these next two weeks. August 5 at Texas Based on his rehab timeline, this is possibly the date when Luis Gil is activated from the injured list (lat strain) and returns to the Yankees' rotation. Gil's initial rehab start at Class AA Somerset went well, and his looming presence at least provides some trade-deadline period cover, whether or not the Yankees land an impact starter. But it might take a few starts for Gil to build stamina and rhythm. And remember, his 2024 Rookie of the Year award was largely based on his first half; Gil posted a 5.15 ERA in his last 15 starts. September 2 at Houston Another playoff preview? Joe Espada's Astros currently own a five-game AL West lead and this is the Yankees' lone regular season visit to hated Houston, kicking off a big stretch against tough opponents. Following this three-game set, the Yankees arrive home for series against the Blue Jays and Detroit Tigers, who might be ready to clinch the AL Central during their Bronx visit. September 12 at Boston At the All-Star break, the Red Sox were riding a 10-game winning streak, moving them within a game of the second-place Yanks, who are 1-5 against Boston this year. Rafael Devers isn't at Fenway Park to punish them anymore, but the Yankees should expect to see an Alex Bregman-led Boston club with some reinforcements stemming from the trade deadline. This also starts a key period, the Yankees' final and potentially most treacherous road trip - 10 games, with stops at Minnesota and Baltimore. This article originally appeared on Yankees 2025 schedule: Dates to circle for season's second half
