traded for first baseman\/DH Luis Garc\u00eda Jr.<\/a> before the deadline. Garc\u00eda has the second-best slugging percentage in the majors (.560). He dominates righties (149 wRC+, 310 at-bats).<\/p>\nCurrently, the Yankees plan for Rice to mostly DH while Garc\u00eda plays first base versus righties and Goldschmidt plays the position against lefties.<\/p>\n
How does Stanton fit into the DH spot? That\u2019s not a rhetorical question. How would that work? The Yankees probably don\u2019t know yet, either.<\/p>\n
Stanton bludgeons left-handed pitching. But he\u2019s never been asked to platoon before. And even if Stanton did platoon, with whom would it be? Rice has to be in the lineup every day.<\/p>\n
The Yankees could get creative and give one of Stanton, Goldschmidt, Rice or Garc\u00eda a \u201crest\u201d day each game leading into the playoffs. But Stanton is big on timing, and taking him out of the lineup at all could pose problems for him. Plus, while Judge is the captain of the Yankees, Stanton is his enforcer, and it would be tough to limit playing time for someone so crucial in the clubhouse \u2014 even if he\u2019s oft-injured and 36 years old.<\/p>\n
Although Stanton saw some time in right field last season, the Yankees shouldn\u2019t ask him to play there after he suffered his calf strain simply advancing to second base on a walk.<\/p>\n
Which starter gets bounced when Rod\u00f3n comes back?![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2282493495-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Carlos Rod\u00f3n last pitched for the Yankees on June 28. He has a 3.30 ERA in nine starts. (Duane Burleson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
For a while, it\u2019s seemed likely the Yankees would send Ryan Weathers to the bullpen at some point this season for two reasons: They would probably be concerned about increasing his workload so sharply (he\u2019s already pitched 121 innings, after never topping 100 in the majors before); and they would surely like an extra power lefty as a relief option in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Weathers heading to the bullpen still seems the most likely outcome.<\/p>\n
Still, he has put up better production as a starting pitcher than Will Warren. Through 22 starts, Weathers is 5-7 with a 3.79 ERA. Warren has a 4.18 ERA over 22 starts and a one-inning relief appearance. Weathers has amassed 1.5 WAR, according to Baseball Reference. Warren has put up 0.3 WAR.<\/p>\n
The Yankees might want a handful more Weathers starts over outings from Warren.<\/p>\n
They could kick the can down the road by going with a six-man rotation for a turn or two after Rod\u00f3n comes back. Or they could cross their fingers that Warren gives them a few more solid outings. They also could demote Warren and keep him stretched out, starting in Triple A, to preserve him as an option along with Elmer Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n
Warren could also find himself in the bullpen come the playoffs. The Yankees figure to feature the following October rotation: Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, Cole and Rod\u00f3n. They won\u2019t need a fifth spot. Warren could swap out one of the current righties, even when Clarke Schmidt (Tommy John surgery) returns from the injured list and joins the bullpen rather than the rotation. Schmidt has said it\u2019s unlikely he would have time to build up as a starting pitcher, and the Yankees have a greater need in the bullpen anyway.<\/p>\n
In October, adding Warren, Weathers and Schmidt to the bullpen could wind up being better than many trade deadline additions the Yankees could have made. It could also blow up. But what other choice do the Yankees have?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember the good old days of \u2026 late March? The New York Yankees had just finished spring training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2704,85],"class_list":["post-847103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}