Category: Yankees Magazine

End Game

(This story originally appeared in the September 2018 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

As the 2018 trade deadline approached, it seems that the Yankees were in desperate need of a starting pitcher. So general manager Brian Cashman went out and acquired one of the best … relief pitchers? … on the market? On the surface it made little sense. But baseball is changing, and all you need to do is look at the ways that the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays approached this year to see it. And sure, the Yankees are playing their part, too.

Starting pitchers are throwing fewer innings than ever, and since the game is still nine innings long, that means that managers and pitching coaches are being forced to rely on relievers more than ever before. So in Zach Britton, Cashman added a fourth elite closer to the Yankees’ bullpen, joining Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and David Robertson.

For this story, I tried to introduce Britton to Yankees fans, while also looking at what the acquisition can tell us about the new team-building philosophies at play. I had never interviewed Britton before this, and we had a really fun chat. He’s incredibly honest and thoughtful in his answers. A highlight for me was when we talked a lot about all of the high-leverage situations he would face in his hybrid role on the Yankees’ roster. An experienced closer who wouldn’t be doing much ninth-inning work, he was excited about the change, anxious to add a new club to his bag. Britton is enough of a student of the game (in particular, of the ways that former Yankee Andrew Miller has thrived in a unique bullpen role) to know that the idea of the ninth inning being where all the money is made doesn’t really make sense anymore.

But at the same time, he admitted that he couldn’t really explain why it was still important to him, why he still expected that when he enters free agency after the 2018 season, he expects to find a job closing again. He was almost treating it like a thought experiment, brainstorming responses. “I have the American League record for consecutive saves,” he told me, more thinking out loud than anything else. It turns out, the game might be changing faster than even the players can comprehend (for more on this, ask Greg Bird about the shift. Then back away slowly).

I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how all of this develops in the coming years. In the meantime, I hope you’ll check out this story.

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/britton-trade-added-to-yankees-deep-bullpen/c-294600990?tid=163658034

Master Craftsman

(This story originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

I hope I’m wrong when I say this, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to work on a more interesting reporting project. I had been circling something like this for a while, hanging out with a minor league roving instructor as he moved from town to town coaching different players. Between the Drew Henson scouting story that I wrote in 2016 and my feature last year about Donny Sands learning how to play catcher, I’ve long been fascinated by the people behind the scenes, the ones who help the players develop into major leaguers.

When I started asking around the Yankees front office, a bunch of people pointed me toward Danny Borrell, one of the team’s two pitching coordinators. I had never met Danny, had never heard of him, and didn’t really know what to expect. But he was open to the story from the start, and agreed to let me tag along on two trips — Staten Island and Pulaski.

The night before we started, he emailed me to say that he was actually going to be in Charleston instead of Pulaski, that something really big was happening. Normally, when big things happen around the team, we’re told to stay away. This was a rare case when I was being told that something huge was happening, and that I should make sure I was there for it. It was a no-brainer. 

He wouldn’t tell me what the big news was until after it happened, so we spent the first few days just watching the way he interacted with all the young minor leaguers — Short-Season A-ballers in Staten Island, then Low-A players in Charleston. It was fascinating. Danny would strap on catching gear and catch all the bullpens (despite being A: left-handed; and B: a former pitcher). He just has the most positive way about him, always laughing, joking, teaching. The best thing about writing minor league stories is that you really get total access. I have never stepped in the bullpen at Yankee Stadium, but while I was following Danny around, I was basically standing next to the pitchers as they were doing their workouts. It was awesome.

Danny let me hang out in meetings, he let me stand over his shoulder as he watched video with players, he let me stay next to him while he watched the games. The only time he told me he needed me to stay away for a few minutes was when they had the big meeting. As it turned out, they were taking Dermis Garcia — a pretty substantial prospect in Charleston — and letting him try to pitch. Garcia has never pitched, but his arm from third base was incredible, and Borrell had long been pining to get him onto a mound. And after Brian Cashman and his team spent time in the offseason pursuing Shohei Ohtani, they were encouraged enough by the idea of a two-way player to see if Garcia might have the chops to handle it. So they presented it to him, he enthusiastically accepted, and the next day, we stood right along the bullpen as Garcia threw off a mound for the first time in his life.

This story was an absolute joy to write, everything I could have hoped for and more. I don’t think I’ll ever have access like this again. I’m happy with how it came out.

https://www.mlb.com/news/danny-borrell-molds-yankees-young-pitchers/c-287603796

A Major Minor Showcase

(This story originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

The Trenton Thunder were hosting the Double-A All-Star Game this past July, and since they are a Yankees affiliate, it was only natural that we’d do a magazine piece on the spectacle.

I’ve been to eight MLB All-Star Games, so I was really interested to see how this minor league version would compare, and what I saw was an absolute delight. It was everything that makes minor league baseball so fun, just amped up about 300 percent. They still had Rookie the bat dog retrieving lumber in the early innings, but they also had Budweiser Clydesdales doing a lap of the warning track. The Thunder have a pork roll mascot (and on Fridays, the team wears Trenton Pork Roll uniforms). I laughed literally every time I saw the weird pink meat costume wandering the concourses. All of the silliness and nonsense (in the best way) was still there. It was just amped up.

I sat in the press box over these two days listening to one soon-retiring New York Post writer bemoaning the assignment, hoping that Tim Tebow wouldn’t do anything special, so that he wouldn’t have to write about it. Dude, we get it. This isn’t The Masters. But I really loved covering this event, and I’d love to do it again sometime. 

https://www.mlb.com/news/trenton-packs-the-fun-into-aa-all-star-game/c-287605738

The Understudy

(This story originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

I’ve always wanted to write a story about the sensation of being a big-league backup. The fact is, though, most guys don’t want to talk about it, for obvious reasons, and it’s hard not to come off as a bit of an ass when you’re asking them.

This season, though, Austin Romine was thriving in his role as Gary Sanchez’s back-up, and I felt that I had a good enough relationship with Austin to give it a try. What ensued was a really interesting, sometimes uncomfortable conversation with one of the most interesting guys in the Yankees’ clubhouse. Romine was very clear that the team is best when Gary Sanchez is catching, and he understands his role. But he also acknowledged that no one wants to play for the B team.

Of course, all this was before Sanchez got hurt, and Romine was thrust into the starting role, which, conveniently, was a hypothetical we discussed.

I really liked the conversation, and I appreciated Romine being willing to have the chat. Hope you’ll read and enjoy.

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/austin-romine-thrives-as-a-backup-catcher/c-284048780

Heat Check

(This story originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

I’ve wanted to write about fastballs for a while, and the Yankees make for good subjects. In Aroldis Chapman, they have the hardest thrower in MLB history. Luis Severino throws harder, more consistently, than any other starter in the game. So I wanted to answer a question with this story: What does all that speed actually add up to?

The fact is, every pitcher in today’s game is throwing gas. You just don’t see the “crafty lefty” all that much anymore, nor are there really any more knuckleballers coming up. The fact is, if you want to hit in the majors these days, you’d better be able to handle the heat.

So this story looks at how the speed works. What’s the difference between 90 mph and 100 mph? Austin Romine says that it all just feels fast once it gets above 95, but what does that difference actually mean? How do hitters time pitches that come in faster than they can blink?

Chapman’s past makes him hard for me to write about, so I’m happy that this didn’t turn into a simple profile of the guy, or any kind of celebration. I used his (for obvious reasons) as a jumping-off point, a way to tell the story about the incredible fastballs that have taken over today’s game.

Hope you’ll read and enjoy.

 

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/aroldis-chapman-leads-charge-for-flamethrowers/c-279908136

Rocket Man

(This story originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

Like the Greg Bird feature I had the opportunity to write in October of 2016, this piece was almost a full year in the making, in a way that caught me totally by surprise. It started in June of 2017, when I was down in Charleston reporting a story on Donny Sands. Low-A baseball looks a lot different from what I’m used to seeing in the Bronx, but the truly elite prospects stick out. And I couldn’t take my eyes off this kid in the outfielder, a guy I’d never heard of named Estevan Florial. After the first game I saw down there, I met up with my photographer, and immediately, he asked me, “Hey, what do you know about Floral?” He was that impressive.

A month later, I was in Miami for the MLB All-Star Game, and Florial was one of two Yankees representatives in the Futures Game. One part of his story really interested me — the fact that he was from Haiti. Despite sharing an island with the Dominican Republic, which produces more baseball players than you can count, there has never been a major leaguer from Haiti. In the clubhouse before the game, I asked him about it (as he dressed in a uniform that had a Haitian flag on the chest). He told me that he was actually from the Dominican Republic, which confused me. I kind of restated the question, and he gave me the same answer. I figured there was some sort of language barrier (Florial speaks English well, but it’s still not his first language).

Fast forward three more months, and Florial is part of the contingent in the Arizona Fall League. I tried to find out again — what did he mean that he wasn’t from Haiti? Is he saying that he barely lived there, then moved to the DR? No, he told me. He was born in the Dominican Republic.

Now I was really confused, so I started poking around. What I found was a remarkable story of perseverance, of determination, of a great kid whose dream was almost broken by a well-intentioned system that was nonetheless unprepared to handle a story like his.

So when I was down in the Dominican Republic to report on my Luis Severino feature, I arranged to spend some time with Florial, as well. He gave me the whole story, the let me hang out as he worked out with some young kids and his old coach. I also spent some time with Bernie Tatis, the scout/manager/agent who discovered Estevan years ago, when he was named Haniel D’Oleo. 

This was a remarkable story, one I was privileged to tell. I hope I did Estevan and his family justice, and I’m so grateful he trusted me enough to open up the way he did. I definitely root for most of my story subjects to do well — especially with the minor leaguers, it just makes the story look better if the kid turns into something. But I don’t care if Estevan never makes it to the majors. I’ll always cherish the time he gave me, and I’ll always be proud of this story.

 

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/estevan-florial-ready-to-make-name-for-himself/c-274705446?tid=163658034

 

Open Season

(This story originally appeared in the May 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

While I do travel quite a bit for stories, it’s pretty rare for me to actually join the team on the road during the season. Off the top of my head, I can think of two times since I started at Yankees Magazine that I reported on actual road games — the first was for my feature on Joe Girardi at the end of 2017, and the other was Opening Day 2018.

Something about the start of this season just felt important to me. Obviously, the Yankees had come so close in 2017, falling one game short of the World Series. And this was to be the first game for new manager Aaron Boone, as well as Giancarlo Stanton’s debut with the team. Plus, in the back of my head there was this sense that in the event this season turned out to be as special as Yankees fans and players were hoping, we should be there to document its first breaths.

So I flew to Toronto for a couple of days to watch the team work out for a last time in the preseason, then get things started the next day. The first couple weeks of April didn’t go so according to plan, but that first game sure did. Two homers from Stanton. An exceptional start by Severino. Handshakes to close things out.

We had fun covering the newness all around us; at times, it seemed like Boone had no idea what to do with his hands. He was so fidgety, constantly holding a bat or a ball. I tried to get all of my observations into the piece.

To keep the opening theme going, I also wrote about the curtain raising in the Bronx, even as it was delayed by a day due to snow. Once they got to play, it was Didi Gregorius leading the way, with a team-record 8 RBI from the shortstop position. Quite a debut, the first moments of what everyone hoped would be a truly special season.

Hope you’ll read and enjoy.

60-70 OPENING DAY FEATURE

The Odds of Winning

(This story originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

Man I loved writing this one.

I had never met or spoken to Jay Bell before we had dinner together in Scottsdale after he managed the Scorpions in an Arizona Fall League game, but I knew he had a reputation for being a great guy. That was an understatement. We sat for hours, Jay a photographer and me, as he told us all his best stories of a life in baseball. It was transfixing, and I did the best I could at using the best ones in the feature.

I was interesting in writing about Bell once the Yankees named him the Tampa manager before the previous season. Bell, famously, scored the winning run against the Yankees in the 2001 World Series, a moment low down the list of franchise highlights. Obviously, people trade sides in baseball all the time, and it’s not like Bell is Curt Schilling after the 2004 ALCS or anything, but still, it was a fun quirk, and I thought it would make a good story. Then Bell proceeded to win Manager of the Year with Tampa, and he managed the Yankees’ prospects in the AFL (as well as those of a few other teams, including the Reds, who sent along Bell’s son, Brantley, which was a fun touch).

There was one particularly funny part of the dinner, though. Just a few days earlier, the Yankees had parted ways with manager Joe Girardi, and Bell’s name was among those listed as being on the list of candidates. We’d scheduled our dinner before that news broke, though, and part of me wondered if Bell would cancel on me due to any potential awkwardness.

Quite the opposite. In fact, I’m nearly positive he thought that I was sent by Brian Cashman as some kind of envoy, charged with reporting back all my observations. So many questions I asked, Bell answered with some variation of, “This is Cash’s team, and he does such a great job, and I just do whatever they tell me to do.” Deep down, I’m sure he didn’t really think that it was a job interview under the guise of a magazine feature, but I do wonder if he was being extra cautious just in case. Anyhow, my photographer and I shared a few laughs after the fact.

Seriously, though, Jay couldn’t have been nicer or more interesting. I love the stories I got to share here, and I hope you’ll read them and get as much joy as I did.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jay-bell-uses-experience-guides-young-players/c-271786062

 

Holiday Spirit

(This story originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

Nothing too exciting here, just a service-y piece about the holiday concerts that the Steinbrenner family puts on every year around the Tampa Bay area. I had heard about the initiative during my years with the Yankees, but this was my first time heading down there to see the whole production, and I was really impressed by the scale and scope.

There’s a full orchestra playing Christmas hits for young school kids, complete with music education, sing-alongs and a visit from members of the Yankees organization, who tell the kids their story, offer some inspiration, and then read “A Visit From St. Nick.”

Very cool event, and I left very proud to be associated with the organization that puts them on. Hope you’ll read.

146-152 TAMPA COMMUNITY FEATURE

Up, Down and Back Again

(This story originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed writing this story, and how pleased I was with the outcome. I went down to Santo Domingo in January to spend some time with Luis Severino for this story, and with Estevan Florial for one that would run in May.

My goal was mainly to watch Severino work out, to see how what his life at home was like. I had never been to the Dominican Republic, so I really had no clue what to expect. But we all watched Sevy grow up before our eyes in 2017, then saw him crash head-first into a wall in the AL Wild Card Game. He lasted only a third of an inning that night, an utter disaster for a pitcher who would end up finishing third in AL Cy Young voting.

But when the Yankees came back to beat the Twins, Severino got another chance to show who he really was, and he was very effective the rest of the postseason. So the two of us spoke a lot about that whole roller-coaster experience, and how similar it was to what he experienced in 2016, when — after a brilliant 2015 debut — he was simply dreadful as a starting pitcher. He obviously came back in 2017 and showed what he could do, much as he did in the 2017 postseason. So what did he learn from that first turnaround? What was he applying? And how was he approaching his new role as the team’s ace, the eventual Opening Day starter?

I’m basically in awe of guys like Severino. So talented, so genuinely nice and interesting, such a bright future. One highlight of the trip was that we conducted our main interview with him at his apartment. All along, his wife and mother were in the kitchen cooking lunch. After we wrapped up, we shook hands and started to say goodbye, but he told us that we had to stay for lunch, that they were cooking for us, that we were their guests. I’ve been out to eat with players before during interviews, and it’s always a bit strange to share a meal under those circumstances. This was just a giant feast in the guy’s house, the food delicious and fresh. It was typical of the way that guests are treated in the culture, and my photographer was actually surprised that I had been so surprised. He had figured all along that they were cooking for us. Shows what I know.

That’s what the guy is like, though. I mentioned in a podcast recently that a lot of players, when they don’t want to deal with an interview, will say something like, “I’ve got to go run.” Severino will say that he has to go run, then he’ll go run, then he’ll come back and seek you out because he remembers that you needed him. He’s still so young, but he’s such a pro, a very easy guy to cheer for.

Hope you enjoy this one.

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/luis-severino-armed-with-2017-playoff-lessons/c-269277258?tid=163658034