Yankees Mailbag: Mason Miller’s availability and Volpe’s struggles

Mason Miller of the San Diego Padres pitches during the ninth inning against the Cincinnati Reds

Good afternoon everyone, it’s time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your questions. Remember to send in your questions for our weekly call by e-mail to pinstripealleyblog [at] gmail [dot] com.

BetweenThePinstripes asks: Can the Yankees pry Mason Miller away from the Padres? If so, how?

Realistically, no. The Athletics pried away one of the best prospects in all of baseball with Leo De Vries (currently sitting at No. 2 overall on MLB Pipeline), alongside the Padres’ No. 3 prospect in Braden Nett and some not-insignificant add-ons with their 13th and 17th-rated organizational prospects for Miller’s services. There’s one less year of control now should the Padres turn around and flip him to another contender, but his value is arguably even higher now as he’s currently in Cy Young discussions as a reliever. Will he actually win is a different conversation, but when you’re rolling out a strikeout rate north of 50 percent, have yet to give up a long ball, and have an ERA below 1.00 this far into the season with three years of control still in hand it’s safe to say that team’s will give up a horde of prospects to get Miller into their ‘pen.

The Yankees’ best offer would see them part with George Lombard Jr. almost assuredly, alongside one of their top pitching prospects in either Elmer Rodriguez or Carlos Lagrange, and then some. And that’s assuming there’s no bidding battle for Miller, which there certainly could be, or that the Padres intend to flip him in the first place. This season’s been a disappointment for San Diego largely thanks to their stars in the lineup struggling, but they’re still sitting in the final Wild Card spot. The NL field is incredibly bloated outside of the division leaders, so they could opt to go either way, but that gives them further incentive to drive up the price if the rest aren’t budging. The Yankees need bullpen help, yes, but they need multiple pieces and some other help at the bottom of their lineup as well. They can’t afford to throw all of their resources into one upgrade at the backend of the ‘pen, even if it would be tantalizing to envision Miller in pinstripes.

RememberBobbyMurcer asks: Why don’t the Yankees send Volpe down to Triple-A and play him at second base? He is not a MLB quality SS and they probably will not re-sign Jazz in the offseason.

The Anthony Volpe saga continues, much to everyone’s chagrin. Volpe had his patented hot week at the plate upon his return from the minors, prompting manager Aaron Boone to put his faith in him to get consistent starts again. Then came the inevitable slide with consistent play, as Volpe went on an ice-cold streak. The team is stretched thin-enough to keep him on the roster until Jasson Domínguez returns, with Giancarlo Stanton not far behind him all but guaranteeing that the roster crunch will come down, and though José Caballero has come back down to earth a bit he’s still the better option at shortstop than Volpe as the team accurately assessed when Volpe was set to return from the IL.

As for the future of the infield, it wouldn’t hurt to see if Volpe can play at second because I can’t see him getting the lion’s share of starts at shortstop beyond this stretch. I’d still like to see the team re-sign Jazz Chisholm Jr., but working under the assumption that his asking price winds up being too expensive or the team just can’t come to an agreement it would help to have backup options in house. I just don’t know how much trust you can place in Volpe regardless of his position if his bat is never going to materialize, but that’s a problem he could at least work on down in the minors without costing the team.

Fenimore Finkwazzle asks: Considering the injuries to Judge and Dominguez — why don’t MLB outfielders wear NFL-style padding? I feel like it would at least mitigate the shoulder/rib injuries we see from wall collisions and full-body dives.

That would be something that would require a change in MLB’s uniform and equipment rules, but let’s say for the sake of discussion that we can circumvent that entirely and allow outfielders to suit up in pads. The cost then becomes players’ sprint speed covering the gaps and tracking down long flies versus the safety that these pads would provide if a collision happens. The former is something that is a necessity every single day, whereas the latter is a rare event that can become costly if it happens and goes wrong. I don’t know if players or teams would be willing to exchange that, and that’s without even getting into the fact that the majority of MLB’s regular season comes during the summer when peak temperatures could easily exhaust players in a single inning if they were lugging around heavy gear on their shoulders. It’s a concern that’s particular to the Yankees right now due to how Aaron Judge‘s last two injuries have come about as well as Domínguez’s stint on the IL, but overall there’s not much to do about that other than perhaps preach a little bit more caution to their superstar captain.