New York Yankees

An already depleted New York Yankees starting rotation suffered another blow when Marcus Stroman required a cortisone shot in his left knee following a 9-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

"The MRI was good, but he had some swelling in there somewhere," manager Aaron Boone told reporters Sunday. "So try to eliminate that, hopefully get him ramped up pretty quick and, hopefully, something that really helps him move it forward."

Stroman will be sidelined for at least two weeks since the Yankees placed him on the 15-day injured list. He's the fourth New York starter on the IL, joining Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt.

The two-time All-Star was removed midway through the first inning of Friday's defeat. He threw 46 pitches and allowed five earned runs, three on a home run by Jung Hoo Lee and two more on a double by Lamonte Wade Jr.

The game was called because of rain before the Yankees got their turn to bat in the sixth inning.

The performance added to a tough start for Stroman, who has surrendered 12 runs on 12 hits in 9.1 innings.

The right-hander bristled at the idea of coming out of the bullpen this year. While he has gotten his wish to remain a starter, he hasn't made the most of the opportunity.

The knee inflammation might at least help to explain why Stroman's stuff has been so off. Maybe he'll look more like his usual self once he's cleared for a return to the mound.

In the meantime, Schmidt's 2025 season debut is imminent and won't be a moment too soon for Boone.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been impressed with Ben Rice's recent production as the team's leadoff hitter.

“Benny’s done such a good job up there,” Boone said, per Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. “He controls the strike zone, and then he’s so dangerous, too.”

New York's leadoff spot has been occupied by catcher Austin Wells, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Rice to begin its 2025 campaign.

All three players have looked promising in the role, while Rice has particularly excelled as of late. In five games that he's served as the Yankees' leadoff hitter, the 26-year-old has racked up two home runs while drawing seven walks to go along with a .333/.520/.833 slash line.

Rice was atop New York's batting order once again on Saturday, finishing 2-for-4 with a homer during an impressive 8-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

His ability to draw walks has been key to his success in a leadoff role, as his .431 on-base percentage is the highest among Yankees hitters outside of superstar Aaron Judge.

On the season, Rice is hitting .286 with three home runs and four RBIs.

The hits keep coming to the New York Yankees pitching staff, with Marcus Stroman landing on the injured list.

New York announced on Saturday that Stroman was placed on the 15-day IL due to inflammation in his left knee.

The move comes after a horrendous start for Stroman on Friday against the San Francisco Giants. He was removed after recording just two outs, allowing five runs on four hits and three walks.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters after the game Stroman said his "left knee was bugging him" when he was pulled.

Boone added that Stroman underwent X-rays at Yankee Stadium and he went to a local hospital for additional testing.

There was speculation going into spring training that Stroman could open the season in the bullpen if he wasn't traded. The Yankees were planning on a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt.

When asked about the possibility of pitching in relief, Stroman insisted he wasn't considering that option.

"I'm a starter. I won't pitch in the bullpen. I'm a starter," he said on Feb. 14.

A series of injuries to other starters allowed Stroman to open the year in the rotation. Cole is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March. Gil is expected to be out until at least June due to a strained lat.

Schmidt, who opened the season on the IL with rotator cuff tendinitis, is expected to make his 2025 debut on April 15 or 16 coming off two scoreless minor-league rehab starts.

That timeline sets up perfectly for when Stroman likely would have made his next start on April 16 against the Kansas City Royals.

Stroman signed a two-year, $37 million deal with the Yankees as a free agent in January 2024. He had a 4.31 ERA in 154.2 innings over 30 appearances in his first season in the Bronx.

Through three starts this season, Stroman posted an 11.57 ERA with 12 hits allowed and as many walks as strikeouts (seven) in 9.1 innings.

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge is off to a scorching start this season, and he stayed hot with a win in a fun competition.

Judge took on MrBeast in baseball tic-tac-toe for a social media and unsurprisingly was victorious:

Through 12 games, Judge is tied with Oakland A's first baseman Tyler Soderstrom with a league-leading six home runs and ranks first in MLB with 20 RBI this season. He's also hitting .354, showing no signs of a drop-off from his 2024 AL MVP campaign.

The Yankees improved to 7-5 after ending a three-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Detroit Tigers in Wednesday's series finale. Judge and company will welcome the San Francisco Giants (9-3) to town on Friday for the first matchup of a three-game set.

New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger is taking a hardline stance against wings.

The two-time All-Star joked on Wednesday that he "will not eat wings for five years" due to a recent bout of food poisoning.

Bellinger was scratched from the lineup prior to Tuesday's game against the Detroit Tigers due to an illness. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters prior to first pitch the belief was he suffered food poisoning but didn't specify what he ate.

"Food poisoning, we think," Boone said. "He’s been throwing up all night. Hopefully, he feels a little bit better now. We’ll see if we can get him going and make him somehow available as the game goes. We’ll see how it unfolds."

Boone did say after the Yankees' 5-0 loss that Bellinger "felt a lot better" as the game was going on.

It's overstating things to say food poisoning is becoming an epidemic in MLB, but it has caused some issues for teams to start the season. Cleveland Guardians ace Tanner Bibee was scratched from his scheduled start on Opening Day against the Kansas City Royals due to an illness.

While the actual cause of Bibee's food poisoning wasn't revealed, the right-hander did clarify it was not a Chipotle-related issue since he previously said he ate at the restaurant chain on the days he pitches.

Bellinger had no problem sharing that his food poisoning was caused by chicken wings, though it's still unclear if they were from a restaurant or perhaps he tried to make some on his own and didn't quite get it right.

The Yankees can use Bellinger's bat back in their lineup on Wednesday. They have lost three straight games and five of their last eight since sweeping a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers to open the season.

Bellinger, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Chicago Cubs, is hitting .233/.278/.333 with one homer in eight games.

It's another day and another record for the New York Yankees offense and the torpedo bats some of their players are using this year.

New York faced the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday in its fourth game of the season and wasted no time making early noise with solo home runs from Jasson Domínguez in the third inning and Anthony Volpe in the fourth inning.

That brought their home-run total to 17 on the season, which Bryan Hoch of MLB.com noted is an all-time record for the first four games of a single campaign. The previous record was set in 2006 when the Detroit Tigers hit 16.

This comes after the Bronx Bombers already tied the MLB record with 15 home runs through the first three games of a season.

They hit those 15 long balls during a three-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season. Nine of the 15 came during Saturday's victory as the American League East club set a franchise record for home runs in a single game.

It certainly doesn't hurt a team's chances to set offensive records with Aaron Judge in the middle of the lineup, and the slugger entered Tuesday's contest with four home runs on the season.

Of course, the Yankees' offensive explosion is only going to bring more attention to their new-look bats this season. The torpedo bats resemble bowling pins with more of the mass distributed closer to the barrel where players are more likely to make contact.

An MLB spokesperson told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner "the shape of the bat does not violate the rules," although it might be in the future.

After all, a front-office source told R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports, "I think they'll be banned. I think MLB will be compelled to establish a rule to prevent them from getting out of hand, and I think the interests of fairness will direct that rule to be something that more or less bans the torpedo design."

At this point, it has been a perfect storm to generate more attention.

It is early in the season, so everything is magnified because of the small sample size. What's more, the Yankees are a national brand that are always going to draw more headlines than many of the other teams around the league.

And they are setting offensive records, which is only going to lead to more scrutiny.

For now, though, New York's offense looks unstoppable.

The new-look "torpedo" bats that some members of the New York Yankees have used at the start of the 2025 season have generated plenty of headlines, and one of their biggest stars was also part of the discussion Tuesday even though he is sidelined with an elbow injury.

Giancarlo Stanton revealed he will use the torpedo bat when he returns from the injured list, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. 

He also said, "you're not going to get the story you're looking for, so if that's what you guys want, that isn't going to happen," when asked if the torpedo bats were the "bat adjustments" he previously suggested could have contributed to his elbow injuries.

Stanton is yet to play this season due to ligament damage in both elbows, but he has resumed hitting indoors as he rehabs and works toward a return.

He also said Tuesday he is taking at-bats against the Trajekt machine and is eyeing rehab games in the future even though the pain "will be a constant."

The slugger noted, "I'm just getting the feel back."

For now, there doesn't seem to be any reason for the Yankees to rush a return. After all, they are off to a 3-0 start to the season thanks to a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers that saw them push across a combined 36 runs in the three wins.

They also tied the Major League record with 15 home runs in the first three games of a season, four of which came from Aaron Judge as he continues to carry the offense during Stanton's absence.

While every member of the Yankees isn't using the torpedo bats, that they were so dominant offensively in their first three games only brought additional attention toward the topic.

Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill even said, "it's the Yankees, so they'll let it slide," per Dan Martin of the New York Post, although an MLB spokesperson told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner "the shape of the bat does not violate the rules."

Stanton is one of the most prolific power hitters of his generation, so the idea he may be even better at the plate with one of the new-look bats surely doesn't sit well with pitchers. His presence will also make a New York lineup that has been unstoppable to start the season all the more dangerous.

The New York Yankees' torpedo bats partially led to the team's dominant three-game sweep and 36-run onslaught against the Milwaukee Brewers to open the season.

It's gotten plenty of attention from around the league and also from Cleveland Cavaliers star and noted New York Mets fan Donovan Mitchell, who joked that the Yankees should be suspended for the season for deploying the new bats to such great effect.

Mitchell was responding to a social media post from Yankees outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., who is using a torpedo bat and tried to explain how it works.

Major League Baseball has already confirmed that the bats are legal. Kevin Smith provided more insight.

Mitchell's father, Donovan Mitchell Sr., was a coach and player in the Mets organization before later becoming the team's director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, per MLB.com's Bill Ladson. Mitchell grew up with his father involved with the organization, hanging around in clubhouses.

On the field, the Mets have started 2-2 but just broke out their bats with a 10-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday.

On the court, Mitchell's Cavs are 60-15 and looking very likely to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

New York Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra doesn't want to hear any claims that his team is getting any sort of advantage from the torpedo bats that have taken over MLB to start this season.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, Escarra said "you still have to swing the bat" to hit the ball.

The torpedo bats drew attention on Saturday when YES Network broadcaster Michael Kay said on the telecast of the Yankees' home game against the Milwaukee Brewers the team had new bats made that "moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to strike the ball."

Normally a comment like that wouldn't generate significant attention, except it came in the midst of a game where the Yankees hit a franchise-record nine homers in a 20-9 victory. They hit 15 total home runs in a three-game sweep of the Brewers.

The bats have actually been used in professional baseball since 2023, with some big leaguers using them last season. Yankees players aren't the only ones who have been using them so far in 2025.

Players from eight different teams, including the Yankees, have been confirmed as using them. The Yankees' use of the bats just got more attention, both because they're the Yankees and the volume of homers they hit.

The difference between the torpedo bat and traditional bats is the sweet spot tends to be closer to the handle, instead of near the top. This allows hitters to get more impact and velocity on pitches thrown inside.

Aaron Leanhardt, who is credited with inventing the new bat and used to work as an analyst for the Yankees before being hired as field coordinator for the Miami Marlins after last season, told MLB.com's Christina De Nicola on Monday any success with the lumber still depends on the player hitting the ball:

"I'm used to being the one walking behind all this, and someone else is standing here. It's definitely been surreal for the last couple days. At the end of the day, it's about the batter, not the bat. It's about the hitters and their hitting coaches, not the hitting implements. So I'm happy to always help those guys get a little bit better, but ultimately, it's up to them to put good swings on pitches and grind it out every day. So, credit to those guys."

The new bat, which is legal under MLB rules, is probably just the latest step in the evolution of the sport to counteract all of the changes in pitching in recent years that have made hitting more difficult than ever.

Until there's a much larger sample size to really draw any conclusions about what the bat can do, it's best not to read too much into the Yankees' three-game sample size.

If the Yankees remain on an 810-homer pace after their next 15-20 games, then it might be time to start thinking about how much the bats are helping them hit the ball over the fence.

First baseman Dominic Smith will remain with the New York Yankees organization.

Smith had opted-out of his contract after a strong spring training but Greg Joyce of the New York Post reported that he had agreed to a minor-league contract with the team on Monday.

Smith had signed a minor-league contract with a spring training invite ahead of the 2025 season but opted out when he was not placed on the 40-man roster ahead of Opening Day. He now will head to the minors and will be a solid depth piece if the team faces injuries.

Smith is entering his ninth MLB season and split 2024 between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. He hit .233/.313/.378 with six home runs and 34 RBIs in 93 games.

His longest stretch with a single franchise was with the New York Mets from 2017 to 2022. He has shown strong ability against right-handed pitchers and can play a solid first base, so he will be a sure-handed option if injuries hit the Yankees.

The Yankees are going forward with Paul Goldschmidt as the main first baseman, while Ben Rice can be the left-handed option. Outfielder Cody Bellinger can also fill in at first base, so Smith will only be called upon if truly needed.