Probably the most perplexing move the Yankees made this offseason was the re-signing of Paul Goldschmidt. After a hot start to last year — especially against lefties — he fell away towards the back half of the season. Plus with the emergence of Ben Rice as a legitimate hitter, it seemed like the Yankees didn’t have any worries at first base. However in the dying days before spring training, the Yankees brought back Goldschmidt on a one-year deal, confusing people.
You obviously can’t judge anything on one spring training game, but some early signs show that maybe the Goldschmidt re-signing could come in handy. The veteran clapped back at the haters (sorry), driving in four runs for the Yankees on Tuesday afternoon. Those RBI were the driving force as a representative Yankees’ lineup had a pretty good day on the whole, recording 10 hits in an 8-7 road win over the Blue Jays in Dunedin.
With the Yankees running out a fairly strong spring training starting nine, they got off to a quick start versus Blue Jays minor leaguer Grant Rogers. Trent Grisham led off the game with a single, and Rogers followed that by hitting Judge with a pitch. Cody Bellinger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. then recorded a single each, both bringing home a run.
Meanwhile, Will Warren got the start for the Yankees. While he got one quick out to start the game, Toronto then got on the board as well. Daulton Varsho hit a triple which was followed by a Jesús Sánchez single to open the Jays’ account for the day.
In his 2.2 innings on the day, Warren ended up allowing just that one run on four hits, while striking out four. Among the other possible big league players for the Yankees to appear on the mound were relievers Jake Bird and Brent Headrick. Bird struck out two and allowed one hit in 1.1 scoreless innings. It was a similar story for Headrick, who put up similar numbers in 1.0 innings.
A couple innings later, the Yankees tacked back on to their lead. With Bellinger on base after another single, Paul Goldschmidt recorded his first home run of the spring, going deep to dead center field.
Two innings after that, Goldschmidt struck once again. Judge and Chisholm were on base after a single and walk respectively when the first baseman stepped to the plate. This time, Goldschmidt doubled to left field, scoring both runners. A couple batters later, Amed Rosario hit a hot shot to third that former Baby Bomber Ben Cowles couldn’t handle, scoring Goldschmidt.
As is custom in spring training games, the Yankees unloaded the bench. Not long after that, the Blue Jays’ backups gained some ground on the Yankees’ backups. Pitcher Bradley Hanner hit Davis Schneider and allowed a couple hits, leading to three runs crossing, including two on a Charles McAdoo double. McAdoo then attempted a steal of third, which led to an error on catcher Miguel Palma, allowing McAdoo to come home for another run.
The Yankees’ reserves did bounce back a bit after that. In the eighth inning, outfield prospect Jace Avina (once acquired for Jake Bauers) hit a long home run to left field to give the Bombers some breathing room. Toronto did make things close in the ninth when Jake Casey—son of former Yankees interim hitting coach Sean—homered to get the Jays within a run. The tying run got as far as third base for Toronto before the Yankees finally shut the door.
One general game note was that the Yankees had a quite successful day with the ABS challenge system. They correctly challenged six calls out of nine attempts.
Tomorrow, the Yankees will return home to Steinbrenner Field, where they’ll play host to the Nationals in a 6:35pm ET night time spring game. Offseason acquisition Ryan Weathers will make his first appearance of the spring and his first as a member of the Yankees.