Around the Empire: Yankees news - 5/18/17

New York Daily News | Christian Red: Hal Steinbrenner spoke at the baseball owners’ meeting yesterday and touched on a number of topics. He talked about how the Yankees might be buyers instead of sellers at the trade deadline but added that he wants to hold on to the top prospects, so Mike Ford isn’t going anywhere. He also talked about how they’d likely be spenders in the offseason, especially with money coming off the books but “to what degree and in what areas remains to be seen."

New York Post | George A. King III & Ken Davidoff : Masahiro Tanaka hasn’t been great this year, outside of a gem in Fenway Park. His latest outing was probably the worst of his career when he gave up eight runs in 1.2 innings. The Yankees might have identified something as Larry Rothschild spoke to Tanaka about “some mechanical things.” The Yankees don’t believe his struggles are health related, and hopefully this can be ironed out sooner than later. He should probably get Tommy John surgery just to be safe. A true ace would.

New York Times | Wallace Matthews: Alex Rodriguez has made quite a name for himself after two consecutive stints with Fox’s World Series crew. He was so good and so popular that Fox hired him full-time for baseball analysis. While he’s been doing in-studio stuff all season, and recently just won an Emmy, he’s going to make his game analyst debut tonight. For his first game, he’s going to call the Yankees tonight as they go for the sweep against the Royals.

Complex | Rob Neyer: It was 19 years ago that David Wells joined baseball immortality and recorded a perfect game. What’s even more impressive about this isn’t just that he threw a perfect game, he did it while “nursing a serious hangover.” Wells is joined by his then-teammates, as well as members of the Twins he faced in recounting the game in this oral history.

Didi Victory Tweet

Old Man Hicks is back