Around the Empire: Yankees news - 4/27/21

Sports Illustrated | Tom Verducci: With a .429 winning percentage going into Monday night’s game, the Yankees are one of four expected contenders — along with the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, and Minnesota Twins — to have put themselves into a major hole, as only six teams in the last ten seasons have made the playoffs after posting such a low winning percentage in the month of April. Fortunately for the Yankees, however, the brand of baseball that they play — “ball go far, team go far” — makes it more likely than not that they should be able to right the ship over the course of the season.

CBS Sports: Following his season debut on Monday, Deivi García was demoted back to the alternate training site. García was filling in as a spot starter, and Michael King’s option timing will be coming back just in time to take his place, so it seems García will continue to work out of Scranton for the foreseeable future.

Yahoo! Sports | Colin Martin: Since starting first baseman Luke Voit is still recovering from surgery, former Rookie of the Year runner-up Miguel Andújar will be taking some reps at first base while at Scranton, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Andújar, who was just activated from the injured list and assigned to the alternate site after dealing with a nerve issue in his hand and wrist during spring training, has yet to play any professional games at the position.

New York Post | Ken Davidoff: It’s early in the season, but a disturbing trend has already appeared through Jameson Taillon’s first four starts: in his first four starts, Taillon has yet to allow an earned run in the first inning and has posted a less-than-good-but-still-bearable 4.50 ERA for the second and third innings, but has seen his fourth inning ERA balloon to 19.63. Both Taillon and manager Aaron Boone do not believe the issue to be durability-related, which would make sense due to his injury history, with Taillon attributing it to the lineup turning over again.

MLB.com | Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis: It’s late April, and you know what that means? That’s right, it’s mock draft season! Granted, for most people, that is in reference to this week’s NFL Draft, since the MLB Amateur Draft does not occur for a couple of months, and it certainly does not generate the same amount of hype that the NFL Draft does. That, however, shouldn’t stop baseball writers from getting in on the fun! In their first mock draft of the season, Mayo and Callis project the Yankees to select Matt McLain, a shortstop out of UCLA, who might fall to the Yankees at 20 due to a slow start to the season.