Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/10/22

New York Post | Jon Heyman: Another day, another Aaron Judge Free Agency article. This time, let’s take a look at the teams that should be in on the bidding for the Yankees’ superstar this winter. Internal speculation from the team indicates that five other clubs can afford the contract Judge is looking to command, but then again, every offseason we tend to see a surprise team enter the fray and go a little crazy on the contract terms.

FanGraphs | Dan Szymborski: A little more than a third of the way through the season, we have enough of a sample of some metrics to begin to pull apart whose start is real and whose might be a factor of luck or other externalities. One way to do that is compare performance to projections — exactly what Szym does here, wondering just why Kyle Higashioka has so underperformed what ZiPS thought he would do at the plate.

New York Daily News | Kristie Ackert: The plan for this year was supposed to be all glove, no stick from the Yankees’ catching combo, but Jose Trevino has blown that out of the water with a 131 wRC+ in his first 96 PAs this season. He boasts career bests in all his rate metrics, but in particular his power output is drawing attention, with four long balls this year leaving him just one behind his best mark with about 100 games left this season.

NJ.com | Randy Miller: It’s been a tough season at points for Aaron Hicks, who had a truly dreadful month of May. Since the calendar flipped to June, though, he’s reached base more than half the time in his seven games played, and had a stellar, 97 mph outfield assist in Wednesday’s loss. He’s not a perfect player, but a productive, on-base Aaron Hicks goes a long way to shoring up the bottom of the Yankee lineup.