Around the Empire: Yankees news - 3/5/23

New York Daily News | James O’Connell: Yankees top prospect Anthony Volpe continues to impress this spring, launching a home run against the Pirates followed by a double against the Rays. He is locked in a battle with Oswald Peraza and Isiah Kiner-Falefa for the starting shortstop job and hopefully his hot start will help his chances. The left field competition also saw some fireworks, with Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Cabrera, Willie Calhoun, and Rafael Ortega all leaving the yards in the Bombers’ 14-10 loss to the Rays.

New York Post | Joel Sherman: The Yankees have an abundance of infielders heading into the season and two teams could have interest following a pair of serious injuries to projected starters. The Dodgers’ Gavin Lux will miss the season after tearing his ACL, and a day later the Rockies’ Gold Glove second baseman Brendan Rogers dislocated his shoulder and may need surgery. Yankees GM Brian Cashman revealed that he has explored trades for Gleyber Torres and Isiah Kiner-Falefa this winter. Given their arbitration salaries and the narrow gap between the Yankees’ payroll and the “Steve Cohen tax” threshold, Cashman could see this as an opportunity to alleviate payroll concerns.

NorthJersey.com | Pete Caldera: The new pitch clock rule is in effect starting this season and already we’ve seen the effect it can have on games. Wandy Peralta struck out an opponent in 20 seconds and now Luis Severino benefitted from a pair of automatic strike calls in his start against the Rays. He collected an automatic strikeout of Ben Gamel when the outfielder took longer than eight seconds to get into the box on a 2-2 count and picked up a strike earlier in the game on Randy Arozarena. Severino joked that perhaps he could work on inducing more automatic strikeouts as the season progresses.

New York Post | Steve Serby: Clarke Schmidt is not afraid to attack the zone with his pitches and he attributes this fierce mindset to channeling the Mamba Mentality on the mound. He touched on a series of topics in this sit down interview with the Post including his upbringing, teammates, and goals for the upcoming season. The 27-year-old righty has a chance to win the fifth starter role out of spring following Frankie Montas’ shoulder surgery, looking dominant in his first outing before getting shelled in his second.