Around the Empire: Yankees news - 4/25/23

NJ Advance Media | Max Goodman: The bad news on the injury front continues to pile up for the Bombers. Reliever Lou Trivino, on the IL to start the season with an elbow sprain suffered in spring training, experienced a setback that could put his season in jeopardy. He felt discomfort in the injured elbow following a live session and is now scheduled to visit team doctor Christopher Ahmad. Trivino pitched well out of the bullpen after joining the Yankees as part of the Frankie Montas deadline deal, with a 1.66 ERA in 25 appearances, and will likely undergo tests to determine whether he will pitch this year.

New York Times | Tyler Kepner: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added another chapter to his story as the latest Yankees killer with a two-run bomb at the Stadium that jumpstarted the Blue Jay’s eventual 5-1 victory last Friday. He made headlines prior to the series reiterating his hatred of the Yankees:

“It’s a personal thing. It goes back with my family, and I’m not going to talk about more than that. Things happened in the past and I’m just going to leave it like that.”

Vague to be sure, but he has his reasons and he’s entitled to them. The situation mirrors that of another father-son pair, when Ken Griffey Jr. famously avowed that “If [the Yankees] were the only team that gave me a contract, I’d retire,” after he and his father were escorted out of the Yankees dugout by security on the orders of George Steinbrenner during Griffey Sr.’s tenure with the team.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Jhony Brito impressed in three of his first four major league starts and he owes quite a bit to Luis Severino. His teammate and fellow Dominican has made it a point to sort of show Brito the ropes and make sure he feels integrated with the big league squad. Brito credits the encouragement Severino gave him for his 5.1 inning no-hit start that won him a rotation spot out of spring training as well as for his bounce back outing following his seven-run drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Aaron Boone also spoke highly of the young right hander, specifically picking out his “emotional stability” as an important tool to stick in the majors.

CBS Sports | Mike Axisa: Entering play Monday, the Yankees offense had mustered three or fewer runs in eight of the previous 10 contests. Axisa examines the four root causes of the offensive malaise, and dishearteningly concludes that there are no fast fixes to the problem. For starters, Aaron Judge is in a bit of a slump after a scorching first week, producing just a 64 wRC+ over his last 13 games. The youngsters — Anthony Volpe, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Oswald Peraza — are still experiencing growing pains at the plate. Giancarlo Stanton’s absence looms large and the team lacks adequate depth to cover that lost production.

Sportico | Michael McCann: The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes have filed suit against Yankees limited partner Marvin Goldklang and are seeking $54 million in damages. The suit stems from the 2021 reorganization of MiLB which caused 43 teams — including the Volcanoes, who are now part of the Mavericks Independent Baseball League — to lose their major league affiliations. Lawyers from the Volcanoes allege that Goldklang — owner of three minor league teams — engaged in corrupt self-dealing negotiations after being appointed as a member of a committee that focused on how revenue was shared between MLB and MiLB and what teams would be chartered under the new reconfiguration.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Anthony Rizzo has been hit by a lot of pitches in his career — 205 times to be exact — more than any active player and good for eighth on the all-time list. It comes with the territory of standing practically on top of home plate, and Rizzo is well beyond the point of getting mad if he gets plunked. Rizzo has been the team’s top contributor through the first three weeks with a 176 wRC+, only a small part of which owes to the restrictions placed on the shift. Mostly, he’s been controlling the zone and hitting the ball harder than at any point in his career.