Around the Empire: Yankees news - 4/27/23

New York Post | Greg Joyce: Aaron Judge ultimately had an excellent, productive birthday, going 3-for-4 with 3 RBI in a much-needed win over the Twins. But it seemed like it might be a disastrous day, when Judge tried to swipe third with the Yankees leading 5-0, appearing to injure his hand with an awkward slide. Judge went straight down the tunnel after being tagged out, but quickly reappeared and stayed in the game, lining a hard single a few innings later. After the game, Judge insisted he was fine, and said, “feeling good. We stayed in there. No issues, no issues”.

NJ.com | Max Goodman: The Yankee offense is looking like a major concern, with the bottom of the lineup hemorrhaging outs on a nightly basis. But the problem is that impactful resources might be nowhere to be found. Giancarlo Stanton, who will be sidelined at least another month, if not longer, is the only big bat that’s likely to be added to the lineup anytime soon. Harrison Bader’s possible return next will help a little, but the fact is, the Yankees are going to need the players on hand, like Oswaldo Cabrera, Anthony Volpe, Oswald Peraza, and Jose Trevino, to hit, or else the lineup is not going to produce much outside of when Aaron Judge goes supernova.

Chicago Sun Times | Steve Greenberg: Anthony Rizzo spoke with a paper in his old stomping grounds of Chicago, and talked about his future ambitions. The 33-year-old signed a two-year deal with the Yankees ahead of 2023, and is surely nearer to the end of his career than the start, but Rizzo indicated he hopes to be a vet that sticks around for quite some time. “I just want to play as long as I can. Five, six, seven, eight more years? I don’t know how many, but I just want to be one of those guys who keeps playing and playing and is productive year in and year out”. We’ll see how long he sticks in New York, but Rizzo has fit perfectly in the Yankee lineup and at Yankee Stadium, and could be a strong veteran presence for years to come.

CBS Sports: Tommy Kahnle, dealing with a biceps injury, threw a 15-pitch bullpen on Wednesday without incident. The plan is for the right-hander to throw again this weekend when the Yankees are in Texas, and to proceed from there. Aaron Boone noted that the hope was that Kahnle could return to the team “by the end of next month”.

FanGraphs | David Laurila: Here’s one of Laurila’s always fascinating discussions with a player, in this case former Yankee Sonny Gray. The right-hander details his evolution as a pitcher over the course of an 11-year career, including some of the changes the Yankees had him make. Most of those changes didn’t work, but Gray notes that, back in 2017 when he arrived in New York, almost everyone in the league was just trying to wrap their heads around the new data at the league’s disposal, which led the Yankees to make adjustments with him that in retrospect seem far from optimal.