Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/27/23

New York Daily News | Mike Lupica: Even as the Yankees emerge from a surprisingly successful homestand, things still feel shaky, as we near the halfway point of a season in which it’s felt like everything could go wrong has. Lupica argues, though, that even if with the offense looking brutal and the club far behind the AL East lead, things could be a lot worse. They’ve played almost .500 ball since Judge got hurt, and while they don’t give out medals for that, the team has only lost a couple games in the loss column to the Rays over that span, and remains in a Wild Card spot as of now.

Yahoo | Andy Martino: As for how the Yankees have managed to stay afloat despite Judge’s injury (and all the other injuries, for that matter), much of it comes down to the Next Man Up brigade, 2023 edition. Back in 2019, the likes of Cameron Maybin, Mike Tauchman, and Gio Urshela proved heroes when the Yankees’ stars went down, and this year, Billy McKinney, Jake Bauers, and Willie Calhoun are making names for themselves.

New York Post | Jared Schwartz: Giancarlo Stanton finally showed signs of snapping out of his miserable slump on Sunday, breaking an 0-for-22 streak with a key line-drive single in the eighth inning against Texas. That said, the extent to which Stanton and Aaron Boone focused on that at-bat was telling. “I kind of felt the first take he had,” Boone said “I kind of leaned over to [bench coach Carlos Mendoza] and said ‘I like that.’ It was a borderline pitch, strike one. Then the next take I thought looked the part a little bit to me even more”. Quality plate decisions will surely be vital to getting Stanton back on track, but we’ll need to see a lot more than one at-bat of it before we can be confident that the veteran is rolling again.

Baseball Prospectus | Daniel Epstein: (subscription required) The author chronicles a trip to Yankees Stadium, to show how much it costs to take a family of four to a ball game these days. Including transportation from New Jersey to the Bronx, the cost of (nosebleed) tickets, and concessions, Epstein’s family spent over $500 to see the Yankees host the Rangers on a Saturday afternoon. How much you or your family spends when going to a game may vary; not everyone will spend a couple hundred bucks on food, and you can find better ticket deals on non-weekend tickets. Regardless, it’s still made clear that going to an MLB game in 2023 is just not something that most middle-class families can do on a regular basis.

MLB | Jonathan Mayo: Announced yesterday were the rosters for this year’s Futures Game, which pits some of the best prospects in the world against each other. Representing the Yankees are pitcher Clayton Beeter, recently promoted to Triple-A, and last year’s first-round pick, High-A outfielder Spencer Jones. Beeter has impressed since joining the organization last summer as part of the Joey Gallo trade, running 2.32 ERA in 66.1 innings this year. The 6-foot-7 Jones has some of the flashiest tools in the system, and has tallied 10 homers and 18 steals in 60 games for Hudson Valley