Around the Empire: Yankees news - 9/17/23

NJ Advance Media | Randy Miller: Yankees reliever Anthony Misiewicz scared the whole baseball world on Friday when he was on the receiving end of a hard line drive to his head. He was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list on Saturday (Ian Hamilton was activated in his stead) and while he was in good spirits, he is still dealing with concussion-like symptoms the day after, per Aaron Boone.

Ji Hwan Bae hit a 100.6-mph line drive that Misiewicz took on the left side of his head. “That’s about as scary as it gets when you see something like that and you see him down,” Boone said.

Misiewicz was carted off the field and then taken to Allegheny General Hospital for testing. As noted in this space yesterday, he was released from there on Friday night.

SI.com | Kyle Standing: DJ LeMahieu was one of the league’s best pure hitters in 2019 and 2020 with the Yankees. He performed like an MVP candidate in both years. However, he hasn’t been able to crack a .750 OPS in any of the last three years. LeMahieu is aging (he turned 35 in July) and has suffered nagging injuries in the last couple of seasons. With the Yankees having waived/released Harrison Bader and Josh Donaldson, Standing wonders if LeMahieu will suffer the same fate.

“Waiving LeMahieu would be hard to justify unless there’s a plan for a replacement, but trading the 35-year-old for a substantial package to a World Series contender may be the best route for Cashman who will be looking to squeeze as much value out of this roster as he can,” he explains, even though it’s unclear how much trade value LeMahieu has at this point. He has at least played better in the second half with a .280/.379/.463 triple slash, so it’s hard to envision the Yankees being motivated to actually send him packing.

Newsday | David Lennon: The Yankees and the Red Sox, both virtually eliminated from the playoffs race, are supposed to be contenders. In a way, both have met that expectation in most seasons since 2004, but their roads have been slightly different.

Lennon makes an interesting comparison regarding success and what that word means for both organizations. Since 2004, Boston has missed the postseason nine times but has four World Series titles; whereas the Yankees have been left out of the playoffs just four times over that span, but have won only one Fall Classic. One goes for the big punch, and the other preaches steady competitiveness.

You could say that there has been a shift in how both organizations preach patience. With Chaim Bloom’s dismissal, the Red Sox have discarded their third head of baseball operations in 12 years, and the Yankees have exercised a lot of patience with general manager Brian Cashman. It’s a noteworthy observation at the very least.

We’ll leave you with this somewhat-odd note, as the long-absent Frankie Montas is apparently starting today for Triple-A Scranton. The Yankees have said for awhile that the infamous 2022 Trade Deadline acquisition is unlikely to return to them before he hits free agency, but it appears that they are at least giving him a late rehab assignment.