Around the Empire: Yankees news - 9/21/23

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: Jasson Domínguez had Tommy John surgery yesterday, and given the kind of posts he has made on his Instagram, I’d say it went well. Not only did he take a picture with his doctor, but he also wrote the caption “officially bionic.” The Yankees announced that he’s expected to need 9-10 months of recovery, which would put his return around June/July 2024.

Baseball America | Mike Ashmore: Yankees prospect Drew Thorpe is a unique pitcher in the system. He doesn’t rely on the fastball-slider combination like we have come to be familiar with. Instead, his best weapon is his changeup in an arsenal of five total pitches, which has led the 2022 second-round pick out of Cal Poly to an impressive 182 strikeouts total over his games in High-A and Double-A. He could be on his way to winning some honors in the minor leagues, and this article canvases what makes Thorpe as good as he is.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: If the Yankees wanted even a glimmer of hope for the postseason, they needed to dispatch the Blue Jays in this current three-game series. In the first game, they did pretty much the opposite of that, losing 7-1 (and fell again yesterday). However, it wasn’t just a bad loss for the team but a bad performance in a tough season for Giancarlo Stanton. He was injured early on in 2023, and despite seemingly staying healthy since June, his production hasn’t been close to good enough. Given that he’s under contract through 2027, that’s quite ominous.

New York Post | Matt Ehalt: Not only did Stanton have a rough night, but so did Aaron Boone and the Yankees players in general. There were a couple of moments during the game where Clarke Schmidt and Boone felt as if they deserved some strikes that should have been called. But they didn’t get them, and umpire Bill Miller left Boone speechless after a little shouting from the dugout. (Boone was also ejected last night by Lance Barrett.)

MLB.com | Anthony Castrovince: Former Mets star Darryl Strawberry was with the Yankees in 1995 but after the season, he went unsigned for a multitude of reasons. He went to play Indy ball with the St. Paul Saints, who were prominently featured in the new Netflix documentary on the Veeck family, The Saint of Second Chances. With the Saints, Darryl played incredibly — .435/.538/1.000 with 18 (!) homers in 29 games — and ended up signing back with the Yankees, helping them to three different championships in the back end of the ‘90s. Here, Castrovince discusses how the Paul sabbatical rejuvenated Straw’s love for the game.