Royals v Yankees Series Preview: Torpedo Bat Country

It’s time for the Royals to face the team that eliminated them last year.

The Yankees probably don’t think anything of the Royals, if we’re being honest. They’ve been to the playoffs so often that I can probably still count on one hand the years I can recall them not playing October baseball. I can do that for all the times I’ve witnessed the Royals doing the same. It matters a lot who you lose to. But to the Yankees, the Royals may as well be nothing more than another team they’ve pushed aside in a failed pursuit of a world championship.

Or it could be the beginning of a new rivalry. There was the odd interaction with Maikel Garcia and Anthony Volpe, followed by Jazz Chisholm Jr. calling Maikel “irrelevant”. Carlos Rodon tried to showboat and was made to pay by Salvy. Bob Costas sounded audibly miserable over the Royals turning a double play on Giancarlo Stanton.

That ALDS still has some dangling plot threads for both teams to extend. At the end of the day, it’s still just an early-season series and both teams are treating it as such. But to some, at least to fans, the winner of this series could be making a real statement over the other.

The Yankees became the poster team of the “torpedo bat”, a new type of bat with a distinctly lower barrel. Their use was pointed out right before a 20-run outburst, though it was clear even then the bats weren’t really responsible for that. In fact, the hype and rage over torpedo bats has largely died off as they haven’t had the impact some expected, although they’re still very much an article of discussion.

More importantly, Aaron Judge is threatening another MVP campaign with 60+ home runs on the table again. His isolated power (ISO) is .393 when .200 is considered great; nearing .400 is not just insane, it’s the best mark of his career. On top of that, he’s striking out a bit less by chasing less and also making more contact than before. It’s possible the best right-handed hitter of this generation is still getting better.

Something that needs to be made clear is that the Yankees’ offensive numbers are still significantly boosted by that Milwaukee series where they scored 36 runs in 3 games. The Yankees have a team-wide wRC+ of 140 which is by far the best in baseball, but that number drops to a much more reasonable but still great 112 when excluding their first three games. Don’t ask what the Royals’ is.

The best hitter on the Yankees in April hasn’t actually been Judge, it’s been Rice. After a forgettable debut last year, Ben Rice now has a Statcast page that has a sharp red tint on every slider but the strikeout factors. The funny thing is that he’s not even one of the torpedo batters, those would instead be Cody Bellinger and Jazz, who are actually the two coldest hitters on the team. Otherwise, the Yankees have a deep collection of power hitters who know how to take their walks.

Weaver, Yarbrough and Hill are players that will probably net you a very low score on Immaculate Grid when you need to remember oddly specific Royals pitchers. The Yankees’ relief corps are about average in terms of ERA and FIP with some quality middle relievers, but their new closer has been a problem. One of the organization’s main acquisitions over the winter, Devin Williams has been showing massive control issues and came very close to blowing a 4-run lead on Wednesday. Another potential problem is how much the Yankees have to rely on their bullpen; the Bronx have been getting the fewest innings from their starting pitchers than any team in baseball, and it’s been the worst rotation by ERA so far. The Yankees can always expect to hit, but pitching has been their Achilles’ heel this season.

Pitching Matchups

Monday, April 14 @ 6:05 PM
Seth Lugo (1-1, 3.24 ERA) v Carlos Carrasco (1-1, 7.71 ERA) – One of Lugo’s best starts last year was at Yankee Stadium in September where he struck out 10 over 7 innings, walked none and kept them scoreless. He would have two other starts versus NYY, both at Kauffman and one in the post-season; they weren’t great starts but they weren’t bad either. As for Carrasco, he’s been terrible with no way of sugarcoating it. All three of his appearances this season have seen him get battered around and the only reason why he has a win is because of a high-scoring game from both teams. He’s a righty throwing a lot of breaking stuff because he’s 38 and can barely get over 90 MPH now. It would be more embarrassing than ever if the Royals have another passive game on offense against this kind of pitcher.

Tuesday, April 15 @ 6:05 PM
Michael Wacha (0-2, 4.20 ERA) v Max Fried (2-0, 1.56 ERA) – This is the one matchup that concerns me. Wacha hasn’t gotten off to a bad start necessarily, but two of his three starts have featured some notable control issues which concern me against a patient lineup. Meanwhile, the Yankees get to deploy their new ace, whose three starts have each been better than the last. His most recent was a seven-scoreless showing where he struck out 11 and walked 0. The lefty is a fastball-heavy pitcher who’s one of the best at keeping the ball on the ground, something that lets him excel in his hitter-friendly home.

Wednesday, April 16 @ 6:05 PM
Kris Bubic v Clarke Schmidt – Bubic set the bar for what a bad start looks like from him by giving up two earned runs over six innings. With his first loss of the season out of the way, Kris Bubic still has an ERA lower than his WHIP. RHP Schmidt is making his season debut after missing the start of the season with shoulder tendinitis. He had a great 2024, but the Royals only saw him in the post-season where he gave up two runs over 4.2 innings. He has four pitches that he throws almost equally frequently and excels at combining missed bats and poor contact quality to get good results.

The Yankees are currently 8-7, half a game back in the American League East. Setting the tune of this series as ‘Bat Country’ by Avenged Sevenfold.

Image credit: Dave Nelson-Imagn Images