A year before all of the outrage and debate over rest versus rust for teams that got byes into the ALDS, the Yankees survived the five days off.
In the inaugural season of the new playoffs format in 2022, the Yankees avoided the wild-card series and then fended off the Guardians in a five-game ALDS.
They are one of just three teams (out of eight) that have advanced to the ALCS after getting a bye into the ALDS.
So the club planned to tap back into that experience this week as it took the rest while trying to avoid the rust ahead of Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday against the Orioles or Royals, who will duke it out in a wild-card series beginning Tuesday.
“We’ll do our best to prioritize taking advantage of the rest that I’m sure a number of guys at this time of year will benefit from,” manager Aaron Boone said Sunday. “But also trying to make sure we keep that mental edge and keep guys as sharp as we possibly can with live looks and things like that. Try and strike that balance and then tee it up on Saturday.”
The Yankees took Monday fully off but are scheduled to hold workouts Tuesday through Friday — with Wednesday and Thursday expected to be the heaviest days, likely to include some sort of simulated games or at least live at-bats against Yankees pitchers and/or minor leaguers.
Boone also pointed to there being more tools that the Yankees have at their disposal — like the Trajekt pitching machine, which mimics the pitches of active MLB pitchers — to help them stay sharp.
“Hopefully [we] prepare in a great way to go out and win a series,” Boone said. “That’s where the focus will be, but it’s also a chance to catch your breath a little bit and guys to get a little break. But also understanding the task at hand in front of us. We’ll be really focused on that and more and more each day as the week unfolds.”
In a vacuum, there are obvious advantages to avoiding the wild-card series.
Besides avoiding a short series where anything can happen, the Yankees will be able to line up their rotation exactly how they want for the ALDS — Gerrit Cole in Game 1, likely Carlos Rodon in Game 2 and either Luis Gil or Clarke Schmidt for Game 3 (Gil would appear to have the slight edge, with Schmidt having prior relief experience).
The Orioles and Royals, meanwhile, have to use Corbin Burnes and Cole Ragans in Game 1 of the wild-card series, making them unavailable until Game 2 of the ALDS (the same goes for likely Game 2 WC starters Zach Eflin and Seth Lugo, who would not be available until Game 3 of the ALDS).
That said, while the rest can be viewed as a benefit for players who just got through the 162-game grind, it is also a longer break than players ever experience during the regular season.
In a game rooted in routine and the daily rhythm, the Orioles and Royals will have a chance to get hot before facing the Yankees.
“It’s a little bit tougher [having the long layoff],” Alex Verdugo said. “It’s kind of like another All-Star break, so we’re just going to have to do a good job on Tuesday and the next couple days before the ALDS. We have to make sure our workouts are keeping the same energy and having some intensity to it.”
The Yankees will use the time to watch the Orioles-Royals series “closely,” Boone said, in addition to determining answers to their most pressing questions ahead of the ALDS:
• Does Anthony Rizzo (fractured fingers) have any chance of playing, and if not, does Ben Rice or Oswaldo Cabrera start at first base?
• Do they more highly value Jasson Dominguez’s bat or Alex Verdugo’s defense for left field?
• And does Gil or Schmidt start Game 3?
“At the end of the day, it’s baseball and a five-game series,” Boone said. “Sometime you come out firing, not necessarily because of what you did that week. But that said, we’ll try to map it out and make sure our guys are in the best possible position from a pitching standpoint [and] from a position player standpoint.”