The Yankees will try to keep the good times rolling after their great win against the Oakland Athletics last night.
Tonight's lineup: Gardner 7 Jeter 6 Ellsbury 8 Teixeira 3 McCann 2 Soriano dh Suzuki 9 Solarte 4 Johnson 5 Kuroda RHP
— wallace matthews (@ESPNNYYankees) June 14, 2014Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, and Jacoby Ellsbury remain at the top of the order. Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann are hitting four and five, while Alfonso Soriano bats behind them as the designated hitter. Ichiro Suzuki is in right field, while Yangervis Solarte is at second and Kelly Johnson is at third. Noticeably absent from the lineup are Carlos Beltran, who is not yet ready to play the outfield, and Brian Roberts, who took a ball off the knee last night and could be left on the bench tomorrow as well.
Michael Pineda won't be returning to the majors until at least August, but there has been some ineresting talk making its way around the internet that they could be coming to an end with this whole ordeal:
Hearing Pineda gets one more shot at rehab and then the Yankees will shut him down and walk away.
— Will Carroll (@injuryexpert) June 14, 2014There are some who are suggesting that they might actually part ways with Pineda if he can't stay healthy this year. Personally, even though he'll be arbitration eligible in 2015, I find the idea of cutting him loose to be a terrible idea and one I'd like to think the Yankees are smart enough to avoid. Their starting rotation is currently being held together by duct tape and it'll only be worse next year when Hiroki Kuroda is gone and CC Sabathia is another year older.
If this report is actually based on some sort of fact, I would hope it means that the Yankees will try to rehab Pineda one more time, and if he suffers another setback, they're going to shut him down for the season. That's not the worst idea in the world and honestly, at that point, it's really the only option they would have. Michael Pineda is still just 25 and it would be foolish to let him go when they have no one else really pushing for a spot.
In minor league news, the Yankees have released Graham Stoneburner after six seasons in the organization. Drafted in the 14th round of the 2009 MLB Draft, Stoneburner was an intriguing fringe prospect at one point before injury and ineffectiveness doomed any chance he had. The team seemingly saw enough after he put up a 7.04 ERA in Double-A Trenton this year at the age of 26.