Yankees vs. Angels: Interview with ESPN’s Buster Olney

Following the Yankees 10th inning, come from behind victory on Friday night, I had the chance to speak with ESPN senior writer, and Sunday Night Baseball reporter, Buster Olney. Buster was kind enough to touch upon Didi Gregorius’ prospects, Sonny Gray’s struggles and the possibility of this early-season series being a playoff precursor.

MC: Even after taking the first two games of this series, the Yankees are still 161-178 all-time at Angel Stadium, as opposed to 205-125 versus the Halos at home. What gives?

BO: I do think that there has always been something to the idea of east coast teams struggling when they come to the west coast because the travel wears on the players. I spent some of Friday with Mike Trout, and we were talking about the travel and sort of shaking our heads about the different circumstances that pop up. In an ideal world for the Yankees this weekend, they would have had no game on Thursday, traveled in and got a regular night’s sleep.

I think it’s one of the underrated things that players deal with, but of course, none of them can ever complain about it aloud because no one is going to feel sorry for them. But I’ve always thought, when you look at the Red Sox against Oakland or the Angels against the Yankees, it’s always been a thing, and it’s something you overcome.

Think back to that great Yankees season of ’98, they started out on the west coast at 0-3.

MC: In my opinion, Didi Gregorius has been the most complete player in baseball throughout April. Is there any chance the Yankees break from tradition and offer Sir Didi an in-season contract extension, or are the two-sides destined to play out the entirety of Gregorius’ three arbitration years?

BO: I think they’ll go through arbitration and the reason why is because any long-term extension that they agree to during the course of the year applies to their luxury tax issue — and as you know, that’s something they’ve worked like crazy to get past.

I actually think, that in a vacuum, that if there was no luxury tax penalty hanging above the Yankees, that they would have already agreed to a deal with Gregorius. I do think in the offseason; they’ll probably explore some talks about a multi-year deal.

MC: What about the fact that paying Gregorius later as opposed to now, will likely cost the Yankees far more over the life of the deal?

BO: The Yankees really covet the flexibility they’re going to have in-season, and they don’t know exactly what’s going to become available to them. It’s one of those rare instances; they don’t usually have this situation where they can choose from the whole menu, between the prospects that they have and the payroll flexibility, when guys become available from other teams, the Yankees will be able to compete for anyone they want.

MC: Although Luis Severino left Friday’s night’s contest with a no-decision after seven complete innings, he still looks to be every bit the staff ace he established in 2017. With that being said, how do the Angels’ starters stack up to what the Yankees boast?And is there anyone on the Angels’ staff that can rival Severino?

BO: Ohtani. On any given day he has great stuff. Now, one thing that Ohtani is working through, like a lot of starting pitchers — is you talk to scouts, and they think he has a hard time making in-game fixes. When he’s off like he was against the Red Sox — one scout said to me, he was like this in Japan — that when it’s bad, it’s really bad.

Garrett Richards doesn’t have as electric stuff as he did when he first came into the big leagues, but his recovery from the injury he had is remarkable. But let’s face it, when you match up these two teams, the greatest theoretical advantage that the Yankees have over the Angels is with their starting pitching. The rotation issues are what the Angels are going to have to overcome during the year.

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