Yankees: Prospects ask NYY to stand with them in wake of Jacob Blake shooting

A couple of Yankees prospects have asked the team to release a statement opposing racial injustice.

Just like after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police, the New York Yankees are late to the game, and it’s really not a good look. The richest sports organization in world seemingly can’t hire a competent public relations department.

Following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, we’ve still heard nothing. Why is this concerning? Because almost every team has boycotted playing at least one game and many others released statements showing opposition to the senseless brutality and injustice. Major League Baseball even released a statement.

Where are the Yankees? A couple of black minor leaguers are thinking the same thing.

Chris Gittens, who played all of last season with the Trenton Thunder in Double-A and had a great campaign after slashing .281/.393/.500 with 23 home runs and 77 RBI, was the first to make his plea, asking the organization to release a statement to support black players and black Americans during these (seemingly endless) trying times.

How could the organization not learn after the first time? Games weren’t being played at the time of Floyd’s death, so the response wasn’t as magnified among the players. Now, baseball is in full swing, we have another police brutality/racism issue making headlines and prompting protests across the nation, and the Yankees have yet to say a word.

Fellow prospect, Canaan Smith-Njigba, quote tweeted Gittens and asked the Yankees to “be with us.”

Is this too much to ask? The Yankees have a reputation to uphold and they simply cannot be behind the likes of the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and other such organizations. We’ve already heard Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks speak out on these social issues, so that should be enough for the Yankees to be in lock-step with the current climate.

These aren’t just random minor-leaguers either. We just laid out Gittens’ numbers and Smith-Njigba slashed .307/.405/.465 with 67 runs scored, 11 home runs, 74 RBI and 16 stolen bases in 124 games with Single-A Charleston.

The Yankees went through and played their doubleheader against the Braves while a number of other teams protested on Wednesday. The Twitter account was inactive since the evening of Aug. 26, though it finally retweeted something about Jackie Robinson Day on Friday and revealed the team’s lineup for the game against the Mets.

An organization with this much influence simply needs to do better.

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