The Yankees have a finite window for success this postseason. Due to their own malfeasance during the summer, they're stuck in a best-of-three series to open their run. Win two games or depart the playoffs. It's that simple.
With such a limited opportunity to make an impression, the Yankees really can't afford to sit their clutchest player or their current hottest hitter for even one game. And yet ... with Garrett Crochet on the mound for Boston, there's certainly a chance they leave a little too much meat on the bone in the name of optimizing matchups.
Aaron Boone has the potential to get too cute staring him in the face this week, and The Athletic's Brendan Kuty projected the cutest possible outcome with his Game 1 lineup guess on Monday.
Austin Slater, Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario in, Ben Rice, Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham out. That was certainly what the Yankees intended to build when they dealt for Slater and Rosario in July. Unfortunately, the reality has rarely matched the practice, and Rice and Grisham have been too good to bench in the real world.
Projected Yankees AL Wild Card lineup vs. Garrett Crochet includes Austin Slater over Trent Grisham, no Ben Rice
Goldschmidt has been an excellent addition to the Yankees' clubhouse this season, but he hasn't hit for much power all year, and his profile has certainly gone downhill as the year has dragged on. Velocity isn't his speciality. Neither is hitting Crochet; he's 2-for-12 against him. If this were a typical, run-of-the-mill left-hander, absolutely; he hit .336 in 149 at-bats against southpaws overall this year. But if you don't go down swinging with the red-hot Rice, odds are you'll feel silly when the dust settles, regardless of the theoretical platoon advantage.
Starting Goldy - which is the Yankees' plan, according to Aaron Boone on Monday - won't be nearly as goofy as going with Slater, who only received 25 at-bats as a Yankee and recorded three hits, in place of the punishing Grisham. The goal of the acquisition was to have Slater for moments like this. It just didn't pan out. If the Yankees had Rob Refsnyder in his place, they might be World Series favorites. But they don't. So it goes.
Rosario? Oh, for sure play him. He's 6-for-9 against him with a bomb, which he tattooed over the Green Monster two weeks back.
Keeping Jose Caballero on the bench for a late-game bit of trickery makes perfect sense, too - though, if Jack Curry's projected lineup is accurate, things are about to get even weirder with Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the bench.
But what you don't want to do is look back during the offseason and wonder why you intentionally weakened your lineup in a teeny, tiny series against the American League's very best.
Don't let the specter of the Slater addition trick you into thinking he's a lineup inevitability just because he's there.