Hour 1: Is Judge a Wild Card?

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Michael Kay (0:20)

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Michael Kay (0:23)

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Michael Kay (0:25)

Listen live, weekdays at 1, on the ESPN New York app and your smart speaker. Good afternoon, everybody.

Michael Kay (0:32)

This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Thursday. It is September 24th, 2026 It's me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. It's the fastest moving two hours in sports talk radio history. And it's because of you, my great co-host, and the membership number is 1-800-919-3776.

1-800-919-3776. All right, let's start off with the Yankees today. We got a lot of stuff to talk about today. So we will hit it all. We have Chris Sims coming on at 2 o'clock as he joins us every Thursday at that time. Take a deeper look at the Jackson Dart injury and the overall impact on the Giants and the program that John Harbaugh is trying to implement in New Jersey. So we will talk to Chris about that. Remember, tomorrow it's a two-pack for sure, my picks. Now, last week I split, but this is the way I look at it. I've given you four picks. I've won three of them. That's 75%. If I give you 75% winners all year, you're all going to be very wealthy. You're all going to have a great Thanksgiving and a great Christmas. 75% winning percentage. It's unbelievable. It gives me chills even thinking about it. All right, Yankee baseball. Things got a little wacky yesterday, where these things came out of the sky that none of us really expected. The first one was, at least in my opinion, maybe you guys are smarter than I am and you did expect it, that there's a chance. So you're telling me there's a chance that John Carlos Stanton, who has not played since the last week of April, is going to be on the playoff roster.

He's down in the Yankee minor leagues, he was taking batting practice at a home run yesterday. There's a chance that he will be on the playoff roster Tuesday when the Yankees start the wild card. Mind blowing, absolutely mind blowing. Also a chance that Trent Grisham is going to be on the Yankee roster Tuesday when they start the wild card series at Yankee Stadium. Think about that. These two people, especially Stanton, where you said, hey, there are a lot of Yankee fans that called in and said, well, we'll never see Stanton again in a Yankee uniform. And I said, well, you'll see him next year. People didn't want to believe that. It's a one year deal. The Yankees have to pay only 15 million of the money that he's owed. Why wouldn't you keep him around and hope that he could stay healthy? Because when he's healthy, he can be a force in the lineup. Now, the interesting thing is, if he is on that roster, what does that mean? I don't think he's a starter. I don't think he's a starting DH. I think he becomes a very intriguing force off the bench. Now, he used to be a terrible pinch hitter. He's not anymore because he's gotten used to it. With the traject machine at Yankee Stadium, he could practice against Araldis Chapman's serves underneath the stadium. And then when Araldis Chapman's out there in the ninth inning, and let's say Austin Wells' is due up, they could send up John Carlos Stanton to pinch it, and it's like he's been hitting for the whole game because he's facing that same velocity and that same stuff coming out of the trajectory machine. Okay, so that's how they would use him. Then Trent Grisham. Trent Grisham, I think, becomes a very intriguing possibility because I think the Yankees still believe that Trent Grisham is a better defensive center fielder than Spencer Jones. Now, Spencer Jones has exceeded most people's expectations. I think he's done very, very well. There's still a lot of strikeout in his game and there always will be. And you know what? There's a lot of strikeout in Aaron Judge's game too. But if you can hit a lot of home runs and drive in runs, they accept the strikeout. When you strikeout 40% of the time and the ball's not leaving the yard and you're not driving in runs, then they don't accept the strikeout. Then they don't. He's done very well. He's hit lefties very well. He's hit with runners in scoring position very well. Hitting around 250 He's got double digits in home runs. It's going to be interesting to see against a right hander. Who are they starting? Are they starting Jones or are they starting Grisham, the guy that Aaron Boone is comfortable with?