The New York Yankees are currently on a five-game losing streak and are now .500 on the season at 21-21. After falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 on Tuesday evening, their embarrassing cold streak has hit a low point. Actually, I think they can still get worse, as long as Gary Sanchez is still in the lineup.
While manager Aaron Boone was able to muster heroics in 2019 with his reserve players, this year is not proving to be the same in any sense. His team is falling apart at the seams, and there doesn’t seem to be any leadership in sight. Scoring one run with the bases loaded and one out against the Blue Jays on Tuesday is unacceptable.
They have had eight consecutive solo home runs without hitting one with runners in scoring position. Overall, the team is an embarrassment, led by several inadequate players who have tortured the pitching and batting order in recent days.
Three things Yankees’ Aaron Boone has to do before his team fully tanks:
1.) Bench Gary Sanchez
Gary Sanchez is currently going through one of the worst cold streaks I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime. Hitting .125 on the season, Sanchez hasn’t only been an offensive liability, his defense has been spotty as well.
On Tuesday, Sanchez dropped an easy pop-up straight up in the air, bouncing off his glove and representing his quality of play this year. While he does have seven homers, they simply haven’t been enough to help a struggling Yankees team.
Manager Aaron Boone called him out for his inadequate play, stating that they are fine tweaking his fundamentals in an attempt to spark his offense once again. At this point, he cannot be trusted in the lineup and must be benched for the next few games, at least. He is quickly making himself a liability for the team, and the Yankees might have to address the position more seriously this upcoming off-season.
2.) Stop using Adam Ottavino in high-leverage situations
One of the Yankees’ most porous pitchers has been Adam Ottavino. At 34 years old, he had a dominant 2019 season posting a 1.90 ERA with only 14 earned runs over 73 appearances. Pitching 66.1 innings last year, he has tossed just 12.2 this year, allowing 11 runs and currently housing a 7.82 ERA. While this has been an issue for tons of pitchers across the league in an abbreviated season, Ottavino simply can’t be trusted anymore in high-leverage situations.
Most recently, Otto gave up six runs and four hits against the Blue Jays two days ago. He was unable to record an out. The Yankees have to make a decision at some point and refrain from using their usually trusted arms and look toward their youth for support. They can’t be much worse than Ottavino right now.
3.) Bench Tyler Wade
Having no choice but to utilize Tyler Wade in the lineup has been simply painful for the Yankees. He is currently enjoying a .155 batting average with a .265 on-base percentage. His slugging percentage is borderline embarrassing at .241, but he is not known to be a hard hitter. Ultimately, he serves one purpose, and that is as a utility alternative.
Wade is fine when running the base paths and fielding defensively, but his bat is otherwise useless and hasn’t been able to provide the Yankees with any sort of spark. He did manage to walk twice against the Blue Jays on Tuesday, but other than that, he is a liability.
Ultimately, the Yankees simply don’t have anyone else to fill in for him at the moment, but finding a way to get Miguel Andujar into the lineup is essential. Moving DJ LeMahieu over to second base and putting Andujar at third base will allow them to put Mike Ford in the DH spot, where Tyler Wade can’t touch the batter’s box. His speed hasn’t helped in any way the past few weeks, given the Yankees’ extensive losing streak.