New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells won the cleanup spot gig back in the regular season, fair and square. His production, especially in July and August, was extremely valuable. In baseball, however, things and realities change constantly. Those who make the right adjustments in time will be rewarded.
Right now, Wells is not producing at the plate. He seems extremely passive, letting hittable pitches in the zone go by and thus falling in disadvantageous counts. Game 1 was productive for him, as he went 1-for-3 with two RBI and a couple of walks to help the Yankees win.
After that, he has gone 1-for-9 with a shocking five strikeouts in two games. It’s easy to just point out that he needs to swing at strikes and lay off balls, but it’s more complicated than that. The Yankees might need to consider removing him from the cleanup spot for at least a few games.
It’s time for the Yankees to bat Stanton cleanup
They need to increase their chances of scoring runs, and right now, Giancarlo Stanton at the cleanup spot makes perfect sense for the Yankees because he is red-hot, having hit a double and a home run on Wednesday.
Even if the first three hitters in the lineup aren’t really lighting the world on fire, they are at least walking: having Stanton coming up with multiple men on base would be beneficial for the team, and the Yankees are, or at least should be, all about maximizing their chances.
We are not talking about sending Wells to the bottom third of the lineup. A simple swap with Stanton should be enough to put the Yankees in a better spot to produce runs and take some of the pressure off the rookie catcher. It’s a simple switch with potentially huge rewards.
After winning Game 3 in impressive fashion on Wednesday, the Yankees have a chance to punch their ticket to the AL Championship Series on Thursday if they beat the Kansas City Royals again behind their ace Gerrit Cole. Writing Stanton’s name at the cleanup spot might put them closer to that goal.
