It is easy to point out players that are struggling to hit for the New York Yankees after the All-Star break. However, star slugger Aaron Judge continues to provide mesmerizing offensive production.
On the season, Judge is hitting .294 with a 40% on-base rate and a .661 slugging percentage. He hosts a 8.3 WAR and 195 wRC+. The 30-year-old slugger has hit 51 homers this season and 113 RBIs, paired with a career-high 15 stolen bases.
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There is no question that Judge is in line for a massive contract extension, but one thing is for certain, he’s incapable of carrying the Yankees with his offensive production alone.
Since the All-Star break, Judge has hit .331 with 18 homers and a 1.256 OPS. Everybody aside from Judge is hitting a combined .214 with 30 homers and .615 OPS. That means Judge has hit a bit more than half the homers the entire team has combined for since the All-Star break. This statistic is almost too bad to be true.
The Yankees need to turn their offense around fast:
If there’s any single factor to harp on regarding the Yankees demise, it is their embarrassingly low offensive efficiency rate. For example, Gleyber Torres hit .180 with a 20.4% on-base rate in the month of August, over 100 at-bats. He struck out twice with one hit over four at-bats to start September against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.
Isiah Kiner-Falafa hit .231 with a 29.9% on-base rate across 78 at-bats. He’s hit one homerun all season long and continues to botch routine plays at shortstop, despite manager Aaron Boone coming to his defense.
Starting first baseman Anthony Rizzo is currently dealing with a back injury that will keep him out for a few days. However, in the month of August, he hit .208 with a 29.9% on base rate, showcasing yet another integral piece that has struggled over the past few weeks.
That is not even to mention DJ LeMahieu, who is clearly still being bothered by the toe injury he sustained in July. LeMahieu hit .211 with a 27.6% on-base rate in August, well below his season averages.
It is extremely odd to see how poor the Yankees are playing, considering their dominance the first half of the year. It could be fatigue setting in or low confidence. Either way, manager Aaron Boone needs to find a way to snap his team out of one of the coldest streaks any team has sustained this season.
The Yankees are staring a blown lead in the AL East in the face, sitting just five games above the Tampa Bay Rays. At one point this season, it looked like they would coast easily to the World Series without even a hiccup, but they’re failing to be bad teams at this point, which is sounding alarms across the board.