The New York Yankees will have one of the most intimidating batting lineups in the MLB if they manage to secure the signature of superstar free agent, Manny Machado. The third-baseman would join a group of sluggers that include Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
The three would make for consecutive home run threats, likely hitting out of the 2nd, 3rd, and fourth spots in the batting order. But, there could be one primary concern in regard to the batters – to be more specific, their favored stance.
A look at projected batting order for the New York Yankees:
1.) Brett Gardner
2.) Aaron Judge
3.) Manny Machado
4.) Giancarlo Stanton
5.) Aaron Hicks
6.) Gary Sanchez
7.) Miguel Andujar
8.) Gleyber Torres
9.) Luke Voit
Straight off the bat, you can see that 7 of 9 hitters favor their ‘right’ side. Only Hicks, who is a switch hitter, and Gardner, can hit in the lefty stance. This could be problematic for the Yankees against teams that utilize their pitching rotation strategically. They will likely utilize their right-handed pitchers more frequently against the Yankees.
Despite this logical thought process, some righty hitters seem to perform even better against right-handed pitchers. For example, Judge earned a 2.85 BA with 19 homers against righties, while he hit just .261 with 8 homers against lefties in 2018.
Teams will undoubtedly have a lot of trouble facing this lineup, simply due to the pure power potential and elevated contact efficiency. Having multiple superstars on the same team is often the recipe for success, but we’ve seen teams struggle to find the right balance. The Yankees will need to find a way to utilize Machado, Giancarlo, and Judge at the same time to extract the most runs-per-game.
The Yankees could struggle with…
Consistency. Relying on home runs to score a majority of your runs can exploit weaknesses. The Boston Red Sox utilized pitchers with high strikeout rates to control the ALDS and stifle any hot-streaks. Judge, Stanton, and Sanchez combined for 457 strikeouts last season.
Machado, luckily, is far more disciplined with the bat in his hands. He will offer a stop-gap in the lineup for pitchers that are looking to catch the Yankees’ big-bats swinging.
I expect Machado to be strategically placed in the lineup, offering supports to Judge and Stanton – increasing on-base-percentage between the two sluggers will ultimately help the Yankees score more runs.