At first glance, the New York Yankees have a fantastic 2021 roster, even if the pitching is a bit suspect. General manager Brian Cashman has a lot riding on players returning from injury, notably Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon. However, if they’re able to return without any hiccups, the Yankees will have a solid starting rotation that should be improved compared to 2020.
If you look hard enough at any position, though, you would likely find a weakness. Ranging from injuries to inconsistencies in the field, the Yankees will have to supplement players as always. They could have one problem in the batting order as a whole, and after looking at it, you might figure out why.
Projected New York Yankees batting order:
DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Aaron Judge, RF
Aaron Hicks, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Luke Voit, 1B
Gleyber Torres, SS
Gio Urshela, 3B
Gary Sánchez, C
Clint Frazier, LF
The Yankees don’t have a single pure left-handed hitter in their batting order, aside from Aaron Hicks, who’s a switch-hitter. Everybody else bats righty, and if you don’t know the advantages of being a lefty-batter, it starts with the scarcity of lefty pitchers.
Lefty batters have more favorable matchups against righties since there are far more righty arms in the league. That is just one positive, the second biggest one is that they are closer to first base, so their swing takes their momentum in the direction they need to run. Think about Ichiro Suzuki, and you will understand why being a lefty has its benefits.
The Yankees do you have an opportunity to go out and find a lefty, and they could bring back veteran Brett Gardner. The only issue, Gardner wouldn’t be a starter any longer at this point in his career, as Clint Frazier has rightfully earned the left-field spot.
With the team so heavily reliant on statistics, it is interesting to see them avoid a major one in the batting order. It didn’t seem to cause them too many problems last year, but it does hurt their versatility when trying to play the numbers game in live-action.