When Brian Cashman spoke to the media over the offseason, he admitted that the 2024 Yankees were “bad defensively” (his own words), and the team sought out to improve this part of their roster over the offseason.
Losing Juan Soto wasn’t part of the plan, but it made the need to improve defensively even more important, as you knew the offensive ceiling of this team would be capped by that departure.
Furthermore, it presented an opportunity to run the bases better and move Aaron Judge back to his best position in right field, but have those efforts reflected in the team’s results?
In a slump where the bats have gone cold, the Yankees were supposed to be able to run, field, and make plays to win, but even when things went well, the team was still the same inconsistent defense.
Now that they aren’t mashing (and especially cannot score with RISP), they’re unable to scratch wins out, and that lack of dominant fielding is causing them to lose games they should win without question.
Why the Yankees Haven’t Lived Up to Their Defensive Goals this Season
In my opinion, the face of the Yankees’ defensive regression is Anthony Volpe; a once stout defensive shortstop from 2023-2024 has killed the team with countless botched plays in big spots.
The first game of the Toronto series was a tutorial on how not to play the shortstop position, taking costly risks to try and force outs instead of living to see another out.
With a 3-1 lead he made a throwing error on an unnecessary throw to third base, resulting in a run scoring, and he also made a brutal decision to throw to first on a play that allowed the runner to advance to third base (no error charged).
These are bad decisions, the kind you would not expect from someone who consistently graded out as a top five defender at a premium position from 2023-2024.
One player alone cannot completely cause a defense to underwhelm, and the other culprit is a player who has been victimized by a massive front office blunder.
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While Anthony Volpe has brought about unexpected concerns about the team’s defense at shortstop, Jazz Chisholm‘s departure from second base has created two massive issues.
Chisholm has provided -3 Defensive Runs Saved and -2 Fielding Run Value at the hot corner thus far, but why is the elite defensive second baseman changing positions midseason?
To accommodate DJ LeMahieu, whom the organization has moved back to second base because the veteran has made it clear to the organization it’s where he’s most comfortable at.
His offense and baserunning fly in the face of what the Yankees need, and while Oswald Peraza would allow Chisholm to move back to second base, the bat he brings is sizably worse than LeMahieu’s.
Second base is the only position where the Yankees have a positive Fielding Run Value, and yet that value was accumulated by Jazz Chisholm, who doesn’t play there anymore.
This infield defense is bad right now, and the Yankees are losing plenty of baseball games under the current alignment of Anthony Volpe at shortstop, Jazz Chisholm at third base, and DJ LeMahieu at second base.
Here’s how opposing offenses perform on groundballs and bunts based on the infield alignments:
- LeMahieu 2B/Volpe SS/Chisholm 3B: .310 BA
- Chisholm 2B/Volpe SS/Peraza or Cabrera 3B: .191 BA
The Yankees have to move Jazz Chisholm back to second base and acquire an infielder to play third base, or their pitching staff of groundball artists will continue to blow leads on soft contact.
It’s not a tenable situation, and it’s come to bite the Yankees in the rear because of Brian Cashman’s lack of preparation in the infield market this winter.
The defense in the outfield has been great! New York went from 16th in Fielding Run Value to 6th this season despite Jasson Dominguez’s early struggles.
Same works with the catching room, Ben Rice is already looking like a plus defender back there as well especially as a blocker and a thrower of the baseball.
The deadline can solve these issues in the infield, but until then, the Yankees lost Juan Soto and have a below-average defensive infield.