Despite losing starting pitcher Luis Gil and bullpen arm Chad Green, the New York Yankees’ biggest issue this week has been their offense. In the last 14 days, the Yankees are hitting .246 with 22 homers and 115 hits. However, in their last seven days, they are hitting just .224 with seven homers.
In other words, the Yankees have hit a cold streak, and they are desperately trying to break free after their third consecutive loss on Monday against a lowly Baltimore Orioles team.
The Bombers scored just one run in a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Their entire offense has gone quiet aside from Aaron Judge, who belted two homers against the Orioles, collecting three RBIs.
“Yesterday, tough doubleheader against a good team and we couldn’t pull anything out there. And tonight we got the offense going early and we’re playing against an Orioles team that scrapped out some runs, got some big time hits with guys on base,” Judge said.
Judge is hitting .325 this season with 17 homers and 34 RBIs. He leads the league in long balls, striking out at just 26.2%, 3.2% less than his career average. In addition, he’s walking at 11% and has nearly a 40% on base rate.
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The Yankees need more from everyone but Aaron Judge:
Judge has simply been carrying the Yankees’ offense, but they simply need more out of the bottom of their lineup. One interesting statistic is that they’ve performed worse at home games. They’re hitting just .237 compared to .245 away. Thanks to the short right porch, they have five more homers in Yankee Stadium, but they get on base a bit more when playing outside of New York.
Positionally, the Yankees are getting next to nothing out of the catcher position offensively. Both Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka have struggled to open the year. Trevino is the only one to hit a home run this season. The infield has been mostly solid, but left field has been problematic, averaging just .182 with six homers and 10 RBIs. That is where Joey Gallo has made the most starts this season.
The top of the batting order has been efficient for the Yankees, thanks to the presence of Judge Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo. However, the bottom of the order has been abysmal, aside from a surging Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The 8th and 9th spots in the lineup are both hitting below .220, tallying just one homer on the season.
The Yankees have a wildly inconsistent batting order, being extremely top-heavy. When Judge and Stanton are struggling, or one of them is having issues at the plate, the entire lineup falls apart at the seams. General manager Brian Cashman may want to consider trading for a better hitter who can slide in at the bottom of the lineup. Replacing Aaron Hicks in centerfield seems like the most obvious decision at this point.
Another disappointing metric is their performance with runners in scoring positions. The Yankees are hitting .231 with 18 homers and 124 RBIs, which sounds good on paper, but their on-base percentage is just 31.8%. To give you an idea of how poor that really is, even Hicks is getting on base at 34.6% this year, which showcases how disappointing the Yankees have been with runners on base.