The Yankees are choosing to go short-term with their hitting coach situation, as the Yankees hire MLB Network analyst and former big leaguer Sean Casey.
Moving on from a longtime member of the organization Dillion Lawson, they’ve reached an agreement with Casey to join the Yankees as their hitting coach for the 2023 season. Looking for a better communicator for the players, the Yankees brought in a former All-Star with big-league experience that Aaron Boone is familiar with, hoping the players will better understand the organization’s offensive game plan.
With the Yankees ranking in the bottom 10 in AVG, OBP, wRC+, and OPS, they needed a jolt, and while they’ll need to add reinforcements to their lineup, perhaps a new voice can aid them as well. While Casey isn’t the prototypical modern hitting coach, it’s certainly possible that he works better with the players as a former big leaguer and by helping to adapt the Yankees’ offensive principles in a better manner.
Looking back as recently as the 2022 season, the Yankees were one of baseball’s top offenses, and it’s unlikely that they made dramatic philosophical changes. They likely felt that Lawson, who was tasked with working more hands-on with the players, wasn’t meshing with the players in they way they wanted, especially considering he became Brian Cashman’s first in-season firing.
A former teammate of Aaron Boone back in Cincinnati, the Yankees hired someone they think will mesh well with the players and coaching style, and plenty of people speak highly of his character on-and-off the baseball diamond. Will this turn their season around? Time will tell, but this contract will run through the 2023 season, where they’ll either retain Casey or look for a more permanent solution at that spot.