The brutal stretch through which DJ LeMahieu finds himself is starting to mirror last yr’s late-season skid.
Except this time, there is no such thing as a (apparent) injury on which accountable it.
That may make the veteran infielder’s current slump much more worrisome, and while LeMahieu actually has loads of company in his recent struggles, the Yankees desperately need him to start out looking like his old self.
After going 0-for-4 with two more strikeouts in the primary game of Sunday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox, LeMahieu entered Monday’s off day batting .167 (15-for-90) with a .491 OPS over his last 24 games.
It has grow to be nearly as rough of a stretch as LeMahieu experienced at the top of last season, when he hit .162 (16-for-99) with a .344 OPS over his final 26 games while coping with a sesamoid fracture in his right big toe and ligament damage in his second toe.
Still, the Yankees imagine LeMahieu’s issues are more mechanical than anything physical, continuing to insist he’s healthy — a minimum of in response to what the 34-year-old tells them.
“He doesn’t say [he’s compensating for anything], no,” hitting coach Dillon Lawson said Sunday in between games of a doubleheader sweep by the Red Sox. “I trust DJ.”
The problem, then? The Yankees point to his load, meaning the start of his swing through which he puts his weight on his back leg before moving into his stride.
“DJ began off the yr extremely well,” Lawson said. “His load has modified a bit of bit. It’s caused him to come back off the ball a bit of earlier. I’d say that [Sunday] within the cage, it was especially good, so I’m hoping we’re taking steps forward in getting him back on the ball, staying on the ball, with the ability to drive back through the center the best way he’s at all times done.”
Across his first 37 games this season, LeMahieu was batting .276 with a .802 OPS, though he was still striking out at a much higher rate than he has for many of his profession.
Now, the punchouts — his strikeout rate of 26.6 percent is his highest in 13 big-league seasons — have grow to be much more magnified during his monthlong skid.
“His preload might be not nearly as good as I’m used to seeing,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Possibly it has a bit of bit something to do with how he’s loading a bit of bit, but once he can get there and figures that out, he’s got the hit tool. He’s gotta keep grinding away at it.”
LeMahieu, who still has three years and $45 million left on his contract after this season, has recorded a median exit velocity of 90.9 mph this season that also ranks within the 71st percentile of MLB.
But it surely has gone down every month — it was 93.3 mph in April, 89 mph in May and is 88.7 mph in June.
Lawson said that when he and assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes joined the staff prior to the 2022 season, LeMahieu showed them, “That is what my load looks like when it’s good, that is what it looks like when it’s bad.”
Lawson still has video on his phone from that spring training cage session and said he began to see the “bad” load from LeMahieu about three weeks ago.
“We recognized it and we’re working on it and we’ve been working on it,” Lawson said. “But sometimes this stuff do take time. Even when it’s something that he’s at all times done, it takes a bit of little bit of time to get back to what he’s at all times done.
“It starts out as a bit of suggestion, ‘Let’s watch that front hip,’ or ‘Let’s keep that shoulder in.’ Then now, it’s like, there’s a big focus within the cage — not that we’re changing anything dramatically, but there’s just been added concentration.”
