TAMPA — I would like to debate an inaccuracy:
That the Yankees’ offense was bad last 12 months.
Don’t misunderstand. The Yankees’ offense was, indeed, lousy last 12 months.
It’s just that last season is usually framed to suggest that the attack fell off a high cliff. When in fact the Yankees’ offense has been pretty bad the past three seasons.
They were nineteenth out of the 30 teams in run scored per game in 2021. They were twenty fifth last 12 months. People who wish to act like 2023 was an anomaly note that the Yankees were second in 2022.
But that was based on baseball being as very similar to basketball as I’ve ever seen — when one player, Aaron Judge, carried the offense like he was Allen Iverson with the Larry Brown 76ers. OK, forgive one other basketball analogy, but saying that the Yankees averaged 4.98 runs per game in 2022 and never giving context to how they got there was like saying Wilt Chamberlain and Al Attles combined for 117 points for the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.
That season Judge’s 1.111 OPS was the very best by a Yankee since Mickey Mantle’s 1956 Triple Crown campaign and the remaining of the team was .708, or what Billy Martin had in 1956. This particularly exacerbated within the second half as Judge thrived toward a historic 62 homers and near single-handedly helped the Yankees hold on to win the AL East with a 1.286 OPS, while the remaining of the team managed .652 or what would have been the fourth worst after the All-Star break.
Want the accounting from the past three seasons in total? Judge has by far a MLB-best 1.017 OPS (Shohei Ohtani’s .964 is second). The remaining of the Yankees from 2021-23 was .698 — subtract 15 plate appearances from pitchers, that might rank sixth-worst amongst all teams (due to MLB Network research).
Yankees officials wish to alibi last season away to injury, notably freak ones that limited Judge to 106 games and Anthony Rizzo to 99. But using injuries as an excuse is mostly weak tea, especially when you concentrate on, for instance, that the Astros’ two best offensive players, Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve, played just 114 and 90 games, respectively, and Houston still averaged the fifth most runs per game and by some means managed to make it to ALCS Game 7.
The Yankees attempted to remove the one-man-band stigma dramatically by trading for Juan Soto. A healthy Judge-Soto combination should make the Yankees, at minimum, a top-10 offense again. However the Yanks consider they’re greater than a 1-2 punch.
“We now have a likelihood to be an excellent offense,” Aaron Boone said. “I’ve maintained that from the beginning, especially coming off a season where it was a struggle for us offensively. Obviously we gotta stay healthy, we gotta stay focused. But I feel like the chance to be an elite offense exists for us.”
There are three keys to a full assault:
1. Age: DJ LeMahieu (35), Anthony Rizzo (34) and Giancarlo Stanton (34) have injury concerns, including this spring training when (freak injury alert) LeMahieu fouled a ball off his right foot and is iffy for the Opening Day roster. With Josh Donaldson and Evan Longoria now not playing, LeMahieu is now the sport’s oldest regular third baseman.
Rizzo had a lat issue he said he was unconcerned about, but he does have a chronic back issue. Stanton looks physically great this spring, but has been on the IL eight times previously five seasons.
Rizzo was terrific before his concussion last 12 months. LeMahieu was strong down the stretch of 2023 after a change at hitting coach and further healing of a foot injury. Stanton has his legs at once and shouldn’t be just swinging together with his upper body. That’s the optimism for a bunch that may surround Soto and Judge within the lineup.
2. Youth: Anthony Volpe altered his swing to higher take care of fastballs upstairs, use the entire field and address a .207 average and 27.8 strikeout rate. The Yankees consider this version may have his batting average and walk rate climb to higher capitalize on his legs. Catcher Austin Wells continued to impress Yankeedom that his defensive deficiencies are overstated or simply incorrect. In that case, he could offer lefty might. Let’s establish a .725 OPS as a baseline for each — anything above it moves the needle positively for this lineup.
3. Lefties: The team that plays within the House That Ruth Built and has a lineage from Gehrig to Mantle to Reggie to Mattingly, etc., has not finished in even the highest 10 in lefty OPS since 2012. The Yanks haven’t finished higher than twenty second in lefty plate appearances previously six seasons. In 2023, their lefties took the second-fewest plate appearances and hit .217 with a 673 OS (twenty seventh out of 30).
The Yankees acquired Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham, who took more plate appearances combined last season (1,865) than the Yanks have gotten collectively from lefties since 2018. Wells should play usually. Can the Yankees get the 2022 season of switch-hitter Oswaldo Cabrera? Can Jasson Dominguez successfully return from Tommy John surgery? Is that Spencer Jones on the horizon?
TAMPA — I would like to debate an inaccuracy:
That the Yankees’ offense was bad last 12 months.
Don’t misunderstand. The Yankees’ offense was, indeed, lousy last 12 months.
It’s just that last season is usually framed to suggest that the attack fell off a high cliff. When in fact the Yankees’ offense has been pretty bad the past three seasons.
They were nineteenth out of the 30 teams in run scored per game in 2021. They were twenty fifth last 12 months. People who wish to act like 2023 was an anomaly note that the Yankees were second in 2022.
But that was based on baseball being as very similar to basketball as I’ve ever seen — when one player, Aaron Judge, carried the offense like he was Allen Iverson with the Larry Brown 76ers. OK, forgive one other basketball analogy, but saying that the Yankees averaged 4.98 runs per game in 2022 and never giving context to how they got there was like saying Wilt Chamberlain and Al Attles combined for 117 points for the Philadelphia Warriors on March 2, 1962.
That season Judge’s 1.111 OPS was the very best by a Yankee since Mickey Mantle’s 1956 Triple Crown campaign and the remaining of the team was .708, or what Billy Martin had in 1956. This particularly exacerbated within the second half as Judge thrived toward a historic 62 homers and near single-handedly helped the Yankees hold on to win the AL East with a 1.286 OPS, while the remaining of the team managed .652 or what would have been the fourth worst after the All-Star break.
Want the accounting from the past three seasons in total? Judge has by far a MLB-best 1.017 OPS (Shohei Ohtani’s .964 is second). The remaining of the Yankees from 2021-23 was .698 — subtract 15 plate appearances from pitchers, that might rank sixth-worst amongst all teams (due to MLB Network research).
Yankees officials wish to alibi last season away to injury, notably freak ones that limited Judge to 106 games and Anthony Rizzo to 99. But using injuries as an excuse is mostly weak tea, especially when you concentrate on, for instance, that the Astros’ two best offensive players, Yordan Alvarez and Jose Altuve, played just 114 and 90 games, respectively, and Houston still averaged the fifth most runs per game and by some means managed to make it to ALCS Game 7.
The Yankees attempted to remove the one-man-band stigma dramatically by trading for Juan Soto. A healthy Judge-Soto combination should make the Yankees, at minimum, a top-10 offense again. However the Yanks consider they’re greater than a 1-2 punch.
“We now have a likelihood to be an excellent offense,” Aaron Boone said. “I’ve maintained that from the beginning, especially coming off a season where it was a struggle for us offensively. Obviously we gotta stay healthy, we gotta stay focused. But I feel like the chance to be an elite offense exists for us.”
There are three keys to a full assault:
1. Age: DJ LeMahieu (35), Anthony Rizzo (34) and Giancarlo Stanton (34) have injury concerns, including this spring training when (freak injury alert) LeMahieu fouled a ball off his right foot and is iffy for the Opening Day roster. With Josh Donaldson and Evan Longoria now not playing, LeMahieu is now the sport’s oldest regular third baseman.
Rizzo had a lat issue he said he was unconcerned about, but he does have a chronic back issue. Stanton looks physically great this spring, but has been on the IL eight times previously five seasons.
Rizzo was terrific before his concussion last 12 months. LeMahieu was strong down the stretch of 2023 after a change at hitting coach and further healing of a foot injury. Stanton has his legs at once and shouldn’t be just swinging together with his upper body. That’s the optimism for a bunch that may surround Soto and Judge within the lineup.
2. Youth: Anthony Volpe altered his swing to higher take care of fastballs upstairs, use the entire field and address a .207 average and 27.8 strikeout rate. The Yankees consider this version may have his batting average and walk rate climb to higher capitalize on his legs. Catcher Austin Wells continued to impress Yankeedom that his defensive deficiencies are overstated or simply incorrect. In that case, he could offer lefty might. Let’s establish a .725 OPS as a baseline for each — anything above it moves the needle positively for this lineup.
3. Lefties: The team that plays within the House That Ruth Built and has a lineage from Gehrig to Mantle to Reggie to Mattingly, etc., has not finished in even the highest 10 in lefty OPS since 2012. The Yanks haven’t finished higher than twenty second in lefty plate appearances previously six seasons. In 2023, their lefties took the second-fewest plate appearances and hit .217 with a 673 OS (twenty seventh out of 30).
The Yankees acquired Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham, who took more plate appearances combined last season (1,865) than the Yanks have gotten collectively from lefties since 2018. Wells should play usually. Can the Yankees get the 2022 season of switch-hitter Oswaldo Cabrera? Can Jasson Dominguez successfully return from Tommy John surgery? Is that Spencer Jones on the horizon?
