ST. PETERSBURG — The Yankees have a large within the outfield. Aaron Judge is carrying the offense, main the majors with 18 dwelling runs. He’s been the ability behind the Bombers’ American League-best 33-15 document, significantly of late with Giancarlo Stanton out due to an ankle problem.
But the Bombers even have some huge considerations within the outfield as effectively.
Over the weekend, heart fielder Aaron Hicks was basically benched after lacking two days with proper hamstring tightness. Also, left fielder Joey Gallo was dropped to the No. 9 spot within the lineup for the primary time since 2017.
They don’t have a number of choices internally. Miguel Andujar has proven he can deal with left area defensively and the Yankees can hope he rediscovers the swing that made him a 2018 Rookie of the Year candidate with extra common at-bats. Estevan Florial continues to wrestle with plate self-discipline within the minors. Tim Locastro and Ender Inciarte supply strong protection however received’t add to the lineup.
The Yankees have already conceded some offense to enhance their defensive backbone this season. They are getting minimal offensive outcomes at catcher and shortstop, so they’re relying on manufacturing from the opposite spots — particularly from the outfield.
In 41 video games, Hicks is batting .200./.326/.233 with a .560 OPS, one homer and 7 RBI. He’s struck out 33 occasions and walked 21 in 145 plate appearances. Hicks is 32% beneath MLB common in OPS factoring in league and park.
While Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone was adamant that Hicks had not let his struggles offensively carry over to the outfield, there was some noticeable misplays and he has a -5 defensive runs saved ranking. Boone mentioned he’s been caught by some “bad reads,” of the ball off the bat.
The Yankees had hoped that Hicks would be capable to rebound after lacking a lot of the 2019 and 2021 seasons with accidents. So far, he’s struggled to seek out the 27-homer type from 2018 that had the Bombers giving him a seven-year, $70 million extension.
“He’ll continue to work on getting that quality of contact going,” Boone mentioned of Hicks over the weekend. “He’s still doing a pretty good job of controlling the zone. He was getting some traction there for a few days, so we’ve just got to keep working with him and hopefully get him to that point to where he starts really swinging like we know he’s capable of along with obviously his ability to get on.”
The skill to get on base was one factor the Yankees actually appreciated about Gallo once they traded away prospects like Glenn Otto, who’s already within the Rangers rotation, to get the lefty-hitting slugger final 12 months.
It hasn’t labored out the best way the Yankees analytics division drew it up on paper.
Not solely is Gallo hitting a dismal .167, he’s getting on at a .270 price. Gallo has drawn 17 walks and struck out 52 occasions in 137 plate appearances this season. A streaky hitter, all of Gallo’s homers and RBI got here throughout a 17-game stretch from April 23 to May 15. He then went on the COVID IL and missed 5 video games.
But it’s not simply this season that has made Gallo seem to be a misfit within the Yankees lineup. His .162 common since arriving final July 30 is the majors’ lowest amongst 159 gamers with 300 plate appearances. His .570 OPS is 33% beneath the common main league outfielder, with league and park changes.
“Joey is going to strike out at times,” Boone mentioned. “Hopefully, after having missed a couple of days with the illness where he was gaining some traction, he’ll get back in that.”
But when Gallo has struck out with the Yankees, it’s magnified, particularly when he was hitting fifth or sixth. He was introduced in to be some lefty lineup safety for the likes of Judge and Stanton. Now, Boone is simply attempting to get him going by taking the stress off him on the backside of the lineup.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com