The New York Yankees have big aspirations this season, but they need to start living up to their potential. Heading into the All-Star break New York is 49-42 and eight games back of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
A significant reason the Yankees are on a downward trajectory is because of their poor hitting. New York currently ranks No. 28 in batting average (.230), No. 27 in on-base percentage (.300), and No. 29 in hits (679).
Because of the hitting woes, Yankees GM Brian Cashman fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson after New York’s 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
“It’s not going to get better as it sits,” Cashman said. “We will be better served with a new messenger.”
Who the new messenger will be remains to be seen as Cashman didn’t name an immediate replacement. Cashman has ample time to figure it out. New York’s next game is on Friday, a road tilt against the Colorado Rockies.
Cashman said the ends results don’t match the “Yankee DNA” he’s used to seeing and points to untapped potential in the lineup. It appears Cashman isn’t focused on adding new pieces to the lineup. Instead, he fired the hitting coach and is hoping it turns things around.
“I feel like we have a lot more potential than we’ve shown, injuries notwithstanding,” Cashman explained. “We’ve gone now for a long period of struggles, but I think our philosophy per se is get guys on base, slug and dominate a lot of those categories, which ultimately lead to usually a lot of runs scored. But we’re far too many times putting too much pressure on our pitching by playing way too many low-runs-scored games.”
New York is 4-6 in their last ten games, including a 14-1 drubbing by the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. Cashman was likely considering firing Lawson for quite some time, but Sunday’s loss to the Cubs was the last straw.
The Yankees hitting statistics are putrid, and firing Lawson seems like the right move heading into the second half of the season.
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