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The New York Yankees are off to a funny start to this MLB season, with a 5-10 Record and an early last place standing. You would think a batting lineup featuring guys like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu wouldn’t struggle to win games, but the bats haven’t come through.
Ok, it might not be fair to just blame the Yankees hitters: the starting pitching has been less than stellar as well. All roads lead to what could be a historically bad season for the Bronx Bombers.
Losing The Arms Race
When you think about the Yankees’ rotation, you think Gerrit Cole and then there’s a big question mark after that. Cole has a 2-1 record with a 1.82 earned run average. He has 39 strikeouts in 24.2 innings pitched and has only walked three batters.
Cole is just what the Yankees need at the top of their rotation, but they definitely need something else behind him. The barrage of Jordan Montgomery, Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon and Domingo German are not keeping opposing batters up at night with fear. As a group they have one win combined and allowed 14 home runs.
This could just be a result of early season rust, but this starting staff does not look the part of playoff contender.
The Bat Cave
Judge has four home runs, but only eight RBIs to go along with more strikeouts (15) than hits (13). Stanton is batting a lowly .176 with three home runs and nine RBIs. LeMahieu is actually playing well, with a .286 batting average, leading the team with 16 hits.
The Yankees have 103 hits and a .209 team batting average, which ranks the second to last in the American League. Their 16 home runs puts them right under the league average ahead of only four teams.
The Yankees next series is versus the Atlanta Braves. The Braves lead the National League in home runs and rank third in runs batted in. The Yankees will have to score runs to give their pitching a chance and to maybe get an elusive win streak going.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had this to say about making any potential line up changes: “There’ll be some things that I consider about shaking things up, no question. I’ve done it a little bit, but it’s a little tough. It’s a little bit of a different era when you only have three or four bench guys, but they’ll probably potentially be more opportunities for guys that maybe haven’t been playing much.”
Obviously 15 games into the season shouldn’t be looked at as the end all be all, but these red flags are starting to become neon bright. The good news is when you’re in last place there’s only one direction you can go. Let’s see if the Yankees can climb out of the cellar.
