Andrew McCutchen Brings a “Clutch” Factor the Yankees Have Been Missing

The New York Yankees this season have not been “clutch” here in 2018 like they were during the 2017 season. If that is even a real thing or whether it is merely something made up by fans and sports writers remains to be seen, but it has gained enough steam regardless among the baseball community that Baseball Reference (and I’m sure others) have tried to find a way to quantify it. Enter Baseball Reference’s “Leverage” stat. Basically what the leverage stat tabulates is a player’s performance in high, medium, and low leverage situations. For example, having the bases loaded with two outs would be considered a “high” leverage stat, while leading off a game would be considered a “low” leverage situation. If you want to know the exact verbiage and the way the stat is tabulated head over to Baseball Reference for their in-depth explanation.

Here are McCutchen’s stats in each leverage situation, courtesy of Baseball Reference:

As you can see McCutchen is a different, and better, hitter in high leverage situations than he is in low or even medium leverage situations, which can only be a good thing for the Yankees heading into the postseason.

Let’s compare that to someone who is universally thought of as “clutch” on this team, Brett Gardner:

Many also consider Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres, albeit in small sample sizes, to be clutch as well:

Torres:

Andujar:

This, my friends, is how you win in October, and this is how you win a World Series. This team is built to do so whether the naysayers believe it or not, now they just have to do it. *Insert Nike add mocking Colin Kaepernick while inserting a Yankees face into the meme*