Monday, April 19, 2021

How To Fix the Yankees Offense -Bleacher Creatures

 Basically the only way for the Yankees to improve is to get better in positions where they are the worst offensively and defensively, we will not talk about pitching right now. The lowest OPS's are at 1B (now a 2B issue with Odor), CF, LF, SS (Gleyber is not getting traded). The worst defense is at 2B, SS, CF, and LF. Odor needs to go, right now the only thing we can do is call up Ford and hope he can hit like it is 2019. Voit will come back and be an animal. Ford is serviceable defensively at 1B and improves the right side of infield with DJ at 2B. DJ is not the solution long term at 2B though, he will be the 1B by the end of his contract and if I were up to it, he would play their next year. Gleyber has looked good defensively at short stop since everyone ripped him for shuffling before he throws. Almost every time I have seen since the few times, he messed up he has looked good. I think though he has focused too much on defense physically and mentally that his offense has struggled. I do not think has the range, glove or arm for long term SS and has looked a lot better in his career at 2B. Now we have a gaping hole at SS and if DJ is on first base, where does Luke Voit play. I love Luke Voit’s energy and production, and as we have seen, without homeruns, the Yankees are shit. We can hold on to him and play him at DH and make Stanton play the outfield to get his mind off hitting and so he will hit again or since Voit is once again a redundant right-handed, power hitter who strikes out a lot, we can trade him before he becomes a free agent and makes 25 mill per year, do not need any more people like that. So at short stop what can we do? Trevor Story has had an iffy year and inserting him there right now may not improve the Yankees offensively. I love the guy and would be very happy for him to be on the Yankees, but I think Seager is the much better option. Seager is not available until this offseason when he becomes a free agent and then you get into a bidding war with the Dodgers. Well Hal better open his pockets and get the perfect player to help this Yankees lineup. Now we move to third base, Gio Urshela is adorable, but I think he will regress, and it will continue. When he swings half the time he steps out of the box. His defense is very good, but he does not have a lot of range. For the sake of a budget, we will keep him at 3B for now, I would love someone like Jose Ramirez, but we cannot afford to trade for him or pay someone of his value in free agency. Also no one in the Yankees system who is highly ranked is a 3B. Maybe Peraza shifts over there in order to be called up but he is not close. Not one prospect in the Yankees top 30 plays 3B, the Yankees may have to look for a cheaper option somewhere else or just stick with Urshela. Now to the outfield, other than right field it is a mess. Hicks is shit, he can not hit, it is called hitting not walking and whiffing when you do swing. He has shown signs hitting from his natural side, which is the right, but that is just another righty batter for the Yankees boo hoo. Frazier is another righty who whiffs a lot and has outright struggled with the zone this year. They will not start him because Gardner still breathes so once again, I plead with you to start him or trade him. Hicks defense last year was crap and Frazier was a gold glove finalist in right field but I don’t buy it, he still looks shaky. For the quick fix, call up Florial, and use the Tauchman. I don’t know what to do long term, though I have heard of this Dominguez kid who might arrive in the Bronx in 3-5 years. Send Hicks to the Phillies and Frazier to whomever will start the poor guy. So on to the Catcher, your favorite boy, Gary Sanchez. He has looked better this year, but he is once again, plays into the hitting philosophy we all hate, striking out a lot. The only thing that could happen to Gary is that Wells sticks at catcher and they call him up end of this year or beginning of next year. I really hope he turns into a similar type of hitter to Joe Mauer. Most likely he will end up in the corner outfield or first base though. If Higgy keeps on playing so well, he may have some value on the trade market so watch out. So as of now our tentative lineup for 2021 looks like this.

C Sanchez/Wells

1B LeMahieu

2B Torres

SS Seager

3B Urshela

LF Stanton (if he has not retired from injuries yet)

CF Florial/Tauchman/player manager Brett Gardner

RF Judge

DH Voit (if he is not traded)

I may attempt to tackle the pitching side of things if I am up to it, but for now I just had some ideas and tried to make it semi realistic as possible and came up with this. Let me know if you have any better ideas how to solve this team that is not built to win even though they spend a quarter billion dollars.