Brett Gardner & His History w/ Second Half Swoons

The New York Yankees are being aggressive this winter on the trade market and that mindset and aggression has already led to four separate trades for Brian Cashman and the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees are far from done there, according to reports anyway, and the names of Ivan Nova, Andrew Miller and Brett Gardner have been thrown around basically all winter long. While trading Nova makes sense and while trading Miller does not, well unless they are simply blown away, the idea of trading Gardner makes a whole lot of sense for the New York Yankees.

Gardner didn't have a spectacular season in 2015 and his second half was absolutely horrible but the Yankees hitting coach Alan Cockrell blamed a wrist injury for his struggles. Gardner did have three cortisone shots for the wrist injury, the maximum one player is allowed in a season, but there is a shocking trend that shows that, wrist or not, Gardner was probably going to struggle in the second half anyway and will likely struggle again in 2016's second half.

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
	1st Half	531	2069	317	511	79	28	38	186	203	390	.283	.360	.421	.781	.341	111
	2nd Half	388	1451	202	296	57	16	18	115	151	277	.236	.326	.351	.676	.287	84

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

These splits are huge!These are career splits too factoring in every one of his seasons in the Major Leagues. This is a trend.

I	Split	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	BAbip	tOPS+
	April/March	141	540	79	125	20	8	48	48	103	.265	.340	.372	.711	.323	93
	May	164	643	100	160	20	11	56	66	116	.284	.360	.417	.777	.339	110
	June	152	589	101	170	36	14	54	57	98	.328	.400	.521	.921	.382	148
	July	158	626	86	129	18	11	63	75	130	.244	.343	.359	.702	.299	91
	August	142	581	72	115	19	5	37	57	108	.229	.318	.325	.643	.281	75
	Sept/Oct	162	541	81	108	23	7	43	51	112	.227	.308	.349	.658	.281	78

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Going from .328 to .244 from June to July is an alarming trend. Dropping below .230 in September and October is even worse. If the Yankees can trade him, especially when he isn't going to be getting any better at 32-years old, they need to. Now.