3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The New York Yankees
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “The Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankeeesss uhhhwiiin!” The 2021 Yankees finished the season with a record of 92–70 good enough for 2nd in the AL East and a Wild Card spot in the playoffs. They had a quick exit, however, as the Red Sox came to town and beat them in the 1 game series. This year, the Yankees look to win their division and last a little deeper into October. Today, we’ll look at 3 ways that the Yankees can do just that.
1. Keep Aaron Judge On The Field For 150+
If there’s one thing that Aaron Judge is good at, it’s hitting baseballs really really far. In his 6 years in the Majors, Judge has hit 158 homeruns. He has a 162 game average of 45 homeruns. The only problem is, Aaron Judge has yet to play 162 games in a single season. In fact, he’s played 150+ games in a single season only once.
In what has long been a pattern in this series, there are tons of “star” players in our beloved game that just can not stay healthy (I.e Byron Buxton). Judge’s injury history isn’t as egregious as Buxton’s, yet, but he’s heading down that path. Debuting for the Yankees on August 13, 2016 Judge has had an opportunity to play in 755 games. He has only played in 572 games over his 6 year career. That’s a games played rate of 75.76% or 122.7 (123) games a year.
The good news for the Yankees is that when Judge is healthy for a full year, he more than earns his keep. Combining his 2017 when he played 155 games and his 2021 when he played 148 games, Judge carried a line of .286/.392/.585 with 91 homeruns and 202 walks over 1,311 plate appearances. He won a Silver Slugger in each of those years, was elected an All Star in each, won the AL RotY in 2017, and finished 2nd in MVP voting in 17 and 4th in 21. He has also averaged 7 WAR over those 2 years.
The Yankees will have full seasons of Rizzo and Gallo in the lineup adding more protection to Judge and potentially giving him more pitches to hit. Should the Yankees be able to run him out there for 150+ games, expect another 3 wins to their total.
2. Keep Giancarlo Stanton On The Field For 150+
Giancarlo “Don’t Call Him Mike” Stanton is yet another member of the Yankees that likes to hit balls really hard and really far. Having twice as many years in the league as Judge, Stanton has hit 347 career homeruns. He has a 162 game average of 42 homeruns. He also has the same problem that Judge does. He has yet to play 162 games in a single season. Over his 12 year career, he’s played 150 or more games only 3 times.
Debuting on June 8, 2010 for the then Florida Marlins, Stanton has had an opportunity to play in 1,783 games. He has only played in 1,324 games so far for a games played rate of 74.25% or 120.2 (120) games a season. For those keeping track at home, that’s 2 guys capable of putting up a combined 87 homeruns if they each played 162 games, but are instead only putting up 65 homeruns. The Yankees are missing out on 22 homeruns on an almost yearly basis.
Also much like Judge, Stanton earns his keep should he ever play 150+ games. Combining the 3 years that Stanton played a minimum of 150 games (2011, 2017, and 2018) you get a line of .270/.346/.560 with 131 homeruns and 225 walks over 1,998 plate appearances. The only accolades to come from these 3 years though were in 2017 when he won a Silver Slugger, was elected to the All Star game, and was named the NL MVP. Over those 3 years, he has averaged 5.4667 WAR.
Stanton will also have the benefit of a full season with Gallo and Rizzo in the lineup. He’s shown that he can play 150 or more games in a single season multiple times. If he can do it again this year, the Yankees can expect 2 more wins.
3. Bring Back Brett Gardner For His Swan Song
I’ll start this off by saying that this one might not actually help the Yankees in the win-loss column, but it would definitely help their team identity and their long standing tradition of home grown guys spending their career as a Yankee. Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera are just a few of the many Yankee’s legends that spent their entire career in the Bronx. Brett Gardner might not be on the same level as those guys, he probably won’t get in the Hall of Fame, but for 14 years his has been a name synonymous with the New York Yankees.
The Yankees drafted Gardner in the 3rd round of the 2005 MLB draft. He made his debut 3 short years later on June 30, 2008. Since that time, he has a career line of .256/.342/.398 with an OPS+ of 100 over 6,614 plate appearances and 1,688 games. He finished the 2021 season with a line of .222/.327/.362 with an OPS+ of 90 over 461 plate appearances and 140 games.
The one thing that doesn’t deteriorate as a ball player ages is his plate vision. If anything, he grows to know and understand the strike zone more as he accrues more plate appearances. This is evident in the 2021 OBP of Gardner which is .105 higher than his batting average. He can still get on base. He definitely shouldn’t play everyday, but being a bench bat and giving guys a breather here and there so they can DH would not be detrimental to their success and it would allow him to retire as a Yankee where it all began for him almost 14 years ago.
Should the Yankees keep Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on the field for 150+ games each, they would add 5 wins to their total. This would give them a record of 97–65, which would still have them in second in the division, but would be the second best record in the AL which could give them home field advantage in a playoff series.
This has been the 18th entry in our series in which we take a look at all 30 teams individually and find 3 things that we can improve upon so that their 2022 is better than their 2021. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles, the Miami Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Minnesota Twins. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and other sports musings. Next up will be the New York Mets!
