ST. PETERSBURG — The Yankees have a giant in the outfield. Aaron Judge is carrying the offense, leading the majors with 18 home runs. He’s been the power behind the Bombers’ American League-best 33-15 record, particularly of late with Giancarlo Stanton out because of an ankle issue.
But the Bombers also have some big concerns in the outfield as well.
Over the weekend, center fielder Aaron Hicks was essentially benched after missing two days with right hamstring tightness. Also, left fielder Joey Gallo was dropped to the No. 9 spot in the lineup for the first time since 2017.
They don’t have a lot of options internally. Miguel Andujar has shown he can handle left field defensively and the Yankees can hope he rediscovers the swing that made him a 2018 Rookie of the Year candidate with more regular at-bats. Estevan Florial continues to struggle with plate discipline in the minors. Tim Locastro and Ender Inciarte offer solid defense but won’t add to the lineup.
The Yankees have already conceded some offense to improve their defensive spine this season. They are getting minimal offensive results at catcher and shortstop, so they are counting on production from the other spots — especially from the outfield.
In 41 games, Hicks is batting .200./.326/.233 with a .560 OPS, one homer and seven RBI. He’s struck out 33 times and walked 21 in 145 plate appearances. Hicks is 32% below MLB average in OPS factoring in league and park.
While Yankees manager Aaron Boone was adamant that Hicks had not let his struggles offensively carry over to the outfield, there has been some noticeable misplays and he has a -5 defensive runs saved rating. Boone said he’s been caught by some “bad reads,” of the ball off the bat.
The Yankees had hoped that Hicks would be able to rebound after missing most of the 2019 and 2021 seasons with injuries. So far, he’s struggled to find the 27-homer form from 2018 that had the Bombers giving him a seven-year, $70 million extension.
“He’ll continue to work on getting that quality of contact going,” Boone said of Hicks over the weekend. “He’s still doing a pretty good job of controlling the zone. He was getting some traction there for a few days, so we’ve just got to keep working with him and hopefully get him to that point to where he starts really swinging like we know he’s capable of along with obviously his ability to get on.”
The ability to get on base was one thing the Yankees really liked about Gallo when they traded away prospects like Glenn Otto, who is already in the Rangers rotation, to get the lefty-hitting slugger last year.
It hasn’t worked out the way the Yankees analytics department drew it up on paper.
Not only is Gallo hitting a dismal .167, he is getting on at a .270 rate. Gallo has drawn 17 walks and struck out 52 times in 137 plate appearances this season. A streaky hitter, all of Gallo’s homers and RBI came during a 17-game stretch from April 23 to May 15. He then went on the COVID IL and missed five games.
But it’s not just this season that has made Gallo seem like a misfit in the Yankees lineup. His .162 average since arriving last July 30 is the majors’ lowest among 159 players with 300 plate appearances. His .570 OPS is 33% below the average major league outfielder, with league and park adjustments.
“Joey is going to strike out at times,” Boone said. “Hopefully, after having missed a couple of days with the illness where he was gaining some traction, he’ll get back in that.”
But when Gallo has struck out with the Yankees, it’s magnified, especially when he was hitting fifth or sixth. He was brought in to be some lefty lineup protection for the likes of Judge and Stanton. Now, Boone is just trying to get him going by taking the pressure off him at the bottom of the lineup.
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