With Just Over A Month Until The Deadline The Yankees Have Been Exposed
By Aaron Rogers
6/24/2024
The New York Yankees are 51-26 on the season. At quick glance everything looks like it’s going to plan,
they hold the best record in not only the American League but they hold the best record in all of baseball. Versus
teams not in the American League East the Yankees have a record of 41-14, but versus their division they are 10-12
and 2-5 versus the Baltimore Orioles so far this season. The Yankees have lost back to back series for the first time
this season.
In the series against Boston the Red Sox the Yankees holes seemed to have been exposed. The Red Sox set
a club-record with nine stolen bases and Wednesday Jose Trevino saw Baltimore steal four bases with him behind
the plate 7-6, 10-inning loss to Baltimore. Trevino also had a throwing error in the 10th when Cedric Mullins
swiped third allowed Mullins to score a crucial run.
The Yankees Bullpen has recently been a cause of concern for Yankee fans. With injuries to Ian Hamilton
and struggles from Clay Holmes, the Yankees Bullpen has a ERA of 4.59 in the month of June. In the last 13 games
since Holmes gave up his first earned run on May 20th, he has a 6.75 ERA in that span. Before May 20, the
Yankees bullpen was the best in baseball. As dominant as Clay Holmes can be it seems every season he goes on this
four week stretch of allowing multiple runs in crucial situations or blows a save.
The bottom of the lineup has been a real issue with the Yankees so far this season. With players lIke
Gleyber Torres, DJ Lemahieu, Anthony Rizzo when he was healthy struggling this season offensively. The lineup
even with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto putting up numbers rivalring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig has holes in it that
have been taken advantage of, of late. Before going on the IL Anthony Rizzo was batting .223 with only eight home
runs and an OPS of .630. Gleyber Torres, who was the Yankees best bat last season when Judge was out has been
struggling this season. Torres is batting .221 and has an OPS of .641. And Dj Lemahieu is nowhere near his silver
slugger year in 2020. Lemahieu is batting .200 and leads the league in ground ball rate this season since coming off
the IL list.
Luckily for the Yankees these holes can be fixed internally. Ben Rice is someone who was called up to
replace Anthony Rizzo at first base and was destroying the ball in the minors. Rice posted a .261 average, slugging
.511 and had an OPS of .893 in double A. In eleven games in triple A Rice posted a .333 average while slugging
.619 and an OPS of 1.059. For the bullpen the Yankees seem to have help on the way with Scott Effross and JT
Brubaker are commencing rehab down in Tampa for Single A. A name to watch for in the minors is Jack Neely; he
was called up to Triple A after posting a 2.53 ERA, striking out 52 with a whip of 1.13 in 32.0 innings pitched.