Edwin encarnacion mlb12/16/2023 ![]() ![]() Gary Sánchez’s Offensive Surge Can’t Mask a New Woe Behind the Plate A Field Guide to the Unknown Mashers Fueling MLB’s Record Home Run Rate and Javier Báez this season but was optioned to the minors Sunday afternoon. Add a backup catcher to the team’s 12-man position player group, and the Yankees don’t even have room for Frazier, who’s hitting as well as Ronald Acuña Jr. If Stanton and Judge figure as the everyday starting outfielders-which would fit with manager Aaron Boone’s assertion that Encarnación will be the team’s “primary DH”-Gardner will add speed, defense, and positional flexibility in the outfield, while Urshela might now be overqualified as a backup third baseman. Every team can hit home runs in this context, but the 2019 Yankees are designed with that explicit goal in mind.Ī stuffed starting lineup also means a rich bench to serve as depth. The whole lineup, one through nine, further embodies a league that’s on a record home run pace, with an extra-bouncy ball and players swinging for the fences in all situations. Sánchez is second in homers and could do the same. What does a lineup with such top-to-bottom talent even look like? Encarnación leads the league in home runs and might hit in the bottom half of a healthy Yankees batting order. ![]() (wRC+ is structured with 100 as the league average, and 120 equivalent to 20 percent better than league average, 130 to 30 percent better, and so on.) Basically everyone in the lineup has performed at a well-above-average level at the plate since the start of last season, and basically everyone in the lineup projects to perform at a well-above-average level the rest of the way this year. Starting this week, with Judge, Stanton, and Encarnación, the roster won’t have that issue. The Yankees have given about a third of their non-pitcher plate appearances to players with below-average batting lines in 2019. It’s also Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade, and Brett Gardner in a full-time slot rather than the fourth outfielder role he probably should occupy at this point in his career. But it’s not just Urshela and Clint Frazier who have taken those extra at-bats. Unheralded fill-ins like third baseman Gio Urshela have flourished in New York and allowed the lineup to remain an above-average outfit as a whole. Stanton has batted just 15 times total Yankees pitchers, in interleague play, have batted 14. (It’s also a testament, perhaps, to their playing the Orioles 12 times already.) The Yankees’ five highest home run totals last year belonged to Stanton, Judge, Aaron Hicks, Didi Gregorius, and Miguel Andújar-but due to injuries, those players have combined for just 10 this season. ![]() That they even rank as high as sixth in homers per game is a testament to the performance of regulars like Gary Sánchez (20 home runs), Luke Voit (17), and Gleyber Torres (15) in their injured teammates’ stead. Nor has the Yankees’ power reached recent levels, as they set the MLB record for most team home runs in 2018 but have seen the likes of the Twins, Astros, and Encarnación’s Mariners out-homer them this season. The first reason New York traded for Encarnación is that the Yankees’ 2019 offense is good but not great much better than it had been at low points earlier this decade, but not as fearsome as it was the last two seasons, as the team transitioned into a new competitive era. All of this season’s key leaguewide trends are converging in the Bronx. That contention, however, misses the point: The Yankees are going all in on a strategy fit for the 2019 baseball environment, with a dual emphasis on power hitting and relief pitching. To some, the Encarnación acquisition is strange: New York would seem to need pitching, not more hitting, and after the starter-starved Yankees recently let the Braves outbid them for free agent Dallas Keuchel, they seem to be prioritizing the latter against common sense. And with Stanton slated to return to the majors on Tuesday and Judge after him, the Yankees are certainly upholding their Bronx Bomber reputation. As Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton moved to Triple-A Scranton over the weekend for rehab games after early-season injuries, New York also completed a trade for Seattle slugger Edwin Encarnación, whose AL-best 21 homers this season are just the latest demonstration of his consistent power.įor the mere cost of part of Encarnación’s salary and 19-year-old pitcher Juan Then, whom FanGraphs rated as New York’s 31st-best prospect before the season, the Yankees added the player with the most home runs since 2012. The New York Yankees are in first place, and this week, they should add two previous home run champions and a current home run leader to their lineup. ![]()
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