All in all, the 2024 Yankees had a very good offense. They ranked second in Major League Baseball with a 117 wRC+, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their 5.03 runs/game topped the AL. Sure, they were a little top heavy, particularly during the midsummer slump (before Austin Wells’ breakout and Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s arrival), but they were, over the 162 games of the season, one of the most difficult offenses to face.
They did, however, have one fatal flaw: their inability to hit left-handed pitching. After what seemed like half a decade struggling against hard-throwing right-handers, the 2024 Yankees flipped the script, hammering righties to the tune of a 120 wRC+, but being completely stymied by left-handed pitching. Their 107 wRC+ against lefties last season may look at least respectable, but this is entirely due to the fact that Aaron Judge (236 wRC+), Juan Soto (174 wRC+), and Gleyber Torres (132 wRC+) hammered lefties; of the remaining nine Yankees with at least 50 plate appearances against southpaws last season, only Chisholm had a wRC+ above 95 (114). Throughout both the regular season and the playoffs, opposing teams had ready-made lanes into which they were able to slot their left-handed relievers, allowing them to essentially erase entire innings from the game at times.
Over the winter, the Yankees attempted to fix this Achilles’ heel. Despite being a lefty himself, Cody Bellinger was at least respectable against southpaws last season, with a .298/.305/.441 slash line (106 wRC+), with his biggest struggle coming primarily from his inability to work a walk against them (he had just two bases on balls against lefties all season). New first baseman Paul Goldschmidt may be on the back nine of his career, but he still managed to rake against lefties last season, posting a .295/.366/.473 slash line (134 wRC+). Assuming that Wells would continue his breakout and Stanton would prove that his 95 wRC+ against lefties was merely a sample size fluke, there was reason to believe that the Yankees would at least have competence against lefties this season even with the departures of Soto and Torres.
Of course, in early spring, hope springs eternal — but by mid-March, reality must set in. With Stanton out with the elbow injuries, the Yankees lineup lacks a true right-handed threat at the plate outside of Judge and, hopefully, Goldshmidt. Wells, Bellinger, and Chisholm are all lefties. Anthony Volpe has not yet shown that he can be consistently relied on at the plate. Oswaldo Cabrera has just three career homers from the right side, compared to 16 form the left. Jasson Domínguez had a .510 OPS against lefties last season in the minor leagues. Both of the leading candidates for the DH slot, Ben Rice and Dominic Smith, are left-handed, as is arguably the favorite for the backup catcher spot, J.C. Escarra.
The Yankees clearly recognize this weakness, as the team is still reportedly scouring the market to add a right-handed bat, even as it reassigned one potential option, Everson Pereira, to the minor league camp so that he can continue his rehab from Tommy John surgery. With Jon Heyman reporting on Thursday night that Stanton will be not be back until Memorial Day at the earliest, thanks to a combination of both the elbow injury and the chronic leg issues he has been dealing with for years now, the need for a right-handed bat in his absence is only more prevalent. While I would very much love to see Stanton return from the IL at the earliest possible date and return to the steady middle-of-the-order bat the Yankees hoped he would be this year, the reality is that won’t happen for at least the first third of the season, and likely much longer.
Go get another bat, Brian.
