Joey Gallo hits at the end of the lineup and Clay Holmes pitches at the end of the game. Aaron Judge is the center of attention — in more than one way — while Jose Trevino has navigated from backing up Kyle Higashioka to potentially starting the All-Star Game.
A baseball team is a living organism. It evolves persistently from the first day of spring training onward. Thus, the Yankees who reach the statistical midway point Tuesday in Pittsburgh are different from the team imagined at the outset of camp.
These Yankees are challenging history — on pace for a record 117 victories — in part because Aaron Boone has ad libbed well from April Fools’ Day (when Trevino was not even with the team yet) to Independence Day. So to celebrate The Fourth, the four biggest amendments to this Yankees season.
1. Perhaps with a 6-foot-7 player starting in center and shortstop (Oneil Cruz for the Pirates), an adjustment is necessary to the concept of what stature athlete can play where. Judge did start in center in the second game this season, but Boone’s selling point early was that it gave flexibility to play others.
Judge started 13 of the Yankees’ first 44 games in center, but then 27 of the next 36. It enhanced not just that flexibility, but Judge’s already strong MVP case. The value to the Yankees of Judge moving to center has been substantial. He is better defensively at the position than Aaron Hicks, which has further fortified the overall Yankee fielding upgrade from recent years.
It also has enabled Boone to rotate Gallo, Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton into the outfield corners. Stanton has started 32 games at DH and 31 in the outfield, freeing the DH to be shared by others. This has helped Boone alleviate a preseason concern — how could he get enough at-bats for so many experienced players? Nine Yankees are on pace for 450-plus plate appearances, and that does not include the catchers or the rising usage of Matt Carpenter and Marwin Gonzalez (more in-season improvisation).
Judge’s move to center has improved the Yankees’ offense, defense, flexibility and his MVP candidacy.
2. The Yankees not only gave Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton two of the largest relief contracts ever, but guaranteed even more when they had chances to opt out of those deals. The obsession was to have closers pitching the eighth and ninth innings. Now, they have closers working the seventh, eighth and ninth innings embodied in still two relievers — Michael King and Holmes.
Holmes and King rank 1-2 among AL relievers in Wins Above Replacement (Fangraphs) while Britton rehabs after Tommy John surgery and Chapman returns from an Achilles injury and what might be a case of the yips. Chapman has walked 16 percent of the batters he has faced the last two years (third most in the majors, minimum 70 innings).
Would the Yankees love to fix him and get Britton back for September and October? Of course. But they are positioned to play meaningfully into October because King and Holmes have so effectively stepped into the late-inning roles, especially considering Chad Green was lost for the year (Tommy John surgery) and Jonathan Loasiga was ineffective then injured.
Ron Marinaccio, who surprisingly made the team out of the shortened camp, was developing a more vital role before a shoulder ailment put him on the injured list. Before Saturday night, opponents were 1-for-44 when reaching two strikes against Wandy Peralta (it is now 3-for-48).
But King and Holmes have been the bulwark. King has delivered more than three outs 15 times and struck out 34.5 percent of hitters faced (third most in the majors, minimum 40 innings). Holmes has essentially been prime Britton. Fangraphs has tracked groundball percentage since 2002 and going into this year, Britton had six of the top 11 in that span, including the top three with a high of 80 percent in 2016. Holmes is currently at 82.6 percent.
3. The Rangers had the defensive duo of Trevino and Jonah Heim last year and wanted to upgrade offensively, so they obtained Mitch Garver from the Twins. This year Trevino and Heim have been two of the best hitting catchers and still rank 1-2 in Baseball Prospectus’ metric for defensively evaluating receivers.
The Yankees had obtained Ben Rortvedt along with Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who went to Minnesota in the Garver deal. The idea was to replace Gary Sanchez (who went to the Twins) with a lefty-righty defense-first duo of Rortvedt and Higashioka. But Rortvedt was never healthy in spring and the Yanks obtained Trevino, who is having a career year at the plate. But it is his defense that has served as the spine to the overall defensive improvement of the team (the Yankees lead the majors in Defensive Runs Saved).
Trevino usurped Higashioka, but the duo has guided the Yankees pitching staff to a 2.90 ERA – which would be the best in franchise history for a 162-game season.
4. Gallo did not bat ninth until Game 46, but has done so in more than half the games since. Initially, it was an attempt to further defuse pressure from a player overwhelmed by his surroundings. But it has become obvious that Gallo’s next step is out of the regular lineup and likely off the team.
Gallo had 228 plate appearances last year for the Yankees and hit .160. He has 224 plate appearances this year. He’s hitting .165. The only other time any Yankee has batted that often in a season and had a worse average was Jim Mason hitting .152 in 1975 in 251 plate appearances.
Since Carpenter’s first game (May 26), he has the Yankees’ best average at .286 (with eight homers and a .1.293 OPS). Gonzalez is next at .283 (with four homers and an .862 OPS and fine defense in multiple spots). Gallo is at .157 (with four homers, a .591 OPS and 44 strikeouts in 89 at-bats). In the improvisation of the season, Carpenter and Gonzalez are gaining increased plate appearances to determine just what the Yankees should be trying to obtain by the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
