The disappointing series tie against the Mets was just another under performance that the Yankees have displayed time and time again all season long.
With all the injuries, horrible offense and inexcusable errors on defense, the Yankees don’t look like a championship team right now.
The Subway Series shed light on some new issues for the Yanks, as well as provided optimism. Some players shined and others regressed, which is nothing new that doesn’t happen after every series.
The biggest difference with this series compared to others is that this is the third series in a row that the Yankees haven’t won and they are almost at the halfway point in the season.
For being this far into the season, the Yankees have a lot of question marks in their lineup. Will this team be the same one in September? No one knows, especially not the Yankees.
Let’s dive into the positives and negatives of the Subway Series and how these factors can impact the Yankees future.
Positives
The biggest positive throughout the whole series was the improvement for several players at the plate. Players like Anthony Volpe, DJ LeMahieu, Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka were swinging the bat well and finally getting on base after being in hitting slumps.
Volpe especially impressed, going three for eight at the plate, boosting his batting average from .186 before the series to .192 after. On the rest day before the Subway Series, it was reported that Volpe changed his stance after watching old ABs with former teammates per Gary Phillips. A change that certainly made a night and day difference for Volpe at the plate.
Anthony Volpe said he changed his stance after meeting up w/ Austin Wells & some other guys he played with last year on the off day. They were reminiscing & watching old ABs (& eating chicken parm) at Volpe's house when they noticed the #Yankees SS had veered from his old setup.
— Gary Phillips (@GaryHPhillips) June 14, 2023
LeMahieu went two for eight at the plate with a home run during the series. Now even though he was only getting a hit 25% of the time, it was still a huge boost in his production compared to his at bats before the series.
To show how poor LeMahieu’s production has been at the plate, since June 3rd LeMahieu has had six hits, with two of them being in the Subway series. LeMahieu currently has a three-game hit streak and the hope is that this streak continues for him as the Yankees need more productive bats in the lineup.
Trevino, since May 17th, has only had five hits, but thankfully is on a two-game hitting streak after the Subway series and the first Boston series. Trevino went one for three at the plate in Citi Field with a run. His spike in offensive production is just what the Yankees need from their number one catcher.
Speaking about catchers, Higashioka has also seen a huge spike in his offensive production. Higgy went two for four with one run at Citi Field. In the last seven games that he has had at bats, Higgy has produced eleven hits (out of 25 at bats).
Higgy’s increased hits at the plate has not only given the Yankees opportunities offensively, but it has also silenced the doubters about bringing in another catcher or releasing/trading Higgy.
Another positive for the Yankees has been their trusty utility bench player, Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Kiner-Falefa has been a godsend for the Yankees in June with his consistency at the plate. He has been one of the only guys bringing day in and day out constant production on the offensive side and solid play making ability on the defensive side.
In the Subway series, Kiner-Falefa continued to shine as he went one for seven at the plate and brought in two runs. One of his runs was a great steal to home plate in the top of the seventh inning in game two to put the Yankees up 3-1.
He is speed. pic.twitter.com/DHopwEt0CK
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 15, 2023
The last real positive from the Subway Series for the Yankees has been the bullpen pitching and starter Gerrit Cole. Cole had not necessarily been struggling going into the Subway series, but he wasn’t looking as sharp as he did in the beginning of the season.
However, Cole definitely came ready to roll in game two against the Mets as he pitched six innings and allowed four hits, one earned run, zero walks and recorded eight strikeouts. He looked calm, cool and collected on the mound while averaging his fastball at 96 miles an hour.
Gerrit Cole, 91mph Slider and 99mph Fastball, Overlay pic.twitter.com/4Xgxde3TP9
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 15, 2023
As for the Yankees bullpen, they have been fabulous all year with the lowest ERA in the league (2.75), the second lowest earned runs in the league (80) and the second lowest home runs in the league (21).
During the Subway series, the bullpen certainly impressed with Albert Abreu, Clay Holmes, Tommy Kahnle and Michael King standing out.
Holmes looked fabulous in game one, coming onto the mound with the bases loaded and recording two strikeouts and allowing no runs to score.
Clay Holmes. ICE COLD.
🥶🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/g1KXDlH9hD
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) June 14, 2023
Tommy Kahnle has been a great addition to the bullpen since coming back from injury. With his limited mound appearances, he has really shown up for the Yankees, including not allowing any runs to score so far this season.
Negatives
The biggest eyesore for the Yankees right now is the unnecessary errors on defense and the horrible pitching from Luis Severino.
After the Subway series, the Yankees have a team total of 40 errors (10th in MLB), with Gleyber Torres and Volpe leading the team with seven errors each. The majority of these errors are inaccurate approaches to the ball, over/under throws from the catcher to second base on a steal attempt or just straight up careless mistakes.
If the Yankees want to help limit base hits and runs scored, they need to help their pitchers out and start cleaning up all the little things. As we saw in the Boston series one small error can make a huge difference in the outcome of a game.
As for Severino, he is in a major pitching slump. Currently, he has an ERA of 6.48 after the first game of the Subway Series. Severino started the season off promisingly, with his first two starts combining for an ERA of 1.76, but that quickly fell apart.
In his most recent start in the Subway Series, he looked awful, pitching only 4 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits, five earned runs, three walks and recorded only four strikeouts. Another very disappointing start for Severino, considering the Yankees waited a very long time for him to get off the IL.
The only positive of this whole situation with Severino is that he knows he isn’t doing his job and he knows something has to change. The only problem with that is how long will it take him to make a change and will it get worse before it gets better?
Luis Severino on his outing: "To me, I didn’t get better. I need to be a better pitcher. I feel like every time they give me the ball, I’m not helping the team right now. I just need to figure out what’s going on, and hopefully I can do that soon.”
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) June 14, 2023
Along with the disappointing defense, on the offensive side the Yankees haven’t done a whole lot since Aaron Judge found his way on the IL again. It is like the Yankees quite literally don’t know what to do without him in the lineup.
Anthony Rizzo sure isn’t helping the Yankees hitting struggles, as he is clearly going through something on his own. Since June 2nd, Rizzo has only had two hits in 42 plate appearances, that is a .047 batting average.
In the Subway Series, Rizzo was essentially irrelevant offensively as he went one for seven. His singular hit however did snap a six game no hit streak. Rizzo’s bat right now is colder than the popsicles in my fridge.
Anthony Rizzo snaps a career-worst 0-for-24 slide pic.twitter.com/0OtS6lnQSI
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) June 14, 2023
Aside from Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the Yankees don’t know how to hit singles. Every player is trying to smash a home run instead of trying to work the bases. I have rarely seen a bunt this year to move the runner on base and I haven’t seen a ton of consistency across the board from the entire offense.
If the Yankees want to win games and series, they need to be more focused on small ball production. The more hits you have means more base runners. More base runners means more opportunity to score and less pressure on the batter to make a play.
Another major concern for the Yankees is the production and consistency of bullpen pitcher Wandy Peralta. Peralta, who now has an ERA 2.63 only pitched 0.1 innings in the first game of the Subway Series after walking one batter, hitting another and allowing a hit to load the bases.
Peralta’s pitches aren’t landing like they were in the beginning of the season and one has to wonder what the change has been. From once being considered this season the best in the bullpen to being considered a liability is not what many expected.
How does this affect the future?
When considering all the good and the bad for the Yankees, a lot of it can change in a week. The Yankees roster and lineup is constantly changing because of injuries that sometimes all it takes is gaining or losing one player to sink or float the ship.
We have seen that with the loss of Harrison Bader, Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo, but also with the gain of Tommy Kahnle, Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson. Nothing is set in stone for the Yankees which is overall a good thing.
The Yankees aren’t a bad team, they just aren’t playing like a good team right now. They have all the talent they could need, it is just what they do with it.
The Yanks need to help their players get out of slumps faster on both the offensive and defensive side. A player realistically should not be in a slump for more than three weeks with the amount of coaching and statistical information that the organization has at its disposal.
If the Yankees can learn to play small ball instead of trying to go yard every time they can get more hits in general and more runners on base. When you get more hits and have more runners you are more likely to score more, it's common sense. If the Yankees don’t make this change soon they will continue to struggle offensively which will result in losing more games.
The changes are right there for the Yankees to make, it is just a matter of making them. To help the Yankees efforts, the team will also be getting Harrison Bader and Aaron Judge back soon. Two offensive and defensive weapons that the Yankees lineup needs desperately.
The Subway Series overall was/should have been a big wakeup call to the organization that there are actual problems that can’t be covered up for much longer.
A big change needs to be made whether that is on the player side or the coaching/staff side. It will be interesting to see how the Yankees respond in their upcoming series with the Boston Red Sox and how they carry out the remainder of the games till the All-Star break.
- Giants Make Big Coaching Changes After Drop Off Year - Who Is In and Who Is Out? - January 12, 2024
- Sterling Shepard Gets One Giant Send Off In Week 18 Victory - January 8, 2024
- Yankees Finally Address Pitching Issues With Poteet Signing - January 5, 2024
