Will trading for Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo solve the Yankees roster building issues?

One of the biggest imbalances of the Yankees season to date has been their offensive production against left-handed versus right-handed pitchers. While they crushed the lefties, they struggled to do much against the right handed pitch. Against lefties, the Yankees have the third best wRC + in majors (117), but only 17th wRC + against righties (92). Last year, the Yankees were the fourth best baseball team against righties (122 wRC +), but only 19th best against lefties.

Part of that drastic drop is due to a severe regression in major contributors to the 2020 Yankees. After an OPS greater than 1,000 against left-handed and right-handed last season, DJ LeMahieu’s OPS against left-handed fell to 0.742 while his OPS against righties fell to 0.684. For his career, he has been slightly better against lefties than against righties, suggesting that last season’s small sample size surge was an outlier in more ways than one. Not only has DJ never hit so hard in one season, he’s also never hit right-handed people so well.

Aaron Judge is arguably having his best offensive season since 2017, overcoming a 40-point OPS drop against right-handed people while absolutely beating left-handed people. As a DJ, Judge has also been a bit better against lefties than against righties during his career.

Luke Voit’s reverse splits – hitting better as a right-handed versus right-handed than against left-handed – bolstered the Yankees’ production against right-handed people last year, but injuries marred an unproductive campaign for him this year.

Gio Urshela had significant reverse divisions in his last two seasons, but has seen those rates swing this year. Gleyber Torres wasn’t great against anyone, but he was downright awful against righties with over 100 points of OPS worse against lefties than righties.

Add Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sánchez and you’ve got a formation of at least seven right-handed hitters, ready to crush left-handed people but likely to throw particularly powerful right-handed people. Voit substitutes haven’t touched anyone, nor Brett Gardner (the only true southpaw on the roster before the deadline) or any of his backup cohorts on the field, except for hitter Greg Allen in his 30s. hitters as Yankee.

Ahead of the trade deadline, the Yankees traded not one, but two left-handed sticks to improve some of the lopsided nature of the Yankees’ roster. While no player can correct the Yankees’ myriad flaws, Joey Gallo is as close as he gets in this market. However, as explained in Mike Petriello’s article for MLB.com, Gallo’s all-or-nothing approach to making contact undermines some of the benefits most left-handed hitters would get from playing within Yankee Stadium boundaries. Gallo undoubtedly has more circuits – the ones that would erase the fences of the 30 stadiums – than all the other big leagues except three this season. However, he would only have won a few more homers this season if he had played his home games in the Bronx instead of Arlington.

Plus, unlike the archetypal left-handed hitter, Gallo is as good a hitter against left-handed as he is against right-handed. His career OPS against lefties is just seven points better than against righties, although he’s around 40 points higher this season. Going forward, it’s reasonable to expect Gallo to be roughly neutral in his left-right divisions. While not off balance to offset the Yankees’ inability to hit righties, his over 0.850 OPS against both-armed pitchers will be a boost for the Yankees no matter who they are up against.

Unlike Gallo, the Yankees’ other offensive acquisition, Anthony Rizzo, has exactly the kind of career division typical of a southpaw hitting on first base. The triple All-Star has an .878 OPS against right-handers and a .787 line against left-handers. However, in nearly 400 home plate appearances this season, he’s posted some of the most extreme reverse spreads you’ve ever seen with a .968 OPS against lefties and a .727 OPS against righties. Given this season’s statistical deviation from the rest of his career, it’s hard to say if Rizzo is ready to prefer hitting lefties forward, or if he’s riding the tail of an outlier stretch. baseball. Either way, he’s much better than Chris Gittens or an injured and unavailable Luke Sees, especially in defense.

Because Rizzo hits the ball with less authority than Gallo, he can benefit more from Yankee Stadium’s shallow right-hand corner compared to his skill and slapped-ball profile than even Gallo, despite putting the ball in it. air more smoothly and less often.

According to this spray chart of all of Rizzo’s home balls this season stacked at Yankee Stadium, he would have won at least a few more home runs, like Gallo, with fewer balls.

Too much focus on the hand and building the alignment can limit the view of the forest through the trees. While the Yankees may not have balanced their left-right divisions, they traded a few bats before the deadline that can help boost their numbers against the right-handed, the side they need help the most. Decidedly more important than the lineup is scoring runs, and by grabbing a few good hitters the Yankees have given themselves a better chance of doing just that.