The Yankees had an excellent first week and a half of the season, winning three series in a row en route to a 7-2 start. Their pitching was fantastic, their offense was carried by a stellar top-half of the order, and even their two losses came in games in which they led late and only lost by one run. It wasn’t hard to envision a world where the team held on in those games and managed to run the table through the first nine games.
But even when everything’s going right, this is baseball, so there are still things going wrong. Perhaps the biggest spot of consternation among fans and analysts during this opening salvo has been the putrid play of the bottom of the Yankee lineup. The Yankees have gotten a .143 batting average combined from the 6-thru-9 slots of the order, along with a downright ghastly .402 OPS. As a fun (?) little reference point, that’s more than 100 points lower than CC Sabathia’s career OPS as a hitter.
Sure, no team expects the last hitters in their order to dominate, but the Yankees certainly expected something from the final four players on the card, rather than a convincing impression of National League pitchers hitting circa five years ago. So, with the usual caveats about the season being a tiny sample thus far and that we shouldn’t overreact to anything we’ve seen, do you think the bottom of the order will prove to be a major issue going forward?
I think the base answer to this question is still no. The bottom four of the Yankees’ order includes Jazz Chisholm Jr., who perhaps shouldn’t have been predicting 50/50 seasons but still has a 122 OPS+ as a member of the Yankees and projects as a near-All-Star caliber player. The rest of the order does not have the upside of Chisholm, but the expectation should still be that of improvement. Jose Caballero was never going to run the .828 OPS he posted in pinstripes last year, but he also won’t hit .129 all year. Austin Wells may never become a great pure hitter, but the career .717 OPS he carried into the season was pretty great for a plus defensive catcher.
All that said, if you’re inching toward the panic button regarding the bottom of the order, I can’t totally blame you. The most concerning hitter of all has been Ryan McMahon, who’s looked lost at times and is hitting .087 on the year. Chisholm will come around, and Wells provides ample value with his glove, but it’s not hard to wonder if the Yankees are going to be staring at two total blackholes on the left side of their infield sooner rather than later.
What do you think? Will the team’s lower hitters slowly regress to the mean and provide enough value with their bats to allow their generally strong gloves to play up? Or will we look up in a couple of months to see that the Yankees are still running out three or more players at the bottom of the order struggling to breach the Mendoza Line?
Today on the site, Michael starts us off with a review of the first week of minor league baseball that saw all full-season affiliates in action. We’ll also get a recap of last night’s American League action from Kevin, and a look ahead at the upcoming series with the A’s. Later, Jonathan will remember Oral Hildebrand, and Peter gives us his first At-Bat of the Week for the 2026 season, featuring Ben Rice.
Today’s Matchup
New York Yankees vs. A’s
Time: 7:05 p.m. EST
Video: YES Network, NBCSCA
Venue: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
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