Joe hopes day off will boost slugger
CLEVELAND — Maybe this will get Aaron Judge going.
After describing Judge as “struggling” for what is believed to be the first time this season, Joe Girardi decided to give his 25-year-old rookie slugger another day off on Thursday with the Yankees facing Corey Kluber.
“It’s just he’s struggling, and we felt we’d give him a day off and maybe it helps him,” Girardi said. “You try to do it a lot of different ways when guys are struggling — and I just felt maybe a day off would do him some good.”
The Bombers and their fans certainly hope so.
Because regardless of how expectations have changed — and it certainly feels like too much, too soon given Judge’s meteoric rise from barely winning a starting job out of spring training to sudden superstardom — their offense simply isn’t as potent without their No. 3 hitter doing damage on a daily basis.
Other guys like Chase Headley, Didi Gregorius and Brett Gardner have performed admirably of late. But they’re more complementary pieces — even if all three have gone above and beyond
at times in 2017.
And, to be fair, it’s not just Judge. Gary Sanchez could get on base more, while Matt Holliday — other than his game-tying homer in the ninth inning against the Red Sox on July 15 — has made little to no impact since coming off the disabled list due to a viral infection.
Judge posted a .329/.448/.691 triple-slash line with 30 homers in 301 first-half at-bats. He has posted a .164/.313/.343 line with four homers in 67 second-half at-bats. His batting average on balls in play has dropped from a stunning .426 in the first half to an equally stunning .200 in the second half. And his strikeout rate has gone from 29.8 percent to 34.9 percent.
During the Home Run Derby, Judge sprayed the ball all over the field, so it doesn’t seem to be some sort of curse. But it does seem like a slump, a “regression to the mean” of sorts for the 6-foot-7, 282-pounder. Kluber (8-3, 2.90 ERA), for what it’s worth, owned a .191/.234/.352 line against righties heading into Thursday’s start. And Judge will be back in the lineup on Friday, Girardi said.
“I think that mechanically he’s a little bit off, and I think he’s missing some pitches that he wasn’t missing in the first half of the season, and those were leading to his walks,” Girardi said. “I don’t think he’s staying on the ball quite long enough. Those are things that we need to get him to do.”
Holliday hit .262/.366/.511 with 15 homers in the first half (233 ABs) compared to .143/.173/.208 with one homer in the second half (77 ABs). Holliday is also expected to return to the lineup on Friday, according to Girardi. Sanchez, the DH on Thursday, has seen his on-base percentage drop from .360 in the first half to .297 in the second half.
“Again, he’s a guy that’s really struggling and we thought we’d just give him a day,” Girardi said of Holliday. “He’s been playing a lot too, and you just hope it helps him as well. Hopefully they can work on some things today and get it straightened out.” That would be helpful. Granted, everyone should be patient when it comes to Judge. His overall numbers remain spectacular. And given his vast improvement from 2016 to 2017, maybe he will figure this thing out with the help of a day off.