Numbers tell Yanks Lawson will be a hit

The Yankees continue to invest in analytics. The Bombers are promoting minor-league hitting coordinator Dillon Lawson to the major-league staff as hitting coach. With Major League Baseball having instituted a lockout, the only business big-league front offices can do right now is shape their coaching staffs and work on their minor-league rosters — the Yankees added infielder Jose Peraza on a minor-league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction wire, a move that restocks their utility players after they cut ties with Tyler Wade and Rougned Odor.

They also are promoting Desi Druschel to become assistant pitching coach.

Both are hires in the mold of when the Yankees hired Matt Blake to be the pitching coach before the 2020 season and show that despite little recent success — one division title — since 2009, the Yankees are doubling down on their analytics-driven decisions and eschewing experience.

The Yankees hired Lawson out of the college ranks, where he was a coach at

Southeast Missouri State and Missouri. He also worked in the Astros’ organization.

Lawson, who will also have an assistant hitting coach, replaces Marcus Thames, whose contract, along with assistant hitting coach P.J. Pilittere’s, was not renewed after a rough season for the Yankee hitters.

There is no question the Yankees offense disappointed this season.

Built with power hitters to overwhelm their opponents, the Yankees finished only seventh in the American League in OPS (.729), 10th in runs scored (711) and fourth in strikeouts (1,482). That had fans calling for the heads of Thames and Pilittere.

But how does a hitting coach directly correlate to players’ performances? They are the same hitting coaches that had the Yankees leading the league in OPS in 2020 and runs scored in 2019.

Just as it was not surprising Thames and Pilittere paid for the Bombers’ impotent offense with their jobs, it was hardly surprising Lawson was promoted. Several veteran hitting coaches around the majors suggested that would happen and GM Brian Cashman hinted of the move to hire Lawson earlier this offseason, when he said he wanted more continuity between the minor- and major-league hitting programs. The Yankees were impressed with Lawson’s work with their prospects. awson explained his approach to The Times-Tribune of Scranton, Pa., in July while working with the club’s Triple-A players. He said the organization’s goal was “to square the ball up more, which in turn is going to increase average exit velos.”

The Yankees do have some solid exit-velocity numbers. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are consistently among the hardest hitters in the big leagues. Others saw some dropoff, particularly this year.

“It’s trying to create some sort of bridge from the training environment to the game, and connecting the cage to the advanced information to observing the game in the dugout, and then finally getting your name put in the lineup,” Lawson told the paper.

Like when they hired Blake to be the pitching coach in 2020, the Yankees are bringing in a coach in Lawson, who has no experience in-game with major-league hitting.

L