NOT TO GET ALL ANALYTICAL, BUT...
Yanks hope new analytics coach, other changes make difference after stars called out process
As the Yankees’ 2023 season came to a close, Aaron Judge spoke of his team’s disappointing campaign and some changes he wanted to see moving forward.
Analytics, particularly how the Yankees use and communicate them, were among the captain’s talking points. While Judge praised the numbers at the team’s disposal, he added, “It’s now about funneling those down to the players in the right format,” among other critiques.
The Yankees believe that Aaron Leanhardt can find that right format.
Hal Steinbrenner recently revealed Leanhardt’s promotion to the title of major league coaching staff analyst, a move he found necessary after Judge and Gerrit Cole raised concerns about the presentation of information over the offseason. The owner called Leanhardt “unbelievably versed and intelligent in analytics,” but also talked up his people skills and coaching experience.
“So many questions about significant changes, significant changes — we’re introducing somebody new to the clubhouse,” Steinbrenner said. “That’s a significant change, as far as I’m concerned.”
The Yankees initially hired Leanhardt to be the hitting coach of their Gulf Coast League team in 2018, and he served as the organization’s assistant minor league hitting coordinator the past two seasons. He filled other low-level coaching roles in between, such as work with the Yankees’ Dominican Summer League team.
In his new role, Leanhardt will work with Yankees hitters and pitchers despite having more of an offensive background. He will travel with the team full-time, but he won’t be in the dugout during games.
“I’m excited about him,” Judge told the Daily News after getting to know Leanhardt over a long chat at the Yankees’ minor-league complex in January. “He’s gonna be a big piece to our coaching staff and I think he’s gonna do a great job in his role. A lot of the guys have already kind of gelled with him pretty good. I’ve gotten a chance to talk with him quite a bit.
“He’s gonna fit this clubhouse pretty good.”
Leanhardt, who has a PhD in physics from MIT and taught the subject at the University of Michigan, also has experience coaching at Dawson Community College in Glendive, Mont., and in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League.
“He’s a fascinating individual. He makes bats and he’s a physics professor. I mean, he’s got a published thesis. That’s high-level intellect right there,” Cole told The News. “He’s like overqualified to a certain extent. But he’s also been a coach for a really long time and he connects with a lot of organizational guys.”
Added Judge: “The biggest thing that I took away is he wants to help the players. There was no ego into it. He wanted to go out there and just do what he could to put us in the best position to succeed.”
Leanhardt’s predecessor, Zac Fieroh, didn’t always get the same reviews inside the Yankees’ clubhouse.
While several players were complimentary of the last analyst, one person said that Fieroh could have been a better communicator.
“It was less about the information they were getting,” a source, granted anonymity so that they could speak freely, told The News. “It was when they had questions going back up. They felt like they kind of got stonewalled going back up.”
That source also said that there was some arrogance at play.
“I think that was part of it,” they continued. “I think [Zac] was kind of doing his job to protect the [analytics] department a little bit. Like sometimes [players] don’t need to know all the things. For me, he did a good job, but I can understand if the players aren’t happy.”
The source, citing an example, said that Cole would ask questions about quality of contact and flyballs, which he feels are part of his game but are “penalized” by the Yankees’ analytical systems. While Cole never mentioned Fieroh, the righty touched on those notes in November when asked how he can improve after winning his first Cy Young Award.
“He would ask questions back up about that type of stuff and it would kind of get pushed away or it wouldn’t get answered,” the source said, adding that Cole also sought more information on the Yankees’ swing and miss metrics.
When asked about his communications with
Fieroh, Cole called him “a fantastic analyst” and said that they still talk often about various things the ace is working on.
Judge offered a similar assessment.
“Zac helped me a lot,” the outfielder said. “He would send me reports before every series on different pitchers and how they attacked me last year. He gave me a lot of good information that I used and I’ll still use this year, even though he’s going to be in a different role. But he was great to me.”
Anthony Rizzo, who is on the more selective side when it comes to what information he uses, gave his own glowing recommendation to The News, stating, “I love Zac.”
One player, who also wished to remain anonymous, said he had “no problem” with Fieroh’s communication and that he thought the analyst “got put in a tough spot” following the Yankees’ shortcoming last year. However, that same player said that “it can become a lot for certain guys” when there are “a lot of cooks trying to help you out.”
While no longer on the major league coaching staff, Fieroh remains employed by the Yankees. He has taken on the title of manager of analytics and implementation, a newly-created position in the front office.
His main responsibility will be to oversee the flow of communication between different baseball operations subgroups, including pro scouting, performance science and baseball systems (the group that works on the Yankees’ analytical algorithms).
Leanhardt, serving as a liaison between players and the front office, will be in touch with Fieroh, who did not bring any high-level coaching experience to the analyst job.
That difference could prove to be a big one.
“He’s been a college coach. He’s been a hitting coach,” Judge said of Leanhardt. “He has a good feel for what actually might work and what might actually translate to the field.”
While Leanhardt is the most notable change the Yankees have made with regards to analytics, he’s not the only one.
During an early-spring press conference, Judge celebrated the Yankees’ decision to bring James Rowson back to the organization as a hitting coach. He noted that Rowson, a former player, “gets the side of the analytics and the swing
mechanics, biomechanics of your swing, but he also understands game-planning and being in the box.”
Last year, the Yankees had connectivity issues under hitting coach Dillon Lawson before he was replaced by Sean Casey, an ex-big leaguer.
Judge also said that the Yankees’ additions of Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo indicated a greater emphasis on driving in runs, something he considers a skill.
At the end of last season, Judge said, “We get a lot of numbers, but I think we might be looking at the wrong ones and maybe should value some other ones that some people might see as having no value.”
He later told Brian Cashman that the Yankees need to value batting average and RBI more.
Judge has previously reasoned that the Yankees need a “better process” for filtering information to younger players. Generally speaking, the team wants to improve at tailoring data to individuals.
Some, like Cole, love getting in the weeds. Others, like Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu, don’t.
“Deeper analytics, what the people get paid to look at more, are probably a little advanced for me to look at,” said Rizzo, who battled post-concussion symptoms last year. “No pun intended, it kind of gives me a headache.”
“Hopefully we’re better where there isn’t that confusion,” Aaron Boone said when camp opened. “I do think we do things here at a very high level and have tremendous resources and information. But being better at making sure we’re streamlining those in the right ways. Everyone’s different. Some guys can absorb a ton and it’s a game-changer for them in their careers. Some guys, it’s get the heck out of the way and let them do their thing.”
Cole said that the Yankees are “constantly improving” when it comes to analytics, just as they try to do with anything else. The next year may bring about more changes, as the team hired Zelus Analytics over the offseason so that it could compare the outside firm’s models and operations to its own.
In December, assistant general manager Michael Fishman, previously the club’s director of quantitative analysis, said that that process would take months and that related tweaks may not be made until next offseason.
In the meantime, the Yankees are hoping the analytical adjustments they’ve already made will yield immediate results after the team missed the playoffs last year. The topic of analytical communication has come up frequently since Judge’s end-of-season remarks, but injuries and underachieving veterans also hurt the Yankees last year.
“I get it, but we have high standards. You expect excellence,” Cole said when asked if the analytics discussion has been over-scrutinized. “Maybe it’s been talked about more, but I don’t really have a reason why.”
Moving forward, the Yankees would like to keep the analytics talk more under wraps. Leanhardt’s promotion only garnered attention because Steinbrenner volunteered the information, but various front-facing members of the organization have tried to avoid in-depth commentary when asked about other “unseen” changes the club has made to its process.
“It’s more meant for the guys in here,” Judge said. “If all things go well, you guys will see the results, and that’s all that really matters.”