New Law’ for Yanks hitters
Dillon Lawson’s mantra is “hit strikes hard,” yet the Yankees’ new hitting coach knows his task requires some deeper digging.
Or really just some deeper-hit balls.
In a Zoom news conference Wednesday, his first time speaking with the media since he landed this gig, the 36-year-old Lawson revealed the key to fixing the offense, which underperformed at a shocking level in 2021 and compelled the Yankees to dismiss their longtime hitting coach Marcus Thames.
“When we swing, we want to swing at strikes,” Lawson said. “When we swing at strikes, we’re likely to make more contact. When we make more contact, we’re likely to hit the ball harder. When we make hard contact, if we can, we would like to hit it over the infield.
“That would be the next layer to simply ‘Hit strikes hard.’ ”
The 2021 Yankees ranked 10th in the American League with 4.39 runs per game despite tying the Red Sox and Twins for the second-best average exit velocity, 89.9 miles per hour (thanks, Baseball Savant). That disparity can be attributed to their proclivity for hitting the ball on the ground. Their 44.2 percent ground-ball rate placed them sixth in the AL, as opposed to 11th in both fly balls (25.5 percent) and line drives (23.2). The biggest culprit among regulars? DJ LeMahieu, who hit ground balls 52 percent of the time when he made contact.
The rules of Rob Manfred’s lockout prevent Lawson from discussing individual players on the Yankees’ 40-man roster. Instead, he spoke generally of the 2021 ground-ball preponderance.
“It’s definitely something that we’ll focus on, but whether it was an issue last year or not, it would still be a focus of ours, because we think it’s just going to lead to more success,” he said. “When you have guys that can hit the ball the way that we do, hitting it over the infield is going to allow for better results.”
While serving as the Yankees’ minor league hitting coordinator from 2019 through last season, Lawson helped the youngsters score runs (5.12 runs per game, fourth among all 30 organizations) while slugging (a .404 slugging percentage, fourth) and getting on base (a .339 on-base percentage, sixth). In 2021, the Yankees’ collective .253 batting average in the minors put them seventh overall.
“One of our goals at the minor league level is to show that you can hit for power and also not strike out,” Lawson said. “Over the course of three years, I think we’ve made a pretty good case of being able to help hitters hit for more power without sacrificing contact grade.”
Now he’ll try to do the same at the big league level, where the 2021 Yankees’ woeful .237 batting average placed them 13th in the AL. Lawson said the Yankees are interviewing replacements for Eric Chavez, who accepted the team’s top assistant job only to leave to be the Mets’ lead hitting coach (a scenario the Yankees knew to be in play). He added that, Chavez’s extensive major league experience notwithstanding, that kind of seasoning is “not the most important thing” for whoever comes next.
While Lawson can’t communicate with any of his major league hitters thanks to the lockout, he expressed faith that his time in the organization already gives him a level of familiarity with nearly everyone. He also worked with some of the hitters in Tampa, at the club’s minor league complex, before the lockout began on Dec. 2, he said. Second baseman Gleyber Torres is among the Yankees who live in Tampa.