Nevertheless, if your personnel doesn’t afford for such a style, then bludgeoning must do the trick. Many teams and fans would prefer to win by playing crisp, all-around baseball. “There’s always room for good players,” said a grinning Aaron Boone, who couldn’t discuss the trade specifically because the Yankees hadn’t announced it yet they announced it after the team returned to its hotel. Of course the Yankees’ surprise acquisition of the American League home run leader Encarnacion from the Mariners doesn’t cure their starting rotation woes, just as a much-needed, 8-4 bullpen victory over the White Sox on Saturday night at Guaranteed Rate Field (worst ballpark name ever) doesn’t end their general malaise - though it does put them back atop the American League East thanks to the Rays’ 5-3 loss to the Angels.īut if this starting-pitching trade market isn’t ready to uncork - and since the Yankees fell short in their pursuit of Dallas Keuchel - then you get better how you can each day.Īnd the addition of Encarnacion, who will essentially replace Brett Gardner in the starting lineup once Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton return from the injured list in the next week or so (barring setbacks), clearly makes the Yankees better. And you had best be kidding if you pose the same question. Who knows, maybe it even started on Thursday, when Encarnacion yanked a laser of a home run into the left field seats at the Trop to get back to his pull-happy home run swing and give the Yankees what turned out to be a huge run in an 8-5 win in extras.Kidding, kidding. It’s great to use the homer-friendly dimensions at your disposal, but if that’s what Encarnacion is trying to do, he’d likely be better off sticking to what made him so dangerous this year until he gets an outside pitch that he can poke towards the Judge’s Chambers.Įncarnacion has been a prolific hitter for years in this league, and in all likelihood, he will make the necessary adjustments and be the force that the Yankees traded for. Maybe those two home runs over the short porch made Encarnacion hungry to take advantage of his new home, and it’s gotten him away from his normal pull swing, which produced a ton of home runs over his successful career. Hint: they’re the only ones hit out to right field. Through his first four games as a Yankee, all at the Stadium, Encarnacion hit two home runs, and they’ll be fairly easy to pick out on his home run spray chart heading into the final series before the All-Star break. Is Encarnacion trying to alter his approach and feast on the Yankees’ short porch in right field? Over his career, those numbers are 49.9 percent to the pull side and just 19 percent to right field. Since the trade, Encarnacion has hit 30.3 percent of his batted balls to the opposite field, not far off from his 39.4 percentage to the pull side. What does that pop up percentage tell us? It might become clearer when looking at his spray chart, which is much different as a Yankee than the rest of his career. A lot of that soft contact has been up in the air, as his pop up percentage in June was up six percent from May. His hard contact percentage as a Yankee (30.3 percent) is almost as much as his soft contact percentage (27.3 percent, compared to 18.6 for his career). When Encarnacion has been making contact, it hasn’t been of the loud variety, as that BABIP reflects. ![]() 138, as the slugger has struggled to make any kind of quality contact, mainly because he seems to be coming up empty more than ever. What’s behind the rough transition to New York? Well, Encarnacion is clearly swinging and missing at a much higher rate, as his strikeout percentage with the Yanks so far is 32.2 percent, compared to his career average of 17.2 percent (his K rate last season was 22.8 percent). Encarnacion’s wRC+ this season is still a respectable 127, but since the trade, it’s been cut almost in half, at just 75 through the early parts of his pinstriped tenure. 888 OPS, but through Friday’s action, his OPS as a Yankee sat at just. The 36-year-old came from Seattle with an. That hasn’t played out on the field as of yet, as Encarnacion has struggled for the most part since he arrived in the Bronx. Considering the Yanks got Encarnacion for Juan Then, and kept him away from the Rays and Red Sox in the process, the deal was a massive victory. The Yankees made a big splash long before the trade deadline with the acquisition of Edwin Encarnacion, the league leader in dingers at the time of the deal.
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