Brett Gardner Is Yankees’ Nominee For Hank Aaron Award

The regular season is over, and the time for award nominations have begun. Earlier, each team nominated a player for the Hank Aaron Award, which is presented to the top offensive player in each league.

The Yankees had a poor offensive season. How bad were they? They finished 13th in the American League in runs and hits, 11th in batting average, 14th in on-base percentage, 10th in slugging percentage, and 12th in OPS.

Another indication of the teams offensive struggles is the fact that their nominee for the Hank Aaron Award is outfielder Brett Gardner. 

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This isn’t to say that Gardner had a bad year, because that wouldn’t be true. He led the Yankees in plate appearances (636), pitches seen (2821), extra-base hits (50), slugging percentage (.422), OPS (.749), runs scored (87), and triples (8). This was an excellent year for Gardner, but not a typical Hank Aaron Award nominee season.

Much of the Yankees offensive struggles can be blamed on injuries to stars like Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira. However, other players, such as Brian McCann, Stephen Drew, and Derek Jeter, didn’t perform up to their typical standards.

Now, with Jeter’s retirement as well as the impending free agencies of Chase Headley and Ichiro Suzuki, the team will need to add more offensive weapons.

Replacing Jeter is the number one priority this offseason and doing so with a player who can hit will go a long way, but they will also need bounce back years from players like Beltran, McCann, and Teixeira.