Yankees and the Platoon Advantage

The 13 position players the Yankees will carry to start spring training in 2015 is largely set in stone with the signing of Stephen Drew last week. The only conceivable alterations are Austin Romine (out of options) as backup catcher over John Ryan Murphy and Jose Pirela or even Rob Refsnyder over Brendan Ryan as utility infielder.

Going by rosterresource.com’s projected position players, the Yankees could field 6 lefties (Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, Garrett Jones, Stephen Drew, and Didi Gregorious) and 3 switch hitters (Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, and Chase Headley) against opposing teams’ right handed starting pitchers. 

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Buster Olney also notes this stacked left-handed lineup and opines that this gives the Yankees an advantage against a division where 16 of the 20 projected starters are righties. He further states that three of the lefties, Mark Buehrle, Wei-Yin Chen, and Wade Miley don’t really destroy lefties and have minimal platoon splits. Finally, noted tough lefties Jon Lester and David Price are no longer in the division. This seems like a concerted effort by the Yankees to take advantage of the AL East being filled with right-handed starting pitchers.

Despite all the left-handed hitters, the Yankees won’t be exploited against tough lefties outside the division due to the construction of the bench. The switch-hitters can remain in the lineup against someone like Chris Sale or Price. The backup catcher, either Murphy or Romine, can sub in for McCann. The utility infielder, Ryan, Pirela, or Refsnyder, can play for Drew or Gregorious. Chris Young would take over for Gardner or Ellsbury. Finally, Alex Rodriguez would check in as the designated hitter.

All four of these bench players bat right-handed. The Yankees can get the platoon advantage in all 9 lineup spots against right-handed pitchers and seven of the nine lineup spots against lefties. That is extremely valuable as the strike zone grows and offense continues to decline around the league.

This is a strategic decision pulled straight out of the Strat-O-Matic handbook: fill out a roster that enables securing the platoon advantage a very high percentage of the time. This strategy should squeeze a few more runs out of this lineup. Expect lots of pinch hitting and platooning. Earl Weaver approves.