In the Wake of Offensive Desperation, Yankees Could Give Refsnyder and Hicks a Chance

The 2016 New York Yankees will fly into Detroit at four games under .500, seven and a half away from the pentacle of the American League East, and five and a half from a desperate man’s Wild Card.

With their (pick any of the following words: atrocious, embarrassing, laughable, etc.) offense–that in its best effort amassed five runs in the last four games, losing three–it seems like an insurmountable war that the Yankees are losing with each futile battle.

On the precipice of non-contention, which leads to mass hysteria in the Bronx these days, waiting for the empty shells of vintage sluggers to rejuvenate has become a tired practice and borderline post-game cop-out.

The next 20-30 days are going to define this season as a miraculous boom or miserable bust for figurehead Brian Cashman. If the Yankees wish to avoid becoming sellers, it’s time to get creative–not radical–and implement a few occasional refinements to the lineup.

These two men won’t save this team’s season, but at this point it’s going to take a charitable act from the baseball gods for these Bombers to turn things around with consistency. So, hear me out on this: Joe Girardi may find it serviceable to give Rob Refsnyder and Aaron Hicks a couple of extra at-bats in the near future.

Really, the question is more along the lines of, “What’s holding him back?”

Brett Gardner? He’s arctic at a .184 average in his last 30 games, and in his last seven has been virtually absent from the basepaths with a .167 OBP.

We’ve all seen the show Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez have put on. Chase Headley either has a multiple hit ballgame or a Golden Sombrero–an “achievement” of four strikeouts per game, as he did on Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Even Starlin Castro, who was inextinguishable to begin his Yankees tenure, has been curbed to nine hits in his last 59 at-bats.

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But enough of the depreciating roll call, the point is that there’s room for improvement and avenues worth exploring.

Now, I’m not on board with the percentage that hails Refsnyder as the next Yankees’ superstar. Perhaps he’ll prove me wrong someday, and I hope that to be the case, but he isn’t the player that some fantasies laud his potential to be.

The way that the team has handled their prospect has been curious, to say the least. With defense being Refsnyder’s bulging Achilles heel, the Yankees have responded by casting a wide net of new positions for him to learn late at the upper level of the minors and in the majors.

Since drafting him, they’ve moved the bulk of his positional playing time from right field to second base, second to third, third back to right field, and now have him taking reps at first.

Yet, his strong suit–undoubtedly his ability to make contact with the bat–has been collecting cobwebs on the pine because they don’t trust his defense.

With an offense absolutely starved of hits, runs, home runs, and extra base hits, defense be damned! It’s time to play for offense. Refsnyder may have only seven at-bats in the majors this year, but he has two hits. Both of which went for extra bases that caromed within spacious outfield walls in visiting ballparks.

Refsnyder had batted .294/.340/.404 at Triple-A in between call-ups. He may not be able to consistently handle a ground ball, but he’s hit solidly at every tier in his ascent to the Bigs. If any bat on this team is hot right now, its presence is required.

All of the aforementioned positions are areas that Refsnyder could fill in at, if nothing else for an extra game per week. If it’s a tight contest, Girardi has the option of lifting Refsnyder in late innings for the defensive-minded Ronald Torreyes, Headley, Teixeira, or Hicks depending on the position that Refsnyder happens to be in that day.

As for Hicks, my support may seem questionable considering his statistics, and that’s a fair angle.

But with Gardner continuing his offensive ineptitude that reared its ugly head following last year’s Mid-Summer Classic, it wouldn’t be earth-shattering to sit him on occasion and put Hicks in left field, which also gives the Yankees the benefit of keeping Gardner’s legs rested.

Prior to the offseason in which Hicks was redirected to New York, he made great leaps physically and mentally as a baseball player for Minnesota.

He committed to pre-game preparation, improved his already impressive defense–only one error in 849 innings–and most tellingly, had a career-high OPS of .721.

Hicks is backwards this year in a limited playing role with the Yankees’ crowded, aging outfield. The switch-hitter has shown reverse splits to career norms against pitchers (.379 slugging percentage vs LHPs, .174 vs LHPs). His BABIP is extremely low at .209, but he’s also giving himself up with outs on soft contact, so it’s not just a matter of luck.

Going strictly from the eye test, he’s had multiple defensive lapses and poor routes to balls hit to him in the grass–enough to make fans wonder why the Yankees sought after him in the first place.

It hasn’t been a “hurrah!” debut in the pinstripes, but unlike the predictably ailed offense, Hicks hasn’t had much regularity other than during Rodriguez’s DL stint, which opened up the DH role for Carlos Beltran and right field for Hicks.

Continuity could give Hicks the chance to find himself again. Or, he could continue to falter. I’m not the coach, and there’s something to be said for that, but considering the fact that Gardner is hitless in his last 28 plate appearances, it’d be awfully hard for Hicks–or anyone–to do worse.

The Yankees have nothing to lose, other than, you know, more games.

This team needs more than two contributing bench players to resurrect its rapidly fading chances at the playoffs, but a few extra hits never hurt anyone.

Certainly, it could only help.