Yankees Stand Behind Hitting Coach Despite Offensive Struggles in 2016

Despite a disastrous offensive season in which they ranked 22nd in baseball with 680 runs scored, the New York Yankees will likely retain hitting coach Alan Cockrell for 2017.

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman pulled no punches when discussing his club’s 2016 performance, stating simply at one point, “Our offense was bad.” Fans who watched the lineup get shut down again and again by mediocre pitchers this year will find it hard to argue with that assertion, although there were obviously some improvements once some of the Baby Bombers were given a chance in the second half.

The Yankees have made a change at hitting coach each of the last two seasons, and given the offense’s disappointing production this season, many fans and pundits were expecting that trend to continue.

Somewhat surprisingly that does not seem to be in the cards. Cashman made it clear last Wednesday that he will not be recommending any changes to the coaching staff, noting that everyone except pitching coach Larry Rothschild was under contract for next season. Two days later Rothschild was also signed up for 2017, even though the pitching staff had its own mixed results this year.

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After serving as Jeff Petland’s assistant in 2015, Alan Cockrell took over as the Yankees head hitting coach this year, with former big league outfielder Marcus Thames taking over as his number two.

Although the numbers were pretty ugly during Cockrell’s first year on the job, Yankees manager Joe Girardi recently expressed support for his hitting coach to Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media, suggesting that the number of injuries and amount of roster turnover he’s had to work through may have negatively skewed his results.

"I think he’s had a lot of different hitters. He’s had a lot of age groups he’s had to deal with. He works extremely hard. He has a tremendous amount of knowledge about hitting. He’s done a good job."

Perhaps the biggest reason for the team’s difficulty scoring runs this year was the failure of aging sluggers Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira to replicate their 2015 production. There isn’t much a hitting coach can do when a player’s body is simply breaking down due to age, and that appeared to be the case with both Tex and A-Rod, so you could argue Cockrell should receive a pass on that.

Maybe more worrying from my point of view was the extended struggles of youngsters like Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin, Aaron Hicks, and Rob Refsnyder under his tutelage. Yes, Gary Sanchez‘s incredible success is a feather in his cap, but he came up and was immediately brilliant. I’m not sure how much credit he can take for that.

Next: Platoon Options for 2017 Yankees Lineup

On the whole, I don’t have a huge problem with the Yankees keeping their coaching staff for next year. It seems reasonable to give them a full season to see what they can do with this group of youngsters. If there is not enough progress in 2017, ownership can clean house completely, with both Girardi and Cashman in the last year’s of their contract as well, and start fresh.