Is Yankees Skipper Joe Girardi On the Hot Seat?

Following a critical three game sweep at the hands of their rival Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees now find themselves in last place of the American League East with an 8-15 record and one of their worst starts in recent history

Yes, we’re only one month into the baseball season, and yes, the Yankees are expected to gain a huge boost in a few short days when Aroldis Chapman returns from serving his 30-day suspension to make his pinstripe debut, but one thing is still for certain – the Yankees desperately need some change.

After making some controversial decisions during the three game series up in Fenway over the weekend, i.e. leaving Masahiro Tanaka in the ball game one batter too late, mis-managing the bullpen and trotting some questionable lineups out onto the field day in and day out, skipper Joe Girardi might just be treading into some unknown waters and finding himself on the hot seat sooner rater than later.

But is this really all his fault?

Coming into their three-game series against the BoSox the Yankees offense was averaging just 2.5 runs per game over their last 16 games. A combined pitching staff of Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Harvey and Chris Sale might not even have a winning record with that horrific run support, and that’s no exaggeration. The Yankees current .234 team average and .670 team OPS rank them close to the basement in the entire MLB, and their team total 179 hits ranks them second worst in the entire league in front of only the Tampa Bay Rays.

What is Joe to do in order to fix that?

Sure he can continue to change his lineup card around to try and get guys going, but there’s no hiding the fact that the Yankees offense in anemic at best. You take a look at some of the past free-agent hitters and their numbers to date – Yoenis Cespedes (.292, 7 HRs, 23 RBI), Justin Upton (.242, 2 HRs, 8 RBI) and Jason Heyward (.211 0 HRs, 13 RBI) and it becomes obvious that adding at least one of them would have made the Yankees offense significantly better, but Brian Cashman and co. decided to sit back and watch one team after another upgrade right in front of their own eyes.

The solution is simple. Better players get better results, and the players Joe Girardi has just can’t get the job done.

The same can be said for the current Yankees pitching staff. Their 4.79 team ERA and 107 earned runs allowed ranks them close to the basement in league wide pitching and dead last in the American League East. To put things into perspective, the five members of the starting rotation have combined for just four wins in 23 games – and not one starter has yet to record more than one win. The starting rotation has recorded just 10 quality starts and their bullpen has already amassed 73.1 innings pitched.

I know adding a big-name pitcher like David Price or Zack Greinke was always out of the cards, but you’re telling me a tier-two or tier-three pitcher like Matt Latos (4-0, 1.84 ERA), Rich Hill (3-3, 2.53 ERA) or Doug Fister (2-3, 4.60 ERA) wouldn’t have helped the current state of the Yankees rotation either?

Next: A Look at the Yankees Potential 2016 Trade Deadline Strategy

Again these were all guys the Yankees passed on in free-agency, and again this is the very reason why the Yankees are struggling. I don’t mean to sound like a spoiled Yankee fan who wants the team to spend spend spend like the team used to do during the George Steinbrenner III era, but because the team basically chose not to upgrade during free-agency the past two off-seasons, skipper Joe Girardi will likely be on the hot seat, and unfortunately theres nothing he can do about it with his limited roster.