Sloppy play all around continues to hurt the Yankees

Last night the Yankees put on a terrible display of defense in an embarrassing 9-1 loss to a Miami Marlins team they should never lose to. They added two more errors to their season total of 17 which leads the American League.

What in the world is going on with the Yankees defense? I know it’s still early in the season, but this team has been incredibly sloppy in the field through the first 16 games. Last night’s loss had to be their ugliest display of defense this season, but there have been multiple games thus far where a lack of fundamentals has cost them.

Masahiro Tanaka really struggled Tuesday night, but the Yankees infield did him no favors while he was out there. The usually sure-handed Didi Gregorius had a big throwing error in a three-run first inning and in the second Tyler Austin simply dropped a ball thrown to him from Gary Sanchez. Later in the inning, Neil Walker booted a sharp ground ball with the infield in and though he wasn’t charged with an error it was a play I’m sure Walker would say he should have made.

The thing that has to be concerning for Aaron Boone and his staff is that the majority of the blunders are coming from the infield which was the last thing to expect coming into the season. After Aaron Hicks was injured on Opening Day I thought the outfield defense would take a hit, but that was never really an issue.

A lot of the infield errors haven’t even come from booting ground balls as most of them have been a result of throwing the ball around. We saw that last week in Fenway with Tyler Wade and during the first series in Toronto with Dellin Betances. Yankee pitchers have struggled in particular throwing to bases with five of the team’s 17 errors.

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The throwing errors come from a lack of execution but they’re also just from trying to do too much. That’s been a common theme this season as the team continues to try and make something out nothing instead of making the easy out or holding onto the ball.

The baserunning has been just as bad

It’s not just on defense where a lack of discipline has been shown as the baserunning for the Yankees has been brutal as well.

Too many times this season we’ve seen runners thrown out trying to take the extra base. They’re not reading the throws into the cutoff man and they’re getting caught in no man’s land half-way.

A lot of the time the guys being thrown out have been batters trying to advance a base after just driving in a run, but that’s still unacceptable. Those are the type of rally killers that can really deflate a team and cost them in a close game.

It’s unfair to put all the blame Aaron Boone and his coaching staff for the team’s struggles in only 16 games, but this was something Yankee teams of the past took pride in under Joe Girardi.

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The Yankees are lucky to even be 8-8 right now with how sloppy they’ve played. Talent can make up for the team’s lack of fundamentals over the course of some games, but over an entire season, that’s something that will catch up to these Yankees if they don’t clean things up.

With the Red Sox out to a 14-2 start showing no sign of slowing down, they better do so soon.