Yankees: 3 easy lineup changes NYY can make to boost offense

The Yankees need an offensive boost. Please try these lineup tweaks soon.

The Yankees offense has a Gary Sanchez problem, a Tyler Wade problem, and a problem with just about everybody in between.

If the solution to the Yankees’ issues was, “Bench [Insert Underperforming Player Here],” they’d be fielding a lineup of five hitters nightly.

So, yes, there are some pieces getting regular at-bats right now who simply don’t belong, and who have a shorter leash since they’re no longer a buried, scuffling singularity, but part of a larger machine full of broken parts.

If the Yankees have any hope of at least treading water until Giancarlo Stanton, Gio Urshela, and Aaron Judge return, they need to make some drastic lineup tweaks. Gary Sanchez’s brief benching won’t solve everything, and these maneuvers could take the reconstruction to the next level.

3. Never Bat Brett Gardner Third

Brett Gardner probably doesn’t belong in the Yankees lineup, but he certainly doesn’t belong in the three-hole.

There was a strong argument for retaining Brett Gardner in 2020 for what might’ve been his potential swan song (as has been the case every year for the past several years). Without fans in the stands or any sense of normalcy in ’20, his value to the roster as a fifth outfielder/cheerleader/deserving hanger-on disappeared.

However, that hasn’t stopped the slumping Gardner from playing the vast majority of games, and hitting in the vaunted three-hole more often than we ever expected.

Gardy’s 2019 season was resurgent and revelatory — his career-high 28 home runs at the age of 35 changed the equation here. His 2020, however, has brought about a 150+-point OPS dip and a return to non-factor status at the plate.

Somehow, he’s retained the power-hitting gloss he earned last year, though, and his run-producing deficiency has been masked by his consistent re-emergence in the top third of the order.

If you’re going to use Gardner for his defense, he has to be hid closer to the bottom of the order. If the team is healthy, Clint Frazier needs to receive his intended reps. The simplest tweak the Aaron Boone can make in the meantime is to move Gardner lower.

2. Move Mike Ford (and Gary Sanchez) Down

The Yankees need to be less reliant on Mike Ford moving forward, too.

The burly Mike Ford is not the same bat in 2020 as he was in 2019, either.

One of the leaders of the “next man up” ethos, Ford’s powerless ’20 campaign should be far more relevant in his everyday standing than his surprise ’19 was.

Seemingly cursed by an ill-fated ESPN Babe Ruth graphic, Ford entered Sunday’s game slugging a remarkably depressing .299 and still batting fifth. That’s down from an impressive .559 mark in 2019, when he became a patient and powerful threat off the Yankees bench.

Gary Sanchez has long been the obvious candidate for a benching or lineup demotion, but even on the day when Boone finally gave in and banished the Sanchize out of the top nine on Sunday, there was the deadened Ford, still in the five-hole.

We understand that his theoretical power-patience combo is a bonafide fit for the middle of the order if everything is clicking, but as of now, all Ford’s offering is the ability to bog down the second inning with non-threats.

Until anything changes in his season line, the Yankees can’t afford to have a now-deficient threat hitting behind Clint Frazier when Luke Voit needs a day off from playing the field, something that has become a more constant occurrence during the dreaded “foot stuff” complications.