Yankees: What we learned from the postseason and what’s next

The Yankees have too many righties and don’t play great defense.

Clearly, the Yankees’ lineup is comprised of too many right-handed hitters. The team should attempt to add at least a couple of good left-handed batters (or switch hitters) this offseason. Otherwise, opposing teams will continue to take advantage of their lopsided lineups.

And why doesn’t this team have more lefties? What’s the point of the short porch in right field?

Brett Gardner, perhaps the best left-handed hitter on the team, may not return next year. If he doesn’t, then this issue will become an even more important one for the Bombers to address during the offseason. Even if he does, the club still has a need here.

In addition, the Yanks do not have an adequate mix of home run hitters and contact hitters. This lack of diversity is a problem because their home run hitters tend to strike out a substantial amount, which makes run production susceptible to big droughts.

Of course, when the team’s home run hitters are yanking the ball out of the yard consistently, life is good. However, when one or more studs go into an extended slump, it becomes increasingly difficult to score runs. Contact hitters tend to get on base a lot, and having home run hitters coming up more often with men on base is a huge advantage.

One of the reasons the Yanks did not win more games during the summer or advance to the ALCS is because too many of their hitters did not come through with men on base at critical times during games. Having a couple of more contact hitters in the lineup would have probably reduced this problem.

On top of that, the Yankees were a very bad defensive team. Gleyber Torres committed too many errors and was one of the worst fielding shortstops in the AL. The outfield made plenty of errors/gaffes, and we already talked about Sanchez.

While the Yankees are a superior team and already have the core personnel, when healthy, to remain World Series contenders, they still need to make changes in many departments of the roster if they want to take the next step. It sounds crazy, but these issues with the offense, defense and pitching will not solve themselves.

The front office needs to make adjustments and they must be taken care of before 2021.

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