Yankees: Power ranking NYY’s most confusing current problems

The New York Yankees are playing a bad brand of baseball right now, marked by obvious regression from nearly all their most important offensive players.

It’s not “fun” to analyze this sleeping “giant”. Whose struggles are you most consumed by? Well, that’s different for everyone. Each offensive player is confusing and troubling in their own unique way and the color of their “alert” status varies by the day.

Almost all of this team’s offensive issues seem unsustainable so far — though no one wants to hear that right now.

18 games isn’t a very long time…unless, of course, you’re watching all 18 intently after a long winter of wondering whether the Yankees had chosen to go cheap at the exact wrong time after a brutally strange 60-game season where things didn’t really click either. There are several reasons every game feels like life or death right now, even though that’s not fair to the players, the fans, or your own mental health.

So, which problems that we’ve been forced to live through every single day, “Groundhog Day”-style, are the most actively concerning?

Which are the type of bad-luck numbers that can dictate slow-start mirages, and which could genuinely be long-term issues?

As we see it, these are the three biggest issues plaguing the Yankees’ offense (and defense?) right now, ranked in order of which we’re most confused by and concerned about.

These 3 Yankees offensive problems are power ranked by “least-to-most concerning”.

3. Giancarlo Stanton and the Yankees’ Ground Ball Brigade

Why is Giancarlo Stanton struggling so much? I assume (angry Yankee fan voice) he’s just whiffing all over the damn place?!

Well…not really. His strikeout percentage is a small-sample-size 33.3%, which is high, but not strikingly so. Instead, he’s got a symptom of the same disease that seems to be plaguing the entire roster. For no apparent reason (truly, we cannot explain it), the entire team, Stanton included, is drilling the ball into the ground.

Why are Giancarlo Stanton and the Yankees hitting so many ground balls?

We’ve power ranked this extremely serious issue third simply because it…it has to be unsustainable, right? If this entire team forgot how to lift the baseball, we’re looking at some type of “Space Jam” situation on a large scale.

Stanton’s the standout here, only because none of his contact really makes sense. Typically, he’s someone who makes loud outs and barrels up grounders and liners, yet his BABIP is still a shrinking .182. When he puts the ball in play, it’s supposed to matter; his BABIP from 2018-20 has been .333, .424 and .333 in order.

This year? Not so much, because he’s drilling more grounders than ever, and so are all of his teammates. Perplexing, but it’s not something to absolutely panic over…yet. This doesn’t happen year over year.