3 big-name hitting coach options Yankees should've targeted over Sean Casey

Remember when the New York Yankees hit too many home runs? Remember when their "patience and power" approach wreaked havoc on opposing pitchers, but never quite lined up with their own pitching to deliver the special season this fan base deserves? Ahh, memories.

Now, the Yankees rank towards the bottom of the barrel in all relevant offensive statistics, both with and without Aaron Judge. When Judge is active, he's a pretty effective wallpaper for a terrible apartment. When he's not available, this lineup is comprised of nine separate tire fires looking to pass the baton to the next puddle of gloop.

Hitting coach Dillon Lawson -- who you may remember from his ingenious philosophy "Hit Strikes Hard," which is right up there with Plato and Aristotle's best work -- was dismissed on Sunday for his efforts to turn things around. In a pair of stunners, Brian Cashman fired his first-ever coach in-season, then followed up that whammy by revealing he planned to go outside the organization to replace his previous hitting coach.

Most cynical Yankees fans assumed that anyone who replaced Lawson would be a puppet who could implement (and fail) with the same philosophy. It's far too soon to give Cashman any type of credit, but it's mildly encouraging that he's at least willing to put a completely different face on top of the team's current veteran garbage dump.

The Yankees reportedly intended to have a new hire in place when they resumed the second half in Colorado, and three major names were immediately mentioned by team insiders. Each would've brought impactful name recognition and pedigree to the team.

Clearly, that intention was real, as the new (and shocking) name leaked on Monday afternoon: MLB Network's Sean Casey, a former teammate of Aaron Boone's with the Cincinnati Reds. Casey has no discernible MLB coaching experience, though he is nicknamed "The Mayor".

The Casey Era has yet to bear any fruit, and he's only going to be with the Yankees through 2023 before another determination must be made. Still, it seemed like the other names mentioned would've been better fits.

[Also -- UGHHH -- New York obviously should've hired ex-Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers when he was unceremoniously dismissed a few years back. Hyers has since rejuvenated the Texas Rangers' offensive attack; the Yankees rank at the bottom of the league in all categories. Another former Red Sox guru, Andy Barkett, is now the White Sox hitting coordinator, and is also unavailable. Cool.]

3 Well-Known Hitting Coach Options Yankees Should've Hired

Eric Chavez, Mets Bench Coach

Once upon a time, Eric Chavez was nearly the Yankees' assistant hitting coach under Lawson. Two weeks after reportedly being hired, he bolted and went to the Mets instead, giving interviews about how he fundamentally does not believe that .190 hitters who combine power with strikeouts are the way of baseball's future.

The Yankees, uh, have a lot of those.

In order to speak with Chavez again, the Yankees and Mets would have to shake hands, something that hasn't been uncommon in Steve Cohen's era. He gets along with Hal Steinbrenner quite well, which is why it was so strange that Chavez bolted the Bronx in the first place.

He originally left the Yankees for a promotion. Would "bench coach to hitting coach" be viewed as another one? Would the Yankees rather speak to Carlos Beltrán, a fan favorite who's also currently one of Cohen's employees, holding a Mets front office role? Beltrán's been the more widely-discussed name in the wake of Lawson's firing (and, once upon a time, was a Yankees managerial candidate), but Chavez would also seem to make some sense, and there's a history here. Then again, the 2022 Mets offense that he oversaw famously dinked and dunked their way to 101 wins. Not ... totally the Yankee Way. Clearly, that's why New York preferred the untested Casey.

Raúl Ibañez (So Cool)

One of the most compelling arguments for Aaron Boone's dismissal at the end of the 2022 season (and the, uh, 2021 season also) was the managerial candidacy of former Yankees folk hero Raúl Ibañez. Mostly known in the Bronx for socking both game-tying and game-winning home runs against the Orioles in Game 3 of the 2012 ALDS (and tying up Game 1 of the ALCS in the ninth, too, before suffering defeat), Ibañez still has instant name recognition. He also has 305 home runs and a lengthy and always-evolving career to his name.

Most agree that the charming Ibañez, currently holding court as MLB's Senior Vice President of On-Field Operations, has a future in the dugout. He's beloved in the Bronx. Such a hiring would immediately inject the Yankees with winning serum. Unfortunately, therein lies the obvious downside, too. He's become so prominent in MLB's league office that he was invited to announce picks at Sunday night's draft. Is this too lofty a goal? Would the league let him leave? Sometimes, it feels possible. Sometimes, it feels just as insane as pitching that the Yankees should hire Theo Epstein to do the job.

If the Yankees were ready to fire Lawson at the end of the first half and state publicly that they planned to hire an "outside the organization" name and have them installed by end of week, it sort of felt as if they already had someone in mind, and were in the process of working out the kinks. Either Beltrán or Ibañez, both mentioned by The Athletic in their Lawson wrap-ups, would have fit that bill.

Sigh. Maybe the Yankees just need more time to pry Ibañez back into the dugout, and will get a chance to try to woo him once again after Casey's 2023 season wraps.

More Yankees Stories: