\u201cIt\u2019s a tough road trip,\u201d Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna have two or three of those during the year. It\u2019s about how you respond. Nothing we can do about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Technically, the road trip continues for the Yankees on Friday with the start of the Subway Series in Queens. The New York Mets have been one of MLB\u2019s worst teams this season and have problems that go beyond anything the Yankees are dealing with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t understand it,\u201d Judge said of the Mets\u2019 struggles. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a great manager with (Carlos Mendoza) over there. They\u2019ve got a great lineup, a great pitching staff. It\u2019s baseball. \u2026 You can\u2019t really judge a team off of six weeks of the season. If you did that, you could take six weeks that we\u2019re struggling and say we\u2019re the worst team out there. They\u2019ve got a good ball club over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the start of the Subway Series, let\u2019s look at some of the concerns that have emerged for the Yankees over the past few weeks.<\/p>\n
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\n Spencer Jones leaps but can\u2019t catch a home run by Adley Rutschman in the fifth inning of the Orioles\u2019 7-0 win. (Greg Fiume \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Dead zones in the lineup<\/p>\n
Entering Wednesday, no team had a better combined wRC+ from their Nos. 1-4 hitters than the Yankees\u2019 143. That wRC+ drops to a combined 94 for their Nos. 5-9 hitters.<\/p>\n
Each game, it seems like once the opposing pitcher gets past Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger, there\u2019s a chance to finally breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, we\u2019ve had a good offense, but we\u2019ve got to get some more guys contributing regularly,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cYou see it around the league. There are a lot of really good players out there scuffling to this point. It\u2019s part of it. We\u2019ve had some guys flash it and start to pull themselves out a little bit, but obviously, looking for a little more consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the pivot point for the Yankees\u2019 lineup. He usually bats fifth or sixth and is the last true major threat before the bottom of the order, but he has not performed well this season. Chisholm owns a 73 wRC+ and has less-than-encouraging metrics to suggest a turnaround is coming soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, all I want to do is help my team win,\u201d Chisholm said Tuesday. \u201cAnd when you feel like you\u2019re not doing that and you\u2019re not helping, especially with the bat, that\u2019s just how you feel. You feel like it sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s not the only one struggling. Without Giancarlo Stanton and Jasson Dom\u00ednguez, it\u2019s a lackluster group at the moment:\u00a0Spencer Jones looks as advertised as a high-whiff hitter; Austin Wells has been disappointing; Ryan McMahon strikes out too much; and Anthony Volpe, who has been one of MLB\u2019s worst hitters since debuting in 2023, will play while Jos\u00e9 Caballero is sidelined<\/a> with a right finger fracture.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect there to be more in there,\u201d Boone specifically said about Wells. \u201cI feel like he\u2019s capable of more. It\u2019s been a little bit of a struggle. I feel like he\u2019s had, for the most part, some pretty steady at-bats against right-handed pitching. I like the fact that he is walking a little bit, but he\u2019s capable of more.\u201d<\/p>\n The bottom half of the lineup has to get going, at a minimum, to allow Rice, Judge and Bellinger to have off nights here and there.<\/p>\n Right now, the lineup is top-heavy. That has to improve.<\/p>\n Unknown timelines for Stanton, Dom\u00ednguez<\/p>\n The Yankees did not get great news on the imaging for Stanton\u2019s latest MRI on his right calf. Boone said Stanton has not been cleared to start running, which means he\u2019ll continue to be sidelined for an indefinite period.<\/p>\n Not having Stanton has forced the Yankees to provide an easy lane for opposing teams to attack because they\u2019re too left-handed. As an example, Monday\u2019s lineup had four consecutive lefties. That allowed Orioles manager Craig Albernaz to bring in lefty reliever Dietrich Enns to face Chisholm and McMahon in a critical spot. With one out, a runner on third and the Yankees up 2-0 in the sixth inning, Chisholm struck out and McMahon grounded out. The Yankees lost by one run.<\/p>\n \u201cI always want a former MVP and future Hall of Famer in your lineup, especially having another righty in the string of lefties we\u2019ve got,\u201d Judge said of Stanton\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n