Once again, the Yankees find themselves missing a key player for an extended period. This time it’s the most irreplaceable of them all, reigning American League MVP Judge Aaron.
And again, as in so many recent seasons, the team stays afloat thanks to capable play from its seemingly endless supply of “next men”, as the phrase goes here.
The Yanks are eight games above .500 and are coming off a series win against the Texas Rangers, one of the best teams in the league. Without a judge, Carlos Rodon and, for long periods, Harrison Bader – or many recent productions by veterans like DJ LeMahieu And Giancarlo Stanton – they’re in playoff position and ready to get stronger once they’re whole.
If you’re looking to understand why the Yankees haven’t had a losing season since the last year of George HW Bush’s presidency, here’s a useful avenue to explore: how professional scouting and analytics work together to recruit the right players depth. .
Over the past half-decade, Luke Sees, Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, Coarse odor, Cameron Maybin, Tim Locastro and others emerged and, to varying degrees, contributed when Yankees stars suffered injuries or underperformed. This year, it’s the same story with different names: Jake Bauer, Willie Calhoun and particularly, Billy McKinney.
Every offseason, every pro scouting department has the same slew of minor league free agents and potential non-spring training invitees to choose from. So why do the Yankees always pick the right players?
The team leaders, both on the screening and analysis side, congratulate each other for their collaboration. That’s not to say that there aren’t overly dogmatic analysts, or pathfinders that aren’t open enough, or that everyone feels equally heard at all times. But the general culture under GM Brian Cashman is to try to break down these silos.
It’s a group in which Cashman’s top evaluator, a former infielder Tim Naehringis fluent in data and technology, and its top analyst, Deputy Managing Director Michel Poissonmanspeaks regularly with the famous scout Omar Minaya.
The head of the pro scouting department, Matt Daley, is a former MLB pitcher, not a Harvard grad or a rocket scientist, and he’s a master at analysis. Cashman has been looking for hybrid types like Daley since the current Mets GM Billy Epler founded this version of the department in 2005.
Daley has been in charge since early 2019, the season when the arrivals of Urshela, Tauchman and Maybin spawned the ‘next man up’ tagline.
This past offseason, it was Bauers, McKinney, Calhoun and Francy Cordero whose names were near the top of the Yankees board of directors at their positions.
The team had target scouting reports — reports of players identified as particular targets — on the Naehring Bauers and Jay Darnel, another of Cashman’s best baseball players. Naehring spends much of his time exploring the Yankees’ own farming system, and Bauers had been with the organization since June. After the season, he was a free agent and had to be re-signed.
Scout Denis Twombley filed the favorable target report on McKinney, who spent last season in the Oakland system. Twombley is another respected appraiser, so the New York office had reliable qualitative reports on Bauers and McKinney. Analysts could drill down to provide a recommendation through their lens.
Calhoun had been on the Yankees scout radar for several years, as had Cordero.
McKinney was the most productive of the group, posting a .950 OPS with four home runs and playing solid defense. Bauers’ numbers have been down a bit lately, but the team believe his power is real.
Cordero contributed a few key homers before fading. And Calhoun contributed several clutch shots before hitting the IL himself this week with a quad stump.
Is their success sustainable? The answer varies by player but is actually not the main point. It’s the depth’s job to keep it going while the big boys are gone. And it’s the job of the grassroots in the Yankees organization to identify good minor league free agents.
It might be the least sexy way to fight for a championship, but it’s one of the most crucial.
Winning teams need quality depth almost as much as they need stars. It’s hard to make the playoffs without a roster that combines the two.