Aaron Judge, you may have noticed, has had an outstanding season for the Yankees. He is leading MLB in OPS, at 1.135, well ahead of the 1.043 posted by Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers. At .702, he is the only big-leaguer with a slugging percentage above .700, and he is hitting a career-high .314, even after going 0-for-8 in his last two games.
He is leading the AL in doubles (23), and is tops in MLB in home runs (32) and RBIs (83). Judge is the favorite for the league’s MVP award, and has been selected an All-Star starter.
It’s fair to say, he is a driver of the Yankees’ offense. But it also fair to say that he, along with fellow star Juan Soto, has been forced to carry this offense, mostly because the rest of the New York offense has ground to a halt in recent weeks, and those who have not been in a slump lately had been in a slump at other times this season.
That fact has apparently annoyed Judge’s hitting coach, who laid into the Yankees’ developmental system on Thursday, as the Yankees were dropping the 14th game in their last 19 outings, 8-4 to the Reds.
Aaron Judge’s Personal Hitting Coach Claps Back at Graphic
Judge’s personal hitting coach is Richard Schenck, whose bio on Twitter/X describes him as, “Founder of the High Level Pattern Hitting System, used by Aaron Judge and many others.” When Schenk saw on Twitter/X a post from the YES Network that showed Judge at the plate with a graphic pointing out that Judge was hitting .386 in 54 wins and .216 in 34 losses, he had to respond.
The graphic made it appear that Judge was not carrying his weight when the Yankees lost. “As @RealMichaelKay said: ‘He hits, they win. That simple.’ #YANKSonYES,” the post read.
To that, Schenck replied, “They’ve lost 13 out of 18 while he’s hitting like an MVP The Yankees offensive player development is terrible.”
Schenck, who is known as “Teacherman,” first rose to prominence by studying the swing of former MLB star Barry Bonds and applying what he learned to the swing of his son. Eventually, Schenck, who is based in St. Peters, Missouri, hooked up with Judge in 2016 through Judge’s agent, and began helping him improve his swing.
The work continues.
“I’m 68 years old,” Schenck told Fox 2 last year. “I’ve always wanted to be a big leaguer. I wasn’t good enough to be a big leaguer, but I stayed active in the game enough to learn a few things and help a big leaguer have success. It’s been fun.”
Yankees Young Players Show Little Development
But watching the Yankees has not been much fun lately, and though the Yankees coaching staff might not be much amused by Schenck’s post, it’s hard to argue its accuracy.
The post came as 23-year-old shortstop Anthony Volpe was demoted from the leadoff spot because he has struggled this season since a hot start. Meanwhile, 25-year-old third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera has not developed as a hitter this year, his third in the big leagues, batting .234.
Second baseman Gleyber Torres (.223), outfielder Trent Grisham (.157) and catcher Austin Wells (.213) are all players who are 27 or younger but have shown no growth whatsoever this year.
It’s been a problem that the Yankees could overlook for the first three months of the season. But it’s catching up with them now.
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