Yankees promote Aaron Leanhardt to major-league coaching staff analyst

TAMPA, Fla. — A talking point privately among players in the clubhouse for years now, as the Yankees became more and more steeped in analytics, was how that information was filtered and ultimately relayed to them.

Players rarely object to information — in some cases, though not all, the more the better — but there overall was the issue of messaging.

The below-the-surface discontent — caused primarily by a bedside manner from some analysts that rubbed players the wrong way — reached a tipping point during last season and the organization reacted at last over the winter.

Aaron Leanhardt, hired originally by the Yankees in 2018 for their Gulf Coast League team as a hitting coach and who has spent the past two seasons as the organization’s assistant minor-league hitting coordinator, was promoted to the big-league club as its new major-league coaching staff analyst.

The hiring of Leanhardt, who earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, was at least in part a result of conversations managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner had over the winter with Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole.

“There were concerns that both of them raised last year about not so much the information we give them, but how it’s presented to them, how it ‘funnels down,’ I think was Judge’s words,” Steinbrenner said Thursday. “So we’ve added a new person here in the clubhouse . . . that is unbelievably versed and intelligent in analytics but also was a coach. Great working with people, great explaining things and teaching things and listening to what the people he’s dealing with have to say.”

Judge, who spoke in general terms early last October on the final day of the regular season about some of the concerns he had regarding the Yankees and analytics, is like many players in that he has a desire for information but isn’t beholden to it. He more than a few times over the years has described himself as “old-school” when it comes to how he approaches the game.

“Judge already met with Leanhardt] one-on-one over there [at the minor-league complex] for an hour or two working with him and he likes him,” Steinbrenner said. “So he’s going to be a great addition. And, again, so many questions this winter from the media] about significant changes . . . we’re introducing somebody new to the clubhouse. That’s a significant change as far as I’m concerned.”

Grapefruit League action

The Yankees open their spring schedule Saturday in Lakeland against the Tigers with prospect Luis Gil, whom the organization hopes can provide starting pitching depth this season, taking the mound. Among the position players scheduled to make the trip are Anthony Volpe, Trent Grisham, Oswaldo Cabrera and Ben Rortvedt.