Maybe addition of Chris Gittens will add a spark to Yankees' sleepwalking offense
Yankees first baseman Chris Gittens lines out against the Boston Red Sox during the second inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, June 5, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Chris Gittens was pulled out of bed Friday night by a phone call telling him he was headed to the Yankees to make his major-league debut.
"They need you," was the message.
Truer words were never spoken.
The Yankees have been missing something this season. Actually, a bunch of stuff. But their most glaring deficiencies are related to the offense, or lack thereof, and none of those were getting any better on their own even though manager Aaron Boone has assured us on a daily basis that they will.
Boone continued to be wrong Saturday night. The Yankees took an early 2-0 lead on Gleyber Torres’ third homer but were bulldozed in a 7-3 loss to the Red Sox.
While the three runs qualify as significant offense for the Yankees these days, the pitching staff cratered this time, as Chad Green teed up four runs in the eighth — including a 453-foot homer by Bobby Dalbec.
Gittens, sadly, fit right in. He went 0-for-3 before drawing a two-out walk in the ninth.
Flashing the bat signal over Scranton to summon Gittens, 27, was the next move on the list, the handy lever to pull.
Is Gittens’ long-awaited promotion (seven years, 427 minor-league games) suddenly going to wake up a Yankees team that’s been sleep-walking through far too many games this season? That’s a big ask, even if Gittens immediately was shoved into Saturday’s lineup against the Red Sox for precisely that reason.
But Gittens deserves a shot, and the Yankees have looked like a team out of answers when it comes to their shockingly meager offensive production. The back-of-the-baseball-card explanation isn’t really working. How long are they supposed to wait for these proven names to automatically self-correct?
At least Gittens is a new guy to root for, a welcome departure from the frequent booing that’s filled the Bronx air ever since fans were allowed back in the Stadium. The Yankees have become a tired act. They grounded into their 55th double play to go with the near-constant striking out (9.31 Ks per game) and running into outs on the basepaths (28, almost double the league average).
The Yankees can’t solve all these issues by calling up one slugging first baseman, but sticking Gittens in the No. 6 spot for a night couldn’t make things any worse. Not only did he impress during spring training, but he was rolling at Triple-A Scranton, hitting .283 with four homers and a 1.071 OPS through 18 games.
Those numbers don’t directly translate to the bigs, obviously. But Gittens seems to be swinging it well enough to potentially make a difference and has the light-tower power that can change a game with one swing. And even if he provides a fraction of that, it would be an upgrade over what the Yankees had been getting out of the position.
Entering Saturday night, the team’s first basemen ranked 28th in slugging (.303) and their 25 RBIs tied them with the Red Sox for 27th place overall.
Gittens wasn’t summoned to specifically replace Luke Voit or Mike Ford. This isn’t a one-for-one swap, an emergency fill-in for an injured Yankee. His promotion comes off as more of a chance to address the general malaise with a loud bat and some fresh energy.
"There’s something to that," Aaron Boone said before Saturday’s game. "Especially where we’ve struggled with some consistency offensively. To add a guy with an offensive profile that’s been off to a good start down there and playing well, hey, let’s get a little spark up here. Maybe he can add a little something to the mix."
Going to Gittens meant one fewer sub-.200 hitter in the bottom of the lineup for a night, though Gary Sanchez (.198) and Clint Frazier (.179) were right there below him.
Boone wouldn’t commit to Gittens beyond Saturday — "We’ll see," he said — but the bar shouldn’t be too high to keep him around. A few hits, maybe a couple with runners in scoring position, and Gittens already will have done more than half of the players currently wearing pinstripes.
After Friday’s series-opening loss to the Red Sox, when the Yankees spent all nine innings chasing an early 3-0 deficit to no avail, Brian Cashman had to dial the Scranton hotline. His club was averaging 3.71 runs per game — only the Mets (3.64) and Pirates (3.52) were worse — with a .372 slugging percentage that was 13th in the AL, above the Tigers (.369) and Mariners (.368).
Maybe the Yankees get lucky with Gittens and he turns into the 2018 Luke Voit, who got called up shortly after his trade from the Cardinals and smashed 15 homers with 36 RBIs in a mere 47 games. Ideally, the plan is to have the actual Voit back around the end of this month, but oblique strains are a moody injury. And with Voit’s medical history, that timetable probably is in pencil, along with his projections for the remainder of this season.
But those concerns are for later. The Yankees have real-time issues to worry about, and with the trade deadline still seven weeks away, Gittens was the best available bat.
"These guys know how to hit," he said of his new teammates. "They’ve been here before. So with me just coming up, I’m not trying to hit a home run and just do everything by myself."
Don’t assume too much about these Yankees, Chris. That’s our advice.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
