Yankees' DJ LeMahieu continues to search for the hitter he has been
DJ LeMahieu looks on from the dugout against the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, June 22, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
DJ LeMahieu’s nickname is “The Machine,” so it’s a bit of a surprise to hear him say, “I’m not a mechanical guy or a mechanical hitter.”
But that was the two-time batting champion’s take on Friday as he talked about the slump that had him going into the Yankees’ home game against Texas with a .228 average.
LeMahieu said he’s a “feel hitter” and that he’s not a big fan of spending hour upon hour going over videos or working on minor tweaks to his swing. But at this point, he will try anything.
“I haven't really hit this bad in a while — I don’t know if ever — and it's coming at a bad time for our team,” LeMahieu said, referring to the Aaron Judge injury absence. “It's just frustrating, and just trying to find solutions . . . Looking at mechanics is honestly really no fun, but it’s something I'm having a deep dive on now, for sure.
“It's just one of those things that I've really never thought of. I just go up and hit. I just don't really think about that stuff. I'm not a mechanical guy or a mechanical hitter. So it's just kind of going more of a deep dive into things that have made me good, made me the hitter I am.
“I go out and hit and compete. And when that formula’s not working, you’ve got to kind of step back and say, ‘What’s mechanically off?’ ”
LeMahieu was in the lineup for a second straight night on Friday and lined a hanging slider for a double to leftfield in the second inning. On Thursday, after three days off to get his swing right, he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
After a third-inning strikeout — one in which LeMahieu twice went down to his back knee while swinging and missing — the frustrated infielder fired his helmet into the dugout.
“It’s beyond frustrating,” he said. “But that's not going to stop me from working and competing and trying to be the best I can be for this team.”
LeMahieu has struggled for quite a while, going 14-for-90 (a .156/.192/.267 slash line) with 26 strikeouts in his last 24 games entering Friday night. More recently, he was 8-for-57 with 18 strikeouts in his last 15 games and 3-for-23 with seven strikeouts in his last six.
And he isn't the only struggling Yankee. Entering Friday night, Giancarlo Stanton was 3-for-41 with 16 strikeouts in his last 12 games and Josh Donaldson was 4-for-43 in his last 14 games. Even after going 4-for-9 in the Seattle series, Anthony Rizzo was 8-for-57 in his last 16 games.
LeMahieu’s 2022 season was wrecked by a foot and toe injury. When asked if he is 100% healthy, he didn’t hesitate in answering, “Yeah.”
But when asked if he still might be compensating for last year’s injury, LeMahieu said: “I’m working on everything. I feel like I'm on the right track right now. I’ll just say that.”
Manager Aaron Boone said detailing the mechanical tweak the Yankees are working on with LeMahieu is too technical to explain in detail but that it has to do with “his start [and] his load.”
But that’s not all it is. At age 34, LeMahieu might have to readjust to the league adjusting to him, Boone said.
“When you have a long big-league career, there's a lot of things that are going to come your way,” Boone said. “Adjustments and obstacles. Injuries, if you play long enough. Age. How the league attacks you and scouting reports and all that.
“For DJ, one thing that's always come pretty easy to him is the ability to wake up and hang out a line drive. So when that's not happening at as consistent a level as he's accustomed to, you’ve got to start tinkering with some things or exploring things and figuring things out again.
“I think he has a good run in him. I think we’ve just got to get him there and unlocked. A couple of small victories within a game. I think as he's gone through this, he's had days where he's felt really good where he's building some momentum and then all of a sudden he takes a funny swing or misses a pitch and he feels [frustrated] . . . You’ve got to fight that frustration and you’ve got to just keep grinding away. Fortunately, from a makeup standpoint, DJ has all those intangibles and toughness and ability to deal with a lot. I don't think mechanically he's all that far off. I think it's very subtle.”
Notes & quotes: Entering Friday, the Yankees had gone 6-9 and scored 48 runs (3.2 per game) since Judge injured his right big toe on June 3. LeMahieu, Stanton and Donaldson had gone 13-for-119 (.109) between them in that span.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
