Aaron Judge, left fielder? Assessing the Yankees' outfield dilemma

By Deesha Thosar
Published

On the evening of Sept. 9, Aaron Hicks was removed from the Yankees’ home game against the Rays after his defensive misplays in left field led to three Tampa Bay runs. From the sixth inning onward, Hicks watched from the bench as his team lost by two to a division rival.

Up to that point, the Yankees had already run out of viable options to improve their inadequate left-field situation. Three months earlier, they had acquired Andrew Benintendi to play there, only for him to break his wrist after 33 games. Rookie Oswaldo Cabrera then got some starts, but the Yankees were largely forced to continue plugging Hicks in left despite the veteran’s unproductive offensive numbers. Hicks slashed .216/.330/.313 with an 86 OPS+, which is 14% worse than league average. 

While fans wondered all winter whom the Opening Day starting left fielder would be — a whopping 10 players manned the position for New York in 2022 — the Yankees pivoted to a more flexible and financially safe solution. No, the Yankees did not spend money to retain Benintendi or sign free agents like Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto. No, the Yankees did not trade for outfielder Bryan Reynolds, who requested a trade from the Pirates in December. The solution, for now, is in-house.

Enter Aaron Judge, left fielder.

Manager Aaron Boone first spoke to Judge about playing left field during the offseason, sometime after Judge’s rollercoaster free agency ended with the 6-foot-7 slugger in pinstripes. Judge, who was instantly on board with the idea, has yet to play a single game in left field across his 5,409 innings in the major leagues. He, of course, has seen plenty of right-field action, as well as playing a decent amount of center field last season before Harrison Bader joined New York at the trade deadline. Judge last played left field professionally during a seven-game stint with Triple-A Scranton in 2016.

That is until Wednesday, when Judge played five innings in left field in the Yankees’ 4-0 loss to the Cardinals. Judge got the chance to make just one play on a shallow fly ball that he had no chance of catching before it dropped in no man’s land, but he will get another look in left on Thursday in the Yankees’ exhibition game against the Red Sox. So, Judge’s first time playing in left this spring went as well as Boone and the Yankees would have hoped. The perennial All-Star's athleticism combined with his proven outfield track record bodes well for his comfortability in the new position.

Moreover, shifting Judge to left field will give Giancarlo Stanton more opportunities to play in right. Throughout spring, Boone has gone into some detail about Stanton’s desire to log more defensive innings and how that may help the slugger stay off the injured list. The idea is that if Stanton is playing regularly, as opposed to solely being the designated hitter, the larger workload will allow him to rely on a routine and stay engaged and ready on a given day. As DH, Stanton said he spends more time inside the ballpark, hitting in the cage, staying warm and watching his team on TV, rather than being more engrossed in the game.

While it’s typical for teams to try out new strategies and alignments in spring training, it’s less common for those designs to actually make their way into regular-season games. But the Yankees seem to be serious about Stanton playing more right field because, on Wednesday, Boone finally put a number on how many times we may see the slugger in the outfield.

"Best-case scenario, we’re talking 40, 50, 60 games," Boone said on YES Network.

That may not seem like many games, but it’s a significant jump by Stanton’s recent standards. Stanton has played just 77 games combined in the outfield across his past four seasons with the Yankees. The lower end of that 40-60 range is in line with how much Stanton played in the outfield last year, when he registered 34 games in right field and four games in left. But Stanton hasn’t played more than 60 games in the outfield in a given year since his 2018 season with the Yankees, when he split time evenly between right and left field for a total of 72 games.

It’s also not as if Stanton is unfamiliar or lacking ability as a right fielder. He has played 1,032 career games and logged 9,515 innings there, with the majority of those reps coming from his eight years on the Marlins. In particular, the Yankees are not as comfortable with Stanton playing in the more spacious Bronx left field. Stanton has seen playing time in left on smaller fields like Fenway Park and Minute Maid Park. In another sign that the Yankees had moved on from Hicks last postseason, Stanton played two ALCS games in left field mainly out of necessity.

"He’s fundamentally sound out there. He makes all the plays. If he gets his glove on it, you’re out," Boone said of Stanton. "Last year, shoot, I thought he played really well for us out there. I think it serves our team well because it allows you to use that DH spot a little more strategically, but physically it serves him well when he’s out there and has a little bit more work going." 

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Ben Verlander sits down with Deesha Thosar to get some updates on both the Yankees and Mets in spring camp.

A new-look left field will also give the Yankees more roster flexibility. With Judge in left, Stanton in right and Gold Glover Bader manning center, the Yankees can get creative with their DH spot. The elephant in the room is Hicks’ remaining contract; he’s signed for three more seasons for about $10 million a year. With more options in the outfield, the Yankees can continue playing Hicks at DH if need be. New York can also give DH at-bats to Josh Donaldson. And when Stanton needs rest, Judge can shift back over to right field while Cabrera takes over in left.

Even though the Yankees will not say it publicly, they've indicated that Hicks will see limited playing time in the outfield this season. While shifting Judge to left is a good start, Cabrera has proven he can handle almost anything in the outfield and can be expected to see significant opportunities there. This game plan can at least carry the Yankees to the trade deadline, when they can possibly revisit a trade for Reynolds or other upgrades again.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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