Yankees fans were pumped to find out Dillon Lawson, New York's underperforming hitting coach, was fired on Sunday after a miserable first half of hitting.
The Yankees have underperformed at the plate all season. Now a scapegoat has been found.
On Sunday, New York fell to the Cubs to finish the first half at 49-42 with the third-worst team batting average in baseball. Not long after the game, Jon Heyman reported that hitting coach Dillon Lawson is "expected to be relieved of that job."
"I ultimately felt that a change was needed and that a new voice overseeing our hitting operations would give us the best chance to perform closer to our capabilities as we move forward into the 2nd half," Brian Cashman said, via Greg Joyce of the New York Post.
Someone was always going to have to pay for the offensive failures in 2023. Fans, many of whom were calling for Lawson to be fired for weeks, weren't sad to see Lawson get the axe.
Yankees fans on Twitter were elated by Dillon Lawson's firing
Of course, not everyone was jumping for joy. Some saw Lawson as a fall guy for deeper problems with the Yankees roster.
Whether Lawson was solely at fault for the Yankees problems (he wasn't, but that's beside the point), there's no denying that NY's hitting has not been good enough this year.
The Yankees had 679 hits in the first half, just 17 more than the Oakland Athletics, the only team below them in the stat sheet.
Players like Anthony Volpe, notably, had to seek outside help to fix issues with their swings.
Lawson may be a scapegoat but the numbers make it clear the change needed to happen.
The Yankees still need to assess other positions across their staff and whether or not poor performances elsewhere require more changes down the line.
