NEW YORK — Before firing hitting coach Dillon Lawson on Sunday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had gone 25 campaigns without dismissing a coach during the middle of a season.
It’s not that Cashman was never willing to axe a member of his coaching staff. He’s fired plenty of personnel, making tweaks to the Yankees’ staff during many winters.
After watching the Yankees during the first half of the 2023 season, repulsed by a product that pales in comparison to this team’s high-octane standard, Cashman understood that it was time finally to make an in-season change.
“Our offense has struggled mightily, more so than I can recall,” Cashman said in a Zoom call with reporters on Sunday, shortly after Lawson’s dismissal was announced by the team.
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Cashman approached owner Hal Steinbrenner with intentions of moving on from Lawson on Saturday, one day after the Yankees hit a new low, mustering up one hit over eight shutout innings against Cubs right-hander and ex-Yankee Jameson Taillon, a pitcher with the worst ERA among starters with 60-plus innings pitched this season.
The next day, he was in touch with manager Aaron Boone, making plans to execute the move after the final game of the first half — what turned out to be yet another disappointing performance on that side of the ball, a 7-4 loss to Chicago.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve had pretty consistently high levels of offensive production that we’re typically ranking in our league standings,” Cashman added. “We’re not certainly at that level right now that we’re normally at, whether it’s on-base percentage or runs scored. There’s a lot of categories that we’re typically on a year in and year out basis pretty dominant in, including through last year to some degree. This year has been a completely different story.”
Heading into the All-Star break, the Yankees have the second-lowest batting average in all of baseball (.231)….
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