Yankees fire hitting coach Dillon Lawson – The Denver Post

The Yankees ended the first half of the season with an unprecedented shakeup, firing hitting coach Dillon Lawson on Sunday in an effort to boost their struggling offense.

It’s the first time in Brian Cashman’s 26 seasons as general manager that a coach was fired in-season.

The team has not named a replacement for Lawson, who assumed the hitting coach role before the 2022 season and had been with the Yankees organization for parts of five years. The next hitting coach will come from outside of the organization, and the job has not yet been offered to anyone, Cashman told reporters.

Through 91 games, the Yankees (49-42) rank 19th among the 30 MLB teams with 400 runs scored, and 28th with a .231 team batting average. Only the Detroit Tigers (39-50) and Oakland A’s (25-67) have posted lower averages.

“Our offense has struggled mightily, more so than I can recall,” Cashman said during a video call. “The team that we have, in fairness to Dillon, we have had some injuries without a doubt, but collectively we really have struggled, and I feel like we’re best served kind of changing things up a little bit as we move to the second half.”

Assistant hitting coaches Brad Wilkerson and Casey Dykes will remain in their roles, according to Cashman, who said he has a “comfort level” that someone will be in place when the season resumes Friday.

Last season, the Yankees scored 807 runs under Lawson to lead the American League. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers, with 847 runs, scored more among MLB teams in 2022.

But the 2023 campaign has gone much differently for a team historically nicknamed the Bronx Bombers. Proven bats have sputtered, with former NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton hitting .203, former AL MVP Josh Donaldson batting .152, and two-time batting champion DJ LeMahieu posting a career-low .220 average.

Anthony Rizzo, who tied his career high with 32 home runs last season, hasn’t hit one since May 20. The lineup has badly missed reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge, who hasn’t played since injuring a toe on June 3.

Last month, Yankees rookie Anthony Volpe said he and former minor league teammate Austin Wells discovered a change to his batting stance while watching old footage over a chicken parm dinner. Volpe, who was hitting below .200 at the time, has since boosted his average to .216.

Lawson, 38, joined the Yankees as their minor league hitting coordinator in 2019.

The Yankees announced Lawson’s firing after Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs, during which New York had 11 hits.

“It’s a very difficult decision and one I certainly took a lot of time to make,” Cashman said. “I approached Hal Steinbrenner yesterday via the phone and told him what I thought we should do. He gave me his blessing and so ultimately I decided today, post-game, that this is what we would do.”

The firing came after most of the players had left Yankee Stadium for the day, manager Aaron Boone said. The Yankees enter the All-Star break in fourth place in the AL East and a game out of the final AL Wild Card spot.

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