Patience Is A Virtue For The New York Yankees Offense
It may only be nine games, but the New York Yankees are off to a 7-2 start in the early stages of 2026. While the offense might not be showing off the long ball the way fans would like, there is one thing they are doing right. They are finding a way to work the count and take the extra base.
After the first three series of the season, the Yankees have drawn a total of 46 walks, which is the second most in the American League (Astros have drawn 61) and the third most in all of baseball. That number has helped the Yankees have the tenth best on-base percentage (.332), but you think that walk total would lead to a higher percentage.
Out of those 46 walks, 33 of them have come from four different players. Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger, and Trent Grisham are tied for the team lead (9) and Ryan McMahon is right behind them (6). It also makes sense that Rice, Grisham, and McMahon have also seen at least 4.3 pitches per plate appearance (4.78 by Rice leads the team)
McMahon has not done much else at the plate (.087 average), but he has been able to keep the line moving while Grisham has done a good job of being the table setter for Judge, Bellinger, Rice, and Giancarlo Stanton to drive in runs.
Now, the Yankees are not the only team that is drawing a lot of walks. Over the weekend, the sport saw a combined 269 walks in just Saturday and Sunday alone.
The question is whether or not this will be a new trend in baseball due to the amount of challenges we have seen with the ABS system. Pitchers will not get a lot of free strikes due to catchers knowing their zone. This plays in favor of a Yankees lineup that does a good job of wearing the pitcher down and getting deep counts.
One of the things that helps the Yankees in the early portion of the season is that they don’t have to figure out their identity as a team. They don’t have to implement new parts to the lineup and this is a trend we saw last year with this team. Last season, they led the league in walks (639) and it wasn’t even close (Mariners were second with 544).
Even if a player is in a slump, sometimes just having a productive at-bat that leads to a walk can go a long way to winning a particular game or winning a series. Yes, the home run is more entertaining, but keeping the line moving can never hurt a team.