C-Mac: Time for Yankees to bat Aaron Judge leadoff
C-Mac wants to find a Yankees solution to their lack of a consistently productive leadoff hitter, and he believes the answer could be by putting arguably the most productive hitter in baseball atop the order.
“The more I think about it, I think Judge is the answer at leadoff,” C-Mac said. “Look back at 2022, and how many home runs he hit as a leadoff hitter…Judge had a ton of games at leadoff in 2022, and he hit a bunch of home runs. It guarantees the first inning, and plus, you have Soto behind him. And they’re not gonna walk him to lead off a game.”
The numbers indeed show a productive leadoff hitter. When batting first in the lineup in 2022, a sample size of 34 games and 123 at-bats, Judge smacked 13 home runs and hit .366 with an OPS of 1.200. it was his best numbers of any spot in the lineup, and while the sample size is small, C-Mac would like to see more of it.
“Hit him leadoff…people don’t like it, because ‘the slugger has to bat cleanup,’” C-Mac said. “Hit Judge leadoff, Soto second, Stanton three, Wells four, Torres five, Jazz sixth, Verdugo seven, Volpe eight, Ben Rice nine. That’s your lineup.”
