The Yankees season is still in its infancy, but plenty of storylines have already emerged from the four series that have already been played.
From torpedo bats to airbenders and even some cases of food poisoning, the young Yanks season has had a little bit of everything to start. But here are five stat lines that have stood out to me over the first dozen games, and what they could mean for the summer and beyond.
Goldy prioritizing contact over power?
Even with his down year in 2024, many considered Paul Goldschmidt a lock to at least be an improvement over Anthony Rizzo, and that has turned out to be a massive understatement so far.
Goldschmidt is batting .383 with a .942 OPS through his first 51 plate appearances, but what has stood out is his expecting batting average of .398, good for the 100th percentile in all of baseball, per Statcast. But after posting a hard-hit rate in the 92nd percentile last year, that is down into the 38th percentile so far in 2025. What has been the payoff? Goldschmidt’s strikeout numbers have plummeted. Perhaps the former All-Star is putting more of an emphasis on making contact and cutting down on empty at-bats as he enters the latter years of his career. So far, it’s worked out.
Judge is Judge
It may feel like old news at this point, but it is still important to recognize these numbers and acknowledge Judge’s all-time greatness. The Yankee captain is already above 1.0 WAR for the season, and leads the league in runs, home runs, RBI, and OPS+, which currently stands at a ridiculous 255.
Judge’s monster weekend against the Brewers to open the season certainly helped those stats, but at this point, this is just who Judge is: one of the greatest hitters of his generation, and beyond.
What’s up with the airbender?
If you’ve watched most of the season so far, you have heard the discussion about Devin Williams’ struggles to begin his Yankee career. Hitters seem to be sitting on his trademark “airbender” changeup, and the results have been disastrous for the typically dominant closer.
What’s behind these early-season struggles? To start, his chase rate on the airbender has dropped more than 10 percent from last year, now down to a career-worst 25 percent. Last year, he was using that changeup 45 percent of the time, and this year, it’s way up to 60.3 percent, while his fastball usage has been noticeably down despite velocity and spin not being all that different from 2024.
So, it’s likely much easier to sit on the airbender when you’re seeing it the vast majority of the time.
Volpe’s torpedo barrel
Volpedo is a nickname gaining traction, and it sure seems like the shortstop’s new bat is paying massive dividends. Volpe already has four home runs and is on track to well exceed the 12 he posted last season, but the amount of balls he is squaring up on that torpedo bat is eye popping. Volpe’s barrel percentage of 17.6 is in the 88th percentile in baseball, which is an astonishing increase from his sophomore campaign, when he posted a lowly 3.9 barrel rate, good for the 12th percentage in the league. The result? Volpe’s OPS is currently over 200 points higher than it was in 2024. The Yanks will take that any day.
Wells’ elite framing
Remember when Gary Sanchez would slump at the plate and his production would become a complete zero because of his defensive deficiencies? No need to worry about that with Austin Wells, as he has cemented himself as one of the top backstops in the game.
So far this season, Wells is tied atop the league in defensive runs saved among catchers (via FanGraphs), and Statcast has him in the 100th percentile in pitch framing and the 89th percentile in blocks above average. Simply put, last year was no fluke, and Wells is becoming a defensive stalwart behind the plate.
Sure, the hitting hasn’t been there outside of the first two games of the season, but that can come around, and until it does, Wells is still proving to be an asset.