DJ LeMahieu: The Quiet Superstar in the New York Yankees Lineup

Typically when you think of the New York Yankees, you usually will think of players like Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorious, Brett Gardner, Giancarlo Stanton, and the biggest name of them all, Aaron Judge. It's no wonder that many people think of those names right away when thinking about anything associated with the New York Yankees because those are the names that a lot of the media outlets and marketing agencies for MLB have elected to focus on.

However, as is the case with any team around the MLB and especially with any postseason team this year, there's always one quiet superstar that never seems to get as much recognition as they deserve. You could identify Tommy Pham with the Tampa Bay Rays, Michael Brantley with the Houston Astros, and Jorge Polanco of the Minnesota Twins as players that fall into that category. For the New York Yankees, that player this year has been DJ LeMahieu.

During last year's offseason, the Yankees were focused on building up depth in the infield because they were unsure of how Gleyber Torres would do during his second full season at the big league level and there were concerns regarding the health of third baseman, Miguel Andujar's shoulder. Ultimately, when May rolled around, it was announced that Andujar would be placed on the 60-Day Injured List as he was forced to have season-ending surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. As such, New York Yankees General Manager and Senior Vice President, Brian Cashman, knew that he would need to add depth over the offseason because of those two concerns and to add assurance in the event that more injuries would end up plaguing the Yankees all season long.

That's where DJ LeMahieu, the former second baseman for the Colorado Rockies, came into the picture. LeMahieu, who was a free agent last offseason, ended up signing a two-year, $24 million dollar deal with the Yankees instead of going back to the Colorado Rockies or signing with one of the other teams that were interested in him at the time. At the time, many people around the game and Yankees fans alike wondered what Brian Cashman was doing and were trying to figure out why the team wasn't going after starting pitching more aggressively, but looking back at the signing now, it sure was a very good investment and assurance option for the Yankees.

DJ LeMahieu, who turned 31 years of age this past July, finished the 2019 regular season with a slash line of: .327/.375/.518 over the span of 655 plate appearances with (197) hits, (33) doubles, (2) triples, (26) home runs, (102) RBI, (46) walks, and (90) strikeouts. All together, when you put all of his offensive contributions from this season together, it resulted in a Wins Above Replacement value of (6.0), the highest of his 9-year big league career along with an Offensive Wins Above Replacement value of (5.2). It's fair to say that the New York Yankees have quickly made up the $12 million dollars owed to DJ LeMahieu for this season and will continue to reap the benefits the deeper they play in the playoffs.

Furthermore, power has never really been a huge selling point for DJ LeMahieu and his style of game play, but he did finish this season with the highest Isolated Power value of his big league career at (.191). That's impressive alone considering that he was no longer playing at the offensive-induced environment of Coors Field in the high altitude of Colorado and taking into consideration that he had to learn about hitting at Yankee Stadium altogether.

Sure, the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium is attractive for a right-handed bat like LeMahieu, but it still takes time to learn the field dynamics of Yankee Stadium and generally to get comfortable playing there on a regular basis. In terms of all 30 teams, Yankee Stadium ranked second to last, to Oracle Park in San Francisco, with the fewest runs scored per game at (0.81). In comparison, Coors Field home to LeMahieu's former team the Colorado Rockies, led all of baseball with an average of (1.39) runs scored per game, according to data compiled by ESPN. Furthermore, Yankee Stadium ranked twenty-fifth in all of baseball with a home run rate per game of (0.86), while Coors Field ranked third at (1.26). Quite a change in atmosphere and ballparks to essentially learn on the fly for any type of hitter, let alone DJ LeMahieu.

Beyond that, it's fascinating to look at the pitch selection chart that opposing team's pitchers were throwing to DJ LeMahieu when he was up at the plate. Take a look at the chart below for more comparing this year's pitch selection data to the pitch selection data for the 2018 regular season when LeMahieu was a member of the Colorado Rockies.

Granted, it's important to take the change in leagues into consideration when looking at this data, but you can start to see trends and where opposing team's pitchers might be changing their overall approach. With how many pitchers relied on the fastball this year and given that it was the most popular pitch thrown throughout the league, it's interesting that LeMahieu had fewer thrown to him overall as the second column in the chart shows. The amount of sliders that LeMahieu was thrown increased (16.2% last season compared to 18.0% this year) as did the amount of cutters (4.5% in 2018 compared to 5.8% this season) and the amount of changeups (6.5% last year compared to 8.1%) this year. In addition, LeMahieu saw almost double the amount of split-finger fastballs this season compared to last year as the last column shows.

So with that being said, the next question to consider is did the changes in the pitches that DJ LeMahieu saw do anything to change the contact he made inside or outside of the strike zone or his overall swing path? For more on both of those things, take a look at another chart that showcases that information for the 2019 regular season compared to the 2018 regular season, courtesy of data from FanGraphs.

Again, remember that we're comparing two different leagues here when looking at this data, but the numbers are fascinating nonetheless. In terms of the amount of swings that DJ LeMahieu has taken outside of the strike zone and the amount of contact that he has made in those zones, the percentages are up. For swing%, the percentage increased to (30.2%) this season compared to (26.0%) for last year and in terms of contact, the amount of contact made outside of the strike zone sat at (75.0%) this year compared to (72.7%) last season. However, inside of the strike zone is where things trended downward for LeMahieu in a Yankees uniform. Opposing team's pitchers got him to swing at more balls inside the strike zone (65.9%) this year compared to (60.1%) with the Colorado Rockies last year and the overall contact in the zone was down (91.8% compared to 95.0%) last season. In the end, that resulted in a higher swinging strike percentage overall based on the data in the very last column.

So from this first part of the discussion, the main takeaways are the idea that DJ LeMahieu experience a higher Isolated Power value which is impressive considering that he went from an offensive-friendly ballpark in Coors Field to a not-so offensive friendly ballpark in Yankee Stadium. Furthermore, the pitches that opposing team's pitchers were thrown changed which in turn resulted in LeMahieu making more contact and swinging at a higher amount of pitches outside of the strike zone compared to inside the zone. Another potential caveat to this data is the fact that this year's baseball was dramatically different from the baseball used in 2018 which affected the mechanics of the pitch being thrown, the velocity that each pitch was thrown at, and ultimately the location of where the pitch landed inside of the catchers glove.

Moving along in the discussion, the next portion we will focus on more splits and try to see if there is potentially an advantage for DJ LeMahieu against the Minnesota Twins pitching staff in the current American League Divisional Series. LeMahieu certainly made his presence known during last night's game against the Minnesota Twins as he became the first Yankee hitter, to ever record 3 hits along with 4 RBI, in a single postseason game. Yes, that means that even Yankee legends like Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and even Derek Jeter didn't accomplish that.

For starters, let's focus on basic pitcher-to-hitter matchups and see how well DJ LeMahieu fared. Against left-handed pitchers this season, LeMahieu posted a cumulative slash line of: .375/.435/.631 over the span of 177 plate appearances with (10) home runs, (31) RBI, a (9.6%) walk rate, (13.0%) strikeout percentage, and a Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) value of (182). On the other hand, against right-handed pitchers, LeMahieu put up a batting line of: .310/.352/.477 over 478 plate appearances with (16) home runs, (71) RBI, a (6.1%) walk rate, (14.0%) strikeout percentage, and a wRC+ value of (119). Granted, the sample size is much different (478 plate appearances vs. 177), but the overall takeaway is that DJ LeMahieu can do damage against both left and right-handed pitchers which makes it extremely difficult to try and formulate a game plan for how to pitch against him.

Take a look at the heat map below which shows DJ LeMahieu's hitting ability against lefties. The chart features data compiled by FanGraphs and shows the batting average in various parts inside and outside of the strike zone. Against lefties, it appears as though a lot of the damage for LeMahieu came within the strike zone with a sweet spot right smack dab in the middle where the batting average sat at (.242). However, look at the batting averages along the bottom of the strike zone as well, which would contribute to the data mentioned previously about the amount of contact that LeMahieu has made outside of the zone itself.

Now, take the chart from above and compare it to this chart below showcasing batting average once again on all types of pitches, but this time against right-handed pitchers. From the chart, this time around there's no one "sweet spot" with a lot of contact spread throughout the inside of the strike zone. However, one obvious difference is the shift in the amount of contact outside of the strike zone, along the bottom portion and the sides of the zone, compared to the amount of contact made in those same locations against lefties. The two squares on the left and right-hand sides of the strike zone against righties indicate more contact in those locations compared to against lefties. For example, the two boxes on the left and right sides below sit at (.113) and (.140) respectively. In the chart above, those same two boxes sit at (.026) and (.021). If you recall, the sample size in plate appearances between lefties and righties was vastly different, but the overall takeaway is still the same that damage cam be done against pitchers regardless of what hand they throw with when it comes to analyzing the game plan of DJ LeMahieu.

More specifically, against the Minnesota Twins, DJ LeMahieu has been a really good power threat. Over the 19 plate appearances that he recorded during the 2019 regular season, LeMahieu had a batting line of: .412/.474/.647 with a (.468) Weighted On-Base Average and a hard-hit rate of (42.9%). When you look at the career splits of LeMahieu against the Minnesota Twins pitching staff, there isn't one pitcher that stands out as having little success against LeMahieu. Rather, it is spread all throughout the pitching staff which complicates things for the Minnesota Twins and forces a change in how they approach him in the batter box.

As a team this season, the Minnesota Twins pitching staff threw the fourth-most curveballs of any team in baseball at (13.4%). Hearing that is essentially music to DJ LeMahieu's ears when you look at the various metrics against that pitch alone. During the 2019 regular season, LeMahieu saw approximately 187 curveballs and put up a slash line of: .373/.382/.537 with an Isolated Power value of (.164), a (.393) BABIP, and a wRC+ value of (155). The interesting thing is that of those 187 curveballs, approximately (125) of them were called strikes with the remaining (62) being called balls. Once again, taking the previous data into consideration, that doesn't necessarily matter because of the amount of contact that LeMahieu has made inside the strike zone against both lefties and righties.

Furthermore, it doesn't necessarily matter if LeMahieu is batting at Yankee Stadium or on the road, in this case, at Target Field in Minneapolis. At home during the 2019 regular season, LeMahieu had a batting line of: .338/.392/.585 with an Isolated Power value of (.246), a Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) of (.350) and a walks-to-strikeout ratio of (0.52). On the road, LeMahieu put up a: .318/.359/.459 slash line with a (.142) Isolated Power value, a (.348) BABIP, and a (0.50) walks-to-stirkeouts ratio. As you can see, it's basically the same with no vast differences besides maybe the overall power at Yankee Stadium compared to other ballparks on the road. Thus, further complicating the tactics used by an opposing team for establishing a game plan of how to get out LeMahieu when he steps up to the plate.

Beyond that, the Minnesota Twins are going to want to make sure that DJ LeMahieu doesn't get ahead in any counts either during the remainder of this series. In situations where DJ LeMahieu is ahead in count, his numbers are drastically different than in situations where he is behind. Take a look at the chart, compiled of data from FanGraphs, for more on that.

The biggest difference between both of those situations comes in the walk rate and the overall amount of damage done by LeMahieu. For example, look at the batting average (!) and the impressive walk rate which is over three times what it is compared to situations where LeMahieu is behind in the count. The earlier that a Minnesota Twins starting pitcher or reliever can get ahead of LeMahieu in the count, the less damage there is likely to be done overall. Of course, in baseball, there is no guarantee and a team can formulate a game plan with this information in hand, but it doesn't always translate to success or positive results on the field.

In the end, the New York Yankees have had a very successful season regardless of the amount of injuries that they had to overcome and other obstacles that took place under unforeseen circumstances. However, given the brilliance of General Manager and Senior Vice President, Brian Cashman, and his willingness to invest in depth at a position that was already a strength only solidified the Yankees offense and made it that much more potent. When you begin to look at all of the eight playoff teams this postseason, each team has their own superstar that has quietly gone unnoticed, but for the New York Yankees DJ LeMahieu takes home that crown.

Last night, was a terrific start to this year's postseason for LeMahieu and depending on how far the New York Yankees end up advancing, it could very well turn into an MVP-caliber October for him.