Yankees Make Offer To New Hitting Coach Who Mentored Judge!

If you wrote a letter to Santa asking for the Yankees to hire a hitting coach that can actually teach our guys how to hit and score runs, you may already have your Christmas wish…..maybe.

Several sources are reporting that the Yankees have made an offer for their next hitting coach, and are just waiting for it to be finalized, you can read more HERE. The Yankees may be reuniting with James Rowson. If you are scratching your head and asking, ‘WHO IS THAT AND WHEN DID HE WORK FOR US?’ you aren’t the only one.

He may not be familiar to us, but he will definitely be familiar to Aaron Judge, who worked with him from 2014-2016 when Rowson was the Yankees minor league hitting coordinator. He spent time with the Yankees on two different assignments from 2008-2011 and again from 2014-2016, so he knows the Yankees organization well. Or, I should say he did know it well until it completely collapsed under Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone‘s watch.

Rowson also worked with the Cubs, Twins, Marlins and most recently the Tigers last season as their Assistant hitting coach. He’s certainly not new to baseball, he’s been a bench coach and MLB hitting coach but….can he fix the Yankees?

This will be the Yankees 4th hitting coach since Marcus Thames back in 2021. I don’t think the Yankees would know how to identify a good hitting coach if one bit them in the butt. I like that Rowson was around during Aaron Judge’s minor league days and maybe helped develop him into what he is today, but who really knows? Judge is the connection here that makes this a headline, and still a loose headline at that.

I think we can all agree that Dillon Lawson was a disaster. I was never completely sold on Sean Casey either, even in his short time with us. So now we wait and see what Rowson’s philosophy is exactly. Then we also wait and see if he can really connect with the Yankees and help them. I think the Yankees are such a hot mess right now so I can’t imagine why Rowson would even want to come back to this crazy train and while it is not official yet, it sounds like this may be a done deal.

I hope this move pays off but looking on paper it is not inspiring. The Tigers OPS, batting average and on base percentage were scarily similar to the Yankees this season. The Tigers were 28 out of 30 teams in OPS+, 27 out of 30 in batting average (2 better than the Yankees), and 26 out of 30 in on base percentage (Yankees were 27th). How is this guy the upgrade that will help the Yankees offense? I just don’t see it.

So welcome back, Rowson. I hope you can fix this trainwreck of a team that can’t hit. I am admittedly skeptical though and I am trying not to be. You certainly have your work cut out for you.