August 2022 was a nightmare month for the New York Yankees. If the New York Yankees hadn’t had such a good first half of the season, they would have been dead and buried by the end of August.

it still meant that the huge gap that the Yankees had opened prior to August was reduced from over 11 to 6. It meant that there was a genuine need for the New York team to snap out of it or one of the two pursuing team (Tampa Bay and Toronto) might catch them

This wasn’t what the Yankees had anticipated. Let’s see who helped them the dig the hole they had found themselves in.

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Aaron Judge of	27	90	17	26	4	0	9	22	5	25	28	.289	.458	.633	1.091
Jose Trevino c	21	77	11	22	3	0	3	7	0	2	12	.286	.313	.442	.755
Andrew Benintendi lf	28	103	13	27	8	1	2	10	3	7	24	.262	.313	.417	.730
Josh Donaldson 3b/dh	26	92	13	22	7	0	3	15	0	13	30	.239	.346	.413	.759
Oswaldo Cabrera if/of	14	51	3	12	3	1	0	2	0	3	12	.235	.278	.333	.611
Isiah Kiner-Falefa ss	24	78	8	18	2	0	1	7	0	7	16	.231	.299	.295	.594
Miguel Andujar if/of	5	18	0	4	0	0	0	1	1	0	8	.222	.222	.222	.444
Matt Carpenter if/of/dh	6	19	1	4	0	0	0	1	1	3	3	.211	.304	.263	.567
DJ LeMahieu if	24	95	9	20	3	0	1	4	0	9	18	.211	.276	.274	.550
Anthony Rizzo 1b	22	77	10	16	3	0	5	9	0	9	26	.208	.299	.442	.741
Kyle Higashioka c	11	29	2	6	1	0	2	5	0	0	6	.207	.207	.448	.655
Gleyber Torres 2b/ss	25	100	10	18	2	0	2	5	1	3	33	.180	.204	.260	.464
Aaron Hicks of	17	51	3	7	0	0	0	2	0	6	15	.137	.224	.137	.361
Giancarlo Stanton of/dh	6	23	0	3	0	0	0	3	0	4	5	.130	.259	.130	.389
Estevan Florial of	4	9	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	4	.111	.200	.111	.311
Marwin Gonzalez if/of	8	13	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	.000	.133	.000	.133
Tim Locastro of	9	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	K	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

Catchers

Jose Trevino is having a season that is still astounding the Yankees, and Kyle Higashioka is still having a season that means it is likely he will not be with the Yankees in 2023. Trevino hit .286 (2nd on the team) with 6 extra base hits and his OPS for the month was third on the team. Higashioka who started the season as first choice catcher with Trevino only brought in until Ben Rortvedt was ready to step up, couldn’t achieve much in any category. He hit .207 with two homers and a double. Higashioka only appeared in 11 games this month. Rortvedt still hasn’t played in the major leagues, but is at least at Scranton (Triple-A) getting match fit.

Infielders

Anthony Rizzo remains very much first choice first baseman for the Yankees. August, however, was really not a good month for him. Across 22 appearances, he only hit .208. His 5 home runs was second on the team and he was 4th on the team overall in extra base hits. But, he really, really needs to hit for average.

Gleyber Torres is still the man that the Yankees go to for second base duties. He appeared in 25 games in August, but his batting performance was dire. .180 with 4 extra base hits – there is no way to shine that up to make it look good.

Josh Donaldson at third base was better than most, but that isn’t saying much. In 26 games, he hit .239 with 10 extra base hits. He was second in OPS with a stat of .759 nudging him ahead of Trevino. Donaldson is a good man to have in the designated hitter role also, but frankly he is overpaid for what the Yankees have gained from him.

DJ LeMahieu is a fine player to have around. He gives the Yankees option at 1B, 2B, and 3B, but he is not the most used player at any of those roles. This month, he was just another one of the legions of the offensive strugglers with a .211 average.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa continues at shortshop. He is not the complete package that the Yankees expected. His fielding is good, but his range is poor. At the plate, he is solid, but don’t look for any power from him. That said, even his batting average took a dip this month to .231. This wasn’t as much a downward path as most others, but he needs to have better days at the office to avoid him finding himself nudged out of the shortstop role in the later days of the season.

Outfielders

Even on this poorest of months, Aaron Judge was way ahead of the field. He led the team in extra base hits (13), home runs (9), RBIs (22), BA (.289), BBs (25), OBP (.458), slugging (.633) and OPS (1.091). The Yankees may only have won 10 games in August, but Judge carried them to most of those wins. The Yankees are more than Aaron Judge, but in August they weren’t much more than him.

Andrew Benintendi arrived towards the end of July and whilst he did not match Judge’s performance, he contributed much. He led the team in doubles and overall hits. He hit .262. He has become the resident left-fielder and that presents problems for Aaron Hicks and Hick’s future.

Aaron Hicks moved to centre field and held onto that position for the early days of August. Howver, extraordinarily poor batting and also fielding mistakes, saw him lose the role. He hit .137 without a single extra base hit. His future would seem very poor, if it wasn’t for a long term contract which the Yankees are paying heavily for.

Oswaldo Cabrera who can play in both the infield and outfield, was called up from Scranton on the 17th August. To begin with the Yankees used him at third base and shortstop before moving him to right field with Judge shifting to centrefield and Benintendi in left. In his 14 appearances, he hit .235. His defense needs some work, but he looks better in the outfield than the infield.

Early in the month, Matt Carpenter suffered a fracture to his left foot which brought a premature end to the month, and perhaps to the whole season. This month had already seen him dip to .211. Miguel Andujar, Estevan Florial, Marwin Gonzalez, and Tim Locastro were around for a few days each, but contributed very little.

In a surprising move, the Yankees had acquired Harrison Bader from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Jordan Montgomery. New York traded for Bader knowing that he was already injured. Very odd that they would give up on Montgomery in this way. Montgomery’s close friend Jameson Taillon couldn’t believe what they had done to closest colleague on the club and went out and lost his start on that day.

Designated Hitters

With Giancarlo Stanton injured, many players took days at DH with Andujar and Carpenter (until his injury) being among those favoured. On the 25th of August, Stanton was able to move from his rehab periods (at Somerset and Scranton) back to the Bronx. There was little sign that he was coming back strong, hitting only .130 between his return and the end of the month.