In May, the Yankees were probably tied with the Philadelphia Phillies as the best team in baseball. They were certainly the best team in the American League.

In June, it all began to collapse around them, On the month, they were only 14-13 (compared to 21-7 in May). More remarkably and significantly, in the second half of June they were 4-9.

Aaron Judge and Luis Soto remained strong, but what had gone wrong?

Let’s begin by surveying the batting statistics:

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Aaron Judge of/dh	25	88	25	36	5	1	11	37	16	26	3	.409	.514	.864	1.378
Giancarlo Stanton dh	18	69	11	21	2	0	5	16	7	26	0	.304	.377	.551	.928
Juan Soto rf	23	69	27	19	1	1	5	12	31	17	0	.275	.500	.536	1.036
Ben Rice 1b/c	12	33	4	9	2	0	0	2	6	5	0	,273	.375	.333	.708
Jahmai Jones of/if/dh	14	23	4	6	0	1	0	1	1	6	0	.261	.320	.348	.668
Trent Grisham of/dh	18	39	8	10	1	0	4	11	5	16	0	.256	.348	.590	.938
Austin Wells c	16	42	9	10	2	0	2	8	6	17	0	.238	.340	.429	.769
Oswaldo Cabrera if/of	17	40	6	9	2	0	1	5	2	12	0	.225	.279	.350	.629
Anthony Volpe ss	27	123	19	27	5	3	0	4	3	33	4	.220	.238	.309	.547
Alex Verdugo cf	26	105	11	23	6	1	1	14	7	23	0	.219	.265	.324	.589
Gleyber Torres 2b	24	87	13	19	5	0	4	16	7	22	0	.218	.276	.414	.690
Jose Trevino c	18	51	5	10	1	0	3	8	3	14	0	.196	.255	.392	.647
DJ LeMahieu 3b/1b	23	76	5	14	2	0	0	9	9	15	0	.184	.267	.211	.478
J.D Davis 1b/dh	3	9	1	1	1	0	0	1	2	5	0	.111	.273	.222	.495
Anthony Rizzo 1b	13	48	4	5	1	0	1	3	5	5	0	.104	.185	.188	.373
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

Catchers

Jose Trevino‘s defensive work has begun to falter. Runners are confident that they can steal on him and removing that impression is going to take a lot of hard work. Also his batting performance has fallen far below what the Yankees were hoping for, as he batted only .196 with 4 extra base hits (3 home runs) in June.

Austin Wells also hit 4 extra base hits, but he managed as many hits in significantly fewer at bats. He hit .238 in June.

Infielders

The middle of the month as well as escalating the slump of the Yankees saw some significant injuries. One of these was to Anthony Rizzo who struggled so much with injury and loss of form in 2023, and who despite his apparent recovery from concussion-related problems, had a remarkable slump in June this year. He hit .104 with only 2 extra base hits. The Yankees seemed at a loss to know what to do with Rizzo, when a fracture to his right forearm on the 17th of the month put him first on the 10 day injured list and then transferred to the 60 day list. With backup first baseman DJ LeMahieu also struggling at the plate, the Yankees called up Ben Rice who had started the season at the Double-A Somerset Patriots before a successful transition to Scranton (Triple-A). He has begun well with a .273 batting average, but I’m not convinced he is any kind of long time solution. Also brought in on the 23rd of the month was J.D. Davis who can play both 1b and 3b. He was traded from Oakland in exchange for Josh Grohans who hasn’t played in the major leagues since a short stint with the Miami Marlins in 2022. Davis has one hit in his first 9 at-bats for New York. He can just be added to the list of the players who don’t look like being a solution at the corners for the Yankees’ infield.

With the infielders at the corners strugging, it would help if the centre infielders weren’t slumping as well, but they are. Anthony Volpe had been doing so much batter with the bat than he did last season, but June saw him return to 2023 levels. His OPS for the month was not much above .500. He is still hitting with some power, but the Yankees need him to produce far more singles than the 19 he produced in 123 at bats.

Gleyber Torres, at second base, is also falling far below the standards the Yankees would hope for, He had a very good year in 2023, but he is not in any danger of reproducing that standard. His .218 batting average is simply not good enough. He is Mr. Inconsistency.

Jon Berti remains unavailable, but will perhaps be back in August.

Finally, we have Oswaldo Cabrera who keeps convincing me he might be a better regular third base choice than LeMahieu – and then he hits a slump like this month. At least off the bench, he gives the Yankees an extra outfield or pinch hitter option, but he too needs to bounce back from his current dip.

Outfielders

Aaron Judge is perhaps the equal of any other three of the Yankees except Soto. He can play any of the outfield positions. He covers for the injured Giancarlo Stanton at designated hitter. He led the team on the month in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging. Adding all that together means that he leads in on-base plus slugging (OPS) too. 17 extra base hits including 11 home runs and 5 doubles – only the speedy Volpe tops him in triples. He truly is a remarkable player on a remarkable run of form.

Juan Soto can’t match that, but batting ahead of Judge means he crosses the plate to score a run more often than his colleague. Having the .275 hitting (in June) Soto ahead of him means that Judge has an enormous number of RBIs as he so frequently brings the former Padre home.

Alex Verdugo is another who is slumping in June. He hit only .219 with only home run.

Trent Grisham was able to take more time in the outfield and filled a gap at DH. Many had suggested that his terrible struggles in the early part of the season was due to being unused to playing off the bench rather than used as an every day player. June seems to have added more strength to that argument. This month, he bounced back somewhat to .256 with 4 home runs.

Jahmai Jones was another who saw more playing time this month. He also batted well (.261) in the 14 appearances he made in all kinds of roles. He doesn’t bring power to the team, but achieves singles, is speedy, and is proving an asset on many levels during this difficult time.

Designated Hitters

Injuries to Giancarlo Stanton, it seems, are inevitable. Ironically, this latest one came during the best run of at-bats he has had for a considerable time. It also came as the Yankees were keeping him out of the outfield to prevent such an injury. He strained his left hamstring this month and was added to the injured list on the 23rd of the month. Consequently, as the Yankees slump worsened much of the talk has turned to how much they are missing him. That is perhaps an exaggeration. Of course, any team is going to miss someone who can add in 5 home runs in 18 games, but this guy can’t run, so that .304 batting average in June must be weighed against the fact that if he gets on base without clearing the wall, he is effectively stranded unless he heightens massively his risk of injury.

With Stanton out, the Yankees briefly called up Oswald Peraza, but when Davis was signed he was optioned back to Scranton without getting into the line-up. The Yankees have many options to fill the DH role until Stanton returns – Davis, Judge, Grisham, Jones and more…