Just for fun, I decided to do a quick comparison between the 1992 Yankees and the 2020 Yankees by looking at the teams position-by-position and just comparing some traditional counting stats, the triple slash lines, and bWAR.
For the 2020 Yankees, these numbers are through Sept. 7, 2020. Also, of note, of course, all of the 2020 Yankees on this list have the opportunity to perform better or worse than their current numbers. Also we can take homers and RBI’s with a grain of salt for the 2020 Yankees, but I share them just for a point of comparison.
This is the first in a short series. Today we’ll look at the catcher and infielders.
Catcher:
1992- Matt Nokes .224/22/59 .293/.424/.718 bWAR = 0.3
2020- Gary Sanchez .130/7/15 .237/.350/.587 bWAR = -0.4
Amazingly, Matt Nokes clearly had the better year.
First Base:
1992- Don Mattingly .288/14/86 .327/.416/.742 bWAR = 2.8
2020- Luke Voit .276/14/29 .353/.619/.973 bWAR = 1.2
Luke Voit’s numbers dwarf Mattingly’s (who, at this point, was on the downside of his career). At this point, even with a truncated season that isn’t even finished, he has matched Mattingly’s total for a full year.
Second Base:
1992- Pat Kelly .226/7/27 .301/.374/.675 bWAR = 0.6
2020- D.J. LeMahieu .362/4/12 .405/.517/.922 bWAR = 1.5
This was never even in question. Pat Kelly’s strength was always his defense, never his bat. LeMahieu is as gifted as Kelly defensively (and is probably better) and he has been a hitting sensation since coming to the Yankees.
Shortstop:
1992- Andy Stankiewicz .268/2/25 .338/.348/.685 bWAR = 2.7
2020- Gleyber Torres .233/1/6 .347/.314/.660 bWAR = 0.0
1992 was Andy Stankiewicz’s best season. He was a +2 WAR player. To date, Gleyber Torres has struggled. If the season ended now, Stankiewicz would have better numbers in every way.
Third Base:
1992- Charlie Hayes .257/18/66 .297/.409/.705 bWAR = 2.2
2020- Gio Urshela .272/6/23 .358/.515/.873 bWAR = 1.1
More and more, Gio Urshela is looking like the real deal. The other day we asked about core players the Yankees should build around. Amazingly, it seems that Urshela just might be a core piece going forward. No one would have predicted that a year ago.
By- Paul Semendinger
Posted – September 9, 2020
