SEATTLE — The Yankees tried over the winter to interview Sean Casey for the hitting coach position he just accepted, but people close to the situation say Casey couldn’t consider it at that time because his girlfriend was undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
She’s said to be cancer-free now, which enabled Casey to accept the job.
The hiring of Casey probably surprised some folks since he presumably represents a steep departure from the analytical, new-school, launch-angle-emphasizing approach favored by deposed hitting coach Dillon Lawson (and most of the hitting coaches in the organization).
It’s unknown exactly what Casey plans to emphasize, but as a major leaguer, he was a contact-first, career .302 hitter — exactly the kind of guy the Yankees need in the lineup now.
Casey, who agreed to take the job for the remainder of the year only for now — they’ll figure out later whether he’d like to keep doing it — undoubtedly will help pull the organization together.
There was quite a split within the ranks over Lawson, with the analytics guys all in on him and the others probably never in, and definitely not in lately, with the Yankees’ offense falling apart since Aaron Judge went down June 3.
Casey, who is one of Aaron Boone’s best friends from their years together on the Reds infield a couple of decades ago, is someone they can all get behind.
He will engender the respect of the struggling veterans, notably Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu.
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It also doesn’t hurt that “The Mayor” frequently has been cited as the friendliest or even nicest guy in baseball, which I can attest is true as a colleague at MLB Network since 2009.
Dodgers superstar pitcher Clayton Kershaw says he will sit down with his family at the end of the year and re-evaluate whether he wants to come back for another year and keep doing one-year deals or not.
“We’ll do that again in the offseason and hopefully, if we do want to play, somebody will want me.”
While he doesn’t love the frequent questioning about his future that his one-year deals bring, he remains more comfortable going year-to-year now.
Reds All-Star closer Alexis Diaz said his brother Edwin is doing “very well,” and predicted his year may not be over.
“It seems like he’s going to come back,” Alexis Diaz said. “He’s been able to recover quickly.”
Edwin is scheduled to throw off a mound next week.
