Aaron Boone is not ready to do it right now.
But the Yankees manager said Wednesday that over the “last couple weeks,” he has at least thought about flipping Aaron Judge and Juan Soto in the lineup.
Boone is hesitant to mess with either Judge or Soto, who had the top two OPS in the major leagues entering Wednesday (Judge at 1.157 and Soto at 1.035), though he said he would consider such a move if it helped the lineup at large.
The thought may have gained some more steam of late after the Blue Jays consistently took the bat out of Judge’s hands over the weekend and the Yankees struggled to make them pay for it.
The Angels walked Judge three times in Wednesday’s doubleheader, including intentionally in the eighth inning of Game 1 with two outs and no one on while trailing 5-2.
If Soto were to hit third, Judge would theoretically get more pitches to hit batting second.
“I look at it as a lineup as a whole and what makes the most sense for us scoring runs,” Boone said before Wednesday’s doubleheader in The Bronx. “Scoring runs, we’ve been doing a really good job of that, whether they’re putting on Judge or not. So it’s more just — I obsess on trying to have as much balance as I can. So that’ll factor in. Getting [Giancarlo Stanton] back into the mix and getting him going again could factor into that too, when you look at those first four or five hitters in the lineup.
“All things I pay attention to, but I also feel like offensively we’re in a pretty good place right now that I don’t want to upset it too much. But being mindful of how do we optimize Aaron and Juan the best we possibly can.”
Alex Verdugo has become the new Yankees leadoff hitter.
With Soto, he puts two left-handed bats at the top of the lineup and three in the top four, with Austin Wells batting cleanup behind Judge.
But if Stanton can get back to being the threat he was before landing on the IL, Boone could potentially roll out a lineup that alternates lefties and righties beginning with Verdugo, Judge, Soto, Stanton and Wells.
The Yankees are still “at least a few weeks off” from having to make a decision about what to do at first base once Anthony Rizzo is recovered from an arm fracture, Boone said.
Rizzo took live batting practice Tuesday but still has a ways to go in his build up while Ben Rice and DJ LeMahieu man first base.
“We’ll just continue to gather information and try to get Rizz right,” Boone said. “Look forward to having that decision.”
A day after throwing a 20-pitch live batting practice session, Clarke Schmidt (lat strain) was feeling good, keeping him on track to throw another on Saturday.
Before Wednesday’s first game, the Yankees held a moment of silence for Billy Bean, MLB’s senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, who died Tuesday at the age of 60 after a year-long fight with leukemia.
“First of all, just a great guy,” Boone said. “Definitely a sad day for our sport. But also just a guy that, in creating the position that the commissioner created for him several years ago, created more tolerance in our sport. Understand that there’s a lot more similarities between us than when we always focus on the differences. Billy was a guy that definitely helped bring people together and move the needle in that regard. He’s somebody that will be missed by a lot of people in the game, but a lot of people in our organization that I know he’s close to as well.”