After last season, Aaron Judge commented that the Yankees need to do a better job of relaying analytical information to players in a more effective way.
The Yankees’ decision-makers heard him, it appears: owner Hal Steinbrenner announced that he added Aaron Leanhardt to the major league coaching staff as an analyst — and his influence has been felt already.
“I’m excited about him,” Judge told Greg Joyce of the New York Post this week. “He’s in a good role, being that analyst that’s the barrier between us and the analytics. What I’ve seen so far, he does a good job funneling the information down. I think the guys are going to love him.”
Leanhardt has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and spent seven years as a physics professor at the University of Michigan. This will be his seventh season in the Yankees organization.
“He’s definitely the smartest guy here,” Judge said, via The Post.
Judge was candid in his assessment of the Yankees’ analytics after the disastrous 2023 season.
“We get a lot of numbers, but I think we might be looking at the wrong ones and maybe should value some other ones that some people might see as having no value,” Judge told reporters in October. “But when you’re playing 162 games, you’ve got to grind, and you’ve got to play through things. I think there are certain things you can’t put a number on.”
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