2010 Season in Review: The Designated Hitter

The Yankees have had a looming designated hitter opening ever since ‘s knees stopped working. After much unpopular speculation last offseason that the Yankees would forgo a permanent DH and rotate some of their aging superstars through the position instead, the team signed Nick Johnson.

Nick the Stick seemed like an ideal candidate. He was relatively cheap. He got on base better than just about everyone else in baseball (.402 career OBP), making him a perfect fit for the Yankees’ high-OBP, patient offensive approach. He was injury prone, so he wouldn’t have much leverage to push back if the team wanted to slot or at his position for a game or two.

Johnson disappointed immediately:

Johnson walked as much the team expected, probably more, in fact, but an abnormally low BABIP limited his overall value. If he didn’t walk, he was an automatic out in the month of April, and was reduced to a measly .305 wOBA. Nick didn’t sniff much of May, but when the calendar changed months Johnson began hitting, immensely, until he got hurt. He wouldn’t pick up a bat again in 2010.

The Yankees didn’t sign to be a backup for Johnson. They essentially signed Thames as a reserve, with the idea that he might occasionally platoon with Johnson, even though The Stick had never shown much of a split during his career against lefties. However, Thames had. He owned them. When Johnson wasn’t resting to make way for an older superstar, he’d be resting so Thames could put the hurt on a southpaw. When Johnson went down, Marcus stepped up.

Most of Brian Cashman’s offseason moves last year backfired, save one: . A series of injuries early in the season brought bench players into the spotlight in the Bronx. Although Thames was about as bad with a glove as an outfielder can be, he was the Yankees’ biggest surprise with a bat, posting a .365 wOBA on the season, just about what the team got from A-Rod and in terms of average production.

Thames had an uneven season. A ridiculous .750 BABIP thrust him out of the gate in April. He regressed to the mean in May and ran over a bat in June, taking him out of commission. He was excellent in July, but superhuman in August. At a time when the Yankees were struggling, and A-Rod had gone down with an injury, Tex and Thames simultaneously became Nuclear Explosion-level hot, and carried the offense. Marcus cooled in September, but his work was done.

Mid-season, the Yankees traded for to step in the box against righties, even though Thames actually hit righties even better than lefties in 2010. The team probably could have saved themselves some cash on Berkman and kept one of their better bats in the lineup in the process. Instead, the Big Puma found himself in pinstripes, and he mostly stunk.

Once upon a time Berkman was one of the best hitters in the National League, but those days are long past. Berkman showed up in a Yankee uniform and proceeded to stink up the joint. After posting decent numbers as an Astro, Berkman mysteriously lost all his power in the Bronx. He was supposed to be a solid option against righties, but all he managed to do was take the bat out of Thames’ hands. A month of solid hitting at season’s end wasn’t enough to overshadow a .314 wOBA as a Yankee. However, Berkman absolutely raked in the postseason, including a mammoth home run in Game 2 against Minnesota, so all is forgiven.

All in all the Yankees managed to get decent production from the DH spot for the season (a .348 wOBA), despite having their first choice for the job go down with an injury. Unfortunately Thames has probably earned his way out of pinstripes next season. According to Baseball-Reference, Thames has only made about $5.5 million in his career, gold dust to ordinary folk like us, but roughly the exact pay cut is refusing right now. His solid production has earned him the right to a bigger paycheck and more of an everyday role, two things the Yankees can’t offer him. According to RAB, a Japanese club may be looking to fill that void. In all probability, expect Thames to be gone next season.

This isn’t the loss that it seems. While the idea of a rotating DH wasn’t palatable after a 2009 season that saw all the aging Yankees avoid the DL, 2010 was a different story. A-Rod, Jorge, Tex, and all went down with one ailment or another. As bad as a replacement level bat is, it’s much worse to have A-Rod pull a hammy play
ing third.

And the Yankees don’t plan on having a replacement level bat in the lineup all that frequently anyway. has already been told that he’ll be getting most of his swings as the DH in 2011, in part to give phenom and heavy hitter Jesus Montero a puncher’s chance of making the team. If Montero continues to build on the amazing promise he has thus far in his young career, Yankee fans may eventually forget Posada ever even existed, allowing the Yankees to rotate the DH without taking much of a hit to the offense.