Yankees manager Aaron Boone is safe, but hitting program faces questions

Brian Cashman is the longest-tenured general manager in Yankees history, and until this week he had never fired a coach during a season.

It was, then, a dramatic and unprecedented moment on Sunday when Cashman dismissed hitting coach Dillon Lawson -- so much so that it invited questions about other aspects of the organization that seemed stable.

To clear up the most natural bit of speculation that arose, Aaron Boone’s job is completely secure, according to major league sources. Yankee fans should not read the axing of a coach as a sign that the hot seat has moved to Boone; he is not going anywhere, full stop.

What, then, did Lawson’s firing mean for the organization?

First and most obvious, the Yankees are honing in on their next hitting coach hire. Sources confirmed that former MLB player Sean Casey is likely to become the next hitting coach, as first reported by the New York Post and the Athletic.

The Yankees front office is aware that players miss Hensley Meulens, an assistant hitting coach in 2022 who left to become the primary hitting coach in Colorado. Last year, Yankees hitters gravitated toward Meulens for advice, and many team officials were upset to lose him. Now they are left to wonder if Meulens’ departure threw off a delicate balance and exposed Lawson’s inability to get buy-in from big league hitters.

Recognizing the credibility that former big league hitters carry with them into coaching jobs, the club first spoke to Don Mattingly about replacing Meulens, sources say. Mattingly had recently parted ways with the Marlins, and Cashman and Boone discussed bringing him home to the Yankees.

Talks with Mattingly did not progress because the Toronto Blue Jays were offering a bench coach job. If Mattingly had sat out last winter’s hiring season and was a free agent today, the Yankees would likely name him to replace Lawson. But that reunion will have to wait for another season when the timing lines up.

The Yankees ended up hiring former player Brad Wilkerson for the Meulens job, and are happy with him. They know how important it is to have a voice in the coaching ranks who has the lived experience of facing major league pitching. It’s not easy to get MLB players to listen or buy-in, and while plenty of great coaches lack high-level playing experience, that creates a deficit in credibility that coaches must address head-on.

Neither Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake, third base/outfield coach Luis Rojas nor bench/infield coach Carlos Mendoza played in the big leagues, but their humility, in addition to their hard work, has created the space for them to become highly effective servants to the players’ needs.

Most Yankees higher-ups believe that Lawson did excellent work in player development before taking the big league job. He became popular with the wing of the organization that includes Hal Steinbrenner’s nephew Stephen Swindal and Single-A Tampa manager Rachel Balkovec, a former hitting instructor under Lawson’s program.

In the immediate aftermath of the firing, the Yankees did not plan to alter the organizational hitting philosophy that Lawson summarized as “hit strikes hard.” In fact, the team is open to discussing with Lawson another role in the organization.

Having said that, questions about the hitting approach follow the Yankees. Why is Anthony Volpe’s swing longer than it was in the minor leagues when he wowed scouts with his “hitability,” rather than the power-centered approach that sometimes results in ugly at-bats?

Why is Oswaldo Cabrera seeming to swing for the fences this year rather than shortening up and using the entire field?

Why did Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks improve upon leaving for other teams?

Those were some of the inquiries that grew stronger over the past few weeks, as Cashman launched a deep dive into the dynamic.

Many times before, Cashman has reported on his own clubhouse before making significant changes. After the historic 1998 season, he learned of potential complacency setting in, so he traded for the championship-hungry Roger Clemens to shake up the vibe.

After the 2008 season, he learned that the clubhouse had become largely joyless under Derek Jeter’s captaincy, so he brought in the likes of CC Sabathia and Nick Swisher to lighten up the room.

Championships followed both of these instances of dramatic change.

This year, from the front office to the clubhouse, the Yankees believe that a World Series is within reach, perhaps more so than at any point since their magical run to the ALCS in 2017.

Now they are left to hope that Cashman’s latest massive shakeup will end with the same result.