With all the injuries the New York Yankees have endured, a hot streak by Chase Headley is coming at an ideal time for the squad.
Unless you haven’t been paying attention, you can see how banged up the New York Yankees are right now. Aaron Hicks, Starlin Castro and CC Sabathia — all borderline All-Stars — have found their way onto the disabled list leaving the squad searching for answers.
One answer has come in the form of third baseman Chase Headley, who is finding his stroke at the right time for a team attacked relentlessly by the injury bug.
Since June 13, the 33-year-old, who hit just .165 in the month of May, owns a .455/.548/.636 slash line with one home run and seven RBIs in 10 games. Among American League third baseman in the month of June, Headley ranks second in batting average (.333), first in on-base percentage (.429) and eighth in hits despite only taking 69 at-bats so far.
In Monday night’s 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox from Guaranteed Rate Field, Headley went 3-for-4 with a double that was absolutely smoked and a RBI after sitting out three games with back spasms during New York’s series with the Rangers at Yankee Stadium. He has come back with back-to-back three-hit games suggesting not only that the back issue has surpassed him, but that his streaky season has hit another high point.
Headley slashed .301/.402/.494 in the month of April followed by a May which saw that slash line dip down to .165/.211/.235 featuring the lowest batting average among qualified third baseman and a strikeout rate of 32.2 percent.
While seeing his production spike would be a welcomed theme to begin with, Headley getting hot at this time is just what the doctor ordered — pun intended.
Along with Hicks, Castro and Sabathia, first baseman Greg Bird has been on the shelf due to several injuries and veteran slugger Matt Holliday sat out his second consecutive game due to concerns arising from an allergic reaction he had in Oakland on June 17.
With that, Headley chose the right time frame to break out of his slump. Sure, winning starts with pitching (the Yankees are 2-8 in Headley’s last 10 starts), but New York needs a spark plug beyond Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez to continue their monstrous production (third-best in MLB in runs with 414).
As the usual reinforcements to the middle of this potent lineup recover, an upturn of the incredible streaky season of Chase Headley could lighten the blow caused by all these wounds.
