James Rowson Back With Yankees As Hitting Coach

The Yankees, who had one of the worst offences in the majors last season, named James Rowson as their new hitting instructor on Monday.

James Rowson Back With Yankees As Hitting Coach

Rowson takes over for Sean Casey, who was brought in midseason after the Yankees dismissed Dillon Lawson at the All-Star break, but stated last month that he would not be coming back for family reasons.

Sensing that the budding slugger was headed for greatness, James Rowson, who had been the Yankees’ Minor League hitting coordinator in the past, developed a positive rapport with a young Aaron Judge.

This season, Rowson and Judge will have the chance to collaborate once more. As the Yankees’ big league hitting instructor, Rowson has returned to the organization, the team announced on Monday. Sean Casey, who played the part for a full season before deciding not to come back, is replaced by Rowson.

“He always wanted to know, ‘Why?’ Which I think is the most important question that a young hitter can ask,” Rowson once said. “Any time you’re making adjustments or you’re talking about the game, it was like, ‘Hey, tell me why you want to do that?’ When guys ask that question, you really know that they’re going to make it their own.”

It was New York’s first in-season coaching move since Nardi Contreras took Billy Connors’ pitching coaching job in July 1995 when Dillon Lawson was sacked at the All-Star break following a season and a half as hitting coach. Sean Casey took Lawson’s position after he made the decision not to return for 2024.

Rowson, 47, served as Class A Tampa’s hitting coach in 2006 and 2007. The Yankees employed him as their minor league hitting coordinator from 2008 to 2011 and again from 2014 to 2016, during which time Judge advanced through the farm system.

Rowson, who served as the Tigers’ assistant hitting coach last season, will be in his tenth season as a big league coach in 2024. After serving as the Twins’ hitting coach for three years (2017–19), Rowson was the Marlins’ bench coach from 2020–22.

The Twins were fourth in the Majors in runs scored (2,492), fifth in batting average (.260) and slugging percentage (.445), sixth in on-base percentage (.775), and seventh in home runs (679) during Rowson’s tenure with the team.

Rowson’s first priority will be to get a veteran like Giancarlo Stanton back on track, but the Yankees will also be looking to him to assist their younger hitters in advancing to the next level of their major league careers.

It will also be crucial to see how successfully Rowson connects and communicates with his batters since this was Lawson’s undoing after he took over as the team’s minor league hitting coordinator prior to becoming the helm in 2022.

This season, New York’s batting average of.227 is the third lowest in Yankees history, behind.214 in 1968 and.225 in 1967, and it is only surpassed by Oakland’s.223. The Yankees, who finished 82-80, narrowly escaped having their first losing season since 1992 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Season was dubbed “a disaster” by general manager Brian Cashman and “awful” by owner Hal Steinbrenner.

 

 

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