Harrison Bader Has Been an Epic Surprise for the Yankees

Harrison Bader Has Been an Epic Surprise for the Yankees

Did anyone expect good things to come out of the Yankees trading away solid starter Jordan Montgomery for outfielder Harrison Bader? Nope. This deadline trade looked foolish by all accounts at the time. What nobody realizes, however, is this trade is paying off and at the right time for New York.

The Yankees are now in the American League Championship Series facing the resilient Houston Astros. Although they are currently down three games to nothing, Bader has been an X-factor offensive juggernaut this entire postseason.

It wasn’t always this great for Bader though. During the regular season, the speedy center fielder slashed .250/.294/.356 with five homers and an anemic OPS+ of 87 — this is combined with his time in St. Louis and New York.

So far in the 2022 postseason, there’s been practically a seismic shift in the playstyle of Bader. During the ALDS against the Cleveland Guardians, he slugged three homers. Combined with the current ALCS, Bader is sitting on a slash line of .273/.385/.818 with four homers.

To put this into perspective, he is only one home run shy of his total for the entire 2022 regular season in which he played 86 games and 313 plate appearances. Quite unreal. Mind you, his career high in home runs was 16.

What’s even more shocking is the fact that the dude with an 87 OPS+ is outplaying the true stars of this Yankees squad. MVP candidate Aaron Judge, who led the majors in home runs, RBI, and an OPS+ of 211, has only hit two home runs this entire postseason accompanied by a horrid slash of .179/.207/.393.

Yes, I acknowledge these are incredibly small sample sizes. These short series, however, matter so much more in the long run. Bader has risen to the occasion in a big way and is the unsung hero so far for the New York Yankees this postseason.

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