TAMPA — Aaron Judge thought he had a place all his own.
Last month, the Yankees captain went to the club’s player development facility for a late-night workout. He wanted to practice his hitting and work on a few things as he continued to strengthen heading into spring training.
But soon Judge realized he wasn’t alone.
“I can see this guy sneaking through,” the judge said with a laugh.
Who will be responsible for providing insights to players? Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
The former Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist was looking for food late at night at the facility and ended up talking to the judge for an hour or two, laying the groundwork for an important relationship.
The team’s new Major League Analyst, Aaron Lienhart, hopes the Yankees will be the solution to the problems that became apparent by the end of last season, and Judge will provide players with analytical data in an appropriate format. “We need to do a better job of doing that,” he said.
Only time will tell whether Lienhart can make an impact in a way that can help the Yankees win after a tough 1982-80 season. However, he made a strong impression on key figures in the organization early on.
“I’m excited for him,” the judge told the Post this week. “He plays a good role as an analyst, a barrier between us and the analytics department. From what I’ve seen so far, he gathers information well. People like him. I think it will.”
Before manager Hal Steinbrenner revealed last week that the Yankees had promoted Leanhart (known in the clubhouse as “Lenny”), who has been with the team since 2018, to a new role, Google search would have mainly shown his accomplishments outside of baseball.
In a NASA-funded study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), scientists including Lienhardt, then a graduate student completing his Ph.D., cooled sodium gas to its lowest temperature ever recorded.
There was a YouTube clip of Lienhardt, who was a physics professor at Michigan State for seven years, giving a lecture titled “History of Telling Time.” And then there was his web page, “Rate My Professor,” which gave Leanhardt his full 5 stars.
“He’s definitely the smartest guy here. He hasn’t flaunted his Nobel Prize yet,” the judge quipped. “I think he’ll save it for a nice meeting or something.”
But Lienhardt left lecture halls and labs for another passion. At a time when data and analytics were gaining traction in the baseball world, he began his coaching career in 2017, working with New Jersey (as an assistant in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League) and Montana (Dawson) in his community. I stopped by the college hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. ) before the Yankees hired him in 2018.
He served as a hitting coach for multiple lower leagues, including the Dominican Summer League team, and then served as the club’s assistant minor league hitting coordinator for the last two seasons.
“He took a path he didn’t have to take for his love of the game and to teach, coach and help,” manager Aaron Boone told the Post.
Boone said the Yankees went through an extensive process to fill the major league analyst position previously held by Zach Philault before acquiring Lienhart, who remains with the team in a different role. He said he is doing so. In recent years, Leenhart has been “helping” the coaching staff by sharing some thoughts and ideas, and Boone said he is now part of that staff (although he won’t be in uniform). ).
“He has a great work ethic and a crazy love for the game,” Boone said. “He’s a guy who’s been here forever, anything baseball-wise. … He certainly has an analytical grasp of everything and the ability because of his intelligence, but the combination of coaching and how he applies things. I think that stood out to me.”
Steinbrenner said that, like Judge, Gerrit Cole had expressed concerns about how the data was presented to players. The Yankees are counting on Lienhart to be able to sort through the large amount of information and numbers available and break it down into useful pieces of information that will better help players when they take the field or step into the batter’s box.
“Just being a former hitting coach, you can tell a few things about him,” Judge said. “I think that’s why he’ll do his job so well. He won’t just look at the numbers, he’ll filter them and say, ‘Hey, we’re getting these numbers,’ or ‘X, Y, Z. You’ll be able to filter things like “I’m focusing on this.” He’d say something like, “Hey, we need to do this,” or “We need to fix this.”
“He understands why certain numbers say certain things and filters like, ‘Hey, I know five things. Let’s focus on these two because they’re actually going to be used in the game.’ ”
Minor league outfielder Brandon Lockridge, who has worked with Leenhart in recent years, praised his communication. Different players have different preferences, and Leanhart has made it possible for players to choose what is most beneficial to them. And if there are areas he doesn’t know much about, that changes quickly.
“As far as I understand, he didn’t know anything about bats, but two weeks later he knew everything about bats,” Lockridge said of which bat models are most advantageous to hitters. He spoke while referring to the information. “Let’s just jump in and find out.”
Now, Leanhart will be tasked with making a similar impact at the major league level. His late night habits are the same as Judge’s, and he’s off to a good start.
“I think the biggest thing that I like about him is that he’s a hard worker,” Judge said. “He shows up every day. Even when I’m sneaking in here and he knows the clubbies are letting me in here when I want to work out late at night. I see this guy still out there when he’s hitting and stuff. That excites me.”
