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After a series of ups and downs throughout the summer, the Yankees appear to have stabilized, winning five of their last seven and getting back to the kind of baseball that had them off to a blazing start in April and May—good pitching, lots of slugging. That’s the formula the Bombers will take into October, assuming a smooth ride at the top of the A.L. East or, at least, in the wild card mix.
But when the playoffs do start, the Yankees will need to amp up their ability to strategize, and one aspect of their roster that is sorely lacking is speed. The Yankees simply do not run. They have 57 steals on the year, which ranks 28th in baseball. Even if they’re not looking to tear up the basepaths, they need players who can serve as pinch-runners in tight situations, or start at second base in extra-inning scenarios.
To that end, the Yankees made an interesting move this week, picking up one of the fastest players in the game—Duke Ellis, who had been let go by the Mariners after both the White Sox and Mets had given up on him this year.
Duke Ellis Has an 88% SB Success Rate
The 26-year-old Ellis has been a speedster going back to his days at the University of Texas, where he finished out his career with 32 straight stolen bases, with 40 steals against just two times caught stealing in three seasons with the Longhorns. He also was a highlight-reel defensive player and though he was not drafted out of college, he earned a minor-league contract with the White Sox.
He has puttered around the minors in the years since, though, as his bat has not caught up to his legs. For his minor-league career, he has stolen 134 bases with just 18 times caught, an 88% success rate.
But in 75 games in the minors this season, he batted .235 with a .315 on-base percentage and a.336 slugging percentage. Ellis was called up to the White Sox early in the year, and was 0-for-4 at the plate, but was effective as a pinch-runner, stealing four bases without getting caught.
In 125 plate appearances at Triple A, Ellis has batted just .205 with a .218 on-base percentage.
He did show some promise back in 2022, though he has not capitalized on it. As SB Nation wrote of Ellis:
“The 2022 season sang a different tune, however, as Ellis established himself as an offensive weapon while mostly repeating Winston-Salem; overall, he slashed .275/.363/.397, with steals in 57-of-66 attempts. The new rules skewed to help base runners allowed Ellis to run wild, with a stellar 86.4% success rate; Billy Hamilton might not be the perfect comp, but it’s something to meditate on.”
Yankees Rank 28th in Speed
According to the analysis site Baseball Savant, the average sprint speed for an MLB player is 27 feet per second. The Yankees have only two regulars who are significantly faster than that—Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe.
But they’ve got three of the slowest players in all of MLB in first baseman Anthony Rizzo (returning from a broken arm), catcher Jose Trevino and designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton. All three have sprint speeds less than 25 feet per second, and rank among the 20 slowest players in baseball.
As a team, the Yankees have an average sprint speed of 26.8 feet per second, which is 28th in baseball.
It won’t be easy to squeeze a guy like Ellis onto a tight postseason roster, but given how important a pinch runner could be in a series, the Yankees might need him.
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