Newly-retired pitcher Zack Britton says the New York Yankees‘ use of analytics caused a “disconnect” between the players and organization.
Britton made the comments on the New York Post‘s baseball podcast, “The Show.”
Britton announced his retirement on Nov. 20 after playing 12 seasons in the MLB, the final five of which he spent in New York. He did not play in 2023.
“I think sometimes, and this happened with me personally … you can go down the rabbit hole with analytics,” the two-time all-star said. “You can kind of justify anything, right? The numbers, you can skew them anyway to paint the picture you want to paint.”
His main sticking point was feeling like the numbers didn’t always match what he and others saw while out on the field.
“I just know that, as a player there, a lot of times in the clubhouse it felt like there was this disconnect between some of the things we were presented with, and what we were seeing on the field as players,” Britton said.
“Sometimes that creates a rift, which is not what you want. You want from a clubhouse culture standpoint everything to mesh well together…and I felt that sometimes the two just weren’t connecting well.”
The disconnect comments are similar to those that emerged after the Blue Jays lost to the Minnesota Twins in the final game of the wild-card round, when an effective Jose Berrios was pulled in the fourth inning.
Britton was also asked whether he believed manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman were still the right duo for their jobs despite the Yankees missing the playoffs this year.
“I think Brian Cashman’s the longest-tenured GM in the game. He’s a great baseball guy,” said Britton. “With Brian, it might just be needing to blend the two a little more. I’m not sure because I’m not really in the front office. I only knew what I saw as a player and what I was exposed to, and I’m not exposed to what’s happening behind closed doors in the front office.”
He went on to explain that both Cashman and Boone are great communicators and players do enjoy playing for them, but also understands why Yankees fans are growing impatient.
“When you haven’t won a World Series in a while, I know the fan base sort of gets restless,” said Britton on New York not having won a World Series since 2009. “They’re gonna critique everybody.”
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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