For the first time under the 25-year tenure of New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, the organization has fired a member of its coaching staff in the middle of the season. The team relieved hitting coach Dillon Lawson of his duties amid a scuffling offense. The “Bronx Bombers” have hit a major league-worst .218 since Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his right big toe, and rank near the bottom of the league in on-base percentage. While the firing of Lawson came as a surprise to many, the team acted swiftly to name MLB Network analyst Sean Casey as his replacement.
Casey had been with MLB Network since the league-owned entity launched in 2009 and was also teammates with manager Aaron Boone while in the major leagues. Taking on the position for the remainder of the 2023 season, he is excited to get to work and help refine the Yankees’ hitting approach to engender more success. The transition, he believes, would have been considerably more difficult had he not worked in sports media.
While contributing to a variety of its programming – most notably the Emmy Award-winning MLB Tonight – Casey presented on-air demonstrations of key, fundamental baseball skills. A .302 hitter over his 12-year Major League Baseball career, Casey came to the network with skill and expertise pertaining to the sport and proffered advice and support as an analyst. He has essentially served in somewhat of a hitting coach role for viewers of MLB Network and is now ready to take his talents back to a big-league stage.
“MLB Network has made me so ready for this job,” Casey said. “I’ve basically been a coach for a long time.”
Similarly to Casey, Yankees manager Aaron Boone worked as a broadcaster from the time he retired as a player. In fact, he became a color commentator on Sunday Night Baseball with Dan Shulman and Jessica Mendoza for two seasons and was also a part of the radio commentary team for the World Series. Boone continues to remain in the space, as he has partnered with Jomboy Media to appear on the Talkin’ Yanks podcast for a weekly guest spot this season.
The Yankees hope Casey’s ebullient personality and baseball wherewithal will help the team improve its position in the standings after the conclusion of the All-Star Break. His future beyond this season remains unknown, making a potential return to MLB Network possible – but for now, his focus will be on preparing the Yankees on their chase to a 28th World Series championship.
