Inside The Pinstripes

Tyler Wade Attributes Recent Offensive Success to ‘More Opportunity’

A speedy utility man, Wade’s bat never made much of impact until recently. He thinks being in the Yankees’ lineup more often has helped.

Gary Phillips

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Tyler Wade’s bat never gave the Yankees much—until recently, anyway.

Whatever value Wade provided through his first four big-league seasons came from his defensive versatility and quick legs. With a .190/.274/.301 slasher from 2017-2020, he was hardly an offensive threat.

Wade began this season with much of the same, posting a slash line of .224/.283/.265 through his first 53 plate appearances. Those 53 trips to the plate, however, came across 52 games. A useful pinch-runner and defensive substitution, Wade rarely saw a full game’s worth of at-bats. He was optioned to Triple-A on July 5.

His demotion didn’t last long, though. The Yankees recalled Wade on July 8 when right-hander Michael King injured his finger. He started in left field the following day against Houston and picked up his first double of the season. Wade has been hitting ever since.

Wade owns a .322/.412/.407 line in 27 games and 69 plate appearances since his call-up. He has never been a power hitter—he’s still waiting on his first homer of the year—but the 26-year-old does have five doubles over that stretch. He has also stolen eight bases since July 9, contributing to the Yankees’ second-half turn to speed.

“I love it. It’s a different part of the game,” Wade said Saturday of the Yankees’ sudden quickness on the base paths. “Anytime I can do that, or it’s [Brett Gardner] or Andrew [Velazquez], even [Aaron Judge is] now stealing bases. So yeah, it’s been fun, that’s for sure.”

But speed—and versatility—has always been part of Wade’s game. It’s the hitting that’s new, at least at the big-league level.

Wade is a .286 career hitter at Triple-A, but he usually received consistent at-bats at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Those were harder to come by in the Bronx, but recent injuries to a handful of outfielders and infielders Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela have created openings for Wade.

Urshela was placed on the injured list on Aug. 3; Wade is slashing .455/.526/.576 with nine runs, four doubles, three RBI, five walks, eight strikeouts and five stolen bases in the 15 games since then.

Wade’s most recent performance, a two-hit, one-RBI showing in New York’s win over the Twins on Saturday, raised his season average to .278 and his OBP to .355. Those numbers are higher than Torres and Urshela’s—and Wade’s 97 wRC+ surpasses Torres’ mark of 91—though Wade has seen far fewer games and brings next to nothing in terms of slugging.

The often-unheralded utility man has been able to make an impact on the Yankees’ lineup lately, nonetheless. He said getting consistent at-bats has a lot to do with that. Those will become scarce once the Yankees get healthy, but this recent stretch has also boosted Wade’s conviction at the plate.

“Just more opportunity. Obviously, seeing stuff fall, confidence,” Wade said when asked what he attributes his recent success to. “But yeah, I would just say being in the lineup more often and being in the flow of the game. That’s about it.”

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Gary Phillips
GARY PHILLIPS

A graduate of Seton Hall, Gary Phillips has written and/or edited for The Athletic, The New York Times, Sporting News, USA Today Sports’ Jets Wire, Bleacher Report and Yankees Magazine, among others. He can be reached at garyhphillips@outlook.com.

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