Yankees hire Sean Casey as hitting coach

Shortly after the news broke on Sunday night that the Yankees were dismissing hitting coach Dillon Lawson, it became clear that this had been a process that had begun over the weekend. General manager Brian Cashman spoke to owner Hal Steinbrenner on Saturday about the possibility of making a change, Steinbrenner approved it, and Lawson was officially canned with the first half at a close in disappointing fashion. By midnight, there were already reports of the Yankees narrowing their replacement for Lawson down to two candidates.

Now, it seems that the Yankees have made their pick, and he has accepted. Per Ken Rosenthal, former big leaguer Sean Casey will be the next hitting coach, with assistants Casey Dykes and Brad Wilkerson staying on. Casey has only agreed to do it for the remainder of 2023, so that allows the Yankees to conduct a more thorough offseason search should they decide that he’s not the right fit, either.

As reported by Joel Sherman, Casey has close ties to the organization, as he played with current manager Aaron Boone when they were young in Cincinnati from 1998-2003, and front office executive Tim Naehring (also a former big leaguer) worked for the Reds then, too. Casey retired in 2008 and has been an analyst at MLB Network for quite a few years at this point.

Casey has an extremely agreeable personality, and Sherman notes that it could be a helpful contrast to what Lawson was offering. The problem, of course, is that much like when Boone was hired as Yankees skipper in 2018, Casey has never coached at any level. That is the perk of the short-term commitment, at least — if Casey turns out to be a dud and nothing changes for the team at the plate, then the Yankees can just move on.

Update

Casey’s hiring is now official, and below are some comments from Casey, Boone, and Cashman on the news, courtesy of Gary Phillips.