The Yankees introduced Brad Wilkerson as their new assistant hitting coach on Monday afternoon.
Wilkerson was an outfielder and first baseman for four different Major League Baseball teams from 2001-08 and has spent the last three years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Jacksonville University in the Atlantic Sun Conference. He takes over the role that Hensley Meulens served last season. The Rockies hired Meulens in November to be their hitting coach.
Calling in via Zoom, the 45-year-old Wilkerson expressed the typical reverence for the Yankee franchise that most new hires do.
“It’s an honor to even be considered for this opportunity, now it’s starting to sink in a little bit,” he said. “I’m just honored to be a part of this organization. It speaks for itself.”
Wilkerson described his gig at Jacksonville University as the head recruiting honcho, primarily working with hitters. With the Yankees, he envisions his primary role as “being there for the hitters”, focusing on situational hitting and swing decisions. He mentioned a desire to get the Yankees right mentally as well as physically, making sure they show up to each game with a clear but prepared mind. He will be in the dugout during games.
When Wilkerson initially got a call from the Yankees — he estimated that it was about ten days ago — he told them he would not be leaving Jacksonville for anything but a big-league position. Once he talked with Aaron Boone, hitting coach Dillon Lawson and underwent the interview process, he said things moved pretty quickly.
“The opportunity that I have in front of me to get back to the big leagues and work with these guys and have every resource in the world to try to win, it was just very intriguing to me,” Wilkerson said. “It was a no-brainer.”
During his career with the Expos/Nationals, Rangers, Mariners and Blue Jays, the left-handed hitting Wilkerson put together a .247/.350/.440 slash line (.790 OPS). He hit 32 home runs in 2004, the last year the Expos were in Montreal, and in the club’s first year in Washington he whacked 42 doubles. Wilkerson was also a patient hitter and quietly one of the poster children of the on-base percentage movement in the early 2000s.
In each of his eight years in the majors, he walked in over 10% of his plate appearances. During that 2004 campaign he walked 106 times and became just the ninth Expo outfielder to post 5.0 or more Wins Above Replacement in a season before the franchise moved to D.C. Four of the other members of that list (Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Larry Walker) are in the Hall of Fame.
Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the Yankees, who led the league in walk rate last year, had their eye on Wilkerson. When discussing his hitting philosophy, he sounded like a man who would fit in nicely with the Yankees’ current regime.
“I was always a guy that was a pretty patient hitter,” he began. “The number one thing is you have to get a good pitch to hit, whether it’s the first pitch or the eighth pitch of the at-bat. I’m big on the mental approach. Get a great pitch to hit and hit it hard. Dillon [Lawson] came up with the philosophy of hit strikes hard. It resonated with me a lot. That’s really what it’s all about.”
He also shared that during his interview process, he highlighted some of the wisdom he gained while playing for Frank Robinson in Montreal and Washington. The baseball icon helped a young Wilkerson understand and appreciate the simplicity of the game.
“It’s hard, but you’ve got to make it simple,” Wilkerson explained. “The way [Robinson] talked about hitting and playing the game, that just made me feel like it was so simple and made me relax. That was huge.”
Wilkerson becomes the third hitting coach on the Yankees’ staff, joining Lawson and fellow assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes. He also becomes part of the equation in an offense that led the American League in runs last year and enjoyed one of the best individual seasons in the history of the sport. Don’t expect the new guy to do very much tinkering with a player who just clobbered 62 home runs.
“First of all, I don’t think I’m going to be messing with Aaron Judge very much. They got a good plan, and what he did last year was pretty good,” Wilkerson deadpanned. “Obviously I’m going to give some input behind the scenes, but I feel like I’m very prepared for this. I haven’t been in a big-league dugout in a while, but I feel very confident in my skills to get these guys to relax, be themselves and get the most out of their abilities.”
A native of Owensboro, KY and former collegiate star at the University of Florida, Wilkerson was drafted by the Expos in the first round of the 1998 draft. In 2012, he became the first Gator inducted into the Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he also helped Team USA win a gold medal. He is the proud owner of the last home run in Expos history, was the first National to hit for the cycle, and in 2006 was named a Kentucky Colonel, the highest honor given out by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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