Chase Headley Needs To Be Benched

Let me be clear, Chase Headley is not the only reason the Yankees are losing ballgames right now. They're 8-13 for a multitude of reasons; the offense is not performing, their starting pitching is not going deep enough into games, and their bullpen - while good - cannot be perfect every night.

Among all those team flaws, Chase Headley is standing out amongst the under-performers. Headley is absolutely killing the team right now. He is now batting .140 on the season with a grand total of zero extra base hits. At this point, he's putting up historic numbers (just not the good kind):

Yankees Lowest SLG thru April (since 1920 min 65 PA) .148 Headley .176 R White '73 .179 G Michael '74 .183 J Kenney '70 .189 S Stirnweiss 46

— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) April 29, 2016

When the Yankees traded for Headley during the 2014 season, they acquired a veteran third baseman with a clutch bat. His first game in pinstripes was highlighted with a walkoff, and he added a couple more huge hits from there. Since then it's been all downhill. Despite a down year in 2015 that saw Headley commit a career high 23 errors and post an OPS 50 points lower than his career average, one could still argue that he was worth the money for the Yankees. Now? 2016 has been so bad for Chase that Joe Girardi has no choice but to bench him. At a certain point, running Headley out there day after day is just insane. Friday night against the Red Sox he grounded into a double play and left two guys on base while committing yet another error. The Yankees have a guy on the bench, Torreyes, who seems to provide a spark whenever he plays. If for no other reason than giving Headley a mental break, Torreyes needs to be the starting third baseman on Saturday in Boston. I know you can't win the division in April (or so the saying goes), but you can lose it. The more Chase Headley plays, the more the Yankees are testing that theory.