Billy McKinney was part of a rotating cast of middling outfielders plugging the black hole left by Aaron Judge’s toe injury midseason. After a putrid 2022 with Oakland, McKinney started this season in Triple-A and was called up on June 7th for his sixth season of MLB action, in the aftermath of the Aaron Judge injury in Los Angeles.
The lefty hitter took a small share of the outfield duties before winding up on the IL in late August with a lower back injury. Jake Bauers performed a bit better than McKinney offensively and got the lion’s share of available outfield at-bats once Willie Calhoun and Franchy Cordero were discarded.