Dillon Lawson believes hes changed for the better two years after his Yankees firing

Dillon Lawson was back at Yankee Stadium for the first time Friday since getting fired as the team’s hitting coach in July 2023, still the only coach to be dismissed midseason during Brian Cashman’s tenure. He’s now an assistant hitting coach with the Red Sox after spending last season as the organization’s hitting coordinator. “It was a really great experience that didn’t end the way I wanted,’’ Lawson said of his time with the Yankees before Friday’s series opener.“But it was still a great experience.” Lawson spoke while near the home dugout in The Bronx, talking with Yankee players, coaches and staffers, in a different state of mind than near the end of his Yankee tenure, when the offense was struggling and Lawson was feeling the heat. At the time, less than a week before he was let go, Lawson said, “We have as high a ceiling as any team in all of baseball, but right now, we’ve got to do more.

… There are no excuses for being shut out.It lands on me.

I’m getting far less sleep and [doing] far more work.” Lawson says he’s now a better coach than he was while with the Yankees after spending four years as the organization’s hitting coordinator. “I just think there’s a lot that goes into this job,’’ Lawson said of being a hitting coach at the major league level.“I think about it like being a parent.

You can be a great friend or a great brother, but there are some things you don’t know till you become a parent.” He declined to discuss what changes he would have made while with the Yankees. Aaron Judge’s toe injury suffered at Dodger Stadium in June of that season helped derail the Yankee lineup, but there were plenty of other issues with the offense prior to Judge going down, as high-priced bats like DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo were also slumping. Lawson noted seeing Judge break Roger Maris’ home run franchise record in 2022 as being a highlight of his tenure, as well as Matt Carpen...