NEW YORK — Sean Casey went directly from enjoying a 12-year big league career to sitting in the MLB Network studio analyzing hitting for television audiences on a nightly basis.

He believes the experience of discussing everything related to hitting since 2009 has prepared him for his new role as the New York Yankees’ hitting coach, and he is optimistic he can turn around a struggling offense with 71 games remaining.

Casey, sporting a mustache as a tribute to former Yankees captain Don Mattingly, was introduced as New York’s hitting coach on Wednesday, two days after taking the job. He replaces Dillon Lawson, whom the Yankees fired following a 7-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.

“I feel like that job at MLB Network has set me up in a way to be an incredible coach because I basically had been coaching for 15 years,” Casey said. “Every time I’m on air, and I’m watching games, and I’m having to break down players, guys that are hot guys that are struggling, what could they do?

“I feel like there’s nothing when I coach this team, there’s nothing that I don’t know about what the swing looks like from the ground up, what it looks like mentally to be a great big leaguer and to have success as a team up and down that lineup. So MLB Network has made me feel ready for this job.”

Casey accepted it after Yankees Manager and former Cincinnati teammate Aaron Boone called him over the weekend as GM Brian Cashman was planning to let Lawson go. Casey originally was going to take an assistant hitting coach job that went to Brad Wilkerson in the offseason but declined it to spend time with his fiancee, who had breast cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy.

He is taking over for at least the remainder of this season and will consider next season during the offseason.

The 49-year-old former first baseman is presiding over an offense that is batting .231, which ranks 28th among the 30 major league teams, ahead of only Detroit and Oakland. The Yankees are 14-17 since Aaron Judge tore a ligament in his right big toe on June 3 and is batting a major league-worst .218 since the slugger was hurt crashing into the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium.

The Yankees entered the All-Star break at 49-42 and fourth in the AL East. While New York is fifth in the majors with 129 homers, it is 18th in runs and its .300 on-base percentage is 26th.

•  The Yankees are adding a patch to their pinstripes.

Beginning July 21, the Yankees’ home and away jerseys will feature a Starr Insurance patch on their left sleeves, marking the first time the team’s famed uniform has incorporated such an advertisement.

The Yankees announced the move by releasing images of Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole in the new-look threads.

The news elicited a strong reaction from Yankees fans, many of whom bemoaned baseball’s most-valuable team tinkering with their classic look.

“Yes, you need even more money,” Twitter user Gerry DeFilippo wrote. “The best revenue generating team in the league needs to put a small patch on their jersey to make just a little more money.”

“I thought for sure y’all would hold out on this ‘new’ trend of advertising,” tweeted Sandy Landvick. “Yankees uniforms are classy and timeless. Not anymore.”

The Yankees, whom Forbes valued at $7.1 billion in March, have often prioritized tradition with their brand. They decline to sell the naming rights of Yankee Stadium, are the only team that doesn’t put players’ names on the back of both their home and away jerseys, and continue to enforce the late George Steinbrenner’s anti-facial-hair policy.

TRADE: The Kansas City Royals have traded pitcher Mike Mayers to the Chicago White Sox for cash considerations.

Mayers, who made two starts this season, went 1-2 with a 6.15 ERA. He served in a variety of roles, including a bulk reliever during bullpen games.

RANGERS: Less than a year after trading him to Milwaukee, the Rangers have re-signed right-hander Matt Bush to a minor league contract as potential help for a troubled bullpen.

Bush, 37, was released by Milwaukee earlier in the month after making 12 appearances, wrapped around an IL stint for rotator cuff tendinitis. He had a 9.58 ERA in 10 1/3 innings with the Brewers. The Rangers sent Bush to Milwaukee last year at the trade deadline for infielder Mark Mathias (since traded) and left-hander Antoine Kelly, currently pitching in the minors.

SOUTH KOREA: The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres will play Major League Baseball’s first regular-season games in South Korea, opening next season in Seoul on March 20-21.

The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies will play in Mexico City on April 27-28, MLB said. The Padres and San Francisco Giants played the first regular-season games there this April 29-30.

MLB will have three sets of international games next year. A two-game series in London on June 8-9 between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies was announced last month.

MLB also said the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays will play spring training games at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on March 9-10.

RATINGS: Baseball’s All-Star Game drew a record low in viewers for the third straight year.

The National League’s 3-2 win over the American League in Seattle on Tuesday night was seen by 7,006,000 viewers on Fox, down from 7.51 million last year. The game drew a 3.9 rating, down from a 4.2 last year, and a 12 share, the same as for the American League’s 3-2 victory in Los Angeles in 2022.

The Home Run Derby on Monday night, won by Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., drew 6.11 million viewers on ESPN, down 11% from 6.88 million last year in Los Angeles, where the network had the advantage of a larger local market. The derby was ESPN’s most-watched event of the summer.

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