It was mostly a year to forget for the Yankees in 2023, and their offseason so far has been aimed at reversing a brutal season.
But they came up short Thursday in their efforts to land Dodgers-bound ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
We’re not here to make you live through that letdown or the pain of 82-80 again.
But maybe we can have a little fun before the calendar flips to 2024.
Without further ado, a sampling of superlatives from the Yankees’ 2023 season:
As good as it got: June 3. It was still all so simple then, at least for seven-and-a-half innings on that Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. The Yankees went on to win, 6-3, a game in which Aaron Judge homered and delivered a spectacular catch while running into the right-field wall. Judge assured reporters that night that “the fence got the most of it,” but, of course, it turned out that the catch came at a cost, with Judge tearing a ligament in his big right toe that cost him nearly two months. Before that was known, though, the Yankees had improved to 35-25, won the series the next night and seemed headed in the right direction.
As bad as it got: The road trip that officially killed the Yankees’ season came in August, when they went from Chicago to Miami to Atlanta. Then they came home and were swept by the Red Sox before dropping their next game to the Nationals as their losing streak hit nine games. During that stretch, they suffered a gut punch of a loss to the Marlins by letting up a five-run bottom of the ninth in a rubber game; got shut out in back-to-back games against the Braves in which they mustered a combined five hits; and then served up a two-hit loss to the lowly Nationals, leading to Brian Cashman labeling their season a “disaster.”
As good as it got after as bad as it got: The first three days of September in Houston offered a much-needed reprieve and hope for the future. Jasson Dominguez homered off Justin Verlander in his first MLB plate appearance and then went deep again in the series finale (just a few days before learning he tore his UCL), and Austin Wells got rave reviews from the pitching staff during his first MLB series behind the plate as the Yankees swept the Astros.
Player who earned every dollar of his huge contract: Gerrit Cole. The AL Cy Young winner seemed much more comfortable as far back as spring training, and it showed in his pitching. Suddenly, the nine-year, $324 million deal he signed before the 2020 season looks like a pretty good deal.
Player who will need to follow Cole’s lead next season: Carlos Rodon. The first season of his six-year, $162 million contact went just about as poorly as it could have. From getting hurt in spring training and not coming back until July to his 6.85 ERA to turning his back on pitching coach Matt Blake in his disaster of a finale, it was a brutal year for Rodon. But he will get the chance to redeem himself, and the Yankees certainly need him to.
Best acquisition: If we’re talking calendar year, it’s obviously trading for Juan Soto earlier this month, even if it took Michael King (and others) to get him. If we’re talking about for the 2023 season, it was an unheralded minor league signing on Jan. 27: Ian Hamilton. The reliever put together a strong camp to win a bullpen job, and then turned into a trusted arm for Aaron Boone. He’s now a central figure in next season’s bullpen.
Best decision: Having King stretch out into a starter over the final two months of the season. It was somewhat borne out of necessity because of injuries, but King had broached the idea at other points and the Yankees held off until August. King certainly looked the part of a bona fide starter, which turned him into a key piece of the Soto trade. Don’t be surprised if King levels up as a full-time starter in San Diego.
Worst decision: Believing that Josh Donaldson was capable of having a rebound season in 2023. The veteran third baseman had a rough go in 2022, but Boone said in spring training, “You’re crazy to think that a bounce back is not in there offensively.” Instead, Donaldson racked up 32 strikeouts, 15 hits (10 of which, remarkably, were home runs), and two injured list stints in 33 games before being released in late August.
Biggest decision for 2024: What’s Gleyber Torres’ future in The Bronx? His name has been involved in trade rumors before each of the past two trade deadlines and during the past two offseasons. The Yankees hung onto him and he was their best hitter in 2023, cutting down on strikeouts and increasing his walks. Now he is entering his final season before free agency. Given the Yankees’ financial commitments elsewhere, it’s hard to see Torres remaining in pinstripes long-term, but do they try to get something before he potentially leaves for nothing?
Best surprise impact: In many seasons, Clarke Schmidt would have been sent down to Triple-A after a brutal April. But because of injuries, the Yankees did not have many other options than to keep giving Schmidt starts every fifth day. By the summer, Schmidt righted the ship and turned into a steady part of the rotation. He ended up posting a 4.64 ERA (league average was 4.45), but the career-high 159 innings were more important, giving him a strong foundation to build on next season.
Surprise player who could impact 2024: The Yankees’ starting pitching depth took some hits this month via trades and the Rule 5 draft. That puts an even bigger spotlight on the likes of Will Warren, Clayton Beeter and Chase Hampton, who could be called on when injuries inevitably hit the rotation during the season.
Most dire lineup: We’re excluding September lineups from consideration because by then the Yankees were all but out of playoff contention and had turned their focus to the future. So we’ll go with June 10 vs. the Red Sox: 1. Torres 2B, 2. Donaldson 3B, 3. Willie Calhoun RF, 4. Giancarlo Stanton DH, 5. Jake Bauers LF, 6. DJ LeMahieu 1B, 7. Bill McKinney CF, 8. Kyle Higashioka C, 9. Anthony Volpe SS. The Yankees actually won this game, and Calhoun batting third paid off with a go-ahead home run. But an outfield of Bauers-McKinney-Calhoun and a 2-3 combo of Donaldson and Calhoun was far from ideal.
Most ideal 2024 lineup: 1. LeMahieu, 3B, 2. Soto, RF, 3. Judge, CF, 4. Anthony Rizzo, 1B, 5. Stanton, DH. 6. Torres, 2B 7. Alex Verdugo, LF, 8. Wells, C, 9. Volpe, SS. Boone has decisions to make on who bats leadoff, whether Judge bats before Soto or vice versa and who catches the majority of games. But the Yankees should have much more balance and threats than they had most nights in 2023.
Most random player: There were a couple of candidates for this one as the Yankees trudged through September using the likes of Anthony Misiewicz, Luke Weaver, Matt Bowman and Zach McAllister. But none of them ended the season playing in Japan like Colten Brewer did. The Yankees acquired Brewer from the Rays on the eve of Opening Day and added him to the roster after Game 1, making room for him by designating Estevan Florial for assignment. Brewer pitched three games for the Yankees before they DFA’d him to get a fresh bullpen arm. By July, the Yankees released Brewer so he could sign with a team in Japan.
Best road trip for the vibes: The six-game West Coast swing from Seattle to Los Angeles in late May/early June. Half the Yankees roster might have been at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, and LA has plenty of options. Plus, T-Mobile Park and Dodger Stadium are two gems. The runner-up was probably Chicago-Miami-Atlanta, but the August heat and the extra leg in Atlanta bumped that down a few points.
Best road trip for the vibes in 2024: San Diego-Anaheim-San Francisco, from May 24-June 2. It’s a long trip, but three quality ballparks, plus you can’t beat San Diego. Oh, and maybe we’ll get a Soto vs. King matchup.
A costly difference
There were 101 players who received pre-arbitration performance bonuses this year as part of the new CBA, according to numbers obtained by the Associated Press.
They are apportioned from a pool of $50 million based on awards finishes (Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young) and the top 100 in Wins Above Replacement (as calculated by a “Pre-Arbitration Committee”).
It was somewhat surprising that Volpe got the smallest bonus of the 101 players at $246,549. He certainly had his struggles offensively, but joined the 20/20 club and also won the AL Gold Glove at shortstop. According to Baseball-Reference’s WAR (which uses Defensive Runs Saved for its defensive component), Volpe ranked 72nd among all players (pre-arbitration or not) with 3.3. FanGraphs’ version of WAR, which uses Ultimate Zone Rating to value defense, ranked Volpe 214th among all players with 1.9.
Safe bet that the calculation of WAR used for the pre-arb bonuses looks more like FanGraphs’ than Baseball-Reference’s.
Picking up old Sox
All the Yankees have to do is acquire catcher Connor Wong and they will have the entire package — Wong, Verdugo and Jeter Downs — the Dodgers sent to the Red Sox in 2020 for Mookie Betts and David Price.
The Yankees can only hope their Soto trade ages as well as the Dodgers’ Betts blockbuster.
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