HOUSTON — In the 179 days between when last season mercifully ended and Thursday’s Opening Day, the Yankees tried to distance themselves from the disaster that was 82-80.
They had blunt organizational meetings.
They added one of the game’s best hitters, Juan Soto, along with Alex Verdugo, Trent Grisham and Marcus Stroman.
They placed an emphasis on many of their own players who were coming off brutal seasons, putting in the work over the offseason to come back stronger.
Now, they finally get to begin the 162-game journey to see if it all paid off.
“It’s a time of tremendous hope and that’s what we have right now,” manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday. “I feel like we’ve done what we needed to do in the spring to be ready. Obviously a couple key guys, especially with Gerrit [Cole] missing the start and DJ [LeMahieu] being out for however long, you never want that. But I do feel like otherwise we’re ready to roll.
“[Thursday] we get to go find out how good we think we are.”
The Yankees have thought they were plenty good enough in recent years, only for each season to end short of their ultimate goal.
Usually the disappointment has come in losing a playoff series, except for last year, when the Yankees suffered through their worst season since 1992.
With multiple members of the organization describing the 2023 season as an embarrassment, the Yankees tried to turn it into fuel for their offseason work and carry it into this year.
But for as much as they can talk about improving, they know only one thing ultimately matters.
“I can sit here and explain a lot of things, but I think it comes down to us going out there and doing it,” Aaron Judge said. “I can sit here and talk about our new offense and the guys we got, the new pitchers we got. But it really comes down to us going out there and doing the job. We gotta let our game speak for itself.”
Cole’s absence (expected to last at least two months) will set in even more Thursday when it is Nestor Cortes, not the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, stepping onto the mound against the Astros at Minute Maid Park.
Not having LeMahieu at third base and batting leadoff will hurt, too, for however long he is out.
The Yankees frequently pointed to injuries as their biggest downfall last season — Judge’s freak toe injury the most significant — but plenty of teams dealt with key injuries.
The good ones were able to overcome them, something the Yankees — with a projected luxury-tax payroll of about $310 million — hope they are in better position to do this season.
There will be plenty hanging in the balance.
Boone is entering the final year of his contract for the second time in his Yankees tenure while Soto, Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo, Clay Holmes, Verdugo and Jonathan Loaisiga are all in walk years.
“The one thing I have said throughout the winter is I do feel like there was an extra edge to our preparation, to our players’ preparation, to that preparation that carried over into pre-spring, in the early part of spring training and throughout,” Boone said. “Even as we go through our advanced meetings today as groups, there’s an edge and a focus and a commitment that is where I think it needs to be.”
Judge described this year’s group as having some grit and an edge to it.
Now the Yankees are about to find out exactly how that translates to winning.
“I think we have a great opportunity to do big things,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “We had in years past and it hasn’t happened, so this is kind of a broken record for me. We really gotta just go out and prove it. ‘This is the year, that’s the year, this could have been the year’ — we gotta go do it every night and put ourselves in a good situation to get over that last hurdle.”
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