New York Yankees
2023 record: 82-80
Fourth place, AL East
Team OPS: .701 (24th in MLB)
Team ERA: 3.97 (9th in MLB)
What Went Right
It’s a short list. Gerrit Cole was the only true constant for the Yankees this year, posting an AL-best 2.63 ERA over 33 starts. After finishing second in the Cy Young Award balloting in 2019 and 2021, he’s the strong favorite to finally take home the hardware in November. Aaron Judge was a force when healthy and Gleyber Torres helped pick up **some** of the slack for the offense this year. While the rotation struggled outside of Cole, the Yankees’ bullpen had the lowest ERA in the majors at 3.34. Clay Holmes, Clark Schmidt, Ian Hamilton, and Michael King all figured heavily into their success. King also showed some upside as a potential starting pitcher late in the season, posting a 1.88 ERA and 48/9 K/BB ratio in 38 1/3 innings across eight starts. Youngsters Austin Wells and Jason Dominguez also showed some promise in a small sample in September.
What Went Wrong
Almost everything. At 82 wins, the Yankees finished with their lowest win total in a full 162-game season since 1992. Carlos Rodon was supposed to form a potent 1-2 punch with Gerrit Cole after inking a six-year, $162 million contract, but he dealt with forearm, back, and hamstring injuries while posting a brutal 6.85 ERA over 14 starts. Aaron Judge missed nearly two months with a torn ligament in his big right toe and the Yankees’ lineup was positively feeble without him. Only the Athletics (.223) posted a lower team batting average than the Yankees’ .227 mark for the year. Top prospect Anthony Volpe struggled to stay over the Mendoza Line for a good portion of his rookie campaign. Anthony Rizzo posted his lowest OPS (.706) in a full season, partially the result of playing through the after-effects of a concussion. Not good. Veterans like Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu also didn’t produce in line with their respective track records. The Yankees cut bait on both Josh Donaldson and Aaron Hicks during the summer and Harrison Bader was let go on waivers in August after he largely struggled to stay on the field. Rodon wasn’t the only disappointment in the rotation, as Luis Severino allowed 23 home runs in just 89 1/3 innings while posting a 6.65 ERA. After making the All-Star team in 2022, Nestor Cortes scuffled with a 4.97 ERA in 12 starts before being shut down with a left rotator cuff strain. Frankie Montas required shoulder surgery in March, throwing just 1 1/3 innings in the final week of the season. Domingo German had an up-and-down season, highlighted by the 24th perfect game in MLB history in June, but he didn’t pitch after July 31 due to an incident in the Yankees’ clubhouse which led to him being placed on the restricted list while seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.
Fantasy Slants
**In some respects, the Yankees’ season was about what could have been. What if Aaron Judge didn’t slam his right big toe into the right field fence at Dodger Stadium in June? The Yankees were 10 games over .500 at the time of the injury. One thing’s for sure: Judge almost certainly would have justified the early first-round price tag in fantasy leagues. When healthy, Judge put up comparable production to his historic MVP campaign from 2022, launching 37 homers while amassing 75 RBI and 79 runs scored in just 106 games. However, an uptick in strikeouts cut into his batting average and he didn’t run at all due to the toe injury. Judge is not expected to require surgery on the toe during the offseason, so hopefully some extended rest gets him closer to full strength. He’s still an easy first-rounder in mixed leagues from here.
**As noted above, Gerrit Cole was the bright light in a dark year for the Yankees. The 33-year-old led the American League in ERA (2.63), WHIP (0.98) and innings pitched (209) while allowing his fewest home runs in a full season since 2018. Interestingly, Cole pulled this off despite posting his lowest strikeout percentage since his final season with the Pirates in 2017. Even with the excellent control, his xERA (3.48) didn’t fully back up what he accomplished this year. He’s very deserving of his first Cy Young Award, even though it would be a surprise to see a sub-3 ERA next year. Still, he might be the safest starting pitcher on draft boards going into 2024.
**On the strength of an impressive showing in spring training, Anthony Volpe won a spot as the Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop, though perhaps expectations were a bit out of whack. It was easy to see the fantasy appeal, but his production between Double- and Triple-A last year didn’t exactly jump off the page. The good news is that he held his own defensively as a rookie while putting up 21 homers and 24 steals for fantasy managers, but he batted just .209/.283/.383 over 601 plate appearances. Among qualified MLB hitters, only Zach McKinstry, Enrique Hernandez, Myles Straw, Javier Baez, and Tim Anderson were worse than Volpe’s .666 OPS. In addition to his struggles against right-handed pitching (.624 OPS compared to .817 OPS against lefties), Volpe struck out 27.8 percent of the time and didn’t stand out in terms of quality of contact. There’s still room for him to grow going into his age-23 season, but he’s a fringy middle-infielder option in standard mixed leagues until the batting average improves.
**The Yankees might have underachieved this year, but Gleyber Torres quietly had his best season since his breakout 2019 campaign. A big reason for this was a massive step forward in his plate discipline. Torres cut his strikeout rate from 22.6 percent to 14.6 percent while also increasing his walk rate to 10 percent. Not surprisingly, his batting average benefited from the change in approach, but his zone contact rate also soared to a career-best 87.8 percent. Torres might never reach the heights of his 38-homer campaign again, but he’s hit at least 24 homers in each of the last two seasons while also reaching double-digit steals in three straight seasons.
**It was an up-and-down year for Clay Holmes, but he finished on a high note. After a brutal stretch from mid-to-late August, he allowed just one run in his final 13 appearances — with eight saves — while winning AL Reliever of the Month for September. The rebound probably helped win many a head-to-head playoff format. Holmes saw a tiny increase in walks this year, but he continued to rack up the strikeouts while limiting hard contact and keeping the ball on the ground. He’s likely to be drafted on the cusp of the top-10 fantasy closers next year, but the skills remain rock solid.
**Jasson Dominguez was a breath of fresh air upon his promotion to the majors in September, taking Justin Verlander deep in his first career at-bat and adding three more homers in just 33 plate appearances before going down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right (throwing) elbow. He required Tommy John surgery with an internal brace repair, which will likely keep him sidelined until around midseason next year. “The Martian” slashed .254/.367/.414 with 15 home runs and 37 stolen bases over 109 games in the minors this season, which doesn’t exactly blow anyone away, but he was just 20 years old and saw improved production as the year moved along. Dominguez remains a name to watch in fantasy leagues, but he’s going to be more of a wait-and-see option in redraft formats until he nears completion of his rehab process.
Key Free Agents
Luis Severino, Frankie Montas, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Wandy Peralta, Keynan Middleton
Team Needs
It doesn’t sound like any changes are coming with Aaron Boone or Brian Cashman, but Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner has promised a third-party audit of the organization and the team’s decision-making. Judge, the Yankees’ team captain, has said he wants to be involved in offseason discussions and even remarked that the team might be looking at “the wrong numbers” in terms of their analytics.
That process aside, the Yankees have some obvious needs, most notably a left-handed hitting outfielder. Impending free agent Cody Bellinger has been mentioned most frequently, though the price tag will be considerable after his impressive turnaround with the Cubs this past season.
In addition to lineup needs, look for the Yankees to fortify their rotation. A reunion with Jordan Montgomery is a possibility, but the Yankees should also be one of the main suitors for standout Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. General manager Brian Cashman was one of many baseball executives who scouted the 25-year-old in person this year. Of course, they are going to face plenty of competition from the other deep-pocketed teams around the league.