Yankees Spring Training Evaluation -- Is the World Series possible??

One of the best days of the year just passed, as pitchers and catchers (officially) reported yesterday to kick off baseball season with position players (and the return of The Pinstripe) not far behind.  

Last season was a nightmare.  Sure the Yankees (miraculously) finished above .500 for the millionth season in a row but didn't have a chance to play meaningful October baseball thanks to their severely flawed roster.  Offensively, the Yankees were relying on aging players that struggled against velocity leaving them vulnerable (and sometimes helpless) at times.

The Yankees aggressively pursued trades this offseason and supplemented those trades by signing some free agents with the hopes of pushing last year's miserable season way into the rearview mirror.  

Did they do enough? Let's take a look at the Yankees' probable opening day position groups heading into spring training where I will give general thoughts on how each player can contribute as well as thoughts on the positional group as a whole.

Be on the lookout for my X-Factors article coming out this weekend where I will go over the 5 main things that can take the Yankees from World Series Contenders to disappointing Pretenders.

*I'll be saving the full bullpen for another day and will focus only on a couple of players in the X-factors article

Starting Rotation:

At the beginning of 2023, the Yankees rotation was considered to be the best in baseball pretty unanimously.  Alas, plenty of injuries and underperforming turned what should've been a strong strength into a brutal headache, with only Gerrit Cole living up to his lofty expectations.  How does the rotation figure to look in 2024:

1. Gerrit Cole: The best pitcher in baseball will lead the Yankees rotation and is someone Boone can rely on every five days to give him a quality start.  It wouldn't be a surprise to anyone if Cole becomes a back-to-back Cy Young winner and I can't wait to see what he's been working on this offseason to try to improve.

2. Carlos Rodon: The $162m Rodon was supposed to be the 1B to Cole last year.  However an early injury delayed his Yankee debut and many fans would've preferred if he didn't pitch at all, as his most memorable Yankee moment so far is disrespecting Pitching Coach Matt Blake en route to an all-time stinker, allowing 8 runs while recording 0 outs against the last place Royals in his last start of the season.  If Rodon can regain the form he had with the Giants that got him this massive contract, the Yankees will have the best 1-2 punch in baseball by far. 

To do this, Rodon needs to have resolved his two biggest issues from last season: walks and fly balls.  Rodon allowed way too many free passes last year, driving up his pitch count.  This becomes a double whammy as he pitches half his games in Yankee Stadium, where plenty of unremarkable fly balls end up in the seats thanks to the Stadium's dimensions.  There's hope that Rodon can fix this issue, as Cole initially struggled with limiting fly balls his first couple of seasons in the Bronx, and wasn't as big a deal as it is with Rodon since Cole doesn't walk nearly as many people.

3. Marcus Stroman: The best free agency signing for the Yankees (which doesn't say much since they barely signed anyone), but also one of the best value contracts given to a player by any team.  Stroman has dealt with some injuries the past two seasons but at his core is a groundball pitcher whose stuff should play well at Yankee Stadium.  When he pitches the Yankees need to have Peraza, DJLM, and Rizzo in the infield as they are all gold glove level defenders in the infield.

4. Nestor Cortes: Nestor will always be a favorite of mine, as his antics on the mound have made me laugh multiple times.  However, I do believe that Nestor's regression last year was all due to injuries, rather than hitters figuring out how to hit him.  Nestor's all-star campaign was no fluke and he has pinpoint command and a deceptive fastball.  If he can come close to his all-star form there's a very real chance he's this team's second-best pitcher behind Cole.

5. Clarke Schmidt: Lost in last season's misery was Clarke Schmidt's quiet success.  After struggling a ton in April and early May, Schmidt could be counted on for about 5 innings a game giving up less than 3 runs.  I wrote about Schmidt's development last year but after a solid second half of May-September, the next step I want to see from Schmidt is the ability to go deeper in games and find success early in the game while saving some pitches for the third time through the lineup.

Depth Pieces: Will Warren and Clayton Beeter will probably be the first two called up this year if the Yankees need a spot starter.  Realistically, one of these two will be in the opening-day bullpen as a long reliever and the other one will ideally stay in AAA to stay stretched out as a spot starter.  With the trade for Juan Soto, the Yankees gave up three potential starters and their starting pitching depth could be an issue all season.

General Thoughts: I honestly think this rotation can be the best in baseball.  The Yankees could legitimately have two Cy Young candidates leading the rotation, with an All-Star (Nestor Cortes) and near All-Star (Marcus Stroman) as their third and fourth options.  However, Rodon, Nestor, and Stroman are all coming off injury-plagued campaigns, and I wouldn't mind seeing the Yankees run a pseudo-six-man rotation, with Cole pitching every 5th day, and the most rested of Rodon, Stroman, Nestor, Schmidt, and Warren filling in after him. This would allow Boone to maximize his use of the best pitcher in baseball while protecting the three injury-plagued pitchers and two young arms (Schmidt and Warren).

Outfield:

Left Field: Verdugo/Soto

    - Verdugo starts in LF vs. Righties, Soto vs. Lefties

Center Field: Judge/Grisham

    - Judge starts in CF vs. Righties, Grisham vs. Lefties /defensive replacement for Verdugo

Right Field: Soto/Judge, Stanton?

    - Soto Starts in RF vs. Righties, Judge vs. Lefties

Overview: This is a vastly improved outfield from last season, as the Yankees finally have filled the black hole of production that has been in left field for the past 3 years (at least!). Soto is the worst defender out of this bunch but his bat is far too valuable to be removed from games, even if it's for a defensive substitution.  

Grisham, part of the Soto trade, is a lefty with reverse splits (hits better vs. Lefties) and plays elite defense in CF, forming an ideal platoon with Verdugo (acquired in a rare trade with the Red Sox), and is the best defensive replacement the Yankees have had in years. 

Stanton might see some games in the outfield but is the least athletic jacked person ever, a massive injury concern, and a borderline defensive liability, and will see 99% of his games at DH.

General Thoughts: This outfield features the best overall player in baseball this season and the best pure hitter in baseball in Aaron Judge and Juan Soto respectively. Verdugo is a solid lefty bat that will provide some much-needed lineup balance.  Late-season call-up Everson Periera should spend the entire season in AAA, as he was not ready for MLB pitching last season and needs more time to develop. 

The wild card here is Jasson Dominguez, who was absolutely electrifying in his short stint in the Show last season.  Dominguez is recovering from Tommy John injury and will probably start in AAA once healthy.  Personally, I would give him three weeks in AAA to knock off the rust before calling him back up and giving him the everyday CF job, moving Judge to RF, Soto to LF, and Verdugo to a DH platoon with Stanton.

Infield:

This is probably the most predictable position group heading into the season.  No major changes have been made and Cashman and Boone haven't talked about upgrading any of these positions.

Catcher: Austin Wells + Jose Trevino will form a platoon at catcher but both will see plenty of playing time thanks to the physical demands of the position  Wells provides a lot more offensive upside and is a lefty, while Trevino is an ex-platinum glove winner, and was Cole's personal catcher before being injured last season and replaced by Ben Rortvert. 

I'd like to see Wells start more games than Trevino as he provides both a higher floor and ceiling offensively than Trevino, who could still come into most games as a defensive replacement.

First Base: Anthony Rizzo will be the everyday first baseman this season and I'm honestly very fine with that.  Before Tatis ran into his neck, Rizzo was having an unreal start to the season and was going to easily be an all-star.  Rizzo also won't be relied on as heavily as the only lefty bat and provides above-average defense at first base.

Second Base: Gleyber Torres slots in at 2B for the Yankees again and in my opinion had the best offensive approach of his career last season.  Gleyber was easily the Yankees second best hitter behind Judge and was a tough out for opposing pitchers night in and night out.  If he keeps this gap-to-gap approach and doesn't sell out for home runs, he should set himself up to be the highest-paid second baseman in baseball after the season.

Shortstop: Anthony Volpe will be the opening-day SS barring injury and a lot of fans will be mad about that.  Volpe has faced a ton of scrutiny but honestly, he was fine last year. He wasn't great, he wasn't atrocious, he probably didn't deserve the gold glove he won but he did end up with 20 homers and 20 stolen bases.  Ideally, I want to see Volpe sacrifice some power for a higher batting average and OBP so he can utilize his best attribute (his legs/baserunning) more. 

Third Base: DJLM should be the everyday third baseman this year and after struggling due to injuries, finally looked like the $85m man after the all-star break last season.  Hopefully, that wasn't a fluke, and that's the player we can expect to hit leadoff for the Yankees this season, as his line-to-line approach and bat-to-ball skills were 

Backup/Utility: Oswald Peraza will probably be getting this spot and he's the perfect backup.  Defensively, he's the Yankee's best glove and should be starting every time Marcus Stroman is pitching.  He's also a speed threat but unfortunately, his bat hasn't caught up to his glove to warrant being a full-time player yet.

General Thoughts: Offensively this infield has some real potential.  If Rizzo shows the hitting ability that he showed in April/May and DJLM picks up where he left off, this infield should be a run-producing unit but that is relying on two people on the wrong side of 30 who have both showed decline recently. Oswald Peraza should see regular playing time to keep DJLM and Rizzo fresh, with DJLM sliding over to first base when Rizzo DHs or takes a day off.