If there was ever a time this century that the Yankees needed the calendar to flip to a new year to further rinse off the stench of a season, it’s now.
Ringing in 2024 on Sunday night into Monday morning will bring new hope for a new season, even if the Yankees’ offseason still feels very much incomplete. They took a strong first step by trading for Juan Soto, but still have to fill at least one hole in their rotation (created by that trade) after missing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, plus probably add another starter for depth.
With that in mind, here are a handful of New Year’s resolutions for the Yankees:
Anthony Volpe: Get back to using all fields
When Volpe was tearing through the minor leagues as a top prospect, he was using all fields at the plate. Too often in his rookie year, he got away from that approach, whether it was subconsciously or not. By the end of the year, he had pulled 46.7 percent of his batted balls, per Baseball Savant, which ranked 13th among qualified hitters.
The Yankees are banking on Volpe being better in the long run because they allowed him to take his lumps for a full first season in the big leagues. Opposing pitchers were able to expose some areas of weakness — the breaking ball low and away gave him plenty of trouble — but Volpe now has all of that information to make adjustments heading into his sophomore season.
If the 22-year-old shortstop can take a leap and build off his 20/20, Gold Glove campaign in 2023, it will be a big boost to the Yankees.
“Just the all-around consistency [is the next step],” manager Aaron Boone said at the winter meetings. “I do feel like in his DNA is a guy that has a chance to really control the strike zone. And that’s an area where he’s got to improve, and I think will continue to improve. And I think when we look up, hopefully we see those improvements this year. But I think when you look up years from now, he’s going to be a guy that gets on base and has that ability combined with some power and obviously speed.
“I think it’s just tightening up that strike zone discipline and then also being able to take away where teams found some holes and could exploit. And that’s all part of being not just a young big leaguer, but a big leaguer. It’s a game of adjustments and being able to constantly do that as a hitter. I think Anthony’s makeup, intelligence [and] ability will allow him to do that.”
Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes: Stay out of the trainer’s room
If Rodon and Cortes had pitched the way they were capable of in 2023, two things: the Yankees likely would have made the playoffs and missing out on Yamamoto probably would not have felt like such a letdown.
It was only a year ago that the Yankees gave Rodon a six-year, $162 million contract to be a strong No. 2 behind Gerrit Cole. And Cortes was coming off an All-Star season in which he certainly looked the part of a mid-rotation starter.
Instead, both lefties got hurt in the spring, essentially derailing both of their seasons.
Cortes strained his hamstring training for the WBC before he even arrived at spring training. He eventually made it back to start the season on time, but never looked quite like himself and then strained his rotator cuff, which he later thought might have had something to do with trying to compensate for his hamstring.
Rodon, meanwhile, suffered a forearm muscle strain in March, dealt with back issues during his rehab, didn’t pitch till July and then when he did pitch, was not very effective.
The Yankees were planning to stay on top of Rodon and Cortes this offseason in hopes that both would arrive in Tampa in better shape this spring. Doing so might give them a better chance to pitch like they did in 2021 and 2022.
Yankees: Don’t wait for a three-day meeting in Tampa to tell it like it is
Much was made about the club’s braintrust getting together in Tampa after the season to be brutally honest about where things went wrong in 2023. While the details and takeaways of those meetings have been scarce, it shouldn’t have taken an 82-80 season for the team to take a hard look at itself and how it can get better.
That’s not to say those kinds of conversations — in a smaller form — don’t go on during the course of a season. But the Yankees should not be afraid to, as Hal Steinbrenner put it when describing the meetings, “challenge everything, all of our philosophies, all of our practices” and while doing so, “check your egos at the door.”
Boone, who is entering the final year of his contract (with a club option for 2025), said there will likely be some things he does a little differently next season, including “be[ing] a little more hands-on in some certain situations.”
“But at the same time, it’s really important for me to empower my coaching staff to do their job, too,” Boone said. “And I don’t like to micromanage those kind of things. But there are areas that I have my eye on that I’ll make sure I’m a little more involved.”
One possible area is making sure that his players are getting the analytical information they need and in the ways that make the most sense for them. Aaron Judge made clear at the end of the season that the team could use some work on how it is disseminating that data to its players.
“There’s some players that eat up information and can handle a lot of information, and it goes a long way in helping them become the players they expect to be,” Boone said. “”Other guys, it’s like, get out of their way and let them go play.
“Part of our job as coaches, as an organization, is to recognize that, and one of the things is being better at how we do disseminate things and make sure our guys are in the best position to go out and be successful.”
Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman: Don’t wait too long on a Stanton decision
The Yankees are confident Giancarlo Stanton is putting in the work this offseason to have a rebound year in 2024. It’s absolutely possible that will come to fruition.
But if it doesn’t, the Yankees will have a hard decision to make. Stanton currently has four years left on his contract and $98 million owed to him by the Yankees. If the 34-year-old still looks like the 2023 version of himself early in 2024, how long will the Yankees wait on him to turn it around? When will the time come when the team decides it is better off just not having him take up a spot on the roster (and that likely means a release instead of a trade, since Stanton owns a no-trade clause)?
The Yankees went through smaller examples of this in 2023 with Aaron Hicks (designated for assignment in May with three years and roughly $30 million left on his contract) and Josh Donaldson (released in August on a $21 million salary and a $6 million buyout this offseason).
Stanton still has time to change his story and not fall into that category just yet. But it’s a situation that certainly bears watching.
Cody Morris is no stranger to the Yankees
The Yankees should have a good amount of familiarity with their newest pitcher, Cody Morris, who was acquired from the Guardians in exchange for Estevan Florial on Tuesday.
First off, Morris was rotation-mates with Clarke Schmidt at the University of South Carolina in 2017. Schmidt, then a junior, went 4-2 with a 1.34 ERA while Morris, then a freshman, went 2-3 with a 3.66 ERA.
More significant, though, is the connection with Matt Blake. The Yankees’ pitching coach was still Cleveland’s pitching coordinator when it drafted Morris in 2018 and the right-hander spent 2019 split between Low-A and High-A.
While not all of his projects have worked out, Blake does have a good number of success stories in his time in The Bronx. If he can bring out the best in Morris — or at least make him a useful piece of the puzzle — it will be a solid return for a player (Florial) who went unclaimed on waivers last April and had no foreseeable future as a Yankee.
Comeback story
How will you remember Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the Yankee?
Answers will vary, of course, but it is hard to recall many who were buried as far as IKF who then rose back to the surface.
It is difficult to bounce back from poor performance in New York, where reputations are made quickly. Kiner-Falefa, who was brought in just before the 2022 season as a stop-gap shortstop, quickly represented another Yankees mistake. He was never known for his bat and hit just enough in 2022 (.642 OPS) to continue cracking into lineups. His defense at shortstop was competent enough to hold the job through the regular season, but shaky enough to inspire anger from fans.
The fan base’s frustration grew and turned personal, one idiot sending Kiner-Falefa’s father a message on Twitter with a “joke” that his son had been shot dead. Kiner-Falefa was booed heartily, which is usually the point of no return. When the fans turned on players such as Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks, it became apparent that a rebound would not come. Boos can beget strikeouts. IKF was benched for most of the 2022 postseason, which appeared to be the end of his Yankees story.
And yet, he rebounded. Kiner-Falefa could see that he would lose the shortstop battle to Anthony Volpe or Oswald Peraza last spring training, so he volunteered to attempt a super-utility role that he mastered. The Hawaiian played every position except catcher and first base last season, shining especially in center field. He hit better (.646 OPS) and was a comparatively interesting at-bat in a lineup filled with slumps and strikeouts.
With a lesser role and managed expectations, Kiner-Falefa actually became pretty well-liked within the fan base.
An absolute roller-coaster of a two-season tenure ended this week, when Kiner-Falefa agreed to a two-year, $15 million pact with the Blue Jays that will keep him in the AL East.
How will Yankees fans greet him April 5-7, when the Blue Jays visit The Bronx for the first time? Maybe not with the love that many former Yankees receive, but also not with the hate that IKF already has experienced plenty.
— Mark Sanchez