The Yankees are gearing up for a championship pursuit in 2024, but first, they have to polish their ranks down in Tampa during Spring Training.
What to watch for at Yankees Spring Training
Newcomers: How are the newbies going to adjust to life in Pinstripes?
Juan Soto is coming off a talent-inflated San Diego Padres team, supported by other big bats like Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., plus star-studded pitchers like Blake Snell and Yu Darvish.
Ultimately, just like any bubble, it busted. The 2023 Padres went 82-80, failing to make the playoffs despite the Avengers-level team they assembled.
What does Soto do? Go elsewhere to prove that he’s as good as advertised. He has one year left on his current deal before hitting free agency and a monster campaign in the Bronx will set him up for a huge payday next winter.
Another newcomer, Alex Verdugo, flipped sides of one of the most historic rivalries in sports when the Yankees and Boston Red Sox linked up for a rare trade. He has plenty to prove with his new AL East club as there have been attempts by others to build a reputation of being slow, lazy, and late. His No. 1 mission is to prove himself worthy of wearing the Pinstripes.
Turning to the starting rotation, there is going to be pressure on Marcus Stroman to be a reliable arm behind reigning Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole because that didn’t happen last year.
Carlos Rodon got injured, effectively derailing the season, and so did Nestor Cortes, who was also plenty inconsistent. The spot for the No. 2 starter behind Cole is wide open and Stroman can take it if he can replicate much of his last five seasons.
Catchers’ Competition: Jose Trevino might have broken Yankees Twitter when he announced that he suffered a season-ending injury to his hand in July, getting surgery as a result. It’s still unclear if the Platinum Glove catcher is healthy enough to be at Spring Training, but if he isn’t, the Yankees have some backup: primarily Austin Wells and Ben Rortvedt.
Both saw some time in the majors last season, but with a question mark next to Trevino’s status and Kyle Higashioka traded away to the Padres, it’ll become down to Wells and Rortvedt to battle it out at Spring Training for the right to start on Opening Day.
Starting Rotation: The probable members of the starting rotation (in no particular order) are Cole, Stroman, Cortes, Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt.
Cole anchored the Yankees’ starting rotation, and if this was basketball, Clarke Schmidt would
be a serious candidate for “Sixth Man of the Year” going from a regular bullpen piece to 32
starts. To call it like it is: he stepped up.
The part that remains to be seen is the lefties. Cortes and Rodon were spotty last year due to their respective injuries. Cortes dealt with a rotator cuff injury, limiting him to only a dozen games last season.
Rodon knows a few things about that: In the Bay Area, he was nothing short of an ace. In 2022, he had a career second-best ERA of 2.88, but that was over the largest sample size in a single season – 178.0 IP. In it, he struck out the most batters in a single season at a whopping 237, good for third in the entire league. Compare all that to 2023, he had an Icarus-like crash back to Earth, starting with a forearm strain at the end of March, and then a hamstring issue in early August.
