The good news is that the 2023 Yankees finished above .500.
Everything else is gonna be what people take away from this season. Poorly-timed injuries, people worth hundreds of millions of dollars not playing to their worth, a guy pitching a perfect game and then getting another domestic abuse suspension, and the single most prized prospect in the organization coming up for 10 games and then immediately needing surgery. That is the 2023 Yankees: tragedy on multiple levels.
There was a lot that went well for the Yanks this year, including a monster season from Gerrit Cole, an impressive rookie year from Anthony Volpe, 37 homers from Judge even in a shortened season, and the knowledge that Juan Soto will be suiting up for us in 2024. But there was a lot of misery, and we had to stomach that.
All I can say is that if you think being a Yankee fan was hard this year, imagine having to root for either of the two football teams in addition. Unrelated, but go Birds.
Giancarlo Stanton essentially confirmed how ill-advised it was to take on a jekyll-or-hyde power machine or injury-prone goat for nearly a decade. He's had some nice years for us, but he's whittled away so much of his early promise, and now he's just taunting us. The good news is that I got to see Stanton hit 2 homers in person this year, including one of the most incredible long-shots I've ever seen. The bad news is that this is really all Stanton can do anymore. In 101 games, Stanton hit .191 with 24 homers and 60 RBIs, passable power numbers but knocked down by his inefficiency otherwise.
2024 Prediction: Because absolutely no one would expect it, a comeback year DHing.
Nestor Cortes was coming off two excellent years starting for the Yankees, so it was only natural that he'd let us down. Cortes battled injuries all year, and only had 12 games up in the majors in between setbacks. He was decent in that period, with a 5-2 record, a 4.97 ERA and 67 Ks, but compared to his incredible 2022, it wasn't much.
2024 Prediction: Cortes is gonna have an excellent start for us, and make up for lost time, but something tells me that around July the rotation is gonna get crowded, and he might end up doing long relief work again.
Luis Severino has been with the Yankees since 2015. I remember watching one of his first starts in a bar in Pt. Pleasant, NJ. He gave us an incredible pair of seasons in 2017 and 2018, threw out his arm and hasn't been the same since. 2023 was just another year of Sevvy trying to do what he did before and just not having it; in 19 games he had a 6.65 ERA, a 4-8 record and 79 Ks. He can still strike people out, but he's nowhere near as dominant as he was before the injuries, and he's yet another victim of young players throwing too hard too soon.
2024 Prediction: He will get Mets fans excited for exactly 5 seconds.
Clay Holmes, of all people, has become a pretty decent closing option for us. I never thought that somebody like Holmes, a career reliever who can work his way up a depth chart and hold the ninth, would take over for the line of career closers that was the Yankee 2010s. Holmes has done well for himself, and had another strong year in 2023, with a 2.86 ERA and 24 saves in 66 games.
2024 Prediction: For the last year before free agency, Holmes will have his best relief year yet, and teams will overpay for him in 2025.
Kyle Higashioka is a perfect portrait of the Yankees of the early 2020s: he was supposed to be our backup, but he's caught 242 games for us since 2021. Higgy is a perfectly acceptable catcher with some perks and some drawbacks. He wasn't great defensively this year, but he hit .236 with 10 homers and 34 RBIs, which isn't bad for a backup pressed into the starting spot.
2024 Prediction: Wouldn't it be funny if San Diego, after giving us Soto and possibly even Hader, has a Sanchez/Higgy catching platoon? I reckon Higgy will be the backup for the Padres, no matter who they get.
Carlos Rodon was supposed to be one of the biggest exclamation points of the Yankees' 2023 season. Of course, because he threw harder and more accurately than ever in 2021 and 2022, he was injured going into this year, and only made 14 starts for us this year. In that stretch, he went 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA. In a rebuilding year for the Yankees, this was a recovery year for Rodon. The hope is that he can get back to where he was next year and we didn't just pull a Carl Pavano/James Paxton again.
2024 Prediction: The 'that's more like it' season.
With Higgy starting, Trevino hurt and Rortvedt clearly not the answer, the Yankees went with a rookie for some Aug/Sept. games, that being organizational favorite Austin Wells. Like another Austin in Yankee history, Wells might be a lot of pomp for a perfectly acceptable backstop choice. In 19 games he hit .229 with 4 homers and 13 RBIs. Not a bad start, but the hope is that he builds on it.
2024 Prediction: Doesn't have the position to start the season, but definitely earns it as the season wraps up.
And then there's this guy. The Martian. The guy that every Yankee fan has been waiting for since the story broke on how insane this guy is. Jasson Dominguez made waves in Spring Training, then in Scranton, and by August he was called up to start in the Bronx. When this happened I was floored--we were already out of contention pretty much, and they weren't even gonna save Jasson for next year? Alright then. The second Dominguez took the plate, I understood. In 8 games, Dominguez hit 4 home runs, and 7 RBIs. The 20-year-old looked like a hitting machine from the very beginning, and we all got so excited. And then, of course, Dominguez gets injured and might miss the majority of 2024. Which is so indicative of this season. We get 8 games of the future and then he gets yanked away.
2024 Prediction: Will make some late appearances, and will get right back to what he was doing this year. The Soto-Judge-Dominguez OF isn't far away, guys.
And that was 2023. A wild, unpredictable year with a baseball story that thrilled me, and a lot of great players to keep me excited. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
To all my readers, I wish you a happy and healthy 2024. I'm gonna, as usual, take a lot of January off. I'll be back when there's something to write about. You'll definitely see me back here around early February, there's a big milestone to celebrate.
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