2023 MLB Season Preview: New York Yankees

2022 finished with the Yankees making a sixth straight playoff appearance... and failing to make the World Series once again. That’s probably unsatisfying for Yankees fans, but that’s really their own problem, as the Yankees were a top-flight team last year, and look like a serving of the cream of the crop for 2023, as well.

Expectations for 2023

Projections’ central estimates have the Yankees winning 89-91 games in 2023. That may not seem like a lot given that they won 99 games last year, but it’s important to remember that projections provide central estimates for everyone, and 89-91 translates to somewhere between the second- and seventh-best record in MLB under a given system. They’re not exactly favorites in a crowded and competitive AL East, but given the expanded playoffs, they seem fairly likely to secure a playoff spot.

Again, none of that says much of anything about what the franchise expects from the 2023 team, but that’s not a roster construction problem.

Projected Roster

via Roster Resource:

Lineup

1. Gleyber Torres - 2B
2. Aaron Judge - CF
3. Anthony Rizzo - 1B
4. Giancarlo Stanton - DH
5. Oswaldo Cabrera - RF
6. Josh Donaldson - 3B
7. Aaron Hicks - LF
8. Jose Trevino - C
9. Oswald Peraza - SS

Bench

Kyle Higashioka - C
Isiah Kiner-Falefa - INF
DJ LeMahieu - UTIL
Willie Calhoun - OF

Rotation

Gerrit Cole - RHP
Luis Severino - RHP
Domingo German - RHP
Clarke Schmidt - RHP
Nestor Cortes - LHP

Bullpen

Clay Holmes - RHP
Jonathan Loaisiga - RHP
Michael King - RHP
Wandy Peralta - LHP
Ron Marinaccio - RHP
Greg Weissert - RHP
Matt Krook - LHP
Albert Abreu - RHP

Biggest Strength

Aaron Judge is the obvious answer here, both as the best player on the roster and potentially in baseball at the moment, and just in terms of his stature.

But, beyond the massive boost that Judge is projected to provide to this already-solid roster, the Yankees arguably have the best rotation in baseball. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon are two of the ten best-projected pitchers in the game. Nestor Cortes was more—than-solid last year and has over 5 fWAR in his last 250 career innings. Luis Severino isn’t the 5-6-win version of himself anymore, but is still fine as a mid-rotation arm, and Domingo German is right there too. That gives the Yankees five average-or-much-better starters, and they’ve got fine depth in the form of guys like Clarke Schmidt.

If there’s one concern about the rotation, it’s that it’s already being peeled apart by injuries, as Rodon has a forearm issue, and Cortes has been dealing with a hamstring problem. That said, this is still a rotation that has the guys it has after losing Frankie Montas for an indefinite period with a shoulder ailment, so they should be just fine. Or, well, better than fine. Maybe even the Aaron Judge of MLB rotations in 2023.

Biggest Weakness

This roster doesn’t have too many weaknesses, but shortstop and left field are obvious places to call out relative to everything else. Shortstop isn’t really a weakness or problem per se, but it’s a bit unsettled. Top prospect Anthony Volpe has phenomenal projections, but it’s unclear whether he can actually play an MLB-level shortstop, and for all the hype, he didn’t actually terrorize Double-A as much as you’d expect last year. The alternative is Oswald Peraza (Isaiah Kiner-Falefa is also hanging out on the roster somewhere), who doesn’t have the defensive questions and only hit okay at Triple-A last year, though he showed out in a small sample at the big league level when promoted.

Left field is a mix of Aaron Hicks, whose career has been upended by injuries over the last four years, and presumably whichever of Volpe and Peraza doesn’t end up sticking at short, though really the Yankees could move a lot of guys there. It’s not bad or anything, it’s just kind of blah given the firepower around the rest of this roster.

Reinforcements from the Farm

In terms of highly-rated prospects, we’re really talking about Volpe and Peraza, who are less “reinforcements” and more “guys the Yankees will probably commit substantial PAs to in the relatively early going.” The next wave of impact guys, including Jasson Dominguez, is probably about a year away, though you know the Yankees won’t hesitate to be aggressive if guys like Dominguez or Everson Peirera continue to rake. It might be better than more PAs down the Aaron Hicks well, after all.

Braves history/outlook against the team

Well, there were those World Series in 1996 and 1999. You guys remember those, right? Right? What about 1957-1958?

Beyond that, the Yankees and Braves haven’t tangled much over the years. The Braves went 1-3 against them in 2021, 2-2 in 2020, 1-2 in 2018, and 0-3 in 2015. They haven’t won a season series against them since 2001, and are 16-26 against them in the regular season, as well as 9-15 in the postseason. But, they’ll be seeing a lot more of the Yanks from here on out, so there’s a chance for them to quickly make up ground in the all-time series. Still, the Yankees probably won’t be pushovers any time soon, so easier said than done.