For the first time since 2016, the New York Yankees did not play postseason baseball. While that’s a sentence that fans of other baseball fans dream of hearing, the Yankees reloaded in multiple ways that put them right back in position to compete for a World Series. Or, they’re in a position to lose to the Astros in the ALCS once again. We’ll see.

The Yankees finished 2023 with a record of 82-80 and fourth place in the AL East. After spending 170 calendar days in first place in 2022, New York only held at least a share of the division lead for two days in 2023. If you look at their leaders in bWAR for the season, it’s a good summation of how their season went. In other words, I don’t think anyone expected Tommy Khanle and Ian Hamilton to be in the top 10 of that list.

Offense: Fresh off of signing a nine-year, $360 million contract last offseason, superstar OF Aaron Judge continued to put his money where his swing was. Despite playing in only 106 games, Judge slashed .267/.406/.613 with a 1.019 OPS, 37 home runs, and 75 RBIs. He even homered in his first at-bat of the season, just a few months after setting a home run record for a single season.

A big toe injury and a hip strain prevented Judge from playing a full season; the toe injury was quite the unfortunate one, as he ran the toe into the outfield wall in Dodger Stadium. Nonetheless, he proved his worth in the games he did play, and New York’s lineup took a huge hit during his absence.

So, who, if anyone, picked up the slack? 2B Gleyber Torres was able to play in 158 games, hitting 25 home runs and 68 RBIs with 28 doubles and an .800 OPS. His .453 slugging percentage was the highest since his 2019 season, and his OPS reached .800 for the first time in that same timeframe.

Outside of Torres, though, the list of positive contributors wasn’t very long. One of them certainly wasn’t DH Giancarlo Stanton, whose .191/.275/.420 slash line frustrated the fan base when they considered the $32 million that he made last year. 1B Anthony Rizzo also spent some time on the IL, missing the final two months of the season with a concussion. CF Aaron Hicks and 3B Josh Donaldson were both released before the season ended, and INF DJ LeMahieu continued to stray further and further away from what he did at the plate in 2019 and 2020.

Lastly, their catching depth was put to the test when 2022 All-Star Jose Trevino missed a good chunk of games with a hamstring injury as well as a season-ending wrist injury. Kyle Higashioka took the reins on catching duties, and Ben Rortvedt was summoned to 32 games behind the plate.

While a majority of New York’s roster are veteran players, Yankees fans had an opportunity to glimpse into the future. Let’s start with then-top prospect SS Anthony Volpe, who made the Opening Day roster and played 159 games. A strikeout percentage of 27.8% and a .209 batting average weren’t very attractive, but he hit 21 home runs and placed third amongst all MLB shortstops in Defensive Runs Saved. That’s a start they can work with.

Towards the end of the season, they debuted three more of their top 10 prospects in OF Jasson Dominguez, C Austin Wells, and OF Everson Pereira. Those three played in too few games to provide a reasonable evaluation, but Dominguez separated himself from the rest by becoming the youngest Yankee to ever homer in his first at-bat on September 1st against the Astros.

Unfortunately, Dominguez would undergo Tommy John surgery in September after suffering a torn UCL, an injury that the team believes could keep him out until the summer.

Pitching: I highlighted a ton of injuries on the offensive side of the ball, but the Yankees’ pitching staff suffered similar drawbacks.

Before I get to those, though, I want to start with that stellar season that Gerrit Cole had. He added another decorated season to his career, culminating to his first career Cy Young award after finishing in the Top 5 in Cy Young voting in five previous seasons. Across 33 starts, Cole posted a 15-4 record, 2.63 ERA, 0.981 WHIP, 9.6 K/9, and two shutouts. He led the American League in all of the aforementioned categories except for K/9. He’s starting to become the definition of consistency, and he is undoubtedly already a candidate to take home another Cy Young award this season.

As much as Aaron Boone wishes that he could, Cole couldn’t pitch every game of the season. The Yankees signed Carlos Rodon to a six-year, $162 million deal last offseason, but injuries to his forearm and his hamstring limited him to only 14 starts in 2023. Furthermore, he posted a 6.85 ERA across those starts, the highest ERA he has posted in his career in a season of at least 10 starts.

Frankie Montas (remember him?) only pitched in one game last year after recovering from shoulder surgery. He ended his stint as a Yankee pitching in only nine games, posting a 6.15 ERA and a 1.561 WHIP. Luis Severino fought a lat injury for a good portion of 2023, but he wound up appearing in 19 games and pitching to a 6.65 ERA.

The injuries opened up spots for youngsters Clarke Schmidt and Michael King; Schmidt pitched in a career-high 33 games (starting all but one of them) and kept a steady 4.64 ERA, while King owned a 2.75 ERA and a 10.9 K/9 across 49 total outings.

The Yankees kicked off their offseason in early December when they acquired OF Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for reliever Greg Weissert and two minor-league pitching prospects. Verdugo is another lefty bat that will undoubtedly utilize the short porch in Yankee Stadium. Verdugo will become a free agent following the 2024 season, and the Yankees have a solid amount of young outfield depth, so he probably isn’t meant to be a Yankee long-term. However, Verdugo is a good short-term outfield piece for them, especially with his prowess of hitting doubles (32+ in each of his last three seasons) and a slash line that upgrades a lot of the outfielders New York threw out there last year.

As an aside, the Yankees also acquired SS Jeter Downs off of waivers from the Washington Nationals. For those keeping score at home, that is two-thirds of Boston’s acquisitions in the Mookie Betts/David Price deal now playing for the Yankees.

The Yankees pulled off one of the bigger deals of this offseason, becoming the new home for superstar OF Juan Soto. Another inevitable short porch savant, Soto’s presence gives the Yankees something they have desperately needed in each of the past couple of seasons: lineup help and/or protection for Aaron Judge.

The deal in itself was Soto and OF Trent Grisham in exchange for C Kyle Higashioka, pitchers Michael King, Randy Vasquez, Jhony Brito, and minor league pitching prospect Drew Thorpe. Without getting into all of their individual stats, this was quite the haul for Soto. A player with his status definitely warrants that type of return, but the risk with this is that Soto is a free agent after the 2024 season. Hence, there’s a chance that the Yankees gave up several pieces for just one year of Soto.

New York finally attacked the free agent market and scooped up SP Marcus Stroman to a two-year deal. The long-time Blue Jay and recent Chicago Cub is coming off of an All-Star 2023 season, posting a 3.95 ERA across 25 starts, and he’s really making me feel old as he will turn 33 during this upcoming season. Stroman to the Yankees almost felt inevitable; he was linked to them in 2019 when the Blue Jays were rumored to be moving him near the trade deadline.

More recently, the Yankees acquired reliever Caleb Ferguson from the Dodgers in exchange for reliever Matt Gage and pitching prospect Christian Zazueta. While this deal falls on the minor end of New York’s offseason, Ferguson had been an effective reliever over the past few seasons for the Dodgers. Last season, he posted a 3.43 ERA and a 10.4 K/9 across 68 appearances in L.A., serving as a relief pitcher and sprinkling in some appearances as an “opener” towards the end of the season.

Other minor moves included the Yankees acquiring RP Cody Morris from the Guardians in exchange for former top prospect Estevan Florial. They also signed former Blue Jay INF Kevin Smith to a minor league deal, claimed former Guardians power bat Oscar Gonzalez off of waivers, and brought back SP Luke Weaver for pitching depth.

The Yankees got busy this offseason, and I think they were actually quite productive. They were quickly becoming notorious for signing aging vets to overpriced deals, but they didn’t hesitate to cut ties with some of those veterans (Hicks and Donaldson) last season. While they still are a majority veteran team, Wells, Volpe, Pereira, and Dominguez (once he returns) could very easily be focal points to this franchise.

Expectations have been high in the Bronx for quite some time, and the names and contracts that New York is bringing in aren’t bringing the results that correlate to those expectations. With that being said, ownership, GM Brian Cashman, or maybe even manager Aaron Boone could be feeling some pressure if the Yankees go another season without a playoff appearance.

Although they fell short in the Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes, acquiring Soto is an excellent piece to put next to Aaron Judge in the lineup. Rodon is a popular bounce-back candidate in the rotation, and if he does rebound, I think it’s reasonable to say that Cole-Rodon-Stroman-Cortes is as talented as a 1-4 in all of baseball’s rotation.

But that is, of course, if “all goes well”, and there’s a major asterisk on all of this in that injuries or lack of improvement from multiple guys could derail a lot of the World Series hopes quickly. But this is a team with one of the highest ceilings in all of the MLB. Don’t be surprised if the Yankees dethrone Baltimore atop the American League East.