Yankees captain and star outfielder Aaron Judge was presented with the 2023 Roberto Clemente award in Arizona yesterday, and spoke with the media (including David Lennon of Newsday) afterwards regarding the coming offseason in New York. Judge told reporters during the scrum that he spoke with Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner yesterday about changes to the organization and that they’ll have another conversation in-person when Judge returns to New York. While Judge indicated a preference to keep the specifics of his discussions with Steinbrenner private, he noted that there’s plenty of ways the organization could look to change this offseason.
“You know, changes could mean a lot of different things,” Judge said, “From philosophies, players, coaches, everything. [The Yankees] haven’t made it to the big dance in quite a few years, so we got some work to do, even on the player side.”
Judge has previously spoken about a desire to see the club’s communication of analytics information to players improved, hinting at one area the club could look to improve in 2024. Beyond that, the Yankees have at least one spot on the coaching staff to fill, as in-season hitting coach hire Sean Casey won’t return to the club in 2024. The club has frequently been a topic of discussion on the trade rumor mill the past month, as well, with a rumored connection to Padres star Juan Soto. The potential for the club to move on from some arbitration-level players, including a member of their catching corps and perhaps even second baseman Gleyber Torres, has also been discussed.
More from MLB’s East divisions…
- The Mets have not yet scheduled an interview with Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who formally interviewed with the Guardians yesterday. That being said, Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicates that while the meeting between the sides hasn’t been “firmed up yet”, the expectation is that a meeting will happen soon. What’s more, Heyman adds that the Mets figure to be the highest bidder for Counsell’s services in terms of salary. While Heyman suggests that the Mets are unlikely to offer a salary at the level of Joe Torre’s record $8MM figure as manager of the Yankees, he notes that still leaves plenty of room for the Mets to offer Counsell a contract richer than the $4.5MM salary recently-retired Guardians manager Terry Francona received in 2023, which was the highest in the majors this year.
- Nationals right-hander Kyle Finnegan figures to reprise his role as the club’s closer in 2024, as noted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. Zuckerman suggests that the club hopes Finnegan will continue performing with the club as a late-inning option out of the bullpen into 2025, when they hope to return to contention. That being said, Zuckerman also suggests that, in the event the Nationals are out of the race next summer and Finnegan is pitching well, the club will once again consider moving Finnegan, as they did prior to the trade deadline earlier this year. Of course, no deal came together then, and Finnegan struggled down the stretch this season with a 5.18 ERA and 5.52 FIP in 24 1/3 innings in August and September. That being said, Finnegan entered the month of August with an ERA of 3.00, leaving him with solid overall season numbers including a 3.76 ERA (115 ERA+) and a 21.9% strikeout rate in 67 appearances.
The best way to improve the Yankees hitting is not through the hitting coach necessarily. It’s with better hitters. A number of them have aged out. I do think they have a problem finishing off their young hitters once they reach the majors. That’s an area I’d be focused on and that extends back further than their most recent hitting coaches.
In no particular order:
DJ is probably finished as a starter, unless Casey can change his launch angle. But I’m not sure there are any elegant solutions which give you more hitting and a reasonable glove.
You might need a new 1B. After the NYY crack medical squad took two months to realize that a concussion victim might have concussion-related issues, I wouldn’t trust their judgement.
You should sign a one-year LF and wait on Jasson. Let Jasson rotate between LF and DH along with Stanton.
You need a CF. A stop-gap like KK or Grisham would work, or a l/t guy like Lee, but none of these guys help the offense. Bellinger, but he is expensive.
Bellinger makes sense, although I’m fully convinced in his rebound, which means he could quickly become an expensive ok hitter. Above my pay grade. Bellinger and Kiermaier could fix a couple problems while awaiting Dominguez, and KK could then move into a high-rotation 4th OFer role. Bellinger could also replace Rizzo at 1B eventually. I don’t think Rizzo is finished unless he has permanent damage from the concussion. It’s rare but it does happen.
I’m less concerned about LeMahieu. He’s past peak but still valuable as a plug-and-play player who is good defensively at 1B, 2B and 3B. They probably should recognize his age and target him for 125 games a year, not 150+. Over the last 2 1/2 months, corresponding with Casey’s arrival, DJLM hit .275/.380/.430. He credited Casey with getting his swing back on path. He still has value I’d used properly. Of course, Casey is no longer the hitting coach!
Stanton is a problem.
More contact on two-strikes taking a page out of Bellinger’s playback. The problem is being able to convince him knowing that he won’t hit a lot of doubles with his baserunning issues and will be pinch-ran often for in close, late games.
Yeah let’s not go finger pointing but Stanton’s a problem, a real problem.
I wonder if Counsell will take the Mets offer back to Milwaukee and tell them to meet it or beat it? And if they refuse, he gone.
Guy is overrated. He has out coached in the playoffs and has used the fact he is from Wisconsin to his advantaged. His act has gotten old. 29 other managers wouldn’t have even thought about using Winkers in any playoff games. His personal doghouse issues with players was also childish.
Terrible take as always
My guess is he’ll check to see if they’ll match it. I don’t think he’d ask them to beat it. If he did, I’d just let him walk.
Are you kidding me? Counsell is to possibly get more than Tito got? Even if the Mets, Indians and Brewers all want him, I’d pass.
RS already has a manager wearing a fancy suit beneath his uniform.
Huh?
Why do we need to know about your neighbor and sandwiches?
Perhaps you need to lay off the hallucinogens.
Sounds more like meth to me!
I’m betting on a ton of weed and an epic case of the munchies myself lol
Lol Mets,
I still can’t believe the Mets drafted Dom Smith instead of Aaron Judge in the 2013 draft one year after drafting Gavin Cecchini instead of Corey Seager.
In 2019 it appears the pattern continued drafting Brett Baty instead of Bryson Stott.
Steve Cohen needs to clean house as it will take more than hiring David Stearns and Craig Counsell to fix this mess.
So Robrock….draft pick from ’13 and one from ’19 make a pattern?
You need more data
Actually 2014 Michael Conforto flamed out 2015 no 1st round draft because they signed Michael Cuddyer as a FA with a QO ( great move as he retired the next year ) 2016 Justin Dunn SP and Anthony Kay who was just DFA’d 2017 David Peterson 2018 Kelenic who they traded.
How poor is that?
Conforto has 16.3 career WAR which is 5th best in the 2014 first round. I don’t think you should be complaining about that one.
2015? At least you can have comfort in the fact that Mike Nikorak, the pick the Rockies got as compensation for Cuddyer, never made it out of A ball and pitched 68 career pro innings. At least you got Cuddyer for a year.
From 2010-2020, every single first round pick of the Mets made the major leagues and 4 of them (Harvey, Fulmer, Nimmo, Conforto) so far have had notable careers. Very few teams can say that.
Actually I just checked. No other team thus far has had every single first round pick from 2010-2020 make the major leagues thus far. The Giants and Mariners just missed one, but only the Mets got a perfect score. Some younger players still have a chance in the future, but almost every team missed a pick from 2010-2015 that is no longer active.
Anyway, the point is that if you think the Mets drafting was poor, then so is every other team in the league.
Judge interview:
youtu.be/rk-isggKiBM?si=D8TaqaQqhjx4Krwj
Finnegan is a lefty, right?
U’d think there would B lil sense of urgency by Metropolitans on finding there new savior so they can start making real changes in organization n begin cultivating success BUT seems they cant even get interview w/their “mentioned” favorite even though he’s up 4it, what idiot is in charge right now that they can’t pickup phone n facilitate the process ?
As opposed to the idiot – er, I’m Niekro floater – posting who has no idea what he’s talking about?
Must be that idiot.
Barely able to understand this comment, which is unfortunate. The entire comment deserves to be illegible.
Nothing anyone can do about your poor reading comprehension.
BB, It was not a response to your comment, although the same would absolutely apply to the drivel you posted.
On westcoast n don’t see much Brewers ball, Counsel seems like OK mngr w/mid tier team that normally gives ya fight. But EXPECTATIONS 4winning that come w/bein big city high payroll skipper constantly under microscope of largest US media market could B daunting. Harder 2win when it’s expected n all Ur decisions R amplified especially when they don’t result in Ws. Clev is wildcard in this deal.
DJ LeMahieu is done as a starter- lets be honest he should probably retire but he’s got 3 years/$45M left…. oof.
We have an opportunity to recalibrate thanks to shedding weak links like IKF and Josh Donaldson.
Rizzo is done. I know we all keep hoping that he’ll come back but he’s clearly done. I feel bad that his career is probably ending the way it is ending, but he’s a non-factor.
We basically don’t have an outfield beyond Judge. We basically don’t have a third baseman. We basically don’t have a shortstop or a second baseman, depending on how we use Gleyber if we don’t trade him.
Oof….
@TrillionaireTeamOperator: Actually, not much of team beyond Cole and Judge.
What the hell? The comma should be inside the quotation marks in the first bullet point, and “as well” shouldn’t have a comma before it in the third paragraph.
Is this amateur hour?