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Aaron Judge

Yankees Notes: LeMahieu, Outfield, Judge

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It’s been a tough few days on the injury front for Yankees fans. After the club announced yesterday that right-hander Luis Gil is set to undergo an MRI due to shoulder troubles and not long after it was made public that slugger Giancarlo Stanton will begin the season on the injured list due to soreness in both elbows, another potentially key player for the club went down with a potential injury: veteran infielder DJ LeMahieu.

As noted by MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, manager Aaron Boone told reporters this afternoon that LeMahieu “tweaked” a calf muscle during his second at-bat during today’s game, which was LeMahieu’s spring debut. LeMahieu is receiving treatment for the issue, but Boone called the situation “at least a little concerning” given the veteran’s recent injury history. LeMahieu was limited to just 67 games due to a number of injuries last year, including a hip impingement that ultimately ended his season.

It’s a particularly troubling development seeing as LeMahieu was a likely candidate to be the club’s starting third baseman on Opening Day. A recent MLBTR Poll suggested that 27.5% of respondents expected LeMahieu to receive the lion’s share of playing time at third base this year. That was enough to beat out both Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza as the top internal candidate for the job, though a 34% plurality of respondents suggested that the Yankees’ primary solution at the hot corner was likely to be someone not yet in the organization.

Perhaps today’s injury will make that more likely if LeMahieu winds up unable to get back in time for the beginning of the season later this month, though the pickings remain quite slim on the market with part-time veteran Jose Iglesias standing out as the best infield option still available. If the Yankees can’t find an external solution for the hot corner before Opening Day, it seems likely that Cabrera and Peraza will handle the position in a timeshare until LeMahieu is ready to return, though it’s possible a player such as Jorbit Vivas or Pablo Reyes could make a push for the job as well.

Aside from the news regarding LeMahieu, Hoch suggests that the injury to Stanton could lead to a realigned outfield with Trent Grisham joining the lineup in center field, with Cody Bellinger sliding from center to right field and Aaron Judge moving to DH. Such an arrangement would improve the club’s defense overall by adding a plus glove in center field while also avoiding injury risks for Judge, the reigning AL MVP who stands out as the club’s most important player entering the year. Hoch adds that Boone noted that giving Judge occasional partial days off at DH could be valuable early in the season, though Boone was quick to emphasize that he also values Judge’s ability to contribute on defense in right field. On days where Grisham isn’t joining the lineup in center field and pushing a regular to DH, the club’s internal options to fill in for Stanton include youngster Ben Rice and non-roster invitee Dominic Smith.

Sticking with Judge, the MVP spoke to reporters (including Hoch) this afternoon about his desire to get more at-bats under his belt during Spring Training this year. Today was Judge’s first appearance in a Spring Training game of the year, and notably he received just 24 official at-bats in the spring last season. Judge suggested that additional reps before the season begins could help him to prevent a slow start like the one he had last year, where he batted just .197/.331/.393 in his first 149 trips to the plate before turning his season around in early May and hitting a sensational .357/.492/.787 the rest of the way. Obviously, that type of otherworldly production over the majority of the season would be more than enough to make up for another early-season slump, but Judge’s goal of getting something closer to 40 or 50 plate appearances in this spring is an understandable one given his struggles early last year.

Yankees Expected To Move Aaron Judge Back To Right Field In 2025

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Reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge is currently expected to move back to his longtime position of right field for the 2025 season, according to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Judge has appeared in right field during more than 75% of his career games in the outfield but played center field almost exclusively in 2024 in order to accommodate the addition of Juan Soto to the club’s lineup. Now that Soto has departed for Queens on a record-breaking deal, however, Judge will be able to return to his old stomping grounds.

“We’re not afraid to run [Judge] out in center like we’ve done, but I think it makes sense to have him over in right,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said Monday, as relayed by Hoch. He went on to suggest that sliding Judge back to his natural position offers top outfield prospect Jasson Dominguez a “clear lane” to capture the starting center field job entering Spring Training, though Hoch notes that Cashman added he isn’t currently ready to anoint the 21-year-old as the club’s starter for next season.

Even if the club ultimately opts to send Dominguez back to Triple-A (where he’s hit well but has just 53 total games under his belt) to open the 2025 campaign, the club figures to have number of options they could consider that would keep Judge in right. Perhaps the most obvious internal solution for center outside of Dominguez is Trent Grisham, who the club avoided arbitration with last month by agreeing to a $5MM contract despite the fact that Grisham was strictly used as a bench player by the club after being acquired from the Padres alongside Soto last winter. The 28-year-old appeared in 76 games last year as a late-inning defensive replacement or to fill in for Judge in center field when the slugger had the day off or was DH’ing for the day, but received just 209 plate appearances total despite being an everyday player in San Diego in each of the previous four seasons.

Grisham’s .190/.290/.385 slash line was good for a decent 91 wRC+, and a .217 BABIP that was well below his career norms may suggest room for positive regression going forward. That decent bat combined with an elite glove at a premium position makes Grisham a plausible candidate for a starting role, and Hoch suggests the club could look for a right-handed center fielder to pair with Grisham at the position this winter. Grisham and Dominguez aren’t the only internal options the club has in center, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. has two seasons’ worth of experience at the position from his time in Miami. With that said, Hoch did not mention Chisholm as even a theoretical candidate for the position headed into 2025, and all signs point to the Yankees planning to use the 26-year-old sparkplug at either second or third base next year.

Turning back to Grisham, the extremely thin market for center fielders this winter could pose an obstacle to any plans of platooning him in center as the Yankees would likely be limited to light-hitting bench players with impressive defense like Harrison Bader, Michael A. Taylor, and Cristian Pache. One other potential addition the Yankees could make to their outfield mix who is capable of playing center would be Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger. The Yankees are known to have at least checked in on the 2019 NL MVP this winter, and Hoch reiterates that the club is “intrigued” by 29-year-old. Bellinger is coming off a down season in Chicago where he hit a solid but unspectacular .266/.325/.426 (109 wRC+) in 130 games. While Bellinger’s 7.9% walk rate was solid and his 15.6% strikeout rate was genuinely impressive, he mustered only 18 home runs with the Cubs this year after clubbing 26 the year prior.

That’s still solid production, but a combination of Bellinger’s hefty $27.5MM salary for 2025 and the Cubs’ deep mix of outfield options has led the club to shop him quite aggressively this winter. According to Hoch, the Yankees’ interest in Bellinger stems at least in part from his positional versatility. Bellinger is a roughly average defensive center fielder at this stage of his career, offering less upside with the glove than a player like Grisham or even Dominguez but more than capable of handling the position on a regular basis if needed. That defense goes from average to well above average when Bellinger is parked in either outfield corner, and he’s also capable of handling first base with nearly 2500 career innings in the majors at the position. Judge stands as the only player locked into everyday reps in the club’s outfield mix next year with Soto now out of the picture, and given the club’s hole at first base it’s easy to see how acquiring a player like Bellinger could offer them plenty of flexibility as they look to retool their roster with a number of possible targets for both the infield and outfield on the table.

Aaron Judge Wins AL MVP

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Aaron Judge is the MVP once again. The Baseball Writers Association of America announced this evening that the Yankee captain was the unanimous choice for the American League’s top player this year. Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals was the unanimous runner-up, getting all of the second-place votes. Judge’s teammate Juan Soto finished third in the voting.

Judge was the AL MVP in 2022, his 62-homer campaign. While he came up just shy of that in 2024 with “only” 58 home runs, he roughly kept pace with himself in most categories. His 24.3% strikeout rate was actually a personal best, slightly ahead of the 25.1% clip from his previous MVP campaign. His 18.9% walk rate was a few ticks better than the 15.9% clip from two years ago. His 10 steals were a bit of a drop from his 16 from two years back, but his 144 runs batted in were a gain of 13.

Overall, his offensive contributions led to a ridiculous .322/.458/.701 slash line this year. That translated to a 218 wRC+, indicating he was 118% better than league average this year. That was an improvement over his 206 wRC+ in 2022.

On top of his work at the plate, he also contributed in the field. While he’s primarily been a right fielder in his career, he spent a career-high 903 innings in center in 2024. While he didn’t receive strong marks for his work there, simply being able to play up the middle was valuable to the Yanks, given the demands of the position. FanGraphs considered him to be worth 11.2 wins above replacement on the year, a slight increase over his 11.1 fWAR in 2022.

That all-time performance made it an easy choice for voters. That’s unfortunate for Witt, who played at a level that’d be enough to win MVP in a lot of years. The Royals’ star shortstop led the majors with a .332 average and 211 hits. He slashed .332/.389/.588 with 32 homers and 31 steals while playing excellent defense. FanGraphs credited Witt with more than 10 WAR in his own right. Since Witt finished in the top three in MVP voting within his first three MLB seasons, the Royals receive an extra pick after the first round in next year’s draft.

Soto had arguably the best full season of his career, hitting 41 homers with a .288/.419/.569 slash in what may be his only year as a Yankee. This is his third top five MVP finish. Soto received 21 third-place votes. Gunnar Henderson and José Ramírez, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, were the only others to land in third on some ballots. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Tarik Skubal, Jarren Duran, Yordan Alvarez, Brent Rooker, Emmanuel Clase, Cal Raleigh, Rafael Devers, Anthony Santander, Jose Altuve, Seth Lugo, Corey Seager, Framber Valdez and Detroit reliever Tyler Holton also appeared on at least one ballot.

Full voter breakdown from BBWAA.

Yankees Notes: Judge, Cole, Rotation

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Yankees star Aaron Judge has been slowed a bit by some abdominal discomfort recently, with manager Aaron Boone telling reporters yesterday that the 2022 AL MVP is “mid-spring banged up” while downplaying concerns of a more serious injury. Judge revealed this morning that he underwent an MRI on his abdominal region yesterday to ascertain that there was no significant injury at play (X link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). That imaging came back clean. Judge says he won’t swing a bat until later this week but is hopeful he’ll be in the Opening Day lineup.

On the one hand, the fact that Judge has avoided any kind of serious injury is an obvious cause for relief. On the other, it’s hardly ideal that the season hasn’t even begun and he’s less than 100 percent. Judge specified that the discomfort he’s felt has been in the middle of his abdominal muscles — not his oblique region. That’s particularly notable given that Judge has had a pair of oblique strains in the past, including a Grade 2 strain in 2019 that cost him two months of the season.

“I think just from swinging from November all the way until now, every single day, it put some wear and tear on it,” said Judge (via Hoch). “Especially coming back after a [right] toe injury when your mechanics are a little messed up and you’re just working on some things.”

Judge, 32 in April, was once again excellent in 2023 — though a hip strain in late April cost him 10 days, while the sprained toe he referenced wound up shelving him for more than a month. In all, he played in 106 games — his fewest in a 162-game season since 2019 — and posting a brilliant .267/.406/.613 slash with 37 home runs in just 458 trips to the plate.

The Yankees are already awaiting MRI results on ace and reigning Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole. Coupling that with even minor concern about the team’s best all-around player makes for an uncomfortable few days for the club and its fans. The Yankees indicated yesterday that Cole is expected to receive multiple opinions on his MRI results. An announcement today is not necessarily a given. SNY’s Andy Martino wrote yesterday that club officials have characterized the Cole MRI as “precautionary” and downplayed concern over a potential long-term injury. Time will tell whether that proves to be the case.

In the wake of the Cole news, there’s been a renewed focus on the Yankees’ rotation depth and ample speculation on contingency plans. The remaining pair of high-profile Scott Boras clients — Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery — have been at the forefront of that speculation. Martino reported in his piece that the Yankees haven’t yet circled back to Snell since concerns about Cole arose. Joel Sherman of the New York Post throws some cold water on the idea of the Yankees pivoting to either left-hander.

The luxury tax concerns for the Yankees have been highlighted at length by now. As a reminder, they’re a third-time payor who’s in the fourth and final tier of penalization. Any further additions to the payroll will be taxed at a 110% rate (based on the contract’s AAV) on top of the player’s salary. In the case of Snell, he’d also require forfeiting the team’s second-highest draft pick and surrendering $1MM of pool space in next year’s international free agent bonus pool, because Snell rejected a qualifying offer from the Padres.

Perhaps in part because of that, Sherman reports that the Yankees were more interested in Montgomery earlier in the offseason than in Snell — despite making a reported offer to the latter. The Yankees, per Sherman, “could not get a strong engagement” from Montgomery at the time, however. That lines up with some late-February reporting from The Athletic’s Jim Bowden, wherein he wrote that Montgomery’s hope had been for a return to the Rangers and that it was “believed” he did not “prefer” a Yankees reunion. With Montgomery still lingering on the market and the Rangers seemingly disinclined to spend further, none of that should expressly rule out an eventual match between Montgomery and the Yankees.

Sherman suggests that the likeliest course of action for the Yankees is to stand pat regardless of the news on Cole, though he opines that if they do make a move, they’re likelier to meet the White Sox’ asking price for right-hander Dylan Cease than they are to sign Snell or Montgomery. Cease is making $8MM this season and is controlled through 2025 via arbitration. He’d come with an $8.8MM luxury hit, but that’s a pittance relative to the tax hits it’d take to sign Montgomery or Snell for an AAV of $25-30MM — if not more. Prior reporting has indicated that the ChiSox were insistent on the inclusion of top outfield prospect Spencer Jones in talks regarding Cease, while the Yankees have been loath to consider moving him in any deal.

Yankees Notes: Judge, Holmes

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Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge had a challenging season in 2023, suffering a torn toe ligament when he collided with the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium. Back in December, general manager Brian Cashman described it as “a resolved issue” but Judge spoke on it today and didn’t frame it with the same sort of finality. He said it will likely require “constant maintenance” for the rest of his career, per Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News.

Judge still said that he’s feeling good, so it doesn’t appear there’s real cause for concern in the immediate future. Nonetheless, it’s something that could be worth watching going forward. Judge is turning 32 years old in April and it slated to become an everyday center fielder this year, with Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo in the corners. Judge may get the occasional day as the designated hitter, with Trent Grisham taking over in center, but it still figures to be a notable jump in terms of work.

In 2022, Judge got into 78 games as a center fielder and logged 632 2/3 innings at the position, with both of those currently standing as his career highs. Assuming he avoids the injured list this year, he should easily blow past both figures. His career marks have been passable at the position, especially considering his minimal experience there, with three Outs Above Average, -1 Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of -0.4 from Ultimate Zone Rating.

Maintaining those average-ish marks over a larger sample of playing time will something of a challenge. He’ll also be doing so while trying to work against the natural aging curve that generally comes for players as they push towards their mid-30s and trying to keep the toe thing at bay. It’s a lot of minor things but they could perhaps add up over time, with Judge having eight years left on his contract. Last season’s results were nothing to worry about, however. After coming off the IL in late July, Judge hit .245/.408/.557 over the remainder of the season for a wRC+ of 164.

Elsewhere in Yankee news, right-hander Clay Holmes tells Joel Sherman of The New York Post that the club has not yet approached him about an extension. Holmes, 31 next month, is slated to become a free agent at the end of this year.

Over the past two years, Holmes has established himself as the club’s primary closer, racking up 44 saves over those two campaigns. He’s thrown 126 2/3 innings in that time, allowing 2.70 earned runs per nine. He has struck out 26.1% of batters faced and given out walks at an 8.2% clip while, most impressively, keeping 70.6% of balls in play on the ground. That’s the best grounder rate in the majors among pitchers with at least 120 innings pitched over the last two years.

Keeping that kind of production around beyond the upcoming season is surely appealing, especially for a Yankee club that is known to favor ground ball specialists. But since he’s so close to the open market, the Yanks would likely have to pay something close to free agent prices in order to get him to sign.

Perhaps the club feels they can find the next Holmes another way. As Sherman points out, Holmes didn’t have a huge track record at the time the Yankees acquired him. He had a 5.57 career ERA when the Yanks sent Hoy Park and Diego Castillo to the Pirates to get Holmes, before turning him into a lockdown closer.

But as Sherman also points out, the bullpen is on the cusp of major turnover. Each of Holmes, Jonathan Loáisiga, Tommy Kahnle and Caleb Ferguson are impending free agents. Those four are arguably the club’s top high-leverage guys, leaving a lot of uncertainty going into 2025 and beyond. Bullpens can be fungible and it’s entirely possible the picture is drastically changed by next winter, but there’s a decent chance the Yanks will need to go get someone in free agency.

The club’s payroll will likely be a topic of conversation next winter, as they will likely find themselves paying the competitive balance tax yet again. Roster Resource calculates next year’s CBT number as $190MM, even before factoring in arbitration raises for players like Grisham, Nestor Cortes or Jose Trevino. There’s also Anthony Rizzo’s $17MM club option to consider, with a $6MM buyout making it a net $11MM decision.

Next year’s base threshold will be $241MM while the Yanks will be looking to replace impending free agents like Soto and Verdugo in their outfield mix. Perhaps they would prefer to keep their powder dry for those pursuits instead of spending on their bullpen ahead of time.

Yankees Notes: Snell, Injuries, Judge

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Earlier this month, the Yankees reportedly made an offer to left-hander Blake Snell, the top remaining starting pitcher on the open market this winter. At the time, no deal got done due to what was reportedly a significant gap between the sides, which ultimately led GM Brian Cashman and his front office to pivot to a two-year deal for right-hander Marcus Stroman. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand provided an update on Snell’s free agency today, noting that while the Yankees offered Snell $150MM over six years, Snell is in search of either a longer deal or one with an annual salary of at least $30MM.

While that’s still a reasonably substantial gap, it provides more reason for optimism that the sides could come together on a deal later in the offseason than previous reporting that indicated the sides were nearly $100MM apart in negotiations. Feinsand goes on to note that while other teams have shown interest in the lefty this winter, the Yankees’ offer is only the one a team has formally put forward to Snell this winter. Feinsand goes on to indicate that it isn’t yet clear if the club remains in on Snell after adding Stroman, a possibility that echoes the club’s reported focus on bullpen additions at this point in the offseason.

Still, it’s easy to see why the club would have interest in adding Snell to its rotation. While the addition of Stroman raises the floor of the club’s rotation considerably, the club lacks a surefire front-of-the-rotation arm to pair with ace Gerrit Cole, thanks in large part to the question marks surrounding southpaws Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes after injury-marred 2023 campaigns. Adding Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner who has averaged 27 starts a season over the past three campaigns, would give the club another reliable arm with substantial upside. If the sides aren’t able to come together on a deal, the Giants, Angels, and Blue Jays are among other suitors who could have interest in Snell’s services this winter.

More from the Bronx…

  • Cashman told reporters (including Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News) recently that veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo is currently cleared for full baseball activities and that doctors are not worried about symptoms of post-concussion syndrome returning in 2024, though he noted that dealing with injuries involving the brain is “tricky.” Rizzo played for over two months after sustaining a head injury in a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. last May before being placed on the IL in early August. Rizzo slashed an impressive .304/.376/.505 in 53 games prior to the collision before slumping to a brutal .172/.271/.225 slash line in his final 46 games of the year. If the 34-year-old can come close to replicating his early season production in 2024, he’ll be a key fixture in the club’s lineup as the Yankees look to return to the playoffs after missing the postseason for the first time since 2016.
  • As relayed by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, Cashman also discussed the health of veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton with reporters recently, noting the club’s DH is in a “really good place” following his injury-marred 2023 campaign where he slashed just .191/.275/.420 in 101 games. Cashman added that Stanton’s diet and conditioning work this offseason has helped him to prepare for a healthy return to action in 2024. Manager Aaron Boone seemed to echo those sentiments during a recent appearance on the Foul Territory podcast, noting that Stanton is preparing for “occasional” starts in the outfield during the upcoming campaign. While that’s nothing new for Stanton, who has started between 93 games on the outfield grass over the past three seasons, it’s nonetheless noteworthy that he’ll continue to receive those starts in the field even after the club bolstered its outfield mix with the additions of Alex Verdugo, Juan Soto, and Trent Grisham earlier this winter.
  • In his aforementioned appearance on the Foul Territory podcast, Boone also discussed Aaron Judge and his new role as the club’s regular center fielder headed into the 2024 season. The club’s manager expressed confidence in Judge’s ability to handle the everyday center field job as he heads into his age-32 season despite the hulking slugger’s lengthy injury history, though he did note that he hopes to rest Judge at DH or in left field “once or twice a week” with Grisham taking over duties in center. Assuming the club plans on starting Soto in an outfield corner everyday, that would leave just one spot in the club’s outfield/DH mix for Stanton and Verdugo on days where Grisham is covering for Judge in center. Sacrificing starts for the outfield’s other regulars figures to be a worthwhile gamble for the club to take as long as it helps Judge stay healthy, as the team’s captain has slashed an sensational .294/.417/.657 in 263 games over the past two seasons.

Yankees Notes: Soto, Judge, Yamamoto, Bullpen

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On the heels of last night’s blockbuster, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters this afternoon. He discussed a handful of topics on where the front office will proceed.

Cashman acknowledged the team has yet to have any conversations with Juan Soto’s camp regarding a long-term extension (relayed by Chris Kirschner of the Athletic). The three-time All-Star is one year from free agency, projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $33MM salary. It seems all but a lock that Soto will choose to test free agency. He declined a $440MM offer from the Nationals during the summer of 2022 and certainly wouldn’t sign for less than that now that he’s within a year of the open market.

The GM conceded “it’s a possible short term situation” with Soto. That didn’t deter the Yankees from making their all-in push to install him into the 2024 lineup alongside Aaron Judge. Between Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham, they’ve added a trio of outfielders to better balance a lineup that struggled mightily when Judge was on the injured list. The 2022 AL MVP was out between June 4 and July 28 after injuring his right big toe in a collision with the outfield wall at Dodger Stadium.

Judge played regularly from the time of his reinstatement through season’s end. While there wasn’t much doubt about his health status, Cashman confirmed today that the toe problem is fully behind him (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).

The Soto return was pitching heavy. Michael King headlined a group that also included Jhony Brito, Randy Vásquez and Double-A prospect Drew Thorpe. After parting with so much of their rotation depth to push that trade over the finish line, Cashman said the team will look to backfill on the pitching staff (passed along by The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty).

There’s no bigger pitching target than Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The NPB ace is scheduled to meet with MLB teams next week. The Yankees are among a handful of teams that are serious suitors for the 25-year-old righty. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets that Yamamoto is the club’s priority at this point.

It seems the rotation is taking a bigger precedence than the bullpen. The Athletic reported last night that the Yankees were showing interest in free agent reliever Jordan Hicks. Feinsand downplays the club’s desire for a notable bullpen strike, however. While he confirms the Yankees like Hicks, he indicates a notable relief acquisition is more of a fallback possibility if Yamamoto signs elsewhere.

Shohei Ohtani Wins AL MVP

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Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has been voted the Most Valuable Player in the American League for 2023, per an announcement from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Corey Seager and Marcus Semien of the Rangers were second and third in the voting, respectively.

The news hardly comes as a surprise, with Ohtani having delivered another two-way season for the Angels in which the only precedent was himself. He made 23 starts as a pitcher, tossing 132 innings with an earned run average of 3.14. His 10.4% walk rate was a bit on the high side but he struck out 31.5% of batters faced. Among pitchers with at least 130 innings pitched on the year, only Spencer Strider punched out opponents at a greater rate.

As a hitter, he launched 44 home runs and drew walks at a 15.2% clip. His .304/.412/.654 batting line translated to a wRC+ of 180, indicating he was 80% better overall than the average hitter. He accomplished all of these things despite having his season cut short by injury. Due to some finger issues and then a torn UCL, he only tossed 1 1/3 innings after August 9 and not at all after August 23. He continued hitting but he later suffered an oblique strain and his last game as either a hitter or pitcher was September 3.

That didn’t matter as Ohtani had already racked up enough accomplishments to take home the award for a second time, the first coming in 2021. If it weren’t for Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62 home runs last year, Ohtani would have gotten a hat trick. The BBWAA notes that this is the first time a player has won a unanimous MVP twice. The most unique baseball player of all time is now the most unique free agent of all time and is surely in line to break another record, or records, when he finally puts pen to paper.

Seager and Semien each had fine seasons in their own right, but had little chance to catch Ohtani here, though they have World Series rings to soften the blow. Seager hit 33 home runs and had a wRC+ of 169 while those numbers were 29 and 124 for Semien.

Other players receiving votes were Julio Rodríguez, Kyle Tucker, Yandy Díaz, Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, José Ramírez, Gerrit Cole, Luis Robert Jr., Yordan Alvarez, Adolis García, Judge, Bo Bichette, J.P. Crawford, Cal Raleigh, Rafael Devers, Isaac Paredes, Sonny Gray, Alex Bregman and Josh Naylor.

AL East Notes: Blue Jays, Donovan, Nootbaar, Watson, Judge

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Before signing Willson Contreras last winter, the Cardinals were known to be considering catching options on the trade market, which included talks with the Blue Jays about their then-surplus of Gabriel Moreno (who was eventually dealt to the Diamondbacks, Alejandro Kirk, and Danny Jansen.  Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch shed some light on those past talks between the Jays and Cards, writing that Toronto had interest in Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan.

With Goold also reporting earlier this week that Dylan Carlson was on the Jays’ radar this winter, there’s plenty of reason to think that Toronto and St. Louis could line up on some sort of trade this winter.  Nootbaar could slide perfectly into the Blue Jays’ left field vacancy, while Donovan’s ability to play almost any position would give Toronto lots of flexibility in figuring out how it wants to address its many needs around the diamond.  Of course, several teams have also made calls about Nootbaar, Donovan, and Carlson, and it remains to be seen if the Jays could outbid the field, if the Jays have the available pitching that the Cardinals are badly seeking this offseason, or even if St. Louis dealt any of these particular players whatsoever.

More from around the AL East…

  • The Rays hired Tony Watson for a job in their player development department, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Watson will be working under director of pitching Winston Doom.  A veteran of 11 big league seasons from 2011-21, Watson retired in 2022 due to shoulder problems, and the 38-year-old is now moving into a new stage of his baseball career.  Known mostly for his seven seasons with the Pirates, Watson was a former All-Star reliever who posted a 2.90 ERA over 648 1/3 career innings, and is MLB’s all-time leader in holds (246) since the statistic started to be officially recorded by the league in 1999.
  • It isn’t any surprise that Aaron Judge is a big voice within the Yankees organization, and The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner writes that Judge and owner Hal Steinbrenner “have already met this offseason on multiple occasions.”  Examples of Judge’s influence might extend to the job security of manager Aaron Boone and director of player health and performance Eric Cressey, as Judge (and perhaps the Yankees clubhouse at large) likes both.  Kirschner notes the interesting dynamic this creates, writing that “Judge is seemingly on the second level of the team’s organizational ladder alongside” GM Brian Cashman, though Cashman himself earlier this week said he didn’t have any issue with star players like Judge or Gerrit Cole giving their input.
  • For more from the AL East, MLBTR’s Nick Deeds compiled another set of notes from around the division earlier today.

East Notes: Judge, Mets, Finnegan

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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.
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