Ed Botti
February 14, 2025
When a team goes 82-80, like the Yankees did in 2023, they should show up with a chip on their shoulders the following spring training, by all accounts they did in 2024.
When a team wins the AL Pennant and gets embarrassed in the World Series, like the Yankees did in 2024 (IMO) they should show up to spring training with a mission and a purpose.
Whether they have, or have not, is still to be determined in these early days of this 2025 spring training.
But I am going to follow it very closely, and let you know if I see a team that is training like they are on a mission, or if I see a team going through the motions, fooling around and anxiously anticipating the start of the season, as if spring training is an inconvenience or annoyance of some kind.
The 2024 Yankees, if you recall, were criticized by ex-teammate, Luis Severino.
“I’m not afraid of those guys. “Right now you only have two good hitters”.
“For some reason the Yankees are not too good against lefties this year”.
“You only have to walk Judge and after that it will be better”.
We, as fans may not have appreciated those comments very much. But in retrospect, was our old friend Luis wrong?
Between big mouth Joe Kelly and anonymous Dodger scouts, we learned that the Dodgers “told their players in scouting meetings the Yankees were talent over fundamentals".
That if you “run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm”.
“The value was very high to put the ball in play to make the Yankees execute”.
They stated that the Yankees were not just “the majors’ worst base running team by every metric, but the difference was vast”.
Despite the fact that it was a classless move to make those statements public after the World Series, if you read anything I wrote last year, I can’t say I disagreed with any of it.
So, the 2024 weaknesses according to my eye test, other SSTN writers and readers, ex-teammates and advanced scouting departments were:
Weak against lefty pitching, poor base running, poor fielding, no closer, no leadoff hitter, and flat out weak fundament execution as a team.
In the current era of MLB, teams can get by to a point being weak on fundamentals as long as they slug. Those highlights will be played ad nausea on the likes of SNY, YES, MSG, MLB Network and Sports Center.
Praise rarely goes out to teams that play hard and execute the finer points of the game well.
As the 2024 Yankees proved, there is a path for that type of team to get to a World Series, especially in the era of expanded playoffs. Basically, the better teams in the post season (Orioles and Astros) get eliminated early and you beat up on the weaker teams (Royals and Guardians).
I would not have advised it, but that was the path they took to the 2024 World Series.
The problem is, that path was blocked when the World Series began.
No disrespect to the Royals or Guardians; two teams that played solid baseball all season with a limited payroll and limited big name game changers, but neither team was or are the 2024 Dodger juggernauts.
The 2024 Dodgers? They continued to add on to an already talented roster, some may say using gray area tactics.
So the burning question all learned Yankee fans have is, did they address their weakness in the off season?
We all know they lost a huge offensive weapon. But did they make up for enough of that loss, by eliminating weakness?
As the great NFL Head Coach Bill Cowher stated "Strength gets you to the playoffs and weakness eliminates you".
I believe that 100%.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the changes they made from the 2024 team in an attempt to address these weaknesses.
First Base
I will go to my grave believing that Anthony Rizzo never fully recovered and got over the 2023, misdiagnosed and mismanaged concussion. The before and after splits are too extreme for me to see it any other way.
Rizzo in 82 at bats vs lefties in 2024 hit .221 with 2 extra base hits.
They moved on from Rizzo and signed Paul Goldschmidt.
Goldschmidt in 146 at bats vs lefties in 2024 hit .295 with 16 extra base hits. Overall he ended 2024 hitting .245 with 22 HR and 65 RBI.
Not exactly Mattingly or even Tino, but an improvement, nonetheless.
Defensive wise, Goldschmidt is still a top fielder.
Second Base
The Yankees decided to move on from Gleyber Torres and his respectable lifetime average season of .265, 26 HR’s and 80 RBI.
They now have Jazz Chisholm and his lifetime average season of .249, 28 HR and 82 RBI.
Against lefties in 2024 Gleyber hit .265 with 14 Extra Base Hits.
Against lefties in 2024 Jazz hit .249 with 13 Extra Base Hits.
Not much of an upgrade there, offensively.
The biggest offensive statistical enhancement that jumps out at me between Gleyber and Jazz is stolen bases. Last year Jazz stole 40, and Gleyber stole 4.
Will they utilize that asset?
Assuming they have parted ways with the Jazz experiment at third base, and he will play second base in 2025, I see it as an improvement.
Offensively and defensively they are fine at second base in 2025.
I don’t think either one of them will ever win a gold glove, but Jazz is a much better second baseman then he is a third baseman, and hopefully he can avoid the loss of focus and brain freezes Gleyber suffered from on far too many occasions.
As an aside, I predict AJ Hinch, and his staff, will put an end to a lot of that.
Right Field and Centerfield
One of my problems last season with this team was they were forced to put the added workload and wear and tear on Aaron Judge’s 32 year old legs and play him in Centerfield. A continuation of an ill-advised Yankee pattern of putting round pegs in square holes defensively for offensive production.
Aaron is and always should be a right fielder. He has the arm strength needed, he can get to just about anything hit to right field, cut down the first to third play, as well as throw darts to the plate.
Last season, that was a problem. This season, it should be a strength.
Moving him back where he belongs is an automatic improvement.
It appears that Centerfield will be taken over in 2025 by the newly acquired Cody Bellinger.
Of the four positions Bellinger has played in his career, he's played the most at centerfield (449 games), which is where he played when he won a Gold Glove in 2019, the same season he won the NL MVP for the Dodgers.
The 29 year old lefty should be in the prime of his career.
But I want to make sure we recognize that Bellinger is a good player, not a great player. If you remove the 2019 live ball stats from his record, his average MLB season is a .250 hitter with 22 HR’s and 68 RBI.
With steller defense in Centerfield, it should be a good enough combo to get the job done.
Left Field
I am probably in the minority, but for the most part, I had no problem with Alex Verdugo last season because I didn’t place unreasonable expectations on him. In other words, I knew what they were getting. Remember, he replaced the .211 hitting Oswaldo Cabrera as the left fielder.
Defensive wise, there was no comparison. Oswaldo has much difficulty coming in on balls hit directly at him. He did not improve on that at all in 2024. Side to side he was fine, and even above average range wise.
Despite Verdugo’s average dropping from .264 (2023) to .233 (2024), his production remained stable with his career average of 14 HR and 64 RBI (he had 13 HR and 61 RBI in 2024).
Personally, I think he fell in love with the short porch in right field, to a detriment.
But, it is time to see what they have in switch hitting Jasson Domínguez.
They did not give him a franchise record $5.1 million signing bonus in 2019 for his good looks. He worked his way through the system and his time is now.
Jasson is the owner of explosive power from both sides of the plate. He also has speed, as he showed us when he stole 37 bases in 2023.
His time is now. Let’s hope he does not go the way of Clint Frazier.
I am not overly concerned with his defensive mishaps from last season in left field. I have seen him play. I believe he will be fine in left field.
I hope they don’t put added pressure on him, and bat him leadoff. That would be a mistake, in my book.
Third Base.
Let’s face it folks, they did not have a third baseman in 2024 and they still don’t. The odds on favorite going into Spring Training (IMO) is DJ LeMahieu.
Now, before everyone freaks out, here is what I think is their rational. DJ at 36 years old is coming off multiple injuries over the last couple years. They are not fantasizing that the DJ of 2019 or 2020 is suddenly coming back. He isn’t.
But they also do not believe that the DJ we saw last year is the player (if healthy) we will see this year.
I am concerned over his hip impingement from 2024.
Last season, our very own Ethan Semendinger did a nice job pointing out DJ’s injury history.
There is no way of sugar coating it. This is a risky move. But one they feel is worth taking at this point, especially since they are paying him $15MM in 2025.
They had other options this offseason that really didn’t make economic sense, in their view. Alex Bregman (he just signed with Boston for 3 years and $120MM, he previously turned down a 6 year, $156 million offer from Houston) or trading for Nolan Arenado and the 3 years $74MM ($10MM being paid by Colorado) left on his contract at 33 years old.
I preferred Arenado over Bregman. I am a stubborn Italian with a long memory. Kind of like the Florentines that to this day will not buy salt from Pisa. A business feud that dates back to the 12th Century.
I don’t want any 2017 - 2019 Astro hitters on my team. It will be fun to see the bleacher creatures give him a few Bronx cheers now that he plays for Boston.
As an aside, is anyone keeping a tally of the money Scott Boros has cost his mid-level free agents over the last few year (Michael Conforto, Pete Alonso, and now Bregman, to name just 3)?
Third base is a black hole on this team. If DJ gets hurt or fails to play adequately, I believe they will make a move at the deadline or even sooner.
That may not please many of us, but that is the route they are taking, at least for now.
I also do not believe the either Cabrera or Peraza is the answer.
The future third baseman of the Yankees is currently not on the 40 man roster.
So, the issue of hitting lefties, although it will not be the strongest part of their team, should be somewhat improved.
I believe the defense will be improved markedly.
The other issues of poor base running, and flat out weak fundament skills, is on the manager and his staff.
That is where coming in to camp with a mission and purpose comes into play.
Boone needs to lay the law down immediately. He, and his staff (and expanded spring staff) need to “drill baby drill” the fundamentals and finer points of winning baseball.
This spring, they need to put all of the off field distractions of being a Yankee aside, and focus on the fundamentals of the game, making plays, and covering the bases they are assigned to cover (yes that is a dig at Gerrit Cole).
In other words, Boone needs to be less of a friend, and more of a boss.
If we see a failure to move runners, hit behind runners, throw to the right bases, be in the right position for cutoffs, they will have a difficult season, and Aaron Boone will have to answer for it, IMO.
If they can add the fundamental skills to their already talented team and with the pitching they have, I think they can compete to get back to the fall classic.
That is a big "if".
By the way, there is a difference between playing small ball and being fundamentally sound. Some seem to confuse that, when I bring it up.
I am not a betting man, but had they been fundamentally sound last year, I’ll bet my Harley they would not have lost the World Series in 5. In fact, I believe they would have went back to LA up 3-2.
We’ll never know. But what I do know is they better straighten that out in 2025, or it will be Déjà vu all over again!
Next up, I will take a deep dive into the Starting Pitching.
Happy Valentines Day!
Another really good article, and a good rundown of the current state of the team.
I liked Verdugo too, he had a down offensive year but he was solid. I don’t understand why they didn’t pull the trigger on a 3rd baseman, the team made it to the WS, you’d think they would have filled the holes and tightened it up.
Poor fundamentals has been a hallmark of the Boone teams, he doesn’t emphasize it and there are no repercussions, other than Gleybor.
Explain how Boros cost his midlevel talent money one day, I’d like to hear your reasoning.
Great job Ed. Always enjoy your posts!
last season's Yankees opted for a quick yet rickety fix by exchanging pitching talent for a truly gifted hitter who was an indifferent defender.
he contributed greatly on offense and the team took a turn for the better ...in the short term.
this year's team will miss Soto's hitting
but this year's team, while still incomplete, already appears to be more soundly built, with a "longer" line-up
and a better, deeper group of pitchers.
fans are intently and even anxiously looking for one more big-name position player, but should keep in mind that the team, as it is, is capable of succeeding in the American League.
Everything you said is absolutely true. This is a real test for Boone. They also need to stop being cheap with regard to 3B. DJ is not the answer nor are Peraza or Cabrera. They need a strong bat. They have a good deal of speed, now the whole team needs to know how to run the bases.
Great work, Ed.
The Yankees being poor fundamentally has been a defining characteristic of the Boone Era.
Let's hope that finally changes, but I doubt it will.