What Needs to Get Done

What the Yankees Need to Get Done This Offseason

by EJ Fagan

November 5, 2024

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NOTE: The following comes from EJ Fagan's substack page and is shared with permission. This was published a few days ago so the stats don't include the last few games.

Please check out EJ's substack page for more great articles.

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The offseason rush is here! Expect lots of blog posts to set the stage for free agency.

While I want the Yankees to replace their GM, Brian Cashman is probably going nowhere. He’s got a lot to do very fast.

The Yankees have a ton of work to do this offseason. Let’s talk about what they don’t have to get done first:

• Starting pitching: The Yankees still have six starting pitchers on the roster, assuming Cole stays. We’ll see how Cortes does with the injury, but I could see the Yankees trying to trade him or Stroman.

• Hitting: The Yankees have Judge, Wells, Volpe, Stanton and Chisholm locked in. That’s it! Maybe Jasson Dominguez in left field.

• Bullpen: Weaver is the only player who is locked in, but Cousins, Hamilton, Mayza and Leiter could all return.

• Bench: Cabrera, Berti and Trevino are solid bets. LeMahieu might have a spot.

  
  

Let’s talk about what they need and where they can improve.

Hitting

Wow. The Yankees have massive holes to fill at 1st base, whichever of 2nd or 3rd that Chisholm doesn’t play and right field. They are in pretty good shape to start off in terms of lefty/right bats with three righties and two lefties.

Obviously, there’s Juan Soto. If he goes elsewhere, the Yankees open up an 8 WAR hole in the middle of the lineup. He’s another blog post, but I think they will probably bring him back. Let’s put him aside for a second.

At 1st, 2nd, and left field, the Yankees openings represent a huge opportunity. The team was awful at each position in 2024:

• First Base: -1.2 fWAR, 27th in baseball.

• Second Base: 1.7 fWAR, 17th in baseball.

• Left Field: 0.5 fWAR, 22nd in baseball.

  
  

The Yankees can at best hope to tread water in right. If they are going to get any better in 2025, they need to get a lot more out of these positions. Even if they can improve to 2.5 fWAR per position in 2025, we’re taking about a six win boost. And I think they can do even better.

Pitching

I don’t think we’ll see much of an upgrade for the Yankees for starting pitching. They have too many holes to fill next year to spend money on a strength. A healthy Gerrit Cole and Clark Schmidt will start off as pretty big improvements on their own.

I do think that we’ll see the Yankees spend some money on the bullpen. It took six months, but the Yankees eventually assembled a solid bullpen out of their misfit toys for the postseason. But it was a rocky road to get there. Just check out the innings leaders for Yankee relievers. Remember when Dennis Santana, Caleb Ferguson and Michael Tonkin were the Yankee middle relief?

I think the Yankees will bring in their usual complement of unknown relief candidates for Matt Blake to work with, but they need some stability too. Luke Weaver is a fine closer, but they need another two or three reliable middle relief pitchers.

As with hitting, the good news is that the team has lots of room to improve. The 2024 bullpen was mediocre until the very end. They could easily add two or three wins over the course of a full season by replacing the negative contributions of all of the guys who didn’t make it to the end.