He does look pretty promising as a "late bloomer," but 2022 could easily just be an outlier season. Same with Holmes in the pen, who started to show signs of flukiness, late in the season. They both had a decent 2021 to add to their records, but is that enough to anoint them sure best for 2023?
I'm not so sure about Sevy being back to ace status, either. Taillon might outpitch him in '23, assuming good health.
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
Pitching is certainly a strength and should be, next year, too.
Here are the OPS Against number by Yankee pitchers, listed in order of most PAs Against:
.650 Cole 793 PAs against
.713 Taillon 728
.554 Cortes 615
.670 Montgomery 469 (Traded away)
.616 Severino 405
.714 German 298
.547 Holmes 260
.721 Luetge 251
.648 Schmidt 236
.534 Peralta 223
.599 Loasisiga 203
.548 King 199
.838 Montas 185
.525 Marinaccio 181
.654 Chapman 160
.741 Castro 131
.656 Abreu 108
.607 Trivino 93
For reference, here are the Sox numbers:
.753 Pivetta 773
.747 Hill 526
.693 Wacha 515
.754 Eovaldi 460
.794 Crawford 334
.852 Wink 316
.639 Whitlock 311
.804 Bello 268
.793 Brasier 263
.577 Schreiber 257
.743 Davis 254
.608 Houck 247
.664 Sawamura 221
.664 Strahm 193
.676 Barnes 176
.763 Danish 173
.744 Diekman 171 (Traded away)
.845 Ort 134
.831 Robles 111
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
Not worried about the pen. Yanks have a lot of minor league arm depth and they keep churning out young pitchers who do well in relief roles. I do think we need to add to the pen in free agency, but not to the degree some think. I don't think we need to add to the rotation at all. I think our lineup needs a total overhaul and one that I think throwing all our cash into one player makes us less effective.
Hal sucks
True. I only brought it up because there was doubt around here about Cortes' ability before the start of 2022, and in this 2023 thread I see some doubt. Not to the degree as last year since he proved himself, but regardless I like posting things that make me sound like I know what I'm talking about.
Cortes followed the trajectory of the great finesse pitchers. Most finesse pitchers start off getting shelled and then either flame out or master the art of deception and location. Cortes is a dominant pitcher and he’s the kind of guy who can stand up to the spot light as long as he can stay healthy.
I know the Yanks plan on throwing lots of money at Judge and he definitely deserves it. But their current lineup is so bad that they’d probably be better served extending the lineup by splitting the $40 mil AAV it’ll take to sign him and getting two great bats.
They’re talking about adding prospects and dealing off Hicks and Donaldson because of payroll concerns, but they could just release them. This whole small market approach to the team is pissing me off. Who gives a fuck when you’re valued at $6-$7 billion about giving away good prospects to save $25 mil for one year. Eat the cost.
It’s also rather telling that Boone got the vote of confidence and Cashman didn’t. Rumors swirling that Cash might be fired after the WS
To me, I think Cashman is a better fit for the Yankees than Boone. I don't get it. I don't see the upside to keeping Boone. Cashman has at least kept the Yankees competitive for a long stretch of time and has been able to establish a great farm system. Due to the crap shoot of the playoffs, they just haven't gotten over the hump.
Injuries will be the telling part for him. He’s never thrown this much before and he broke down late. He had a later career velocity bump that really helped and he developed a cutter that’s almost unhittable in right handed batters that really changed the game for him.