Posted By: uncommonmoeez
February 27, 2023
5:31 pm

New York Yankees Season Preview and Tickets

The New York Yankees won the AL East in 2022 and fell a frustrating one game short of 100 wins. Their 99-63 record saw them finish seven games clear of the Toronto Blue Jays – who had an impressive 92 wins – and 13 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays. Perhaps most gratifying for Yankees’ fans, however, was that their 99 wins were a massive 21 wins ahead of the basement-dwelling Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees aim to repeat as AL East champs begins at home with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants. The first game of that series is on Thursday, March 30, with Yankee Stadium, also playing host to series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels, and Toronto Blue Jays over the first month of the season.

Here are three questions for the Yankees ahead of the 2023 season.

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Three Key Questions

How far does Aaron Judge regress?

It is almost impossible for Judge not to regress in certain parts of his game in 2023. A year after being the talk of the league – TV networks would break into games from other sports for his at-bats – Judge now holds the American League record with 62 home runs in a single season. It is unrealistic to expect that again, even with the Yankees firing a $360 million contract at the outfielder. Hitting 50 homers would be more than impressive under normal circumstances, but Judge destroyed his sense of normalcy in 2022. His level of regression is the biggest key in the Yankees winning the AL East again.

Does Carlos Rodon stay healthy?

The Yankees’ biggest offseason move – outside of locking up judge – was the $162 million over six years spent on left-handed pitcher Carlos Rodon. Rodon won double-digit games for the White Sox in 2021 and the Giants in 2022, but before that, he had struggled to stay healthy. Changes in his pitching technique have been key to his run of health. Still, if the injury bug bites back, the Yankees will be an arm short in the rotation and won’t have the dominant one-two punch of Rodon and Gerrit Cole that they so desperately need to take another shot at the Astros in the postseason.

Is there support for Judge?

Assuming that Judge plays at any sort of level compared to last season, the question then becomes if there is any help elsewhere in the batting lineup. Consider this breakdown of the Yankees’ batting post-All-Star Break in 2022.

Judge – .349/.502/.785
Everyone Else – .223/.292/.360

That is a pretty disastrous line and not what you would expect from a team almost at 100 wins. The Yankees didn’t bring in any major bats this offseason so they will rely on rebound years from a few aging veterans and a new pop of life from their top prospects. This lineup won’t be good enough behind Judge if it doesn’t happen.