What kind of offseason performance did the Yankees have?
With the arrival of spring, it’s appropriate to assess the Yankees’ season-long performance and future prospects.
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a Major League Baseball fan survey. We pose questions to the nation’s most engaged New York Yankees and sports fans throughout the year. To take part in the weekly email surveys, register here.
Baseball has returned, and although there are still some pieces from a slow summer that need to find a home, the Yankees appear to have everything set up for the 2024 campaign, barring a last-minute miracle. As befits a team coming off its first missed postseason in seven years, the summer was drastically different from the norm, and one splash sticks out above the others.
It’s no secret that when the Yankees acquired Juan Soto—one of the best batters in baseball who is about to enter his walk year and has the potential to do some serious damage—they went all in to boost their offensive. Soto is teamed with another superstar in Aaron Judge. The price was high because the Yankees.
While selling away pitching depth was the main strategy during the first half of the offseason, replenishing the major league pitching staff was the main goal during the second half of the offseason. They first pursued Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a phenomenal Japanese starter, but once they were unable to get him, they pursued other, less lucrative options. Initially, they signed relievers Cody Poteet and Luke Weaver via free agency after trading prospect Trey Sweeney to the Dodgers in exchange for reliever Victor González. Marcus Stroman’s two-year contract was their major acquisition to the starting rotation, and they also acquired reliever Caleb Ferguson from the Dodgers in exchange for another player, Wandy Peralta, who might fill in for him in the late innings.
Overall, the Yanks made two significant additions to the offense and to the floor, missed a chance to add a big piece to the rotation but gained a good arm in Stroman, and did more than their typical tweaking with the league’s best bullpen, which still has a lot of potential. Although there has been a lot of change for a squad that obviously needed it, was it sufficient? Did they address the pertinent issues? That’s where your input is needed.
As the 2024 season draws near, we’re going to be resuming our SB Nation Reacts, and we want to know what you made of the Yankees’ offseason right away. What grade would you give their accomplishments, and going into Opening Day, where are your main concerns? Please fill out the poll below and leave your thoughts in the comments. We’ll follow up to share the findings.
