What if I told you … the Yankees, without Gerrit Cole and DJ LeMahieu, and with Aaron Judge batting just .178, Gleyber Torres .192 and Alex Verdugo .200, would begin the season 10-3?
Even the greediest of Yankees fans would have signed up for that kind of start by the time the team broke camp in Tampa two and a half weeks ago.
The Yankees are by no means firing on all cylinders in the early going, yet they have won each of their first four series by leaning on a few hot bats, a renewed offensive approach to grind out every at-bat, some encouraging starting pitching and a strong bullpen despite only two arms being left from last year’s relief corps.
“You can’t take ’em [wins] off the board and they matter now as much as any time,” manager Aaron Boone said this week. “I would say it’s early. It is, and there’s a long way to go. But any time you can play a stretch of games like this, you sure sign up for that and you take it. More than anything — wins, losses, whatever — at this point in the season, I’m just pleased with how the group is competing and how they’ve come together, their purpose. We gotta keep that same focus going.”
So, what to make of the first two weeks of games? It’s all still a small sample size, the 13 games accounting for just eight percent of the season, meaning most things should be taken with a grain of salt.
But here’s a few aspects that have stood out, with a look at whether they might be real or an early-season mirage:
Juan Soto is a natural fit in New York
Well before playing his first game at Yankee Stadium as a Yankee, Soto predicted it was going to feel like home.
The Yankees’ newest superstar has wasted little time, then, making himself comfortable in The Bronx.
The first homestand doubled as the beginning of a love affair between Soto and the crowd at Yankee Stadium. He was showered with ovations and chants of his name, and flags from his native Dominican Republic were spotted throughout the stands. Soto leaned into it by wearing special New York-themed cleats on Opening Day (including the message “Soto ♥ NY” written on the side), picking “Empire State of Mind” as his first walk-up song and taking every chance he gets to engage with the fans when he is playing right field.
“They’re giving you a lot of love, so you gotta give them some love back,” Soto said. “They’ve been showing love every day, and it’s been amazing. Day in and day out, the entire game, that’s pretty dope.”
It doesn’t hurt that Soto has also started off strong at the plate, batting .360 with a 1.008 OPS to give the fans plenty to cheer about.
But the Yankees have brought in a handful of players in recent years who have been bad fits for playing in New York, not wanting or not being able to thrive in that kind of spotlight. It’s clear Soto will not be included in that group.
“I think it’s been awesome. It’s been palpable. You can feel that,” Boone said of Soto being embraced by the fans and vice versa. “I think Juan has really enjoyed it. He’s been right in the middle of winning baseball here for the first 11 days or whatever of the season. I think he’s really enjoying being in that room and being a part of that group. He’s fit in extremely well.
“I think he does a really good job of striking that balance of being very serious about the game and about his craft and all that he puts into it with playing the game with joy and having fun playing the game. I try to remind these guys every now and then, especially sometimes when you’re going through a tough stretch, because this game can get the best of you. It can wear on you and weigh on you. Sometimes you forget that we’re supposed to have fun playing this game. You’re probably at your best when you’re having fun playing the game. He does a really good job of striking that balance between this is my job, work, works really hard at his craft, and going out between the lines and having fun playing a kids’ game.”
Real or mirage: Real. The reality is Soto could likely thrive anywhere given his generational talent. But the love fest between him and Yankees fans is likely to continue throughout the season as Soto inches closer to free agency. That said, a disclaimer: No matter how strong of a connection Soto and the fans build, money almost certainly still will trump all else when it comes to where he signs his next contract.
Is Carlos Rodon back?
Through three starts against the Astros, Diamondbacks and Marlins, Rodon owns a 1.72 ERA. It is more or less the exact kind of start he needed to have coming off a brutal first year in pinstripes.
Since the start of spring training, Boone has insisted he was just focused on the left-hander stacking quality days of work, preparation and recovery, regardless of the results. That all sounds great in theory, but it might be hard to stick to that if Rodon had come out of the gates this season putting up the kind of clunkers he did last season when he wasn’t injured.
After talking this spring about needing to get back his confidence and swagger, Rodon said on Tuesday night — after bringing a shutout into the seventh inning for the first time as a Yankee, albeit against the lowly Marlins — that his confidence was “growing.”
There may be nights when Rodon’s fastball velocity is consistently high and he can simply overpower opponents with predominantly that fastball and slider.
But a night like Tuesday was encouraging for a different reason: For the first time since May 15, 2021, Rodon’s second-most-used pitch was not his slider or four-seamer. It was his cutter, which he threw 16 times compared to 15 sliders, plus 10 changeups (and 47 fastballs). Rodon, who is usually a flyball pitcher, now has a pitch in the cutter to get hitters on the ground.
This insight from Verdugo on Rodon’s expanded arsenal was interesting: “I feel like he’s really pitching now with the four-seamer, the cutter, the changeup and slider,” Verdugo said. “Usually he’s a fastball-slider guy, so guys can kind of take their chance and open up a little bit more. Because righties, everything’s coming into them. Lefties, everything’s going away. Just to add that changeup against righties, it humbles and balances it out a little bit. Can’t have guys cheating. It just forces them to be a lot more accurate with their barrel. He’s been lights-out.”
Real or mirage: Check back in two months. Three starts won’t erase a miserable first year in The Bronx, but Rodon is on the right track.
The vibes are much different
Which came first: the winning or the vibes?
The arrivals of Soto, Verdugo and Marcus Stroman have added an edge, energy and swagger to this team, though that has obviously been aided by the hot start in the standings. Any chatter about “dawgs” might be more about “dogs” if the Yankees had started out 3-10.
But after a slog of an 82-80 season, this group seems to be enjoying itself. In case that wasn’t apparent enough, there was YES Network’s Justin Shackil interviewing Anthony Rizzo minutes before Wednesday’s game, which quickly turned into something of a group interview with Judge, Torres, Verdugo, Soto and Anthony Volpe joining him in a huddle outside of the Yankees dugout.
The Yankees have welcomed the new additions to their clubhouse and encouraged them to be themselves instead of trying to conform to some buttoned-up standard.
“Coming over here, they’ve done a really good job of welcoming me and letting me be myself,” Verdugo said. “I think with that, I’m able to show my energy and just be myself. Soto coming in here, we got some new faces that are really bringing just a new vibe. It feels like everybody’s a little bit looser and can show their personality a little bit more.”
Real or mirage: Winning always helps the vibes, but if they can keep up the former, the latter should follow as well.
Will the real Giancarlo Stanton please stand up?
Which Stanton will the Yankees get more of this season: the one from his first six games, who went 3-for-24 with one home run, 13 strikeouts and a .452 OPS, or the one from his past five, who went 8-for-19 with three home runs, three strikeouts and a 1.450 OPS?
The 34-year-old designated hitter always has been known as a streaky hitter, but last season the lows were much more frequent than the highs.
The key this season, according to Stanton, is using his legs more, which should be easier to do now that he seems to have a healthy lower half.
Real or mirage: The truth is, the Yankees would take what Stanton has provided overall through 13 games: batting .256 with a .894 OPS. If he is able to stay healthy, he may have a chance to stay somewhere around there, even while having weeks when he goes cold and others when he gets red-hot.
This offense is a load to handle
We don’t mean that in the way of racking up bunches of runs every night, though that may eventually be the outcome. But through the first 13 games, this lineup consistently has put together tough, competitive at-bats.
Entering Thursday, under new hitting coach James Rowson, the Yankees were first in the majors in seeing 4.18 pitches per plate appearance. That doesn’t always translate to scoring runs, but it often has meant knocking out the opposing starter early and getting to bullpens, which over time should result in better offensive production.
“I feel like J-Ro has led that group in a really good way of night in and night out, the boxing analogy: You’re gonna get us sometimes. We’re gonna get you. But it’s gonna be a fight every night,” Boone said. “The guys have taken to that and taken a lot of pride in that and are holding each other to that. I think it’s bred a lot of trust in one another.
“I don’t feel like anyone’s feeling the need to go out there and, ‘I gotta do something here.’ No, ‘I gotta go have a good at-bat. I gotta have a tough at-bat right now.’ I like where that mentality is and I feel like that group mentality is there right now.”
Rowson credited his hitters for creating a “great offensive synergy” with their shared approach.
“They’re battling every at-bat. We’re not wasting any at-bats, we’re not wasting any pitches,” Rowson said. “Every at-bat, the opposing pitcher has to earn outs. We’re making them earn every out. If these guys continue to fight every at-bat and make the opposing pitcher earn outs, good things happen. It helps you win ballgames.”
Real or mirage: The Yankees have wanted to be this kind of offense, but now they may have the right group of hitters to do it over the long haul with Soto’s disciplined approach rubbing off on others.
Hamilton’s heights
Ian Hamilton has stepped into the Michael King role as the Yankees’ multi-inning weapon, and he is nailing the job so far.
After emerging as a breakout reliever last season, Hamilton is taking on a bigger role this season as an arm that can help bridge the gap between a starter and closer Clay Holmes. It worked perfectly Tuesday night, when Hamilton relieved Rodon in the seventh inning and tossed two perfect frames (he did allow a pair of inherited runners to score) before handing it off to Holmes for the save.
“Definitely working through it,” Hamilton said of his new role. “A little different than last year and a little different timing of getting into games. But definitely like it and want to keep doing it.”
Hamilton said the biggest adjustment has been doing “way more recovery stuff” each day to be ready for games. Three of his five outings have lasted at least two innings, which means more time off before his next appearance.
“Definitely more just making sure I’m feeling at least 95 percent every day,” he said.
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Order is restored
Through 13 games, Aaron Boone has used the same batting order four times, which is already more frequent than he used any single batting order in 2023.
Besides being mostly healthy, it helps having better hitters to fill out that lineup and not have to mess around much with it.
