The New York Yankees are 12-4 and holders of the best record in Major League Baseball.
What might be most impressive about the Yankees currently being the best team in the sport is they’re doing this without their reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole; Aaron Judge hasn’t gone nuclear just yet; and Gleyber Torres has been a disappointment in his walk year.
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The Yankees should have swept the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday but because of some poor defense and the bullpen’s inability to hold the lead in extra innings, the Yankees left Cleveland winning two of three. It’s the fifth straight series the Yankees have won to begin the 2024 season.
Here are two reasons for optimism and two reasons for concern regarding the team’s current status as the Yankees head to Toronto for a three-game series beginning Monday night against the Blue Jays:
The positives
Anthony Volpe’s breakout
Hitting off of Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase is about as hard as it gets in MLB. Before Sunday’s game, Clase hadn’t given up a run in his first six outings. That was until 22-year-old shortstop Anthony Volpe poked a 100.4 mph cutter into the right-center field gap to tie the score at 5 in the ninth inning. It was just another brilliant moment for Volpe through the team’s first 16 games this season.
“His ability to use the whole field,” Judge said, via the YES Network, when asked what the biggest difference is with Volpe this season. “That’s one thing I saw watching him in the minor leagues. He did a great job hitting the ball to left, hitting the ball to right, two strikes, 3-1 count, it didn’t matter what the count was. That’s what we’re seeing now.”
Volpe entered Sunday’s game with the largest positive difference in strikeout percentage across the majors from last season to this year. In 2023, Volpe struck out in 27.8 percent of his at-bats. That’s down to just 14.8 percent in 2024. It’s not just the strikeouts where Volpe has improved; he’s nearly doubled his walk rate and is making more damage contact this year.
His approach at the plate is night and day compared to where it was in his rookie season. The change he’s made to flatten his bat path has allowed him to stay in the zone longer, which has allowed him to increase his contact rates.
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The underlying metrics would suggest Volpe’s sophomore season is not a fluke. While he may not finish with a 211 wRC+, which he currently has, there’s reason to believe Volpe could establish himself as one of the sport’s best overall players as his sample grows.
Juan Soto has been as advertised
A stir was created on social media a few days ago when WFAN sports radio host Sal Licata called out Soto for taking a walk in the ninth inning of the series finale against the Miami Marlins. Presumably, when a player has a 1.009 OPS and has been much better than expected defensively, you have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find something at fault.
But Soto has been everything the Yankees thought he would be when they traded for him this offseason. He’s crushing the baseball, entering Sunday’s game in the 99th percentile in average exit velocity and the 95th percentile in hard-hit rate and xwOBA. He is tied for the team lead in hits and home runs and has the outright lead in RBIs.
Soto’s impact goes further than the tangible results, too. He inspired a change within Oswaldo Cabrera, which has led to a torrid start for a player who looked like he could start the season in Triple A midway through spring training. His energy has been contagious throughout the clubhouse, and his patient approach at the plate has obviously trickled down the lineup.
When Judge is fully unleashed at the plate, the Yankees will have one of the best 1-2-3 combinations in any lineup with him, Soto and Volpe.
The concerns
Infield defense is shaky
We mentioned Anthony Rizzo’s bizarre start in the field a few days ago. That continued in Sunday’s game when he committed two errors after dropping a catchable throw from Cabrera and booting a grounder to extend Nestor Cortes’ outing. After Sunday’s two errors, Rizzo has four in 16 games. He had just four errors in 92 games in 2023 and five in 120 games in 2022.
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“He’s been OK,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Rizzo’s defense. “Usually, he’s so good. He’s probably not scooped a couple of balls that he typically would. I think that’s just a couple of plays. I expect the same elite defense we usually get.”
In Sunday’s loss, the Yankees had a couple of miscues in the 10th inning that could have potentially led to them sweeping the Guardians. Volpe bobbled a throw from Torres that could have led to a double play. Then, Torres mishandled a grounder that allowed Josh Naylor, a slow runner, to score and tie the game at 7. Torres could have gotten the out at first to give the Yankees two outs in the inning but trying to get Naylor at home after bobbling allowed the Guardians to have just one out and end the game on the following batter when Andrés Giménez hit a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees entered Sunday’s game with the 17th-best infield defense by outs above average. They’ll almost certainly drop when Statcast updates its metrics overnight. Outside of Volpe at shortstop, the Yankees’ infield has been poor. Cabrera ranks near the bottom for all third basemen in OAA. Torres is right around league average and we’ve already mentioned Rizzo’s woes.
DJ LeMahieu is expected to start a rehab assignment this coming weekend. When he returns, he should help the defense out on the corners, but coming off a foot injury, it’s unknown if he’ll look the same as he did in years past.
Bullpen can’t miss bats
The inability of the Yankees’ bullpen to strike out opposing hitters magnifies the shaky infield defense. More balls in play leads to results like Sunday’s. Outside of Nick Burdi, each of the Yankees’ regular relievers has a strikeout rate below the current major league average.
In the 10th inning, Guardians third baseman José Ramírez fouled off six straight pitches from Caleb Ferguson before hitting a single, giving Cleveland two runners on to start the inning. The Yankees’ bullpen has the lowest strikeout percentage and the third-worst K-BB percentage in MLB.
It’s not the biggest problem right now because it’s mid-April but the Yankees should address this before the playoffs. Not having multiple relievers who can come in and strike out opposing hitters could become an issue in closer games, especially if the infield defense doesn’t improve.
(Photo of Anthony Volpe: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)