New York Yankees: Predicting 2024 Opening Day lineup ft. Aaron Judge & Juan Soto
With Spring Training games fast approaching, the 2024 MLB season is on the horizon and the New York Yankees are one of the most intriguing teams in the league. The Yankees had an interesting winter, punctuated by joy and disappointment.
Landing Juan Soto via trade with the San Diego Padres definitely makes the team stronger, but missing out on pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was a blow. Given the Los Angeles Dodgers' spending and signings in the offseason, they and the Atlanta Braves are the favorites for the World Series.
New York, however, is expected to see a much better campaign than in 2023, a season where they finished 82-80, fourth in the AL East and missed the playoffs. This positive trajectory is largely due to the arrival of Soto and a few choice additions, such as Marcus Stroman.
So, let's predict how the Yankees will line up on Opening Day.
Starting Pitchers (5)
Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Marcus Stroman, Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt.
Bullpen (8)
Clay Holmes (CL), Scott Effross, Victor González, Ian Hamilton, Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loáisiga, Ron Marinaccio and Luke Weaver.
Catchers (2)
Jose Trevino and Austin Wells.
Infielders (5)
DJ LeMahieu, Oswald Peraza, Anthony Rizzo, Gleyber Torres and Anthony Volpe.
Outfielders (5)
Oswaldo Cabrera, Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo.
Designated hitter (1)
Giancarlo Stanton.
Expectations for the NY Yankees in the 2024 MLB season
Given the myriad of factors that affect a team's season, predicting the campaign is no easy task. After all, who could have predicted Aaron Judge's crazy 2023 injury, which kept him sidelined for so long?
Looking at the team, the New York Yankees do have a strong roster and their ceiling is high. The expectations for this team, and certainly from the fanbase, is that NY makes the postseason and at least looks capable of challenging. Everyone associated with the franchise will want to prove a point after a down 2023 and if their star players can avoid injury, they should be able to do just that.
Given the Dodgers' potential super team and the strength of the Braves, it is unreasonable to expect the Yankees to win the World Series in 2024, but it could happen.
General manager Brian Cashman spoke to reporters about the team and their chances in 2024:
“We like what we have; we’re excited about what we have,” Cashman said. “But no one is handing us a trophy. We’ve got to go earn it. The only way to best earn that is to have the most talent and the most insurance policies you can possibly have, within reason. That’s how we’re going to go about it.”
It must also be noted that NY is also expected to make improvements to its bullpen, which could be decisive. It will be interesting to see if they do, who that will be and how it will affect the Yankees' chances.