At the end of August, Brian Cashman (Yankees’ General Manager) said “It’s been a disaster of a season. We’re embarassed by it”.

This came, of course, with the Yankees’ usual gift for hyperbole. It was what the less thoughtful fans wanted to hear, and it just built things towards the inevitable firestorm.

For Hal Steinbrenner, and those at the financial helm of the Yankees, it had of course been disastrous. They looked like they were going to miss the post-season (they still had an outside chance when the statement was made – and that would be a tremendous financial loss. They had cut Aaron Hicks, and Josh Donaldson was about to go down the same route. They would carry the can for those poorly chosen signings and their contracts.

But they have finished the season over .500, and were just about to pull themselves up by their bootstraps with a 17-11 last month plus of the season, and move above the old enemy, Boston Red Sox into 4th place in the American League East.

So, really not good, but not a disaster. It gave them a chance to look at some developing young players (not everything went smoothly as we shall see), and to re-examine their priorities. Some fans will still spit and cuss, but that’s a given. Here’s the batting stats for September and October.

Here are the September statistics:

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Kyle Higashioka c	6	20	2	7	3	0	0	1	1	8	0	.350	.381	.500	.881
Gleyber Torres 2b	25	93	16	27	6	0	2	11	15	18	0	.290	.389	.419	.808
Aaron Judge rf/dh	26	88	19	25	5	0	8	19	27	30	0	.284	.452	.614	1.066
Jasson Dominguez cf	8	31	6	8	1	0	4	7	2	8	1	.258	.303	.677	.980
Oswald Peraza 3b	23	88	8	22	7	0	2	8	4	26	0	.250	.283	.398	.681
DJ LeMahieu if	23	91	11	22	4	1	2	9	13	22	2	.242	.337	.374	.711
Estevan Florial of	17	59	5	14	3	1	0	8	6	19	3	.237	.324	.322	.646
Oswaldo Cabrera if/of	23	80	6	17	3	0	1	5	7	19	1	.213	.276	.288	.564
Isiah Kiner-Falefa if/of	10	30	1	6	1	0	0	0	2	11	4	.200	.273	.233	.506
Austin Wells c	18	66	7	13	4	0	4	13	3	14	0	.197	.229	.439	.668
Everson Pereira of	16	55	4	10	3	0	0	6	4	22	3	.182	.250	.236	.486
Jake Bauers of/1b	10	30	3	5	1	0	1	4	2	12	0	.167	.219	.300	.519
Anthony Volpe ss	25	94	9	15	6	0	1	3	8	29	3	.160	.225	.255	.480
Giancarlo Stanton dh/of	18	66	7	9	2	0	4	9	10	32	0	.136	.250	.348	.598
Ben Rortvedt c	5	15	2	2	0	0	0	1	3	3	0	.133	.278	.133	.411
Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS

… And the October statistics:

Name/Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Austin Wells c	1	4	1	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.750	.750	1.250	2.000
DJ LeMahieu if	1	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	.333	.500	.333	.833
Kyle Higashioka c	1	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250	.250	.500	.750
Isiah Kiner-Falefa if/of	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	.250	.250	.250	.500
Anthony Volpe ss	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.250	.250	.250	.500
Oswaldo Cabrera of/if	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Estevan Florial of	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.000	.333	.000	.333
Oswald Peraza 3b	1	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Everson Pereira of	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	.000	.250	.000	.250

Catchers

The Yankees, still without Jose Trevino, used three catchers in September and the one game that ran over into October. The bulk of the time went to Austin Wells who was called up from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on the 1st of September as the roster allowance expanded slightly on that date. I don’t know if he lived up to expectations – I guess that depends on what you were expecting. For most of the time, he gave the Yankees exactly what they already had in Kyle Higashioka, and Ben Rortvedt. He was a more than competent defensive catcher, but with no batting ability to speak of. However, towards the end of September he began to hit. His batting average on the month was still only .197, but that had more to do with what had gone before than the last week of the season. Indeed, on the final day, he hit two doubles, and was one of the few bright spots in a particularly lack lustre game 162. He still looks like a similar player to Kyle Higashioka than anything, albeit with a mustache – more likely to hit a double or a homer than a single, but the Hawaiian Higashioka is older and out of contract. Kyle had a great month in September when reduced to a less pressing role, but that has been the story of his time in the Bronx.

Ben Rortvedt is also good behind the plate, and crucially Gerrit Cole seems to favour being paired with him in the battery. Rortvedt, though, is truly terrible with the bat at this level. He looked good with the timber at Scranton, but either he can’t hit at this level, or psychologically he thinks he cannot. 2 hits in 15 at bats means that if he is back next season, it won’t be because of his bat.

Infielders

Gleyber Torres was dominant with the bat amongst the infielders. He appeared in 25 games (2nd only to Aaron Judge), led the team in at bats, hits and batting average (amongst those who appeared regularly). However, like Judge, he was left out of the line-up in the final game and, unlike Judge obviously, he is the one who most often is mentioned in trade rumours. Rather Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres most be the stout backbones of Yankees’ planning for 2024. It seems I am in the minority in thinking in this way.

With no return to health for Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu was given the lion’s share of time at first base. Across September and October, he had 94 at-bats, resulting in 23 hits. September brought him 7 extra base hits. He is not the player he once was, but looks like the obvious utility player for the corner infield roles for next year.

By his own admission, Anthony Volpe has had a “disappointing” season. He has been given free rein from April to October to establish himself, but his September was perhaps worse than most of his other months It now comes down to Spring Training for him to prove that he is the player that the Yankees thought he was when they made room for him on the roster. Only time will tell.

Oswald Peraza is another prospect with quite something to prove. Defensively, he pulled off some amazing plays in Septembers but also made some glitches with confusion between him, Volpe, and some of the outfielders as to who should take some of the plays in the gaps. The big question for him though is at the plate. Too many of the Yankees (Higashioka, Florial, Cabrera, Judge even) felt that they always had to be swinging for the fences. This led to a lack of patience at the plate, and a marked disparity between the number of walks and strikeouts. This was particularly true of Peraza who whilst hitting .250, walked four times against 26 strikeouts.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa split his time between the infield, outfield, and bench-warming. This speaks volumes about his attitude. He will do anything to be a Yankee. However, he has no power, strikes out too often, and is out of contract. I can’t see him still being a Yankee in 2024. Especially, now the Yankees have concluded that this off-season will be no time for sentimentality. I shall miss him.

Outfielders

Aaron Judge is obviously the face of the Yankees for many seasons to come. He started off in September looking a little wary of injuring himself again. He didn’t seem like he wanted to run the bases, and it was a time mostly for walks or homers. Since teams were only too glad to walk him then this was a regular outcome (27 times), but his tendency to swing a little wildly led to 30 strikeouts. However, his outlook changed as the month went along. He started to collect doubles, and some singles. He had another 3 home run game. Ultimately, in September, he led the team in on-base percentage (.452) and OPS (1.066!).

Everson Pereira struggled with 10 hits in 58 at-bats across September and October. There was some confusion between him and whoever was playing centrefield on some days. Like Volpe and Wells, there will be much to prove in the Spring.

The reason that various people wound up filling either the leftfield or centrefield roles was that Jasson Dominguez who was the only one of the young call-ups to excel was also the only one to pick-up a major injury. After acquiring 8 hits in 31 at-bats with 4 home runs, for a .980 OPS in 8 games, he pulled up injured. He requires Tommy John surgery and is unlikely to be back until mid-season 2024.

Dominguez’s injury, with Harrison Bader having departed for Cincinnati, meant a call up for Estevan Florial who runs the bases well, and is starting to look like he might be a valuable trade chip in the off-season. There was more playing time also for the aforementioned Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jake Bauers, and Oswaldo Cabrera. Like Kiner-Falefa, Cabrera cuts a likeable figure is good in the field, but has little power and is not setting the world alight with the bat in general.

Designated hitter

The Yankees have come to one of two choices when it comes to Giancarlo Stanton. Either they use him as the designated hitter and hope he gets a home run, or they bench him. He is too vulnerable to injury if they play him in the outfield. One journalist compared his running on the basepaths to a grandmother, and wasn’t far wrong. He has had an atrocious season, and it is difficult to see how it is going to get better next year. His contract is huge and Steinbrenner is unlikely to want to swallow that one as he has already done for Hicks and Donaldson. What a conundrum!