The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2023)

The Yankees’ injury situation in May began to settle down. Only four players were added to the injured – Aaron Judge, Jose Trevino, Ian Hamilton and Oswald Peraza. And whilst it is never going to be easy to lose Judge, in particular, it must be noted that three of these players bounced back at the end of the 10 days that their period on the injured list required. Hamilton will be out for longer.

At the same time, many players were heading for rehab assignments and moving closer to a return. These included Luis Severino, Josh Donaldson, Tommy Kahnle, and Ben Rortvedt.

Perhaps even more significantly the Yankees finally gave up on the wretched tenure of Aaron Hicks, accepting that clearing a space on the roster was more important than worrying how much of his contract they were still going to be liable for. They designated him for assignment on the 20th of the month – and when he cleared waivers without any notable interest, they released him a week later. Hicks signed for Baltimore by the end of the month.

In a parallel move, the Yankees traded with the Boston Red Sox, giving up minor leaguer Diego Hernandez and acquiring Greg Allen. Allen had previously played for the Bronx Bombers in 2020.

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The New York Yankees in March and April – Part One – The Batters (2023)

Here we go… Harrison Bader, Lou Trivino, Tommy Kahnle, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Frankie Montas, Scott Effross, Luis Severino, Ben Rortvedt, Jonathan Loaisiga, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson.

This is the shortlist of players that the Yankees had to place on the injured list through March and April in 2023. It is fair to say it left them with a much weakened team.

That they managed to come through to the end of April with a record of 15-14 was no mean achievement. But a 3 game losing streak against the Texas Rangers at the close of the month meant that they were 4th in the division table, albeit that the American League East is by the far the strongest of the divisions.

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The Best New York Yankees of 2022

Each season, we award to players rankings according to outstanding performances during the season. Using this system, here’s how the Batters and Pitchers of the New York Yankees placed:

Batters:

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The New York Yankees in October – Part One – The Batters (2022)

When it comes to a situation like the Yankees face most every season these days, – getting ready for the post-season – they can make one of two choices. They can maintain momentum by choosing their best lineup every day, or they can rest the regulars and use the players off the bench. The latter is not as easy these days, because roster expansion is much lower numerically than it used to be a few years ago, but that still seems to be the route that the New York team chooses.

The thing that the Yankees would gain if they maintained that momentum, is that they would build the confidence of a line-up of a team who seem very, very conscious that they are likely to face the Houston Astros in the post-season. And the Astros, regardless of how they achieved some of their previous winning seasons, seem to have a hoodoo over the New York team which inhibits the Yankees performance.

So, once again the Yankees made their choices, and one again the season came to an earlier than hoped for end. The fans ran out of patience. They wanted to see the back of Aaron Boone, they treated Isiah Kiner-Falefa and his family badly. Hey, they even booed Aaron Judge.

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The New York Yankees in September – Part One – The Batters (2022)

Well, after August it had to get better right? Well, thankfully, it did! Winning 17-8 on the month, it was the best month that the Yankees had since June. July had been ordinary. August was appalling, but September was just what the Yankees needed to head into the post-season.

Some new faces settled into the squad. Some players came back from injury.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2022)

August 2022 was a nightmare month for the New York Yankees. If the New York Yankees hadn’t had such a good first half of the season, they would have been dead and buried by the end of August.

it still meant that the huge gap that the Yankees had opened prior to August was reduced from over 11 to 6. It meant that there was a genuine need for the New York team to snap out of it or one of the two pursuing team (Tampa Bay and Toronto) might catch them

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The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2022)

Something was not quite right for the Yankees in July. After going 22-6 in June, they produced a mere 13-13 record in the month that followed.

On one hand, they suffered injuries to important players like Giancarlo Stanton and Michael King.

On the other, they brought in new signing Andrew Benintendi from Kansas City for a clutch of players from their farm system – Chandler Champlain (RHP), Beck Way (RHP), and T.J. Sikkema (LHP)

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The New York Yankees in June – Part One – The Batters (2022)

The Yankees had a tremendous month in June. Any team who can bring together a 22-6 record in a calendar month are going to be out there in the lead and the Yankees expanded their lead in their division from 5.5 to 12.5. A truly impressive series of performances.

Also, to this point in the season the Yankees are managing to remain injury free. They have had relatively few new injuries and some of their long time unavailable players are working their way back.

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The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2022)

The New York Yankees were 19-9 in May. Their form is astounding. If the batters are off-the-pace, then the pitchers are phenomenal. And vice versa. If the starter crumbles than the bullpen is everything they need to give them the opportunity to get back in the game.

Occasionally, the run support is not there for the pitchers – as indicated in our table, where 10 batters had batting averages below .230 on the month.

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The New York Yankees in April – Part One – The Batters (2022)

The 2022 season, as you will be aware, started late because of the dispute between the owners and the players. Once an accord was reached, everybody worked really hard to pretend that there’d never been a problem.

But there are some things you cannot cover up, so the Yankees’ season started on April 8th rather than a week earlier.

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