by Paul Semendinger
August 29, 2023
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Continuing from yesterday, the following are my hopes for the Yankees for the rest of 2023. If these things occur, they could help the Yankees as they work to build a better team for next year and into the future.
D.J. LeMahieu - EJ Fagan, Tim Kabel, and I discussed DJ LeMahieu on the Bronx Beat Podcast the other day. My first choice for DJ would be to trade him. Since it seems he found his swing, I am confident a contending team would be willing to trade a prospect or two for a player as good as DJ. As such, I hope he hits a ton the rest of the way. The Yankees need to look to the future. That future will not include DJ LeMahieu. (If LeMahieu stays, he should not be a regular next year - he should be a bench player who helps acclimate the young kids to the big leagues.)
Jasson Dominguez - I would like to see him and Austin Wells finish the year in Triple-A. The Yankees should not rush them.
Harrison Bader - This is another player who could be a nice piece on a championship team, but is a free agent after the season and should have no role on the 2024 Yankees. He did not hit as many hoped he would. He is a player who misses significant time. I fear that if he gets hot over the final weeks of the season that the Yankees will re-sign him and have another contract on the books that is terrible. I hope Bader plays as he has all year and another team gives him a nice contract. He has a lot of energy. He is a dynamic player. I wish him well. I just don't want him on the 2024 Yankees.
Clarke Schmidt - It is time to shut him down. He has pitched a ton of innings. He is a key to the future. He proved he belongs. He's pitched a lot this year and had a long history of injuries. He has nothing left to prove. He should be a starter next year.
Gerrit Cole - The 2023 Cy Young Award could likely go to Gerrit Cole. He deserves to pitch for it. He's been a rock solid Yankee. I wouldn't push him though. If there's a game where he doesn't have his best stuff, they should take him out. The Yankees also need to be honest with Cole, lay out their vision for the team's future, and find out if he wishes to opt-out after next year. If so, they should trade him this winter.
Oswald Peraza, Everson Pereira, and Oswaldo Cabrera - These three should play every day. We have seen a lot of Cabrera who seems like he won't be a big league starter, but, nonetheless, if nothing else, he'd gets more big league experience. We need to see Peraza and Pereira on a consistent basis for the remainder of the year.
Carlos Rodon - Rodon needs to build up innings to be best prepared for 2024.
Gleyber Torres - The remainder of 2023 should be a time of learning for Gleyber Torres. He needs to work with a base running coach, every day, going through situational baseball time and again. Torres will be a free agent after next year. The Yankees need to tutor him to see if he can improve that part of his game, and if he can, since he'll be a free agent after next year, give him an extension. (The Yankees need to keep some good young(er) talent.)
Yankees Ticket Office - The Yankees are raising ticket princes for 2024. What?! Talk about being unaware of circumstances and the feelings around the team. The Yankees should be lowering prices and reaching out, in many ways, to the fans. Who ever is responsible for that decision, needs to be finding a different ticket office to run. The Yankees need to immediately apologize for this and reverse course.
Yankee Stadium - Over the past few years, the stadium has become littered with signage for every single brand of everything, or so it seems. This needs to be re-thought and many ads need to be removed. Yes, in the old days, stadiums had ads, but they didn't have ads everywhere like Yankee Stadium does. The preponderance of ads is litter to the eyes. The Yankees need to do better here.
The "stadium people" also have to eliminate a lot of the noise and sound effects. They detract, rather than enhance, the stadium experience.
YES Network - It's time for some new Yankeeographies.
Monument Park - The Yankees need to create some good will for their fans this year. They can do this by honoring some deserving players. They should start with Roy White and Graig Nettles. This should happen this year.
