AL East Offseason in Review: New York Yankees

With news a little slow on the Baltimore Orioles front, I decided to take a look at the other teams in the AL East and how their offseasons have gone so far. Starting off this mini series is the AL East Champions in 2022, the New York Yankees.

After finishing at the top of the AL East, the 99 win Yankees barely managed to beat the underdog Cleveland Guardians in the ALDS, before getting swept by the mighty Houston Astros in the ALCS. They entered the offseason with needs in the rotation, middle infield, and outfield. Let's see what they've done.

The Departed

• Matt Carpenter-signed with San Diego Padres
  
• Miguel Castro-signed with Arizona Diamondbacks
  
• Marwin Gonzalez-signed with Orix Buffaloes (Japan)
  
• Jameson Taillon-signed with Chicago Cubs
  
• Andrew Benintendi-signed with Chicago White Sox
  
• Tim Locastro-signed MiLB deal with New York Mets
  
• Stephen Ridings, Zach Greene-claimed off waivers by New York Mets
  
• Lucas Luetge-traded to Atlanta Braves
  
• Aroldis Chapman-free agent
  
• Zack Britton-free agent
  
• Chad Green-free agent

That's a good deal of talent gone for the Yankees this offseason. However, they did bring in some faces too. Most notably, they re-signed first baseman Anthony Rizzo to stabilize that side of the infield, and solved a piece of the outfield puzzle with the necessary re-signing of star Aaron Judge.

AL East Offseason Roundup: New York Yankees

Chad Green is a righty who left the bullpen, but he was seemingly replaced by Tommy Kahnle, who signed a two year deal to make his second stop in the Bronx. Replacing Jameson Taillon in the rotation is Carlos Rodon, signing a six year deal that pays him an average of $27 million per season.

The Yankees haven't done anything in the infield aside from letting Gonzalez go to Japan in free agency. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres were the starters down the middle, but Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera could push one or both of them for playing time. Josh Donaldson is still penciled in at the hot corner despite severe struggles with the bat, with Rizzo assuming first and DJ Lemahieu looking at a utility infielder role.

In the outfield, two-thirds of the starters are set. Judge will be seen patrolling right field on opening day unless he gets injured, and the same can be said for Harrison Bader in center field. Left field, however, is where things get cloudy. Public enemy number one, or number two if not one, Aaron Hicks, seems like the starter right now, but he is high on the Yankees fans enemy list for a reason. Maybe Giancarlo Stanton gets a fair share of starts in left field. Maybe the aforementioned Cabrera gets out there. Right now, it seems like a revolving door out there.

Baseball insiders this offseason had the New York Yankees needing to address the middle infield, the outfield, and the starting rotation. They certainly did so in the rotation with Carlos Rodon. Judge was the guy they needed to bring back in the outfield, and they did, but they so far haven't added another outfielder like it was expected they would. In the infield, they did nothing, so they seem set to roll with Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson for another season.