After a challenging start to the 2024 season, three Yankees needs to  step up

With a 12–4 record and the best record in baseball thus far in 2024, the New York Yankees are having a great start to the season. They presently lead the American League East by 2.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles, but they will face a tough series against the Toronto Blue Jays, who are currently in last place but have won four of their last six games and have several great players.
In light of this, the Yankees must start playing at their highest level, and several players, particularly in the infield, need to step up.

Three Yankees Who Need to Step Up:

1.) Anthony Rizzo

Although Anthony Rizzo, the starting first baseman, appears to be off to a good start this season, his glove has been giving him trouble, which is rare for a Gold Glover.

Rizzo is batting across 16 games.274/.357/.355, with an 8.6% walk rate and 20% strikeout rate, with one home run and seven RBIs. With a wRC+ of 115, he is 15% better than the typical MLB hitter. He hopes to maintain this advantage over the next several months.

Based on his slugging statistics, Rizzo has a 33.3% hard-hit rate and a 0.0% barrel percentage this season. At 86.6 mph, his average velocity has drastically decreased, and his launch angle of 13.9° is a career low.

In the end, Rizzo is exhibiting aging-related regression, and although the Yankees are expecting for more, he may still be getting back into form after having to terminate his 2023 season early due to concussion concerns.

In 145.2 innings pitched, he has a.969 defensive %, 0 defense runs saved, and -1 out over average. For a player who is renowned for his ability to pull balls out of the ground and make challenging plays appear simple, this is surprising. But he committed two mistakes against the Cleveland

2.) Gleyber Torres

Gleyber Torres, a 27-year-old former All-Star who is in his final year of arbitration and hoping for a sizable salary, is another infielder who is heading in the wrong direction.

With good reason, Torres was recently moved from the lead-off position to the bottom half of the order. He’s only hitting.203/.297/.234 over 16 games, without a home run, but he has two RBIs and three stolen bases. Not much to write home about with his 20% strikeout rate, and he’s earned a walk rate of 10.7%, which would be the second-highest of his career.

Torres’ inability to create damage contract contact is the issue; he has a career-low hard hit rate of 31.4% and only barrels one ball, good for a 2% barrel of percentage.

The Yankees need Torres to step up offensively because he is one of their main offensive pieces and is coming off one of his greatest seasons in 2023. Although his productivity will be a huge asset to the Yankees middle of the batting order, there are still other areas in which he needs to develop.

Torres has a.968 fielding percentage over 143 innings this season, which makes him a liability defensively. He has one defensive run saved and has committed two mistakes.

A runner scored from third base to tie the game in Sunday’s defeat when Torres was unable to cleanly gather a sluggish ground ball. Torres will definitely want that one back because the Guardians scored the winning run right after on a sac fly. The Yankees will have to wait patiently for him to heat up eventually.

3.) Nestor Cortes

With the exception of one outstanding start against the Miami Marlins last week, Nestor Cortes has mostly performed poorly.

Cortes has a 4.50 ERA over 22 innings, with a 68.8% left-on-base percentage, a 28.8% ground ball rate, and a career-low 7.77 strikeouts per nine. He’s not giving up a ridiculous amount of home runs or walking a lot of hitters, but he’s just not playing with his typical consistency. He only threw four innings on Sunday, giving up two home runs along with five hits and four earned runs.

Cortes struggles to make weak contact with his cutter and four-seam fastball. With a.463 slugging rate and a.268 batting average against, his four-seamer is clearly giving opposition hitters all the advantages. His cutter is allowing hitters to bat.250, and although his change-up and sweeper have been excellent, his fast-ball output has thrown insane.

The Yankees are giving Cortes lots of leeway as he recovers from a shoulder injury that ended his 2023 season, but they need him to stand up in Gerrit Cole’s absence.