The Bronx Zoo Is Back, a Mattchu12 New York Yankees Franchise | 2024

[Mattchu12]

Platform: MLB 24 the Show on PS5

Rosters: TrueSim Franchise Roster

Sliders: TrueSim Gamplay for games played, TrueSim Simulation for simmed games

Roster Control: 30-Team Control With Injuries On

Play Style: I will be playing every Yankees game with TrueSim Gameplay Sliders on, and then simming to next game with TrueSim Simulation Sliders on.

Posting Style: I will be doing weekly recaps to avoid getting burned out, with some "reports" sprinkled in here and there as injuries, trades, promotions happen.

Roster Management Style: I will be controlling the Yankees on a day-to-day basis, but I will be going through each team every (2) weeks in game to adjust lineups and rotations/bullpens are necessary. I will also evaluate each team at the end of each month in game to access call-ups and send-downs that might be necessary.

Injuries Style: The general MLB Rosters will be injury free minus the out-for-the-season injuries as of May 14th except for all injuries to the Yankees that happened prior to Opening Day (or major ones shortly after).

The Yankees will open the season with Oswald Peraza, Jasson Dominguez, Nick Burdi, JT Brubaker, Scott Effross, Tommy Kahnle, Gerrit Cole, DJ LeMahieu, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Lou Trivino will start the season on the IL.

Loaisiga and potentially LeMahieu will miss the entire season.

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Yankees Organization as of June 30th:

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Standings as of June 30th:

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Player Statistics as of June 30th:

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3/27 IN TAMPA FL -- As the New York Yankees embark on their 2024 campaign, they face a season that can only be defined as an organizational crossroads. Will they finally reach the mountain top with manager Aaron Boone and a roster that largely under-performed in 2023? Or will adding the likes of Juan Soto and a bevy of complimentary players make all the difference for them?

"The criticism is fair," said manager Aaron Boone. "We didn't show up the way that we expected last season. There was a lot of disappointment in the stands, in the clubhouse, the front office. We know the expectations of our fan base. We know the expectations of the front office and ownership. We let a lot of people down last season. We're ready to change the narrative and get off on the right foot this season."

To their credit, the front office did make changes. They acquired arguably the best offensive player in baseball in left-handed slugger Juan Soto. They added Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham, both left-handed hitters, to a lineup that was overly right-handed in 2024 in the eyes of many. They've added a rotation reliable in Marcus Stroman. They added Caleb Ferguson, Victor Gonzalez, and brought back Luke Weaver for the bullpen.

This is on top of keeping young players like Austin Wells, Oswaldo Cabrera, Clarke Schmidt, Jasson Dominguez, Oswald Peraza, and others that came up in the second half and injected some youthful life in the roster.

All good things in the eyes of most. However, they've still got more than their share of question marks. Will Anthony Rizzo be able to get back to who he was before the Yankees botched his concussion issues? Was the 2023 Gleyber Torres the real player or will he revert back to struggles with his contract year looming? Can Giancarlo Stanton stay healthy and if he can, can he hit the baseball with authority? Is Alex Verdugo just Josh Donaldson with arm tattoos causing more headaches than offensive production? Carlos Rodon was a disaster, Nestor Cortes Jr was injured more often than he wasn't, and Gerrit Cole is already set to miss nearly half the season thus far. Jonathan Loaisiga is out for the year while Scott Effross, Nick Burdi, Tommy Kahnle will all start the season on the IL along with DJ LeMahieu, Peraza, Dominguez.

And who is the new general manager Matt Pierce? This front office assistant that Brian Cashman has handed the reigns over to as he was promoted to President of Baseball Operations. Is he qualified for the job? What will his approach be to the roster? He answered questions during the introductory press conference, but the season is upon his club and already they're feeling the effects of a roster constructed by Brian Cashman.

"This team has been my life for a long time. I've got deep relationships with the in-house people, deep relationships with the players. I'm all too aware of the difficulties of the job, and I'm prepared to taking the lashings when things don't go right. I'm also looking forward to hoisting a trophy over my head at the end of the year. I'm not going to be scared to disagree with Brian as I've done many times over the years. I'm sure he can tell you that I don't know when to shut up sometimes. I'm also not going to approach this job with any other intention than winning a championship this year and many years to come. I'm Yankee lifer. I know the mission. I'm looking forward to the challenge," said Pierce.

He outlined intentions to continue the youth movement that the Yankees began last season, noting that Anthony Volpe and Austin Wells would be starters in the lineup with Oswaldo Cabrera filling in at third base in a platoon with Jon Berti to start the season until LeMahieu returns from the IL. He also threw support behind Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil in the starting rotation.

"And when we get Peraza and Dominguez back, I expect we'll see them in the big leagues before long as well. When you've got high priced veterans on the club, you've gotta have a good mix of young players in there too. I know we've got at least one guy on an expiring contract that I'd like to keep, so those young players help balance it all out," Pierce said in what was an obvious hint towards the future contract talks with Juan Soto.

When asked what his approach to the start of the season would be, Pierce made it clear that he was all too aware that the pitching staff's depth was already being tested. While he believed in the young players down in AAA being capable of stepping up, he noted that he would be active in the early goings to see if he could supplement externally as well.

"It's hard to make moves this early because everyone thinks they're in it at the start of the season, but we'll be active to see what we can make happen to help plug some of the depth holes we've got. DFA's will happen. Releases will happen. Opt outs will happen. Injuries will happen and teams will have to make moves too. We were able to get Berti in here to help shore things up with Peraza and DJ down, but we'll wanna make sure we're replenishing the depth we had on the pitching side now that we'll be using a lot of that up," he said while noting Dennis Santana, Cody Morris, Luis Gil, and Clayton Beeter had originally been ticketed for Triple-A.

Beeter is expected to be optioned down before the end of the opening series with the Astros to make sure he can start one of the games in the first series for Scranton, but that will simply bring up another depth arm. The Yankees are tentatively expecting Nick Burdi, Oswald Peraza Tommy Kahnle, and perhaps DJ LeMahieu back sometime in May but most of the pitching help will be returning mid-June or later. The team will have to make due with in-house pieces in April unless Pierce can acquire outside help.

The Yankees open the season against the Houston Astros to close out March and then have a lot of AL East games throughout April. It will be critical for them to get off to a good start and put to rest the notions that the roster is just as flawed as it was in 2023. Aaron Boone feels confident.

"I look around this clubhouse and I know the talent is here. We were banged up last year and just couldn't get out of whatever funk was hanging over us but we're feeling very confident about our chances coming out of spring. We know that we're going to have our critics. It's not going to be easy. I expect Boston and Baltimore are going to be tough. There are teams in the rest of the AL that are going to be tough. We're not walking into the promise land untested, but we're ready for those tests," said the skipper.

Nestor Cortes Jr will face Justin Verlander Thursday in Houston. It's time to find out how ready these 2024 New York Yankees will be.

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4/15 IN NEW YORK, NY -- Critics love to look at the negatives. Fans love to look at the positives. The New York Yankees? They've got plenty of both to look at as they open the 2024 season with what can only be described as a mixed bag through the first month of April.

Did they go into Houston and win three of four? You bet they did. Could they have easily swept them? It certainly looked that way. They lost game three on a 1-0 walkoff when Luke Weaver let Alex Bregman a ball into the gap that scored Mauricio Dubon. Prior to that, Marcus Stroman and Caleb Ferguson had blanked the Astros for eight innings. Of course, Luis Garcia and JP France did the same thing for nine innings and if you don't score runs, you can't win baseball games.

"Just a tough break," said Boone. "Sometimes you have to tip your cap. Luke made a good pitch, Bregman just went and got it. You gotta give credit to them for doing what they had to do to get the run in."

Boone isn't wrong. Weaver had a pitch on the black that Bregman got to and Dubon's speed was enough to turn a bloop single and a stolen base into the game winning run. The bigger issue for some seemed to be that the Yankees looked rather lifeless outside of the 1-2-3 hitters (Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, and Aaron Judge) and Austin Wells. Anthony Rizzo, Alex Verdugo, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gleyber Torres looked like they forgot to make the trip west from Florida.

That trend continued in Arizona, where that foursome picked up eight of the thirteen hits in game one and were responsible for all the RBI in their 4-3 victory. Oswaldo Cabrera had two of the remaining five. In game two when those four went hitless, they lost 1-4 with the lone run coming on an Alex Verdugo solo shot. Oswaldo Cabrera continued to be hot, picking up two of the four hits as they wasted six innings of one run baseball from Nestor Cortes.

"It's early. You've got to get into the swing of things," said Aaron Judge. "I'm confident we'll get things clicking up and down the lineup."

Instead, the Yankees lost 1-7 in game three and lost the series to Arizona. Carlos Rodon gave up three over six while the bullpen, gave up another four over the final three innings. The lone run came off a solo shot from Juan Soto off the bullpen in the ninth, too little too late. To add salt to the wound, Ron Marinaccio fractured his arm after slipping on the mound and falling awkwardly. He will be out until the end of May or beginning of June at least.

Back in the Bronx, the club took two of three from the Blue Jays thanks to strong pitching from Marcus Stroman (two runs over five and two-thirds) and Luis Gil (one run over six and two thirds, he struck out nine). The loss came game two after Caleb Ferguon gave up three in extra innings. The offense for the series came exclusively from Oswaldo Cabrera, Juan Soto, and Austin Well as the rest of the lineup continued to be in a funk.

At the end of the Toronto Series, only Juan Soto, Austin Wells, and Oswaldo Cabrera had batting averages over .220 on the early season.

"Have to keep grinding up there to see what we can do. Obviously if you're not scoring runs, you're not coming through for your pitching staff which has been honestly amazing," said Giancarlo Stanton. "We've gotta pick it up a little and get things going. We've got the bats going tomorrow."

Jesus Luzardo and the Marlins held the Yankees down for most of game one in their series, until Anthony Volpe got a run in off AJ Puk in the eighth. Later in the tenth Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo would get two across to walk things off against Marlins closer Tanner Scott. Carlos Rodon twirled eight shutout innings in game two while Oswaldo Cabrera led things with a three-for-four game including two home runs for three RBI.

"Oswaldo has been amazing for us. I don't know where we'd be without him. With so many guys struggling to get it going, he just keeps hitting," said Rizzo. "He's been a lifeline for us in the lineup."

Aaron Judge also hit a home run in the ballgame, with Giancarlo Stanton picking up his first as well.

Game three went to New York thanks to big games for Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto. Soto drove in Volpe in the sixth, the only run of the game. They had the only hits in the game with four. Marcus Stroman, Ian Hamilton, and Clay Holmes combined for nine shutout innings, striking out twelve.

Club had a day off on Thursday before their three game series with the Cleveland Guardians. Game one went to Cleveland as they were held to just two runs on six hits, both coming on solo shots from Oswaldo Cabrera and Giancarlo Stanton. They wasted a three run, six inning effort from Clark Schmidt. Game two had the same score though Alex Verdugo seemed to wake up. He picked up two hits to bring his average to .192, Anthony Rizzo picked up a hit to bring his up to the same. They would be swept by the Guardians in game three with five of their starters hitting under .200 on the season.

"I know it sounds like a broken record, but these guys are too good of hitters to be playing like this for long," said manager Aaron Boone. "We'll find a way to get it turned around, but obviously we're scuffling a bit out there."

The club was blown out by the Blue Jays in game one of their series, losing 3-11 and managing just four hits. Of the three runs, two came on a Giancarlo home run and one came on an Oswaldo Cabrera solo shot. While Stanton has not hit for average, he has been crushing home runs. Cabrera has simply been crushing everything. Along with Austin Wells, they're been the lifeblood outside of the 1-2-3 hitters.

On April 15th, the club is 9-8 with a middling offense and a very solid pitching staff thus far.

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4/26 IN NEW YORK -- General Manager Matt Pierce said that he'd try to find some ways to replenish the depth to their pitching corps, and he may finally be getting a move on that. The rotation has stayed steady, while the bullpen has been more or less the same minus the final spot since Opening Day.

Clayton Beeter was sent down after the Yankees acquired Jake Cousins, and they've since cycled through Cousins, Yoendrys Gomez, Anthony Misiewicz, and Cody Morris through that final spot. Gomez got an extended look at while he had moments where he looked very good, he was rocked in his final two outings that led to him rejoining the Scranton club.

The Yankees were able to claim Michael Tonkin off waivers from the Mets to fill one of the spots. Tonkin had bounced around a bit, but has the makings of a very solid middle relief arm if nothing more. Pitching coach Matt Blake referred to Tonkin as someone that they targeted as potentially excelling with a few changes in pitch usage and perhaps some other adjustments.

"He's got a lot of the markers we look for when we're targeting potential acquisitions," said Blake. "Definitely someone we've had our eye on in the past and when he was exposed on waivers, we were lucky to get a claim in on him. We're excited to add him to the group."

Tonkin should slot in as a middle relief arm initially with Clay Holmes entrenched in the ninth, Caleb Ferguson and Ian Hamilton as the primary set-up men, and Luke Weaver and Victor Gonzalez getting the secondary looks. All indications seemed to be that Tonkin would leapfrog Danny Santana and Cody Morris on the depth charts initially.

A few days later, the Yankees made a trade that removed Santana from the depth chart entirely after another rough outing for the right hander.

The Yankees acquired right handed reliever Shintaro Fujinami from the Mets in exchange for Danny Santana and utility man Jahmai Jones on April 29th just prior to the start of their series with the Baltimore Orioles.

Fujinami had been designated for assignment by the Mets on the 27th and while the Yankees put a claim in, they suspected that they would not be able to nab the right hander based on their position in the standings.

"We had actually tried to get Shintaro during the offseason but the Mets beat us to it. There's a lot to like there. He had some rough outings for them and things weren't going the way they wanted, so we knew we wanted to make a move but weren't sure we'd get him. They were looking for some bench help and we didn't have much playing time for Jahami, so there was just a natural fit for a trade," said general manager Matt Pierce.

Fujinami came over from Japan in 2023 and struggled mightily with the Oakland Athletics in his debut. He eventually moved to the bullpen and was traded to the Orioles near the trade deadline. He can be optioned to the minors so he will give the Yankees another shuttle arm if they need it.

With a high 90's fastball, a good splitter, and a couple breaking offerings, the Yankees have another candidate for some adjustments that they think will help Fujinami get back to the success he experienced in Japan.

"Obviously a big fastball," said Blake. "We like the split a lot. Another usage guy and we want to work on the shape of the sweeper to get it more in line with what we think will be really effective for him."

Neither Tonkin or Fujinami are going to make big splashes. Both figure to be among the final three spots of the bullpen early on, but they're at least warm bodies until reinforcements come. If they pan out to be more the way that arms like Clay Holmes, Ian Hamilton, or Luke Weaver have been able to, the Yankees will consider themselves lucky.

The corresponding move for the departure of Jahmai Jones will be for Everson Pereira to rejoin the Yankees. Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham have been sharing outfield duties, bu neither is setting the world on fire. Verdugo has hit just .183 with three homers so far and Grisham isn't much better at .227 with a dinger in about a quart of the at-bats. Pereira will give the Yankees a right handed option to at minimum deploy against lefties.

"We were mulling over that as it was, trying to help out on that front and give those two a bit of a breather when the trade came along. Pereira was playing great at Scranton, we're hoping he can inject that into the lineup for us as well. I think between getting some at-bats against lefties in left, he'll give us some speed and give us some chances to get Judge out of center from time to time and get him some more rest," said Pierce. "He got pushed to Triple-A because we loaded up in the winter, but we still really like this kid's bat. We're excited to see what he can do for us."

With Nick Burdi having a set-back on his rehab and being shut down, arms are in short supply for New York. The Yankees hope to get Tommy Kahnle back in May, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Yankees remain active on the waiver front as they try to pick up controllable arms. The offense has seemed to get back on track in the second half of April, but first base and second base and left field have been black holes.

The Yankees claimed Taylor Trammell off the Dodgers earlier in the month, hard not to imagine he might get a look if things don't improve with Pereira and of course, more moves could be on the way. Ben Rice was also promoted to Triple-A Scranton after a hot week in Double-A, but hasn't gotten off to the same hot hitting. Those two remain the most likely to help New York from an internal prospective until Oswald Peraza, DJ LeMahieu, or Jasson Dominguez return from their respective injuries.

"You have to assume they put Peraza at third base right away given and move Oswaldo Cabrera to first more frequently if Rizzo can't get it going. Gleyber is finally hitting, so he's probably safe, but Rizzo looks like a shell of himself right now. The hits he's gotten, they're weak bloops. They've got a real tough situation on their hands. That's Judge's best friend. Hard to imagine them moving on, but right now Oswaldo at first and Berti at third has been far more productive," said Jon Heyman.