Around the Empire: Yankees news - 1/17/2020

New York Times | David Waldstein: Newly appointed Mets manager, and former Yankee, Carlos Beltran is out before working a single game. He’s the latest casualty in the ongoing MLB sign-stealing scandal. Beltran was not punished by MLB in the same sweeping declarations that have hit Jeff Luhnow and A.J. Hinch, but he was named in Rob Manfred’s statement as one of the ringleaders of the Astros’ scheme.

FanGraphs | Dan Syzmborski: The annual ZiPS projections are out for the Yankees, and surprise, they seem like they’ll be a good team. We’ll have an in-depth breakdown over the weekend, but the most fun part of this whole thing might be the comparisons section, with Gerrit Cole and Luis Severino drawing comparisons to Greg Maddux and Roy Halladay respectively. Seems okay, don’t you think?

FanGraphs | Ben Clemens: More FanGraphs! The Yankees have adopted a persona, fairly or not, of being a team that de-emphasizes the fastball over the past few years. No surprise one of the best examples of this has been Masahiro Tanaka, listed here as legitimately having some of the best offspeed stuff in the game. Meanwhile, former Yankee CC Sabathia ranks among the worst in 2019, which yeah, also makes sense.

TSN: As related above, we are in the thick of Signgate, and at the center of the whole scandal may be former MVP Jose Altuve. The All-Star second baseman raised eyebrows in the ALCS after apparently calling on his teammates to not tear his jersey off after his walk-off, series-clinching home run in Game Six. There are at least a few rumors swirling that Altuve was wearing some kind of device on his torso that tipped him off to Aroldis Chapman’s oncoming changeup. Altuve, of course, denies the whole thing.