Around the Empire: Yankees news - 10/7/23

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco and Steve Adams: With the offseason underway, at least for 22 teams, we turn our attention towards the 2024 roster. The first step of the offseason is, as always, looking at returning payroll costs, and to that end, MLB Trade Rumors revealed their 13th annual arbitration salary projections. The Yankees have a league-leading 17 players eligible for arbitration this winter: catchers Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka, second baseman Gleyber Torres, utilitymen Billy McKinney, Jake Bauers, and Franchy Cordero, starting pitchers Michael King, Nestor Cortes, Clarke Schmidt, and Domingo Germán, and relievers Clay Holmes, Lou Trivino, Jonathan Loáisiga, Matt Bowman, Ryan Weber, Jimmy Cordero, and Albert Abreu. They combine for a projected salary of $54.6 million, though the Yankees will likely non-tender many of them.

MLB.com | Manny Randhawa: Major League Baseball announced the finalists for the 2023 Hank Aaron Award, and in somewhat of a surprise, Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge is one of the final nine candidates despite missing a full third of the season. While it would be somewhat of a surprise for him to repeat as the winner — his 62-home run campaign won him the award last year — the fact that he is even eligible this year is an accomplishment in itself.

Currently, the award is in the fan vote stage, so if you’d like to vote, you can do so here.

Sports Illustrated | Patrick McAvoy: While skipper Aaron Boone looks to be back, Jon Heyman has reported that the organization will ask him to be “tougher” as manager in order to “instill more discipline.” What this means exactly remains to be seen, but it’s clear that something needs to change.