Around the Empire: Yankees News - 11/16/23

The Athletic | Chris Kirschner and Dennis Lin: Unanimous. We all knew it was coming, but Gerrit Cole has finally won a Cy Young after a six-year run of dominance. Across 209 innings pitched, Cole pitched to the tune of a 2.63 ERA and his best home run rate in a Yankees uniform. With the honor, Cole becomes the first Yankees pitcher to win the award since Roger Clemens. As Kirschner put it, Cole was “the standard” for an ace this year. Volume, consistency, and reliability.

Baseball Prospectus | Russel Carleton: Bunting has been in the news lately. Hal Steinbrenner and Jerry Dipoto were a few higher ups that brought it up publicly, but other media pundits and ball watchers have been obsessed with the idea of bringing back small ball. Much of this has to do with the Diamondbacks’ success in the playoffs. Carleton laid a data-driven argument for why bunting may have been underutilized in recent years, but made it clear it’s not worth completely changing your offensive strategy.

MLB.com | Mike Petriello: Cody Bellinger is undoubtedly one of the Yankees’ top targets. Brian Cashman said himself the team needs an outfielder and a left-handed bat. Bellinger fits the bill pretty well. His performance was fantastic in 2023, but it doesn’t come without oddities. Those oddities will have to be seriously evaluated by any team considering signing him, as Petriello laid out.

SNY | Andy Martino: Yoshinobu Yamamoto is one of the best pitchers in the world and he will be a free agent at 25. That simply does not happen. His free agency is highly anticipated, and the first step will take place any day. Martino reports that he will be posted by his longtime NPB team, the Orix Buffaloes. He also says that Yamamoto is interested in joining the Yankees. That comes just a day after Brian Cashman’s tiff with Joe Wolfe, Yamamoto’s agent.