Around the Empire: Yankees news - 3/30/23

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: It’s Opening Day, and Anthony Volpe is making his major league debut today. The Yankees’ top prospect broke camp with the squad, and will be the youngest player to appear in the first game of the season since Derek Jeter in 1996. The expectations for the young shortstop are sky-high, but his polishing in the Yankee system over the past couple seasons should make him ready to hit the ground running.

MLB.com | Jon Schwartz: Gerrit Cole will once again get the ball on Opening Day, his fourth straight for the Yankees. Coming off a season where he broke the franchise record for strikeouts in a single season, Cole relishes making Yankee history and the connection, historical and personal, he’s been able to build with the previous record holder, Ron Guidry.

The Verge | Jay Peters: In the midst of chaos in the baseball broadcasting world, the Yankees introduced a new, direct-to-consumer streaming platform. You won’t need a cable subscription to watch the Yankees, Nets, or New York Liberty, but the $24.99 monthly price point raised some eyebrows. Verticality and diverse distribution models are big parts of the future of sports broadcasting, and the re-acquisition of the YES Network two years ago was clearly for this express purpose.

New York Post | Greg Joyce: The Yankees made a surprise depth move Wednesday, signing Franchy Cordero to fill in some outfield work while they take advantage of a four-man rotation with off days early in the year. We have more coverage here, and it will be interesting to see whether Cordero or Estevan Florial gets more work in the first week of games.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka spent the spring adjusting to new rules around pitch clocks and advantages to baserunners, and are a little tired of it all. Neither catcher seems particularly enthused about the likely next big rule change — the implementation of an automatic ball-strike calling system. Both are among the best in the game at framing pitches, and the likely reduced value of such a skill hits both hard.

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: A year after a major league collective bargaining agreement was agreed to, we have the first-ever MiLB CBA. MLB and the Player’s Association reached a tentative accord covering minor league players for the next five years, guaranteeing new pay standards and pension support for players in minor league systems.